Trust. Integrity. Reputation. Top News - November - 2001 Clinton Soto (Redd Skout) gives an emotional performance of My Friend (Wilburn's Song) during this year's opening ceremonies of Dreamcatcher, Grant MacEwan Community College's annual youth conference held in Edmonton Oct. 12 to 14. He was performing with the rap group REDD NATION. Photo: Debora Lockyer Steel Scrap the referendum, B.C. told Land grab angers Passamaquoddy people Multi-faceted issues complicate hunting rights The law's the law, Stock - Editorial A few suggestions to APTN - Editorial THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF WINDSPEAKER'S NOVEMBER ISSUE ARE ONLINE IN THE ARCHIVES - ACCESS IS RESTRICTED TO SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION INFO. Scrap the referendum, B.C. told Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Vancouver An environmentalist and an Anglican clergyman both told British Columbia's Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs on Oct. 18 they should just forget about holding a referendum on the future shape of the treaty process. The two men addressed the committee during the Vancouver public input session. They and two others addressed the committee during the evening session of the committee's day-long stop in the province's largest city. The newly elected British Columbia Liberal government plans to hold a referendum on what British Columbians want from the treaty process. The government wants the public to decide what the provincial negotiators' bottom line should be in treaty talks. The standing committee is holding sessions throughout the province. The committee's report is due on Nov. 30. Paul George, a non-Native member of the Western Canadian Wilderness Club, and Craig Vance, speaking as a member of the Anglican diocese of New Westminster, both urged the Liberal MLAs to re-think their government's position. Asking the majority to vote on the extent of a minority's rights is "beyond foolishness," said George who urged the committee to call off the vote. "Even if you have no mandate to recommend not holding a referendum, I recommend not holding one," he said. Vance, saying he was speaking for himself and not officially representing the church, predicted a council of all the major churches in the province was leaning towards and would likely arrive at a position of "urging the government to withdraw the referendum." Committee chair, MLA John Les, told the presenters the process wasn't about limiting Native rights in the province. "This is not a discussion about Native rights," he said. "That's not on the table. It's about how do we incorporate these rights in the British Columbia mosaic." Vance argued the "public won't get the nuance" and would vote in a way that reflects an uninformed, emotional response rather than an informed understanding of the issues. George agreed with that assessment. "What the vote really means is, if you vote one way you're favorably disposed to the rights of Aboriginal people in British Columbia; if you vote another way, you're unfavorably disposed," he said. Donald McKenzie, publisher of Indigenous Business Magazine, told the committee the question should reflect affirmative responses to a series of questions. He said he believed the question should be along the lines of whether Aboriginal people should be treated fairly and with compassion in British Columbia or whether Supreme Court of Canada decisions should apply in the province. McKenzie pointed to past treatment of Native people, saying the government should be careful not to let historical antagonisms between Indigenous peoples and colonizers resurface. "We must remember that small pox, a sort of bio-weapon, was used intentionally against Aboriginal people. Kind of like some of these envelopes we've been hearing about for the last little while," he said. That comment drew a protest from committee member Dennis MacKay. "I can't believe small pox was intentionally used," the MLA said. "I find it personally offensive to think our grandfathers and grandmothers would do such a thing." The next day, at the annual conference of the Indigenous Bar Association, hosted just a few blocks away, former NDP cabinet minister Edward John, grand chief of the Tl'azt'en Nation in northern B.C., noted that non-Native people are generally not well informed about Aboriginal issues. "If you put a question to the public in British Columbia and you understand the context in which these people are going to vote, it's troubling," he said. "The context that I will outline is simply this: In my own knowledge, the people who live in communities next to us, their knowledge of our people is very, very, very limited, very superficial, if it exists at all. Now those are the people who are going to be asked to determine the nature of the mandate for their government to bring to the negotiating table." John said that Allan McEachern, the former British Columbia chief justice who presided over the Delgamuukw trial, was given every opportunity to come to an understanding of the Aboriginal point of view and that learned man handed down a decision that was shredded by the Supreme Court of Canada. "I talked to many of the chiefs and they felt that despite all of the efforts and the time they had put into this one man to understand who they were, that he did not get it. Now you have a few months to try to educate the average citizen in this province -¡ it's doomed to failure," he said. John noted that the standing committee sessions have been poorly attended so far. "It probably goes to show that people may not have as much interest in this initiative as politicians they ought to have or may have," he said. He also said the Liberal Party's claim to be polling the public in the province would