The Aboriginal Newspaper of British Columbia & Yukon
Published May 10, 1999
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With the ratification of the Nisga'a treaty in the provincial
legislature and the signing of an agreement in principle for
the Sechelt people, this month saw more forward movement on the
modern-day treaty front than any other month ever. Photo Credit: Heinz Ruckemann |
Ottawa next stop for Nisga'a agreement
by Paul Barnsley
Sechelt negotiations progress
to final agreement stage
by Roxanne Gregory
Investigation mired in delays
and controversies
by Brigitte D. Parker
Chilliwack celebrates with drum,
dance and song
by Ronald B. Barbour
Youth need positive role models
- column
by Gil Lerat
More about "ethnic cleansing"-
guest column
by Anthony J. Hall, PhD
News in brief:
Here is a full list of additional stories featured in the May, 1999 issue of Raven's Eye. If you are not receiving your own copy of Raven's Eye, then you have missed all this information.
Click here for Raven's Eye subscription information.
Reality check for Island youth
Investigation bogged down
UN asks Canada about Native issues
Scared straight in East Vancouver
Ahousaht hero saves life of drowning four-year-old boy
AIRS trial resumes
Ruling seen as legal landmark
The Native Youth Movement, a group which has occupied the treaty commission office and the Westbank band office in the past, has served notice that it will respond to Penticton Indian Band Chief Stewart Phillip's call for support as it battles Transport Canada over ownership of the Penticton Airport.
"Let notice be served," said David Dennis of the NYM. "If this bad faith continues on the part of Transport Canada and the City of Penticton, the Native Youth Movement solemnly vows to assemble a support force to assist the Penticton band to ensure a just and final resolution to this injustice."
The band closed the airport for one day last month and secured a six-week extension from the federal government to the formal transfer of the airport to the city. Phillip said his community overwhelmingly supports an extended occupation of the airport should the band's claims on the land not be dealt with. He said the situation could become another Oka.Carrier Sekani Tribal Chief Mavis Erickson says an international observer is required to keep the provincial government honest as her council attempts to negotiate interim measures which will apply until the treaty process is complete.
Interim measures are negotiated to prevent loss or destruction of lands and resources that will or could be covered under the eventual treaty agreement. Erickson hinted that she believes provincial negotiators are dragging their feet in completing the interim measures talks.
"I have written a letter to Premier Clark and the prime minister of Canada, asking for an international observer from Sweden be dispatched immediately to the treaty negotiations in our territory," Erickson said. "Not only because of the bad faith shown by the province but because the grassroots people are threatening affirmative action, and Canada is signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and shouldn't have a problem with such a request."
Ottawa next stop for Nisga'a agreement
By Paul Barnsley
Raven's Eye Writer
TERRACE
The British Columbia legislature - or at least the governing
New Democratic Party members - has put the province's stamp of
approval on the Nisga'a Final Agreement.
Nisga'a Tribal Council President Joe Gosnell and the premier
signed the agreement into British Columbia law in the Terrace
Arena on April 27. Full ratification will be achieved when the
federal Parliament completes its legislative process, something
sources in Ottawa say won't start before Parliament adjourns
for the summer recess.
The NDP government of Premier Glen Clark invoked closure on the
debate of Bill 51, the Nisga'a Final Agreement Act, forcing a
vote on April 22. Closure is a parliamentary device used by the
governing party to end debate on an issue and force a vote before
opposition parties feel they have voiced all concerns about a
bill.
While the opposition party leaders angrily expressed their displeasure,
several Aboriginal leaders also opposed closure. Chief Stewart
Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs,
a group that opposed the Nisga'a deal from the beginning, angrily
attacked the premier.
"B.C. enters into this treaty in direct defiance of the
B.C. Supreme Court, which said, in the Gitanyow case, that government
has an obligation to act in good faith when negotiating with
Indigenous peoples. What about all the other Indigenous nations
whose land is included in the Nisga'a treaty? What good faith
has this NDP government shown towards them?" Phillip said.
