British Columbia

Budget ‘continues war on lan

Continued from page 1

The UBCIC will lose some $210,000 out
of a total budget of $600,000. And when
monies from other departments — which
have not remitted so far this year — is
included, the total cut could amount to
$300,000, he said.

In addition, the Native newspaper Kah-
tou, a bi-weekly with a circulation of
7,500, will lose its $240,000 funding.

Terry charged that the cuts were a
deliberate policy on the part of the
government, directed not only at limiting
Native organizations’ ability to communi-
cate with their communities but at muz-
zling the union’s outspoken criticism of
federal government policy.

“The funding we receive from the fed-
eral government is to enable us to address
in a democratic way the policies that are
being imposed on Indian people by the
federal government,” he said. ““We give

critical analysis to those policies — and
that’s what the government is trying to
terminate. It’s an attempt to silence the
critics of the department.”

The UBCIC has been particularly out-
spoken in its criticism of the government’s
five-year old policy, initially laid out in the
1985 Neilson Task Force Report, of reduc-
ing federal funding of Native programs,
co-opting Native bands into accepting
municipal-style self-government as a sub-
stitute for constitutional recognition of
aboriginal rights, and stonewalling on the
negotiation of Native land claims. A
Department of Indian Affairs official des-
cribed the policy as the “buffalo jump of
the 1980s,” a term the UBCIC has picked
up and popularized in its campaign
against the government’s strategy.

Last year, the UBCIC also declared its
opposition to a review of Native policy
initiated by the Department of Indian

Cuts ‘intolerable’: AFN

OTTAWA — The Assembly of First
Nations predicts the capping of federal
expenditures for Indians will create
“unprecedented and intolerable” hard-
ships for Canada’s aboriginal people.

“Wilson is treating first nations as if
we're one of the wealthy provinces with a
large tax and economic base to offset fed-
eral spending cuts,” noted AFN national
chief Georges Erasmus.

“There is a great misconception out
there that the federal government is
improving the social and economic well-
being of first nations by pouring billions
upon billions of dollars into our commun-
ities. This is a complete distortion of the
truth. In fact, since 1984 we have witnessed
a steady loss in available program dollars
because the federal government refuses to

fully compensate for inflation and our
immense (aboriginal) population growth.
Wilson’s capping on Indian programs
represents the worse case scenario as far as
our people are concerned,” he said.

The AEN leader said program capping

will stop band councils from building
much needed water and community
infrastructure systems. But the Indian
Affairs program cuts are only part of the
picture. Through the budget the Secretary
of State will significantly slash funding to
aboriginal political organizations and
community-based publications and radio
programming.
_ “We havea ‘third world’ situation right
In our own backyard and no one, least of
all the minister of Indian Affairs, is doing
anything about it,” Erasmus said.

claims’

SAUL TERRY ..

Affairs called the Lands, Revenues and
Trusts (LRT) review. Prompted by a 1985
court case, the review is being used by the
government to further its strategy of
reducing funding, shifting the responsibil-
ity for programs to Native bands and pro-
vincial governments and continuing to
refuse to recognize aboriginal title in land
claims.

Some bands across the country have
accepted the government’s process but
several others, including the UBCIC, have
rejected it.

“We did not agree with government’s
options in the LRT process — and they
said to us, ‘because you’re not going to
agree, we’re cutting your funding,’ ” Terry
told reporters.

He also emphasized that there has been
“no movement towards resolutions of
claims in this province although we have
submitted many. Significantly, in its Dec.

. cutting off funding intended to

-than militant ...,” he told reporters Feb.

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

silence criticism.”

18, 1989 submission to the B.C. Supreme
Court in the Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en land
claim case, the federal attorney-general’s
department stated that its position was
that aboriginal title had been extinguished
in British Columbia.

But in spite of what he called “govern-
ment destabilization efforts,” Terry said
the UBCIC would “not cave in” to the
government’s strategy and would con-
tinue to press for settlement of land claims.

He added that he would be meeting
with others early this month to consider a
course of action against the budget cuts.

““We have been very patient and less

27. “But what the government seems to be
doing is trying to force us into a situa-
tion where we have to become more mil-
itant. If that is the course that a lot of our
people want to take, I have absolutely no

qualms in pursuing that.”

PSAC outraged as Crown rejects charges in picket line injury

By KIM GOLDBERG
NANAIMO — The Public Service Alli-

ance of Canada is calling on the provincial
government to re-open an investigation into
a November picket line incident at Nanoose
Bay that left one worker indefinitely dis-
abled. .

Brad, Holmes was knocked down and
dragged seven metres by a four-wheel drive
truck while walking a picket line at the Can-
adian Forces Maritime Experimental and
Test Ranges (CFMETER) during the
November PSAC strike.