leave one part of the public out. "When one party decides to take a time-out and say we want to get a mandate from the people, I don't know it's wise that the other two parties will be involved in the selling of that mandate," said John. "Politically, it would not be appropriate and, certainly, if there are any court challenges in the future, it's likely that participation by First Nations in the referendum, directly in the voting, will be raised as an issue in the courts." The other person to address the committee that evening, Marlie Beets, vice president, Aboriginal affairs for the Council of Forest Industries (COFI), said uncertainty over Aboriginal title issues is a major problem for her industry. "When Aboriginal people are looking for attention from the media or government, they find it very convenient to hold forestry operations hostage," she said. "What COFI would like out of treaties is the end of those hostage situations and more Aboriginal commercial involvement." But the industry doesn't feel it should pay for any programs that would increase Aboriginal participation, Beets said, adding the province contributes resources so the federal government should contribute money. Native leaders scoff at the concept of the province saying it pays its share by allowing access to resources. Native leaders say the whole idea behind treaty talks is who owns the resources and, therefore, the province can't claim credit for contributing something it doesn't clearly own. Beets said there's not much room for Native people in the industry at the moment. "We don't need an Aboriginal labor force. We already have a labor force," she said. Since Aboriginal people don't have a lot of investment capital and their labor isn't needed, Beets said, they don't have a lot to offer to the industry right now. "To be brutally frank, what First Nations have to offer to the industry is a commitment not to blockade," she said. Top Land grab angers Passamaquoddy people Joan Taillon, Windspeaker Staff Writer, St. Andrews N.B. A disagreement over who has jurisdiction over 4.6 acres in this New Brunswick town may create a rift between locals identifying themselves as members of the Passamaquoddy nation and their non-Native neighbors who have been their friends for generations. The dispute has caught the attention of the Maritimes' Native leadership of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs Secretariat, which is supporting Chief Hugh Akagi, although his St. Croix Scoodic band is not accorded First Nations status by the government of Canada. A strongly worded statement issued by the chiefs berates the town for "trying to sell Passmaquoddy sacred grounds and promoting it as 'prime building lots'." Akagi said there are graves there. His people want to keep the property in a natural state. The town's mayor calls it an eyesore that needs to be cleaned up. The town's determination to sell the land for development "shows the typical respect that the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy people receive from their neighboring municipalities when dealing with the sacred and traditional lands, and we're not putting up with it any longer," said congress co-chair Chief Second Peter Barlow in the release. The chiefs urge that the town "reconsider" its intention to sell the land or prepare to face legal or other consequences. St. Andrews' mayor, John Craig, said that town council decided early in the month to table the matter until February. Craig insists, however, "the land is not really in dispute--­the town does own it." St. Andrews and the province say it is the federal government's responsibility to sort out Native land claims. Everyone contacted in this matter said the federal government does not recognize Akagi 's group. "It's more of a federal issue, said Mayor Craig. "We don't look at it as an Indian issue. We're trying to keep the Indian issue out of it altogether, because Native issues fall under the federal government. As a town, we don't have the jurisdiction, as far as I'm concerned. "The province and the courts all say we own the land." Town councillor Michael Craig, a "distant cousin" to the mayor, thinks differently. He said the town's refusal to acknowledge the existence of the Passamaquoddy is an attempt to make it "all go away." He thinks this is short-sighted and foolish. He also agreed with Akagi that the Passamaquoddy and the non-Native residents of the community get along and he would like that to continue. "They (town council) don't seem to realize we're not living in the days of smoke signals anymore. We have mass communication; we have instant communication. And they (Native people) have instant communication. . . . And like all of us, they're better educated. There're more lawyers. There's more going on than a lot of people realize." "I think that might be a thing that scares a lot of people, too," said Michael Craig. "They're very good at what they do. They're very good at all aspects of our society, if you will­if you want to make that distinction­but they learn very quickly and are probably better at it in most things than we are." The mayor said a 700-name petition to conserve the "green space" in the centre of town is not an endorsement by non-Natives of the Passamaquoddy claim to the property, but simply means that half the town's citizens have said they want the land to remain undeveloped. Mayor Craig added that town council is preparing to distribute maps to better inform people what the land consists of, as he said he thought many who signed may not have had a clear idea of exactly what land is proposed for development. He said the 4.6 acres of "higher end" land near the centre of town consists of nine building lots that will increase the town's tax base by $20,000 