4 — Friday, July 12, 1991 - North Shore News Time to negotiate B.C?2s surrender to the Indians OTHER THAN the formalities, the store has been given away. I appear to be the only British Columbian to believe this, a situa- tion that would unnerve lesser men, Or anyway make them feel terribly lonely. But it now scems obvious to me that on the political level the In- dians who live in British Columbia — at first f wrote, foolishly, ‘tof British Columbia,"" but the distinction is necessary — have won every major point needed to establish their sovereignty and ownership on their terms of, ultimately, every scrap of the pro- vince. What's left to negotiate — other than the terms of surrender? This is clear from developments in the last year or so, especially as reflected in the report of the Brit- ish Columbia Land Claims Task Force, released last week. Some of those decisive points: © Land claims will be negotiated “*nation-to-nation.” All the Indian tribes or tribal groups — there are 26 or 27 tribal groups in B.C. — are claiming or can claim to be First Nations. (Capital letters in the report — unlike the mere lower-case *'fed- eral and provincial govern- ments.’’) This concedes right from the outset that the First Nations, whose population, if you need a reminder, comprises 3% of the B.C. population, are equals with the governments that most people once fondly believed to be the representatives of all the people. © Native title will not be extin- guished. Little wonder that task force member Miles Richardson ap- preciatively, if not exultantly, stressed this point on a CBC radio interview. Mr. Richardson's brief description in the report identifies him as ‘‘a citizen of the Haida na- tion.’’ See the point above. © “First Nation government, often referred to as self-government, will be an essential component of a new relationship." It's in the book. Emphasis added. © *‘The negotiations will inevitably alter rights and jurisdictions.’’ That’s also in the book. Emphasis added again. © ‘First Nations have cultures based on beliefs and values that are fundamentally different from those of most Canadians."’ That’s in the book too. Again, emphasis added. © Negotiations will be voluntary. “*Those First Nations who prefer to deal with disputes in other ways have that right.’’ Roadblocks, civil disobedience of one sort or another — all as open as ever to the First Nations that don’t recognize the authority of the non-native governments, and therefore don’t negotiate with them. ® The First Nations that are pleased to negotiate with the non-native governments will not necessarily be democratic. “‘The term ‘First Nation’ may refer to an organization of aboriginal people under the tradi- tional government (i.e., those that “preserved their authority through complex variations of matrilineal or patrilineal systems’), the tribal! council (i.e., based on larger polit- ical groupings), the band (i.e., the elected system that ‘Canada began to impose’ after B.C. entered Confederation), or some combina- tion of these systems.” Now, guess which system the task force implies is bad. Right! The imposed one. Aristocracy by any name is so much better. © In the ‘many instances” in which First Nations have overlap- Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES ping claims, they would be resolv- ed by the First Nations themselves. Victoria and Ottawa, butt out. Except, that is, to pay for ‘‘the necessary studies to assist in resolving overlaps,’’ which may “require funding’ from the B.C. Treaty Commission, the body that would oversee all the land claims negotiations. * More on funding: **Equal foot- ing’ of the First Nations can take place ‘only if First Nations have adequate resources.*’ These must be placed at their disposal freely: they ‘should not have their expenditures reviewed by another party to the negotia- tions, as is presently the case.*" Don't audit — give. ® Individuals or businesses won't have a place in negotiations, even as observers: ‘‘The task force sees these arrangements as impractical. They may impede progress in negotiations."’ Trust your gov- ernment and its lawyers. [ say it’s the beginning of the beginning of the real trouble. The public, not the well-paid lawyers for the governments, which have no money of their own, nor the cabinet ministers, who come and go, will pay the bills in the form of such things as outright grants, leasehold ar- rangements, and co-development ventures. Title, remember, re- mains forever vested in iden- uifiable racial or tribunal groups. Once the principle of self- government is admitted, the term can be interpreted by future In- dian leaders to mean anything they choose. Those content to see it as a kind of glorified municipal government predictably will be leaned on by the yeasty young and the malcon- tents to expand the definition. What legal leverage would the 97% non-native population have to influence the First Nation that happens to be run by a tin-pot director, in any language? The result would clearly be racially-based — ‘‘affirmative rac- ism,’ you might say — mini-na- tions, with varying degrees of claim to sovereignty running from modest to bloated. And — you can believe this or not, since if you are disposed not to, anything { say won’t change your mind — I'd level this criti- cism whether any nation so con- stituted was exclusively white, black, or purple people. If racial discrimination is wrong, and it is, then institu- tionalized racial discrimination is wrong. The task force is straight- facedly recommending nations in which people are defined and discriminated for or against because of the accidents of birth, of skin color, of inherited legal status. Just don’t call it democracy. Or progress. | Your Pumip. * THIS KEN GRIFFEY JR. SPORTS CARD See our huge selection of cards including Leaf and Stadium brands. AVAILABLE AT: THREE WAY TOWN PANTRY Fill in entry and drop off to THREE WAY TOWN PANTRY. NAME ADRESS PHONE Chevron. 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