BRITISH COLUMBIA —_______

Gov't talk

Faced with overwhelming public support

for the Haidas’ courageous stand against

logging of their ancestral lands in the Queen Charlottes, the Social Credit government

agreed to meet with the representatives of

the Haida Nation Dec. 10 to discuss the long-unresolved issue that has seen 72 peo- ple arrested and nine given suspended sent- ences for contempt for their action in blocking logging.

Attorney-General Brian Smith met with Miles Richardson, chairman of the Council of the Haida Nation, and other representa- tives for three hours last Tuesday and agreed later to further discussions, although no date has been set.

“It's a step forward — but it’s just a beginning,” Lori Davis, Lower Mainland co-ordinator for the Haida Nation, told the Tribune following the meeting. “We hope the government will go from here to nego- tiate on the land claims issue.”

Davis said that the Haidas, in the course of the discussion “were able to make the government understand a little more than it did before why we had to take the actions we did.” Inter-governmental Relations Minister Garde Gardom also took part in the discussions along with Smith,

But there was no real movement on the part of the ministers on the land claims issue, she cautioned. Gardom particularly, has hinted at continuing confrontation with Native peoples over land claims.

Smith was to discuss the meeting with the Socred caucus and to raise some of the outstanding issues, including the possibility of a halt to logging on Lyell Island before a further meeting would be held, at some unspecified date.

Some of the urgency has been taken out of the logging issue with last week’s winter shutdown of logging operations on Lyell. Frank Beban Logging, the contractor for Western Forest Products which holds the tree farm licence on Lyell Island, shut down Dec. 13 and operations are not expected to resume until late January.

The agreement by the Socred govern- ment to hold talks with the Haidas followed quickly on the dramatic day in Supreme Court Dec. 6.and the subsequent mediation efforts by federal Indian Affairs Minister David Crombie.

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Hundreds of people filled the courtroom and the adjoining corridors as ten Haidas, dressed in traditional blankets, together with Burnaby NDP MP Svend Robinson, awaited sentencing from Supreme Court Justice Allan MacEachern.

The ten, Michael Nicoll, Willard Wilson, Diana Brown, Colin Richardson, Gary Edenshaw, Arnie~ Bellis, Roberta Olsen,

John Yeltatzie, Martin Williams and Law-

rence Jones, had all been convicted of con- tempt in Prince Rupert the previous week, at which time they were given a week to “purge their contempt” or face four to six months imprisonment. Justice MacEach- ern told them that purging their contempt would entail refraining from any further interference with logging and a pledge to stay away from Lyell Island for a six-month period.

As court convened in Vancouver on the morning of Dec. 6, the ten rose to make their statements to Justice MacEachern. “T’m not pleased to be caught between your sense of law and my sense of justice but I cannot betray my sense of justice,” Nicoll stated.

Davis said that the ten had “met far into the night” before the court appearance and “sincerely believed that they would be going to jail.”

But as the court filled to overflowing for the second time that day, Justice MacEach- ern issued five-month suspended sentences against nine of the defendants. Wilson received no sentence because he had stated that he would not return to Lyell.

NDP MP Svend Robinson, who Justice MacEachern noted had not apologized for his actions in breaking the law, was handed a $750 fine with one month to pay.

The political implications of the senten- ces that had been threatened a week earlier were Clearly apparent as trade union lead- ers, aldermen, religious and Native leaders packed the courtroom. During the noon- hour adjournment some 200 supporters had gathered in a silent demonstration in nearby Robson Square.

Justice MacEachern noted in his opening remarks that it clearly was “an escalating dispute”, adding that the Haidas had sought repeatedly to put the question of their land claim on the record and had been repeatedly rebuffed.

He stated that he intended “to go as far as’

possible not to send anyone to jail.”

4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 18, 1985

Robert Davidson (r) joins Lyell Island defendants

“I hope it is not their (the Haidas’) stra- tegy to go to jail but if it is it will be on their heads,”’ he said.

He warned that the suspension of the sentences was conditional upon none of the nine returning to Lyell Island for six months. A breach of that condition would result in their being brought before the court, he said. Justice MacEachern also stated that he hoped the Haidas would “take advantage of the opportunity” to meet with the Socred government ministers to discuss the continuing dispute.

But it was clear that that opportunity had only come about because of the Haidas’ action and the public support it generated.

And any future action depends on the government, the Haidas have declared. -

Outside the court, that position was echoed by George Watts, chairman of the

(r tol) Roberta Olsen, Arnie Bellis, Willard Wilson, John Yeltatzie and Gary Edenshaw in singing outside Supreme Court following sentencing Dec. 6.

Nuu-Chah-Nalth Tribal Council which — blocked logging on Meares Island and has backed the Haidas in their stand.

“It’s up to Bennett — does he want a negotiated process or does he want us to go to jail?” he said.

“If he tells us next week that there will be no negotiations on land claims and that we'll all have to go back to the reserve system, then you’ll see those people back on Lyell Island,” he warned.

“We're certainly going to continue to

. defend our land,” Davis told the Tribune . “The government has to make a decision that it is prepared to settle the land claim. They can’t expect that we will sit idly by — while they make up their minds.”

She said that the Haida Nation would be meeting this week to discuss the next step in the campaign.

Season's

from

Greetings

Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union,

ee

Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year to all our friends in the labor movement

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