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BC TREATY PROCESS HITS NEW SETBACK
By Kimball Cariou
(This article is from the June 16-30/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
THE TASK OF reaching just treaties for dozens of west coast First Nations peoples hit a new snag last month, when the Sechelt band gave 90-day notice of its intention to take its claim to court.
"The treaty process is on life support," Sechelt chief Gary Feschuk told band members at a May 31 ceremony. "After today it might be in dire straits."
Last year, the Sechelt were the first of 51 bands represented by the First Nations Summit to reach an agreement in principle (AIP) under the B.C. Treaty Commission process set up in 1994 by the NDP government. (The recent Nisga'a Treaty was reached under a different process.) The latest version of the AIP would have seen the 900 member band receive $52 million, 933 hectares of land, 14 commercial fishing licences, and a large gravel pit operation.
In return, the Sechelt would surrender any future claims against the Crown, and give up their exemptions from federal and provincial sales taxes in eight years, and their provincial income tax exemption in 12 years.
The Sechelt have exercised a form of self-government for a number of years, with powers similar to those of municipalities; that status was not under discussion.
Feschuk said the Sechelt were not satisfied with receiving only one percent of their traditional territory, in the Sunshine Coast area north of Vancouver. More generally, the band fears that the AIP terms would not ensure a secure economic future for its members.
The provincial BC Liberals and federal Canadian Alliance MPs, as well as various right-wing media figures, were quick to declare the treaty process "dead" or to demand that Premier Dosanjh's NDP government refuse to offer any improvements in the AIP.
Typical was a June 1 Vancouver Sun editorial, which thundered that "Chief Feschuk must understand that British Columbians will not support treaties that smack of unfairness," and warned that popular support for aboriginal rights is falling.
Given the constant attack against treaty rights in the corporate media, that may contain a grain of truth, and the Dosanjh government may back off from meaningful further negotiations in the Sechelt claim and others working their way through the treaty process. As Aboriginal Affairs minister Dale Lovick said after the Sechelt decision, "This proposed treaty is as good as it gets."
If Premier Dosanjh does take a hard line, it won't be the first time he has opposed aboriginal rights to gain political support. In 1995, as the provincial Attorney-General, Dosanjh was a key figure in the heavy-handed use of police and military forces against a small number of aboriginal people and their supporters camped on Crown land at Gustafsen Lake.
One looming scenario may be a provincial election campaign in which all BC's three "major" parties, in varying degrees, resist any genuine progress towards resolving treaty claims. If only Green and Communist candidates give strong support to aboriginal rights, it would be difficult for any new government to return to the treaty process in the near future.
An election along those lines would strengthen the growing militancy among B.C. First Nations youth, and many elders, who are tired of seemingly endless negotiations, despite several powerful legal rulings in their favour.
"The First Nations of British Columbia have been forced to wait far too long for justice, and the uncertainty over treaty settlements is having a negative impact on our economy," says BC Communist Party leader George Gidora.
"This issue must be a top priority for the current provincial government and for whichever party is elected next spring. Those forces who want to impose stingy settlements on the First Nations are simply fanning anti-aboriginal views, and that's an extremely dangerous game. The fact is that British Columbia's relatively high standard of living has been built largely on cheap resources which were never ceded by the First Nations. The reality of inherent aboriginal rights must be recognized, and the people of B.C. must demand that our elected officials negotiate honourably for a speedy and just settlement of all outstanding claims by First Nations."
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