The Nisga’a have made their choice Homeland talk nonsense Dear Sir: Every bit of writing about the Nisga’a begins with the words ‘didn’t work in South Africa and won't work here’ or ‘African homelands is not a solution,’ There needs to be a stop to this foolishness, and if professional writers would quit copying one ’anoth- ‘erand start using some critical thought, they would discover some very real, and very large differences between these two systems. The Nisga’a ‘homelands’ became a fact because they were negotiated. To those who do not under- stand that term, it simply means that the Nisga'a wanted it that way, and they bargained hard to get it. They will now have their lands, in fee simple, to administer as they see fit. Within a known frame- work (Charter of rights) Nisga’a law will apply ~only to those private lands. South African homelands were plots of desert ,Sinilar to our system of reserve lands, or lands _ Feserved for the use of Indians. _ On our reserves and the homelands the people ‘were put there by force of arms. That the South Af- ‘ricans did it very forcibly makes little difference * (except to those killed or maimed), ' After the blacks were put ‘‘in their place’’ and the ‘riots broke out, as they inevitably did, the army was sent back in to ‘‘restore order.'” The blacks in South Africa had no choice, and they did not own their Jands, and they had litte jurisdiction. over them, and the amy was always there (and it was not their army). The Nisga’a, finally, have bad a choice, and they have made their choice. Their choice is to hold their lands in corporate, or communal title. Right or wrong, it was their choice. The comparison that is used by the opponents is not something done in er- ror, rather it is deliberately done by people who have an agenda, a mean agenda, that bodes ill for the Nisga’a and the province. Les Watmough Terrace B.C. Tell u us when we'll stop paying the bills ‘Dear Sir: - This question goes to Glen Clark and his party on the Nisga’a treaty. Why is there no elimination (complete climina- ‘tien) on government transfers (social services) in the newspapers or on your television debate on "Nov. 30th? Taxpayers pay approximately three billion a year for First Nations’ eye glasses, dental, medical, pres- criptions and education (also private music lessons -about this in the treaty.’ One and only one report I've had states it might be discussed every five years to sec if it will even be brought up at the negotiation table. With $190 million in cash going to the Nisga’a peoples it looks like the taxpayers will still be footing this bill. Also twelve years before income tax??? Even stu- dents, once graduating from schools do not get twelve years to sel up an economy to start paying. Their first pay cheque has income tax deducted, like it or not. Maybe with the majority of Nisga’a living out of the Nass Valley, Mr. Clark had a vision that even ! the Nisga’a peoples might question this treaty if they had to give it all up. Mr, Clark repeatedly states the people live in third world conditions. Well, Mr. Clark I know of no third world country that has subsidized housing, dental,-medical, education, etc. paid by taxpayers. Some of this treaty is good, but a whole lot isn’t. Let the rest of the province have a say. K. Daigeault Terrace B.C. Where were treaty fearmongers on MAI? Dear Sir: The hypocrisy of politicians opposed to the Nisga’a treaty becomes very clear in their argu- ments when viewed in conjunction with the Multi- lateral Agrecment on Investment (MAD, which will affect all future development throughout B.C. The MAI’s focus is the protection of foreign in- vestment capital at the expense of local laws and rights. Under MAI, foreign corporations must never be ‘‘discriminated against?’ by any government on any level on any account, such as the well-being of the local society. This means that under MAI transnational corpora- tions have the exclusive right to own any saleable natural resource of other countries and to have the } in some band: cases). Yet,’ Mr, Clark’ never talks The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 16, 1998 - A5 CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The | Mail Bag NISGA’A ELDERS rode in a canoe at the ceremony Aug, 4 in New Aiyansh marking the initiall- ing of the final agreement. The treaty has since been ratified by a referendum of the Nisga‘a. And it's now being debated in the B.C. legislature. right to extract its oil, forest, mineral or other resources with no obligation to sustain resources or to use them in the interests of the host country. In addilion the transnational corporations are al- lowed to profit from any commercial enterprise with no requirement to reinvest in the country in which the resources have been extracted and the profits derived. Talk about apartheid —~ this is it! Did we hear David Black or Gordon Campbell crying foul at these realities when they were being framed? I think they are condemned by their own silence. The MAI means that any transnational corpora- tion will be able to work with the bank pirates to loot the resources of this province and there is noth- ing we can do about it because governments gave away our resource warebouse. And these Chicken Littles are getting hysterical because the indigenous peoples of B.C. suddenly have rights under the new treaty system they have’ demanded since the white eyes first intruded on their territories. You can see what I mean when I say the argu- ments of these alarmists are more than a little spe- cious! , Brian Gregg Terrace B.C. L | _ . We’re not going away Open letter to Dieter Wagner of Kitimat: This is in response to your letier (The Terrace Standard, Dec. 9, 1998). 