On Feb. 21, after a three-month investi-
gation, the Vancouver Island regional
Crown counsel announced that no charges
would be laid against the driver, Roy
Michaelis, a senior U.S. official who was
trying to enter the base at the time of the
incident.

The decision came in spite of testimony
from eyewitnesses who said that Michaelis
intentionally struck the 34-year-old
Nanaimo man twice after threatening the
day before to “run right over” any pickets
who got in his way.

“When Michaelis hit him the first time,
Brad staggered ahead,” fellow picket Stan
Douglas said. ““And then Michaelis kept
going ahead, bumped into him again,
knocked him down on one knee and then
kept going right over the top of him. I was
standing not more than 10 feet away,” he
said, adding that the entire rear end of the
vehicle lifted when the differential housing
between the rear wheels dragged over Hol-
mes’s body.

“Then Brad came rolling out from under
the truck and lay. ina little ball in the middle
of the road moaning and groaning,” he
said, while Michaelis kept on driving.

Be bi

BRAD HOLMES ... hospitalized tor
several weeks after being run over by
U.S. driver.

Homes sustained four crushed vertebrae
and head injuries which sent him to hospital
for three and a half weeks and have left him
recuperating at home more than three
months later.

“Michaelis is a real hot head,”’ Douglas
continued. “The day before, when he drove
out he told us, ‘The next day I’m coming
through and [I’m running right over you
guys.’ And that was in my statement (to the
Crown counsel).”

Nanaimo Crown counsel Glenn Kelt said
“half a dozen people saw bits and pieces” of
what happened. Kelt said that the Crown
was satisfied, as a result of certain testim-
ony, that there was “no criminal intent”
attached to Michaelis’s actions.

Midway through the lengthy investiga-
tion, a U.S. Navy officer came forward as a
new witness, claiming he saw Holmes sitting
on the pavement in front of Michaelis’s
truck before it ran him over.

However, three eyewitnesses and Holmes

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News update: In response to the PSAC
letter, the deputy assistant attorney-general’s
office stated Feb. 28 that it would investigate
the issue, including Crown counsel's action in
not laying charges. Ernie Quant, director of
operations for the office, stated: “We are
going to consider all the issues in the (PSAC)

letter.”
(CRE ee ie ea ES

himself deny the claim, and insist Holmes
was standing when he was hit. “He stopped,
looked at me, drove ahead and knocked me
down,” Holmes said. “How could he not
know I was there?” ;

CFMETR employees and their union
PSAC say some political strings were pulled
to let Michaelis walk.

“There are political overtones here,”
PSAC regional representative Gary Owen
said. “It would appear . . . that several indi-
viduals have conspired to deny natural jus-
tice in this matter.”

Owen maintains Michaelis was given -

“preferential treatment” by the Crown
because of his position as a senior U.S.
official in charge of all technicians at
CFMETR’s Winchelsea Island command
centre for the joint Canada-U.S. weapons
testing facility.

Michaelis has been working at the U.S.
Navy base in Keyport, Wash. since the
November incident, But Nanoose base
commander Dan McVicar has recom-
mended that Michaelis return to his job at
CFMETR if no charges are laid.

McVicar says he is convinced from the
Crown counsel’s investigation and from a
separate investigation conducted by the
U.S. Navy that the incident was an “unfor-

tunate accident” and that Michaelis did not
intentionally run Holmes down.

However, Owen said PSAC is “prepared
to go to court if that’s what it takes to make
the government uphold its legal obligation.
This is about an individual’s right to not be
run over.”

Owen has sent a letter to Assistant Dep-
uty Attorney General Bill Stewart in Victo-
ria stating Michaelis committed “a criminal
act ... in using his automobile as a wea-
pon.” é
PSAC is insisting that the investigation

be re-opened and that the Crown counsel’s
behaviour be reviewed to “discover if their
actions hindered the progress of natural jus-
tice.”

Stewart said insan interview Feb. 26 that
he will consider PSAC’s request and will
give PSAC an answer “as soonas possible.”

Holmes, who has been collecting social
assistance since his sick pay expired, doesn’t
know when he’ll be able to return to his job
as a deckhand aboard a fueller and water
boat at CFMETR, and he has filed a civil
suit against Michaelis.

“IT don’t know when Ill be going back to
work,” Holmes said. “It’s really difficult for
me right now. Doing simple things like
making my bed or cooking a meal are major
tasks.”

Holmes is still plagued with blurred
vision, headaches, sleep loss, memory loss
and intense lower back pain. He said he
wasn’t really surprised when he heard no
charges would be laid.

“I think no matter what happens, he’s
going to get away with it. He’s going to get
off scot free,” Holmes said.

“If it was me who ran him over, I'd be

behind bars in the bottom bunk.”

Pacific Tribune, March 5, 1990 « 3