AG Terrace Review — Wednesday, August 15, 1990

_EDITORIAL __

‘The road is clear, it’ ry time to. move |

"So. long as (the government of) Canada is
realistic, there is no reason why well-inten-
_tioned people of good will cannot resolve these
issues in negotiations." |

After more than 100 years of pretending that
it could escape the price that the rest of
Canada paid for becoming a nation, the
government of British Columbia has finally
agreed to negotiate with the descendents first

people who occupied the land where all of us
presently live. Premier Vander Zalm’s
announcement last Thursday should have come
as a relief to everyone, but instead most tribal
councils in B.C. have stressed disappointment
at the government’s failure.to recognize abori-
ginal rights and title.

If it appears that the Native leaders up the
ante every time Victoria changes its position,
that perception is in some senses right. The
recognition of aboriginal rights and title is not
any sort of legal prerequisite to negotiations on
‘the land issue. Any agreement negotiated,
agreed to and signed is legally valid regardless
of the province’s political philosophy on what
tights Native people have or do not have. With
the publicly expressed will of the Social Credit
administration, those negotiations could begin
today if the Native leaders agreed to sit down
at the table.

But consider whether, in view of the history
of the current government, Native people have
any reason to believe last week’s announce-
ment is anything more than another example of
weatbervane policy. It is an absolute certainty
that a provincial election will be called within

the next year, and strongly probable within the
next eight months. It is known that part of the

_—Harry Slade

caucus retreat agenda at Harrison Hot Springs
last month was examination of a private poll,
probably bearing the message that British

Columbians of every race, language, political

affiliation and brand loyalty are fed up with
unremitting stagnation on the land issue. Native
leaders can certainly be given the benefit of the
doubt if they see the change in policy as a
public relations version of a Trojan horse.
There also remains the Indian Act, the piece
of legislation that is in many ways responsible
for. this mess and the dismantling of which is
imperative to a realistic atmosphere at the
table. While non-Natives fume at the perceived
privileges of on-reserve people, few are aware

of the realities of on-reserve living. The simple

act of purchasing an automobile can require a
sigved ministerial order from Ottawa. The new
he sing going up on reserves from time to
time is owned “in trust" by the Department of
Indian Affairs, not by the occupants. Title to
reserve land itself is held by the federal crown,
and all activities on the land are controlled.

The federal policy of negotiating one claim at
a time in B.C., with each claim requiring over
10 years, is a crock. As Harry Slade said here
Jess than two months ago, “It doesn’t take a
rocket scientist to figure out how to speed
things up." The Progressive Conservative ad- .
ministration and Brian Mulroney seem
muddled to the point of paralysis on this issue.
To act at this point.requires no complex con-
tortions of strategy or understanding. It just
requires courage.

There is no legal reason not to begin negotia-
tions, nothing holding back the federal
government, the provincial government, or the
Indian government. The province’s reluctance
to acknowledge aboriginal title and rights is no

iment. In the Gitksan-Wet’suwet’an legal

action, which the Hon. Chief Justice Allan
McEachern is now pondering, the outcome .
could conceivably be prejudiced. by a govern-
ment policy announcement that. would effec-
tively pre-empt their argument, but in the end
the province would probably have little to lose
by that acknowledgement. The Sparrow deci-
sion went far beyond anything the province
could do at this point. 7

But what would the government of B.C. be
acknowledging? The contention of the Union
of B.C. Indian Chiefs that aboriginal rights and
title are absolute interests that exclude all
others? The government might as well dissolve
itself.

The Sparrow decision reaffirmed and clarified ©

the test for rights under Section 35 of the Con-
stitution, and the test unanimously endorsed by
the ultimate judicial authority in Canada is a
stringent test of extinguishment for aboriginal
rights. In this area the province of B.C. has no
influence. One section of the Constitution is as
valid as another, and aboriginal rights are as
valid as the guarantees of free speech, demo-
cratic vote and a fair and speedy trial. That
should be enough validation for everyone.

It is now the proving-time. We, the sons and
daughters, the parents and grandparents, the
loggers, the miners and the fishermen, the

- clerks and the administrators, the managers and

the managed, the propertied and the destitute,
the pale and the dark, stand mutely waiting to
witness acts of leadership and courage, proof.
that there are in fact honest intentions and
good will stoking the tongues that have left
such a telling trail of ink across all these pages
for all these years.

The view from
Victoria —

by John Pifer

Sacond-class mali

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HARRISON HOT SPRINGS
— If you ever think that being
a provincial Cabinet minister is
a constantly exciting, exotic
way to live high on the hog at
taxpayers’ expense, think
again.

For three days last week at
this beautiful, under-used lake-
side resort less than two hours’

. drive from Vancouver, the

Social Credit Cabinet met to
plot policy, strategy and. plan-

ning which will lead ‘them into
** some idea of the duty involved.

the next election. .
Closeted in a boring con-
ference room for hour after

‘hour, the politicians could __

from time to time think about -
the resort’s golf courses, tennis

courts, hot tubs, mineral. baths, .

windsurfing and swimming

_ facilities, but they could do lit-

tle about them.

- Other than a quick dip in the

early morning or late evening,
they had to deal with flow

charts, poll results, party stand-

ings, the native issue, future
trends and the ever-looming
provincial election battle with
the “‘socialists’’, while other
hotel. guests padded about in
bathing suits and bikinis and
enjoyed themselves.

On Wednesday, Cabinet was
inside looking out from 9 a.m.
to 6 p.m., then from 7:30 to
10:30 p.m; — just to give you

How many of you could do
that on a hot, gloriously sunny
August day, with just crustless

‘ sandwiches to keep you going?

From agreeing to give finan-
cial assistance to tree-fruit
growers in the Okanagan, to
trying te develop a policy to
accelerate the handling of

native land claims, the Cabinet —

thrashed out the details, and
then called in their back-
benchers to fill them in on the
decisions made.

And because absolutely every
decision the Socreds take these
days must include consideration
of its political benefit or
damage, what flows from Har-
rison will set the stage for that
election, wiiether it be in Oc-
tober or in April. (This corres-
pondent is still betting on the
spring).

And what did flow? Well,
there was the not unexpected
demise of former Cabinet
minister and Surrey MLA Bill
Reid — who had to be seen by
party brass as an election

liability and a target for NDP |

sniping throughout any cam-
paign.

_- - Continued on page A7

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