1 am not going to question your knowledge of im- perialist history. Don’t you think that this is what happened in the countries you cited? People were forced (not artificially) into separate groups by the conquering nations. Civilization just hasnt caught on in some countries, These attitudes and beliefs among the warring factions are passed down from one generation to another and invariably in these situations each ensuing generation is taught to hate. You didn’t state who would be involved in the civil war. Would it be between the believers and non-believers in the treaty process or the First Na- lions people and the ‘‘conquering nations’’? The reason the two senior governments are trying to resolve the land question is that they are virtually embarrassed about how their forefathers treated the first peoples. Over the past two decades, do you think that civilization is finally catching in this country? There were intemational laws in place to prevent the imperialistic actions about the time the Royal Proclamation act was being drafted in the British Isles. But did those laws help indigenous people? We (First Nations people) will simply not go away! Neither will we be swallowed up by your inaitstream society, | take it that you are of German descent and if you are, then it was your personal choice to leave your country and join another socicly across the waters. You are a prime candidate to work for the Dept of Indian Affairs! Why do you think they’ve been the following: around for such a jong time? To abolish native status! How do you undo what one hundred years of the Indian Act did? How about a German Act? A Portugese Act? Imagine for. a thoment, let your mind wander — J have legislative power and ] want to make you a native. Think about il! I don’t think this is a “recipe for disaster’. | think it’s a movement for human rights, Perhaps you should read less of Mel Smith and his ‘Indian Industry’? train of thoughts. Take a look at the reserves, that were artificially set aside for us in B.C. At least 90 per cent of them hold no value for economic development. , Take a look at your Municipal Act, Kilimat lad the pwoer to extend its municipal boundaries to engulf the Bish Creck reserve when the Pac Rim gas negotiations were ongoing. That move was for profit buit they had the ability to make it bappen overnight compared to the efforts of Kitimat Vil- jage council to secure more residential areas over the last 10-plus years. What about the Orenda pulp mill initiative? Kitimat and Terrace were grovelling to Victoria to” extend their boundarics to Onion Lake, For what? ’ Profit. Things like these have to be dealt with if you are talking about all Canadians being equal. Chretien didn’t withdraw the 1969 White Paper’ because he was gutless. He withdrew it because il ° was unconstitutional and il represented absolute power. It was a paper that would artificially alter the lives of people with feelings and natural emotions, While ° paper or not, we would not have gone away. or - maybe that would haye been the start of a civil war. | You share the same mentality as that of your governments. Paternalistic, Condescending. Colo- - nial. You know what’s best for everyone else, of course, and that depends: on their spot in the food chain relalive to yours, ' “Terrace B.C. Canada i is our home Dear Sir: Kudos, Mr. Fisher (etter to the editor, Dec, 2, 1998). More input and awareness has to be ad- Albert Robinson dressed from the non-native and native aspect, be- , cause this will affect them as well but not as severe- ly as you may expect. As a First Nations person, we see this as a general * binding of self-independence as well as a moral justification from the past that has precluded our . people, laws, culture, and our freedom..- Today we live amongst the people that have. changed our ways of living throughout the past decades. Yes, we do want to own our houses someday, * have nice cars, business opportunities, pieces of , land to own and have our families live off the Jand. And no, we do not want te part with Canada as Vander Zalm arrogantly stated with his ‘Another : Yugloslavia”’ remark. Canada is our home and we live in the land of op- portunity. And as aboriginal people we should be ' able to break free from the chains of dependency from our governments. The Depariment of Indian Affairs will take more than three years to disband itself. “Do you ‘possibly “think'“the other''50- plus’ “band ‘councils involved with their own treaties in B.C. agree with every policy of the Nisga’a agreement? , It's like having the Liberals against the NDP. After all we do live in the 20th century and these , matters will not happen overnight, It will