Bill C-10 continues government attack on sovereignty

According to Chief Shining Turtle, Franklin Paibomsai, Bill C-10, the Tobacco Bill, is yet another government attack on First Nations.

The chief of Whitefish River First Nation in Ontario said the government has told Canadian taxpayers the Bill is aimed at getting contraband tobacco off the streets, but “it’s really aimed at prevention of First Nations trade and economy. It’s about jailing more Aboriginal people and keeping our economy suppressed. It doesn’t pay attention to Indigenous rights, the inherent rights of First Nations to exercise their economy as we have been doing for a very, very long time.”

Bill C-10, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code, according to the November 2013 backgrounder published by the federal Department of Justice, creates a new Criminal Code offence to combat the trafficking and cross-border smuggling of contraband tobacco.

Trafficking would involve the sale, offer for sale, possession for the purpose of sale, transportation, distribution or delivery of contraband tobacco. Under the Bill, the maximum penalty for a first offence would be six months to five years imprisonment.

The Bill also proposes mandatory minimum penalties for repeat offenders where a high volume of tobacco products is involved. High volume is considered to be 10,000 cigarettes or 10 kilograms of other tobacco products.

The Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation, Patrick Madahbee, communicated his concerns about the Bill in a letter to the Prime Minister dated March 27, 2014. Madahbee said, “It appears that Canada is currently on a fixed agenda to criminalize, disenfranchise and demean First Nation communities and citizens in an effort to eliminate First Nation treaty and inherent rights through unilateral legislative powers.”

Madahbee reminded the Prime Minister that, “Canada enjoys its wealth from the backs of First Nations citizens who have never relinquished their rights to the land that they belong to,” and First Nations people have never benefitted from the resources extracted from their lands. There is a prevalence of social assistance on reserves, said Madahbee in his letter, because of a lack of economic opportunities. Tobacco provides a major source of employment in First Nations communities, he said.

The Bill is directed at the Mohawks, said Shining Turtle, but it impacts First Nations across the country.  One of his major concerns is the requirement of First Nations to collect tax on tobacco products sold to non-First Nations customers. This will drive customers away, he said, but of greater concern is, “the introduction of the concept of collecting tax on reserve. It’s very dangerous,” he said, “because it’s opening a door that you will not be able to seal again. You start a whole series of these things without going back and saying, ‘our people have existing Aboriginal and treaty rights and they are affirmed, and is this really the path forward?’ I say no, it isn’t.”

Madahbee voiced the same concern in his letter. “Enforcing taxation on tobacco within First Nation Territories, and criminalizing First Nation entrepreneurs (who generally run family-owned businesses) is an aggressive act of government to further oppress First Nation citizens. As First Nation leaders, we have protocols and procedures that we follow. However, when it comes to taxation within First Nation territories, no First Nation leader requires a written protocol to understand  his or her responsibility to protect and defend First Nation sovereignty,” Madahbee wrote.

The federal government has failed miserably in its duty to consult, said Chief Shining Turtle, and not just with Bill C-10.
“They have shown no regard for consultation and accommodation, absolutely no regard for Section 35 of the Constitution and less regard for Supreme Court of Canada rulings,” he said. “There’s the Financial Transparency Act, the First Nations Drinking Water Act, the Indian Act amendments, First Nations Control of Indian Education Act, the Omnibus Bill C-38, the First Nations Land Management Act, First Nations Real Matrimonial Property Act, the Election Act. None of those have had any meaningful consultation with First Nations.”

Rallies are not going to change the government’s mind about Bill C-10, said Shining Turtle. First Nations need to develop a new strategy to educate the Canadian taxpayer to counteract the government’s “slick marketing campaign” designed to turn them against Aboriginal people. That includes finding non-Aboriginal allies, champions and experts. It also includes getting the message to people in major cities like Toronto, the same places where the government focuses its efforts.

“If we keep doing what we’re doing and we keep thinking we’re going to get a different result,” said Chief Shining Turtle, “we’re in some form of insanity. We have to change. We have to modernize ourselves.”