THE new federal

Indian Affairs Minister
has promised toe “mod-
ernize” the Indian Act.

He knows, and Canadians
have been trained to know,
that this won’t involve natives
having the rights you and I
have, but will grant natives
iucrative land settlements and
segue them into sovereignty.

For all of which you wilf
pay. Because, ridiculous as it
should seem, the multitude
of bands holed up on
reserves; each sometimes
numbering only a couple
hundred people, consider
themselves, and in turn are
considered, full-fledged
nations.

Can a small group be a
sovereign nation while being,
fuaded by taxpayers at large?
Yes. Never before has nation-
hood meant so littl — never
before has it come with such
a price.

You should care; no you
should be up in arms with
outrage. Mostly because your
elected government docs not
represent your interests in the
matter of native issues.

How do you explain the
plan to create a new native-
directed and elected court in

lace of the current courts?
lodeled on the time-hon-
oured judicial tradition of the
fox guarding the coop,

mailbox

ive culture

comment

judges will be selected by
natives and “bestowed with
powers equal to federal
courts.”

This court may also be
entrusted with finalizing land
claims. And why nor?

In B.C., a militant Haida
leader and activist now serves
as chief treaty comm
The same man is on record as
saying he dees not consider
himself a Canadian. Still, with
your tax dollars you will pay
obcisance to these processes;
with your tax dollars vou will
fund bureaucrats and lawyers
and activists to further take
your money to support a self-
perpetuating, incestuous
wheel of fortune.

Yon pay for land deals and
you pay the S8 billion or so a
year that goes towards abo-
riginal affairs (tax credits
included). And still your gen-
crosity is abused.

You are told that despite
the huge sums of money
apportioned to natives, the
poverty on reserves is because

you don’t give enough,
because of the sins of your
forefathers, or because of
your Eurocentric origins.
This, vour children learn in
the schools you fund.

But why would natives
need another court system?

The courts, mostly The
Supremes, seldom rule
against natives,

In “Delgamuukw” the
Supreme Court of Cansda
decided that to prove tide on
land, natives do aced some
evidence of continual occu-
pancy, but the evidence can
consist of myths, stories, leg-
ends and oral hand-me-
downs.

So to lay chim to vast
resources and huge swaths of
land, natives need rely on no
more than folklore.

Whar a deal.

Can any court do better?
And why mess with a good
thing?

The Supreme Court has
recently upheld a 1760 abo-
riginal treaty, giving natives
“unlimited year-round fishing
rights.”

The seabed along the
Maritimes is now being void-
ed — off-season — of its lob-
ster. Unfolding on the Fraser
River is a scene of another
native triumph aver DFO
officials. Silly sorts, instead of
sticking to their instructions
to document only bur not

stop illegal fishing, DFO offi-
cials got carried away, and
actually removed the illegal
native-owned nets,

You won't be seeing the
officials on the Fraser, but in
court, Neither will you be
Jecing too many returning
salinon.

The illegal logging opera-
tions in south central B.C.
are gaining momentum with
more bands juraping on
board. SWhy nor? it’s the law
of the land that natives are
exempt from its strictures.

Indeed, the creativity of
the courts has been remark-
able. Can you get more cre-
ative than mandating that a
person’s “Indianness” be
considered during sentenc-
ing? Thus an Indian woman
recently walked aiter six
months for killing a spouse,
and another native got
rapped on the knuckles for
doing 3 Hannibal Lector on
someone’s finger.

Native sexual abuse indus-

ry is also forging ahead cour-
tesy of the taxpayer.

Will there be a case by
case examination of the evi-
dence for the abuse of the
native children who were in
care? Don’t be silly; experts
say all were abused.

Besides, the government
knows it can’t win. It lay the
‘ounds, after all, for native

egal invincibility. ft will settle

A question of Liberal immigration logic

Dear Editor:

Not only did Immigration
Minister Elinor Caplan say,
“anyone who arrives at a
Canadian border, whether by
boat, plane, train, car or foot,
has the right to claim refugee
-status and have their case

ll
a
=
ad
B
tL]

= ee OH

= OFFICE > FILING CABIN!

heard,” she also stated on the

were not

Sept. 2 CBC Early Morning because they were not in the
Show that the boat migrants queue. What manner of logic is West Vancouver

First Time ever!

qucue-jumping this?

Denis Mason

fey *

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Friday, October 1, 1999 — North Shore News — 7

with the aid of S12 billion of
your money. And just for
good measure, throw in
another $350 million for a
“healing fund.”

Note: As we crect sweat
lodges, children are dying
daily of hunger in Angola.
Canada’s contribution? A
measly $3 million!

Se set aside the romantic

ved notions of Indian

sms the kind rhe CBC

parlays with close-ups of ban-
dannas and fatigues; the kind
that wants you to believe chat
in his natural seate the native
exists in harmony with
nature; his spirituality of a
magnitude you cannot attain.

Listen closely to the cant
of native militancy, and what
you fear are demands born
of petulance; demands born
of never being told:
ENOUGH.

Lay the sugar-coated
mythology of the Noble
Savage to rest. Take a good
look. Where do you see
natives existing in harmony
with mother Gaia, and com-
muning with the Great One?
Sadly, what remains of native

as been cared to death

culture is a powwow-type
admixture and adlib; what
remains of native nationhood
are economic fiefdoms fund-
ed by you.

Heed what cultural cri-
tique Robert Hughes writes:
“Historical evidence shows
that tke people of the
Antericas had been doing,
very nicely for centuries and
probatdy millennia when it
came to murder, torture,
materialism, genocide,
enslavement and sexist hege-
mony.”

Jn our silly view of native
Americans we have, says
Hughes, perpetrated a stereo-
type in which European man
has become the demon, and
the native has been canon-
ized. Now, drop the cternal

sea clon,

The truth about the social
decay among, natives is to be
found in the cradle-to-grave
arrangeinent with you the
Canadian taxpayer: It's like
manna fron Peaven, but it is
deadly; breeding rothing but
ineputude and helplessness.

—gqnome@attcanada.nr:

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