"I am personally outraged at these reprehensible government
actions. Instead of talking seriously with all Indigenous peoples
whose lands are affected by these treaties, the government is
rushing to force a vote on the issue, and forcing Indigenous
peoples into court and into the streets in an effort to protect
our Aboriginal title territories. These actions show quite clearly
that the current government does not have the morality or integrity
to negotiate treaties in good faith."
Premier Clark and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gordon Wilson defended
the decision to invoke closure.
"In the legislature, we have devoted in excess of 120 hours
to debate of Bill 51," said Wilson. "More debate than
other piece of legislation in B.C.'s history."
"The passage of this treaty in the provincial legislature
marks a historic turning point in the lives of all British Columbians,
especially the Nisga'a people," said Clark. "After
more than a century of struggle for the Nisga'a and other First
Nations in B.C., we have finally found a path that will lead
us to reconciliation, justice and a way to live together in mutual
respect."
Sechelt negotiations progress to final agreement stage
By Roxanne Gregory
Raven's Eye Writer
SECHELT
Hundreds of onlookers crowded the Sechelt Indian Band's traditional
longhouse April 16 to watch the signing of the first agreement-in-
principle (AIP) reached through the British Columbia Treaty Commission
process.
The AIP is Step 5 in the six-step process and Premier Glen Clark
called the agreement a sign of hope for other Aboriginal groups.
"My government is fully supportive of this agreement, which
is fair and affordable and provides greater self-reliance and
economic development opportunities for the Sechelt Indian Band,"
he said. Clark added he hopes to sign the final treaty - the
first urban treaty in modern times - within six months.
"B.C.'s Aboriginal people have struggled for justice for
many years . . . . The treaty process has been slow and frustrating.
Other tribes in the north are waiting to see what happens - the
Bella Bella, the Bella Coola. This is more than a historic day
for Sechelt, it's a historic day for all nations. This sends
a message to B.C. and the world that it can be done," he
said.
Clark added that 25 per cent of Aboriginal people in the province
are still outside the treaty commission process.
"We're looking for ways to include those people," he
said.
Federal Minister of Indian Affairs, Jane Stewart, said the AIP
signing was one step in an effort to reconcile past wrongs and
define what Aboriginal rights are under the Constitution.
"Resolving outstanding Aboriginal issues through negotiations
is the right thing to do. The signing of the Sechelt agreement-in-principle
today demonstrates that the BC Treaty Process works. Canada looks
forward to entering into final agreement negotiations,"
said Stewart.
Chief Garry Feschuk said he wants to move on to the final stage
of negotiations.
"We went back to litigation last year because we wanted
to negotiate five principles that weren't on the table. We wanted
an expanded land base and economic opportunities. Not too long
ago we sat in the longhouse with the premier and a senator and
they convinced us to negotiate, not litigate. The package on
the table was expanded and we went back to negotiations. Our
people will have the final say. We're trying to bargain the best
deal, and we've achieved more land and money. Hopefully, we'll
have an agreement we can sign by the end of 1999."
Feschuk praised his negotiating team for sticking to their principles
throughout the five-year process.
Aboriginal Affairs minister Gordon Wilson said, with the AIP
in place, the province would move as quickly as possible to sign
a treaty.
"The leadership demonstrated by the Sechelt nation is second
to none," he said.
Treaty commission members, including the Haida Gwaii's Miles
Richardson, and chiefs from many nations were on hand for the
historic signing. Richardson called the negotiations a tough
challenge.
"For 200 years the land question has been festering, and
this is a milestone. Sechelt was the first community to take
over their own affairs and this is the first treaty in a largely
urban area in BC. Treaty making can work with respect and goodwill,
and we must make it work," he said.
But Richardson also chastised provincial politicians for claiming
the Sechelt agreement would be a blueprint for others.
"Let's not pretend this is a treaty for every other nation.
