AG - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 15, 1994 ,

-MLA tackles Reform MP |

Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Gies-
brecht doesn't accept Reform
MP Mike Scott’s recent sugges-
tions on how land claims settle-
ments should be handled.

The following is an excerpt
Jrom a speech made by Gies-
brecht in the provincial legista-
dure on June 3.

Resolving the land question is a
complex issue made much more
difficult by the. misinformation
and fear that are being spread in
the population at large, based
} jargely on an assumption that set-
fling land claims is a zero-sum
game - that if one group is a win-
ner, some other group is a loser.

Treaty setilements are not like
ihat. We all have much to gain,
and we also have an opportunity
to address an injustice which has
been left unresolved for more
than 100 years.

Sadly, some of this fear is
fuelled by community leaders.
The Reform MP for Skeena,
Mike Scott, like most white Ca-
nadian legislators for the last
century, thinks he knows better
than aboriginal people what is
best for them.

He argued in the House of
Commons recently that before he
will support a _ settlement,
aboriginal people should have the
opportunity to decide whether
they want ‘‘money and land
turned over to themselves as indi-
viduals or to band leaders.”’

The ratification vote process ap-
parently means nothing to Mr.
Scott, and his understanding of
the first nations’ inclusive sys-
tems of governance and decision-
making, which served them well
for thousands of years before the
European settlers arrived, is ap-
pallingly lacking.

I sense both a desire of the pub-
lic to settle the issue and a mis-
guided notion that it can some-
how be done by making first na-
tions the losers again. That is not
justice.

Some advocate the simple solu-
tion of repealing the Indian Act.
They want to turn back the clock
for first nations, though not for
themselves. But if the Indian Act
were repealed by itself, first na-
tions would have grounds to
demand theirland back as well.

Blo be ts

“Governments over the
years have been unspeakab-
ly offensive to aboriginal
people, as any honest re-
search shows.”

Then there are letters to the
editor which claim that negotiat-
ing land claims is the wrong thing
to do. One writer claimed that
aboriginal people were on wel-
fare, and it was Canadians gener-
ally who paid for their medical
bills, education, and land claims
negotiations - in his words, “‘just
to name a few.

This writer either did not know,
or perhaps has forgotten, that the
Indian Act legislated their in-
justice as a means of purporting
to compensate aboriginal peoples
for their lands.

However, the first nations were
not asked whether they wanted
the Indian Act, and the message
is loud and clear that they do not -
that it was imposed on them from
Ottawa.

The same letter writer went on
to say that negotiating land
claims meant that if you are a
logger or a person depending on
these resources for a livelihood,
you’re going to be in big trouble
when they are taken away.

But the best way to place access
to resources at risk is to allow
land claims to be settled through
the courts, with their tendency to
winner-take-all verdicts. What we
need is certainty, and a negotiated
solution provides that.

Governments over the years
have been unspeakably offensive
to aboriginal people, as any
honest research shows. The time
has come to work al pulting that
right. We cannot take continued
goodwill for granted, and it
would be wrong to assume that it
would Jast forever.

The reason this issue is so dif-

PITCH-IN
CANADA!

ficult to resolve now is that it has
been neglected for so long. Just
imagine how difficult it would be
to solve if we waited another 50
years.

As a native leader said some
time ago: “I’m not trying to ne-
gotiate my way out of Canada;
I'm trying to negotiate my way
in”

When le was Minister of Na-
tive Affairs, the Leader of the
Third Party (Jack Weisgerber,
Reform), joined the province to
the Nisga’a negotiations in 1990.

Personally, I give him credit for
that. One of the features for the
agreement governing the negotia-
tions is a confidentiality clause,
which has strictly limited the
amount of information that can be
made public. This confidentiality
clause is being used to undermine
confidence in the treaty-making
pracess.

Even. sa, this government. has
involved many third party ad-
visory groups, and even signed a
protocol agreement with the
Union of B.C. Municipalities.

The Ministry of Aboriginal AF
fairs continues to look for ways to
provide information to third party
interest groups and the general
public.

T have no doubt that the con-
fidentiality clause was considered
necessary at the time to facilitate
constructive, productive nogotia-
tions.

But ‘since the Leader of the
Third Party has indicated that he
regrets signing the confidentiality
clause, perhaps he would follow
through on that and take steps to

enlighten his party friends and
supporters about the process his
government committed the pro-
vince to, and for the need for ne-
gotiations to be conducted in a
normal and rational way.

Individual political agendas
have no piace where justice is -
concerned.

We either progress in negotia-
tions, or the courts will settle the
issues for us.

The courts have shown in
recent times that they will not
deny justice for too long.

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