take years for our struggle in the political world. Brian Grant Kitamaat Village B.C. English gets it again Dear Sir: Language hysteria appears to be alive and well in Quebec. we That province’s anglophone hospitals arc to be | the next scene of oppression as culture and lan- guage minister, the Honourable Louise Beaudoin, . has made it clear she wants English signs replaced with pictograms in the various departments, What these signs will look like is anybody's guess, but it is reasonable to surmise that cardiol- ogy could be symbolized by a pulsating heart, gastroenterology by a stomach, and nephrology by the picture of a kidney, And what pictures, you ask, would accurately depict the departments of gynecology and proctol- ogy? Well, today’s necd to be politically correct * leaves us with an obvious choice, a picture of : Lucien Bouchard himself. Rob Hargrove Terrace B.C. - About the Mail Bag Letters to the editor can be mailed to the Terrace Standard at 3210 Clinton St. Ter- race, B.C., V8G 5R2. You can also fax tet- ters to us at 250-638-8432. Or you can emall - your letter to us at standard@kermode.net Name, address and phone number Is re- quired for verification. School decision bad news for students many parents will want to send their kids there so that their children will have one Dear Sir: I was dismayed to hear that the school board has elected to make the new Skeena School and Caledonia School both cover grades eight to 12, This move will diminish our quality of education in all respects. w Many specialty classes will not be available. With one school offering Grade 11 and 42 courses, there are enough students interested in taking Physics 12. Caledonia bas performed cosnsistently well at the Physics Olympics at UBC. This record will not continue without top students competing within the same class. English Literature 12 is at preseutt of- fered in only one course at Caledonia, Calculus.12 is a required course for,ad- mission to all: universities outside of - British Columbia, but not requited under BAC, secondary schools curricum. It is ‘‘highly recommended’” by B.C. universities and colleges that students complete this course in order to succeed in first-year calculus. Shop courses, band, geography, drama, history, business courses, and choir all appeal to a limited number of students. If two schools offer these courses the result will be two average classes rather than one excellent one. There may even be insufficient num- bers of students in cach school to war- rant offering the course at all. Students will be limited In the life-long choices tiey make at this crucial stage of their education. @ Science and shop courses are very expensive to.equip and maintain at the senior level. At present there is sufficient equipment at Caledonia to offer these: courses, Can the school district afford to duplicate this equipment expense two blocks away? If not, we will have reduced our education offering to Ter- race students. @ Provincial team classification is based on enrolment in certain grades. By dividing up the grades 11 and 12 stu- dents between two schools, neither school will have sufficient students to qualify for Triple A competition. Both schools will play-at the double A level, The level of athletic development will be reduced by playing at a lesser level than is now practised, We may never again develop ariother player of the calibre of, Jason Haldane or Michelle Hendry, W There will be an overall weakening .of the band and choir programs, Divid- ing the students will result in insufficlent numbers in either school to support a program that will achieve current levels. Impacts other than academic include 1. The pyesent facility at Skeena School is much larger than the replace- ment building will be. Even since Caledonia was built in 1969, mandated classroom sizes have been reduced. This means that the new building will have less room in each classroom, Why not have the junior students (who are physi- cally ‘smaller) placed in the school with small classrooms, and the senlor (larger) students continue in a school which has classrooms designed larger than the cur- reut space allotments?) 2. At present there ‘are clear demarca- tions as to the student enrolment between the two junior secondary schools — the Skeena River is the zone divider. This has been beneficial to school dis- trict staff who attempt to keep enrolment at each school at an optimum level. If Skeena School offers grades 8 to 12, less adjustment to make at this vul- nerable age. This may cause a drop in enrolment at Thornhill Jr. Secondary. Prince Rupert has had the experience of changing one junior secondary and one senior secondary school. into two secondary schools, Has the school board discussed the results of this amalgama- tion with the Prince Rupert school board? With the administration of cach school? With the teachers at each school? With students and parents im- « pacted by this decision? Have the administration, staff, students and parents of Terrace been consulted? T would like to be sure that-the board has done its homework on this question, not just decided on the basis that what is different must be better. - Val Preston Terrace B.C.