Every other nation has their own issues, their own needs,"
he said.
Commissioner Deborah Hanuse, from Alert Bay, echoed Richardson's
caution.
"This [the AIP] is very encouraging, but this is Sechelt's
vision, their objectives. I don't see it as a blueprint for everyone."
Not all Sechelts are happy with the AIP, Some believe the band
isn't getting enough in the deal. Robert Joe stood outside the
longhouse passing out leaflets opposing the deal.
"I think this is absurd. I think they're trying to hoodwink
us," he told Raven's Eye.
The Sechelt band must approve the final agreement by a vote of
50 per cent plus one.
The Agreement
The band currently owns 1,031 hectares and will receive another
933 hectares - 288 hectares of rural land and about 645 hectares
of urban land - under other provisions in the AIP. The Sechelts'
total land claim can't exceed 3,055 hectares.
The band will receive $40 million in cash for the Sechelt Prosperity
Fund and $2 million in a transition fund, plus $1.5 million for
an economic development fund. They will own surface and subsurface
resources and will manage timber resources on their own land.
The band will have the right to harvest marine plants and fish
- subject to conservation measures - for food, social, and ceremonial
purposes and it will receive 11 existing commercial fishing licences.
Wildlife harvesting will be identified in annual plans that must
receive provincial approval.
Existing Indian Act taxation exemptions will end. Sechelt members
will begin paying transaction taxes eight years after signing
the final treaty and income tax after 12 years. The band had
originally wanted a 50 year exemption.
Some cultural artifacts will be returned.
Talks with the Sechelt and the federal government began in 1994
and have included more than 100 meetings with third party interests.
Currently, almost 60 bands are involved in the treaty commission
process.
Sechelt Elder and former band councillor, Theresa Jeffries said,
"We were lost, but now we're found. We have our language
and now we'll have our land again."
Investigation mired in delays and controversies
By Brigitte D. Parker
Raven's Eye Writer
WHITEHORSE
A coroner's inquest into a Whitehorse RCMP officer's shooting
of 23-year-old Aboriginal man has been delayed for five months.
A press release issued by the Yukon Coroner's Office on April
13, set the new date for the inquest into Harley Clayton Timmers'
death as Sept. 27. The inquest was originally scheduled for April
19.
As reported in the November, 1998 Raven's Eye, RCMP Const. Wayne
Foster, a nine-year veteran of the force, shot Timmers three
times last fall. On the morning of Sept. 7, Foster saw Timmers
in a Whitehorse subdivision driving a car that had been reported
as stolen.
Police said that as the result of a high-speed chase, the allegedly
stolen Pontiac was driven into a ditch and that Timmers then
fled by running into a nearby wooded area, with Const. Foster
in pursuit.
The officer reported that as he attempted to make an arrest,
an altercation ensued where Timmers, a body builder, gained the
upper hand. Choking and losing consciousness, Foster drew his
pistol and fired several shots behind him. Two bullets struck
Timmers in the leg and a third glanced off his scalp, ending
the choke hold. Timmers died two days later in a Vancouver hospital
on his 23rd birthday. An autopsy determined the cause of death
to be a gunshot wound to the head.
Independent investigators were chosen to look into Timmers' death.
Initially, the RCMP offered the names of six officers from across
Canada who could work with police and Aboriginal groups. However,
the Council of Yukon First Nations and the Assembly of First
Nations declined and hired their own investigators.
Jim Maloney, a Mic'maq from Shubenacadie, NS, and Oliver Williams,
a non-status First Nations person with more than 23 years' RCMP
experience, were chosen to examine the circumstances surrounding
the death.
The RCMP also conducted their own internal investigation into
the matter. The results of neither investigation has been made
public and but will be reviewed at the coroner's inquest.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, a respected Aboriginal judge from Saskatchewan,
was to come to Whitehorse as an independent Crown to head up
the inquest.
