The Indian News, a monthly

Ottawa publication devoted to

_ News about Indians and Indian

_  ‘0mmunities in Canada, devotes

its leading front page story in

i, © current issue to an article by

| D HARRY RANKIN on “The

|| Bae Ted Quilt Controversy.”

a Rankin is a nationally-rec-
nized civil rights lawyer.

oa death of Fred Quilt, a Chil-

ayes Indian from Williams

ra ‘€, sets in clear relief the

_ <Cism rampant in British

~ Columbia.

& ane of the fallacies which

' jany people labor under is that

" ean Society is above such

: fie practices. We become

1gnant about the lynching of

€gro in Georgia, or the

ap ality of a police officer in

= oe but are unaware or

Re aie ignore the racism
s ourishes right here.

t pect many. people formed

fasion that the native

and ns are drunken, dissolute

don’t want to work, etc.?

tha IS a complete warping of

oe 6 pends of otherwise good

= What t That is racism. That is

“Sie as happened to many of

brut

fig hd be a gross over-simpli-
of Fy bo. explain” the death
ao €d Quilt by concluding that
“ba ce unfortunate victim of
hinate Individuals or of an unfor-
that Set of circumstances,

\ aoe death Was allegedly beaten to
| Contr by a policeman who,
happen, to the general rule,

P 5a to be brutal, and that

i ee ae S inquest was unfair
ff and pees particular coroner
. 4S particular jury were

. Vie iced. Fred Quilt was the
includ of a racist system that

‘ing, -oed the police, the coroner’s

In
babi and a section of the

men ay :
Gane at the cause of Fred
‘ S death requires not only
Punishment of those im-

£ mm 5
eae responsible, but
racien® the whole system of

Thain. aS it exists i

Idians in our province. ie:
lic attacks have been made
sti ee omer — some of them
Mdiang . € was asked why no
His Were on the jury panel.
Mndian. Y was: there are no
. Son the voters’ list
€ the Indians refuse to

Caus
e!

ey

Th
‘Questig Teply poses two
Or ¢ AS. One is: why, after two
“beni Tee hundred years of
‘Not ae Tule are Indians still
S}

the voters list? Who is
Socien ble, the Indians, or our
an ... Secondly, we have here
™Mpt by the coroner to
his violation of the
Act. It specifically
“the coroner shall
ummon a jury in the

FRED QUILT CASE PROVES

Racism ramp

manner required by this section
and he must also exclude from
that jury those persons excluded
from a jury under the Jury Act of
British Columbia, those who are
infirm, etc.”

The coroner, of course, did not
summon the jury in this case.
The R.C.M.P. summoned the
jury. The words ‘‘shall” are man-
datory and mean just what they
say — that the coroner himself
shall summon the jury from the
provincial voters list. This he
did not do. He claims that he did
get a group of responsible
people, ‘‘six mature and knowl-
edgeable men.” I don’t know
what he means by that but I do
know that the jury’s conclusions
were anything but responsible.

Furthermore, although juries
are supposed to be selected at
random from the voter’s list, it
can hardly be a coincidence that
the same people are selected
over and over again.

On 90% of the coroner’s juries
in British Columbia, many of the
jurors have been on the
coroner’s jury a dozen times
before. It’s true in Vancouver
and it’s true throughout British
Columbia, that an impartial
selecting from the whole of the
voter’s list is something com-
pletely and utterly unknown. It’s
the so-called ‘‘responsible”’
section of the white community
that’s always selected — a shop
keeper, a garage operator,

’ possibly a small business man,

etc. Working people, the un-
employed, people on welfare, the
have-nots, are seldom if ever
selected. In many communities
50% of the population is Indian. I
would venture to say that there
has probably never been an
Indian on the coroner’s jury
panel. I would further say that
even if an Indian person were.
selected for a jury panel, the
establishment would make sure
that he would have to be one of
theirs.

The Williams Lake coroner
also complained that he did not
have the staff to conduct a
proper coroner’s inquest. In this
regard I have some sympathy
for him. But then he ought to
inform the Attorney-General
that he cannot carry out the
provisions of the Coroner’s Act.

Now ask yourself another
question. A number of people
testified at the inquest —
namely Mrs. Quilt and other
members of the family — giving
sworn evidence that an R.C.M.P.
officer delivered a number of
kicks to Quilt’s body. Also a
doctor testified that when Quilt
was dying, he said that the police-
man did it. Now in such a case.
the principle of a dying declara-
tion applies, which is that if a
person with a clear and certain
understanding that he is dying
makes a statement that

in B.C.

