Dear Sir:

The more J hear of Mike Scott’s
views on land claims the more I
realize how ignorant of history
and our communities he is.

His simplistic, paternalistic
remarks to the effect that native
People should take the
“courageous'’ step of abandon-
ing their communities starkly il-
lusirates his ignorance,

He shows no understanding of
the severe problems of natives
who have taken that step. Ran-
dom House dictionary defines
racism as believing one’s own
tace is superior to another. [f Mr.
Scott’s attitude, as reflected in his
comments native people should
leave their communities and as-

~similate, “is not overt racism it's
getting damn close.

As someone who has been in~
volved in the third party process
to the Nisga’a land claims for two
years, I find his assertions that the
broader community has not becn
consulted nothing less than calcu-
lated lying. He knows better.

His ill-willed approach to this
issuc is nothing but an altempt to
derail a serious and long overduc
altempt to bring some sanity and
justice to an issue that haunts Ca-
nadian society to this day.

The results of the last provincial
and federal elections clearly
demonstrated a strong mandate
from Canadian scciety.

His continual blathering that
“tall Canadians should be dreated
equal’’ also rings hollow,

Any idiot can see that native
people have never been treated as
equals in this country - that is
what land claims is about.

Native people did not design
the present system of reserves
(Canadian apartheid), they did
not write the legislation that gov-
ems native people as a separate
and distinct racial group, they did
not strip the Nass Valley of
resources, they do not want to

continue to live on. government
handouts on tiny reserves that are
nothing more than ghettos, and it
was not nalive people who kid-
napped native children to abusive
residential schools to be stripped
of their dignity and culture.

All these things were devices
and inventions of a paternalistic
white culture thinking they had
the answer for native people,
Now Mike has the answer.

Mr. Scott denics he is a fear
monger; he likes to preface his
oulrageous and ill-informed com-
ments by saying he will be
branded as ‘“‘politically — in-
correct’? for what he is about to
say. By doing this he hopes to
frighten people into not slanding
up to him. It is the concept of
‘political correctness”’ —s in
reverse, It won’t work,

While Mr. Scott has the right to
his opinion, the community is
slarling to see him for what he is

— a politician playing with
peoples lives in pursuit of his
own political career,

As someone who has worked in
the forest industry for many years
I could write a book on how na-
live people have been excluded,
by industry and government,
from a fair sharing of the
resources in the province.

If F had a dollar for every time
T’ve heard the word Indian
prefaced by the ‘F’ word I could
retire in luxury.

Racism, intolerance, and ig-
norance on the part of non-nalive
people is something native people
face every day of their lives. It
has had a devastating impact on
their children and communilies,

Responsible cilizens do not
tolerale or encourage this type of
behaviour.

His frequent assertion that
many native people express oppo-
sition to the treaty process is

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 28, 1994 - AQ

MP Scott shows ignorance of history, communities

baloney, I work in a native com-
munity and have yet to meet a
single native person who opposes
the treaty process,

He has perpetuated the myth
that nalives on reserves live in
some kind of luxury beyond what
we enjoy. I wish he could be
made to attend the secmingly
endless procession of funerals for
native children who kill them-
selves, native children who haye
a suicide rate 5 to 8 times as high
as his and my children.

Would he have us belicve thal
they kill themselves because of

the luxury heaped upon them by

the socialist hordes? Perhaps they
just can’t handle all that wonder-
ful special treatment that while
socicty bestows upon them?

One thing that prevents this
stlicide rate from being higher is
the strong sense of community
and culture existing in native
communilics.

While there were scrious flaws
in the treaty process that now
Reformer Jack Weisgerber signed
on to, these deficiencies have
been forthrightly addressed and
corrected,

I have never participated in a
process where the government
has been so diligent and com-
milted so many resources to in-
form the public and solicit input.

Mr. Scott has every right, in-
deed it is his responsibility, to ex-
amine and question the process,
to ensure that ail his constituents
are treated fairly, But it is also his
responsibility to not use his posi-
tion to inflame the darker side.

He may find it harder to take a
more crealive and. constructive
approach to the land claims pro-
cess, bul until he docs a growing
number of people in this com-
munity will question whether he
has the intellectual capacity or the
ethical foundation to be an effec-
tive member of Parliament.

Bruce Hill,
Terrace, BC

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