A coroner's inquest is a public, quasi-judicial fact-finding
proceeding where evidence is presented to a six-person jury.
The jury can make recommendations on the matter but cannot assign
fault or blame. The CYFN had asked for the jury to contain at
least three First Nation citizens. The council also asked for
an Elders' panel to support the judge.
Turpel-Lafond adjourned the inquest after receiving an application
from one of the participating lawyers. There are five lawyers
involved: one for Harley Timmers' family, the CYFN, the RCMP,
the police officer and the Coroner's office.
CYFN's legal counsel requested the delay pending forensic analysis
of the events surrounding the shooting by an independent expert.
The Ontario coroner's office will be conducting the investigation
which is expected to take two months. The five lawyers will then
review the conclusions in preparation for the inquest.
Harley Timmers' untimely death has been mired in controversy.
After the shooting, there was a public outcry within the First
Nation community demanding an independent investigation into
the matter.
More recently, Yukon Government opposition MLAs cried foul after
the Justice Department agreed to give $150,000 for CYFN's legal
representation at the coroner's inquest.
"The number of $150,000 for a two-week coroner's inquest
is just mind-boggling," said Liberal Party MLA Jack Cable
in the legislature.
He also requested a breakdown of how CYFN proposed to spend the
money but Justice Minister Lois Moorcroft was unable to answer
the question and promised to provide the information after consulting
with the CYFN.
"When the member saw the request for $150,000 for this inquest,
did the government just sort of agree to it right away,"
asked Yukon Party MLA Doug Phillips. "Did the government
not question the amount of money and ask for a really detailed
breakdown of the whole amount?"
The following day in the legislature, Moorcroft was unable to
divulge any spending details.
"After consulting with (CYFN's) grand chief, I have decided
not to release their proposed budget at this time," said
Moorcroft. "To do so now potentially compromises strategic
decisions that the parties may wish to take in advance of the
inquest."
She promised to release the information after the inquest.
The Justice minister accused Cable and Phillips of provoking
racial tensions by questioning the expenditure.
"As a government, we have a responsibility in the public
interest to have a full, fair and open hearing with all the parties
represented fairly," she said. "CYFN is an important
voice that needs to be heard in this matter. We do not want to
divide this community along racial lines. What the members are
doing is exactly that, and it is profoundly disturbing."
The need for fair representation at the inquest for the Timmers
family and CYFN isn't being questioned, responded Phillips.
"We have a right - in fact an obligation - on behalf of
our constituents to ask questions about matters in these budgets
and the government has an obligation to answer them," he
added. "My point is that, when the minister told us it was
$150,000, it seemed rather excessive."
Phillips also questioned how much of its own money the CYFN will
be contributing to prepare its legal representation.
"There was no suggestions . . . that the funding should
not take place . . . [it is] the amount of the expenditure that
is being questioned," said Cable.
Grand Chief Shirley Adamson soon added her voice to the public
debate.
"We applaud the commitment of the Yukon Justice minister
for her efforts to ensure a fair and transparent process in finding
out the truth in the shooting death of Harley Timmers,"
she said in a release. "The Yukon government's funding contribution
will greatly assist that."
She also noted that lawyers for the RCMP and Const. Foster will
also be funded by taxpayers.
Chilliwack celebrates with drum, dance and song
By Ronald B. Barbour
Raven's Eye Writer
CHILLIWACK
After months of waiting, those who were there say the 7th
annual Chilliwack Powwow was a success in every sense of the
word.
More than 450 dancers along with 24 drum groups travelled to
the Ag-Rec Building for the first powwow of the season in British
Columbia. The tremendous turnout of dancers, drummers, singers
and spectators made it the largest in the seven-year history
of the Chilliwack Powwow.
Lyle Bobb, a jeweller and silversmith (one of the 80-odd vendors
that attended the powwow), was impressed with the event.
"This place is packed. I don't think I've ever seen this
many people here. It's a great turn out," said Bobb.