FRED QUILT, Chilcotin Indian, whose death at Williams Lake last
November has received national and world prominence. Many
weeks have passed but Attorney-General Leslie Peterson is still
sitting on the results of “an inquiry” by his department into the
circumstances surrounding his case.

ee

sémebody did injury to him, that
statement can be an exception
to the heresay rule and become
evidence. Not necessarily at a
coroner’s inquest but. certainly
at.a trial, the judge and jury then
ascertain whether or not the
accused — in this case a police
officer — is guilty or not guilty of
the crime of which he stands
charged.

There is also the evidence of
the injury itself, which the
doctor said could only have been
caused by kicking or sharp
blows. If. you add all this
together it makes a strong case
against the police. But now
another question. If, instead of
an Indian testifying, it had been
an R.C.M.P. officer testifying,
giving identical evidence
against Quilt concerning the
death of a police officer — in
other words if one were to re-
verse the actual participants in
this tragic affair — how long do
you think this coroner’s inquest
would have gone on without the
Attorney-General ordering it to
cease, and issuing a warrant for
the arrest of Quilt for the
murder of the R.C.M.P.

officer?
** *

According to the press, Chief
Coroner Glen McDonald of Van-
couver said that the jury had no
right to come to any conclusion
other than it did with the
evidence before it. He went on to
say the jury ‘must determine
whether the death was natural or
unnatural. The next step was to

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&

FRIENDS & SUPPORTERS IN THE B.C. .

LABOR MOVEMENT

UNITED FISHERMEN and ALLIED WORKERS UNION

138 East Cordova St., Vancouver 4, B.C.

determine whether the death
was homicidal, suicidal or
accidental. He said that on the
strength of the evidence, the jury
could not find it homicidal or sui-
cidal, but it certainly could have
found it homicidal, caused by the
blows given by the officer.

\

Instead it found the death
“accidental’’ with no blame
attached to anyone.

Coroner Leath is also reported
to have said (Vancouver Sun,
Jan. 18, 1972) ‘‘When you have
four lawyers I don’t possibly see
how there can be any criticism
of the conduct of the hearing:
.. . I think it was a very well
conducted hearing and
everybody had a full opportunity
to say what they wanted to’’.

The theory that the presence of
four lawyers guarantees a fair
hearing seems to me to be the
Anderstatement of the year.
You can have 44 lawyers
present. That doesn’t neces-
sarily mean that there will
be a fair hearing. A fair hearing
would have resulted in the
conclusion that Quilt died an un-
natural death and that the cause
of-death was homicide. The next
step would be to charge the
officer and have a judge and jury
determine his guilt or innocence.

This is what happens when an
Indian dies. If that is not
injustice and racism, then these
words have lost their meaning.

My views may be regarded
with hostility by some and
arouse some hard feelings. But
racism can’t be dealt with as
just an interesting topic for a
tea party. It’s unpleasant but we
have to face up to it. We have
racism in our country and it
can’t be ignored. What we need
to do is to eradicate the poison.

See QUILT CASE, pge. 15

BRITISH

COLUMBIA

AROUND

the

PROVINCE

This week we introduce a col-
umn which we hope to continue
as items become available. We
invite our readers around the
province to send us news items
dealing with significant
happenings in their particular
area. The shorter and newsier,
the better! In anticipation —
THE EDITOR.

***

Jim Ormerod and family who
make their home on Cottonwood
Island at Prince George were
almost flooded out in early April
when the Nechako jammed: up
with ice and the waters crept up
to the base of the dyke Cotton-
wood Islanders had built two
years ago. Jim is convinced the
high rise was due to Alcan at
Kitimat releasing water from
the Kenney Dam system without
due regard to the result.

Ormerod says there was no
rain or thaw to push up the water
level and the Nechako water was
clear. of ice right up to Vander-
hoof. ‘“‘They let water go from
the dam whenever they feel like
it, regardless of the danger,”
Ormerod said. He claims Alcan
has complete authority over
water rights there.

Housewives in Coquitlam, and
commuters in Burnaby and
Richmond are making their

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1972—PAGE 3

ideas known regarding the need
for an immediate start on an im-
proved bus system as an interim
measure to proposed rapid
transit.

In Burnaby a hearing on
transportation saw opponents to
freeways and proponents of im-
proved bus service present
briefs which dealt in tangible
form with commuters needs.
Geographer Timothey O’Rioman
said a study made by SFU
students endorses a Regional
District report which calls for a
regional bus system to get top
priority. The study showed
women workers, students, and in
non-rush hours elderly people
were the citizens who made most
use of the bus system and who
needed improvements.

Gordon Stentiford, for the
Burnaby Tenants Association,
called for an increase in the
number of buses and a 24-hour
service on all routes.

In Richmond a founding
meeting of an association to
fight for public transport is
scheduled for Hugh McRoberts
School, Williams Road, on Wed-
nesday May 3rd. Everyone inter-
ested in improving Richmond’s
transportation service is invited
to take part in the opening
meeting.