if $150,000 to $200,000 homes are erected there. "We're trying to maximize the tax base of the town." The alternative, he said, is to turn the small acreage into a public park. He indicated that if it were up to him, the matter would be dealt with now, because putting a decision off allows more time for bad feelings to fester. He said that if at some time in the future the federal government and the courts decided Akagi's people were entitled to the land, the federal government would likely compensate them financially. "That's not what we want," said Akagi. "We want the land." Akagi said the town has other property with water and sewer hookups that is ready to be developed; he therefore imputes political motives to the plan to take the last of the Passamoquoddy people's land. Having served three terms on council himself, he said his experience tells him the mayor may be overstating the revenue that could be gained from developing the property. Akagee said in the 1980s the town borrowed $200,000 to put in infrastructure for another development for which they carried interest on the debt for six years. And then they had to drop the lot prices about $4,000 to sell them. The Passamaquoddy people are worried that if the town sells these lots, it would open the door for it to sell the remaining approximate 100 acres at Quonasqamkuk (Indian Point) that the Passamaquoddy claim as their own. "We own most of that anyway," said the mayor. The town and the federal government maintain there is no Passamaquoddy band in Canada. Their position is that the Native people in St. Andrews belong, or may be eligible to belong, to the Passamaquoddy tribe in the United States. But both the Atlantic Policy Congress and Akagi say the St. Croix Scoodic band of the Passamaquoddy in Canada never ceded its traditional territory throughout 200 years of continuous encroachment by the province and town. Akagi, whose mother was "half Native" and his father Japanese, said that although there supposedly are no Passamaquoddy people in St. Andrews, the town nonetheless did not charge his family property tax when his mother was alive. As soon as she died in 1957, he said, the town began taxing his father. A spokesman for the chiefs' group, J. J. Bear, likens the Passamaquoddy people to the Innu, who until recently had not entered negotiations with the federal government with respect to obtaining "status," but they nonetheless exist as a nation that other Aboriginal peoples recognize. "It is my opinion that if they (the Passamaquoddy) were to launch an action suit to stop the sale, they would have the support of technicians and lawyers from both the [congress] chiefs and the Passamaquoddy tribal government in Maine," said Bear. Coon Come answers Nault Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Ottawa The national chief responded to the minister of Indian Affairs on Sept. 26 in the latest round of a war of words over the minister's First Nations governance initiative. The Assembly of First Nations had hoped to join in the governance consultations-and access federal funding-before a funding shortfall forced the national organization to start laying off staff. But when the AFN couldn't convince the minister to listen to their idea of what the governance initiative should look like, the chance that First Nations leaders would join in the consultations effectively vanished. As of Oct. 24, no deal has been reached. The consultations are due to wrap up on Oct. 31. In an Oct. 16 press release, the AFN claimed the minister had never entered into good faith negotiations on its budget. "He removed all authority from the department to negotiate the AFN budget and arbitrarily decided the organization's funding levels," the release stated. Coon Come announced that 70 employees ­ or 64 per cent of the workforce ­ were laid off because of funding shortfalls. A further 24 vacant positions will not be filled. Just 53 jobs remain. "The AFN is a national institution in Canada," the national chief said. "It is the national voice for all First Nation citizens living in our communities or in urban areas. This action by the minister to silence us is an ominous sign for all First Nations organizations in Canada. It could very well be a sign that dissent to government policies will not be tolerated and that our ability to fight for our rights will be severely limited." The minister's actions regarding governance are seen as heavy-handed in many quarters. First Nations technicians increasingly are wondering out loud how the federal government would react if an outside entity tried to interfere with its powers by going directly to Canadian citizens, rather than dealing with elected representatives. In his letter to the minister, Coon Come reminded Nault that the AFN was made up of duly elected political representatives of First Nations people and those leaders deserved Ottawa's respect. "[Y]our government legally recognizes the constituent base of the AFN as representative, and the AFN receives its mandate directly from them," he wrote. Coon Come again reminded the federal minister that a variety of exhaustive studies by respected bodies had made recommendations to Canada on ways to improve conditions in First Nations communities. He then told the minister his governance initiative was not consistent with any of the high level advice the government had received from royal commissions, academic studies or reports from domestic or international committees. "Consequently, many First Nations question whether the motivation behind this process is primarily to diminish potential federal liabilities rather than support First Nations in ever fully realizing self government," he wrote. Coon Come urged the minister to meet with him as soon as possible. Top