The powwow began in 1992 when First Nations students at Chilliwack
Senior Secondary and Sardis Secondary decided they wanted to
have a powwow at their school.
"They had something to share, something to offer and wanted
something to be a part of," said powwow committee chairperson,
Gwendolyn Point.
A Sto:lo Nation Elder commended the students at the end of the
inaugural event, telling them they had done well even though
powwows are not part of their tradition and culture.
Point is quick to point out that the powwow couldn't happen without
the assistance of local Native communities, the Sto:lo Nation
and School District No. 33.
From the gallery on the mezzanine level, one could see that the
centre was filled to capacity and there was nearly half again
as many people refreshing themselves in the surrounding areas
outside the centre. Looking at the faces in the crowds one could
see happy and contented people enjoying the atmosphere.
The host drum was the Eya-Hey-Nakoda drum group from Morley,
Alta. The masters of ceremonies were the highly entertaining
Gerald Sitting Eagle from Siksika, Alta. and John Terbasket from
Keremeos.
Wally Awasis, lead singer for the Vancouver-based Arrows To Freedom
drum group, was excited by the turnout but felt the great attendance
has its drawbacks.
"There's so many drums here," said Awasis. "The
drum groups are lucky if they get to sing more than once a day."
"It was huge," said Ted Napoleon, a Statimc from Lillooet.
"It was the biggest powwow yet."
Napolean, who usually sings with the Seattle-Portland-based drum
group White Eagle Singers, was singing with Winnipeg's Horse-Tail
Singers, the group that took first place in the singing category.
Second place was taken by the Blackstone singers from Saskatchewan
and third place was taken by the Siksika Ramblers.
"It's pretty great," said Paul Napoleon, Ted's brother
and a dancer now living in Vancouver. "There sure were a
lot of drums."
Drum groups and dancers had come from afar representing such
nations as the Nez Perce and Navajo nations to compete for the
more than $30,000 that was being offered in prize money. There
were 28 different categories for the dancing, ranging from standard
men's and women's traditional dancing and fancy dancing to the
'Buckskin War Bonnet over 40s' and the 'Tiny Tots' categories.
With the current success and growing popularity of the Chilliwack
powwow it seems that a larger location might be one of the first
orders of business for next year's season opener.
Youth need positive role models
By Gil Lerat
Raven's Eye Columnist
VANCOUVER
This month's column will look at adolescents and why they
choose to drink and use drugs. The teenage years are undoubtedly
the most confusing time in our lives. There are so many inner
struggles that one faces as one leaves childhood and begins to
enter the adult world. It is difficult for many reasons. Teenagers
are given contradicting feedback throughout this stage of human
development. They are too young to be adult, yet they are too
old to be children. They strive to be treated like adults, yet
most don't want the accountability that comes with being an adult.
The most important part of life for an adolescent is to feel
accepted. Most teens look for acceptance through their peer group,
even more so when the teen's homelife is unsatisfactory.
So, why do adolescents choose to drink and use drugs? There are
many factors when considering this question. First, our society
is very drug and alcohol oriented. Every day through advertisements
and television commercials we see the message that there is a
chemical to fix anything, from headaches to allergies to arthritis,
etc.
Second, adolescents relate to a drug-using subculture. Through
peer pressure, and many teen idols such as rock, movie stars
use drugs. In modern pop/heavy metal/rock music, lyrics are often
slanted toward drug use. Also, many children learn at home. Their
parents are alcohol/drug users and they are brought up to believe
that alcohol and drugs are a normal part of life. Some parents
and teenagers drink and use together.
Third, we cannot argue with statistics that genetic influence
is a factor. There is a high rate of chemical dependency among
adolescents that can't be explained by other factors.
May the Creator be with you.
Editor's Note: Dr. Anthony Hall, a professor at Alberta's University of Lethbridge, has written a 20-page essay on ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, making comparisons with the European colonization of North America. The essay, widely circulated in Indian Country this month, was prompted by an article in the Ottawa Citizen regarding the disbarment in Ontario of Bruce Clark, the lawyer who attracted national attention during the Gustafsen Lake confrontation. Dr. Hall wrote a shorter version of his essay in the form of a letter to the editor of the Citizen. It is reprinted here.
To the editor of the Ottawa Citizen:
How powerful for me was the convergence of Paul McKay's shoddy,
one-sided and ill-researched account in the Citizen of the disbarring
of Dr. Bruce Clark, just as NATO set off on a bombing crusade
against the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Milosevic regime
in Yugoslavia.
In my view, the Citizen's account of the Law Society of Upper
Canada's professional exorcism, which might have been more acceptable
if you had run it as an opinion piece rather than as a news story,
is a classic example of an effort to kill the messenger rather
than deal with the gravity of his message.
Over the 1980s and 1990s Dr. Clark emerged as a learned and persistent
legal advocate who made it his objective to force on the attention
of his colleagues his considered legal view that there are unaddressed
legacies of criminal responsibility which flow from the transformation
of North America from what it was before 1492 into what it is
now. While suffering persistent attacks on his person, his family,
his livelihood, and his reputation, Dr. Clark has unflinchingly
argued that there has never been a legal reckoning with the complicity
in genocide that is integral to the emergence of Canada and the
United States as countries where the Indigenous peoples have
been rendered marginal in their own ancestral lands.
This marginalization, imposed often in flagrant violation of
the existing constitutional law even of the newcomers, was pressed
forward in order to make room for the predominance of peoples,
cultures, languages and laws whose origins lie primarily in Europe.
In what other part of the world, save Australia perhaps, has
the ethnic cleansing been so thorough and so systematic that
it has become almost invisible to all but a few? How many, for
instance, have ever given a passing thought to the fact that
English and French are the official languages of Canada, whereas
the Indigenous tongues have no official status whatsoever? What
else is NATO but a military symbol of the fact that the heritages
of Europe and North America have become so intertwined that they
are made to seem almost like extensions of one another?
This Europeanization of North America and the North Americanization
of Europe involved all kinds of elaborate, genocidal means to
wipe away large components of the Aboriginal civilization of
a hemisphere that was home to about 2,200 distinct languages
when Christopher Columbus first arrived. In my view, the tragedy
that is now being visited on the Kosovar Albanians should serve
to illustrate in a very compressed way the experience endured
by generations of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. How many
times has Indian Country been pushed back and how often have
Aboriginal freedoms been terminated, so that wave after wave
of refugees can gain access to North America in order to escape
from the savage horrors of Europe's periodic eruptions within
itself?
The fact that so many Aboriginal tongues - along with their speakers
- have been silenced, makes it easier to deny the home-made holocausts
whose lingering nature is marked all too clearly in this hemisphere's
demography of suicide, incarceration, domestic violence, drug
and alcohol abuse and the like.
Make no mistake about it! Once we open the Pandora's box of another
war crimes tribunal for what is happening in the Balkans, questions
will inevitably be asked about what the fate of Dr. Clark in
Canada demonstrates about the ability of the NATO countries to
apply to themselves the same standards of accountability for
the violation of human rights.
The failure of your reporter to see any of the irony or historical
significance in the continuing persecution of Dr. Clark in this
time of war, demonstrates an appalling lack of journalistic acumen.
Rather than deal with the true gravity of what has transpired,
your reporter instead trivialized his account with yet more snide
guffawing about his subject's "star war glasses," his
"conehead haircut" and, ha ha, his PhD.
As you know, I have forwarded to you a 20,000 word essay based
largely on a far more elaborate critique of your reporter's profoundly
biased coverage of the disbarment of one of North America's true
experts on the legal implications of the genocide and ethnic
cleansing that is integral to the genesis of North America.
Anthony J. Hall, PhD
Associate Chair, Native American Studies,
University of Lethbridge.