And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 10:51:37 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: B.C. Musqueam tax hikes - leased reserve land
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Monday, June 28, 1999
Huge tax hikes have residents abandoning Vancouver homes
Suzanne Fournier
The Vancouver Province
VANCOUVER - An Indian band's decision to impose massive tax hikes on dozens
of people living on leased reserve land has forced the shocked residents,
some of them too sick from stress to fight back, to abandon their houses
because no realtor, bank or buyer will touch them. After being hit with tax
bills for $73,000 and higher, the 75 leaseholders at Musqueam Park, a
neighbourhood on land owned by Vancouver's Musqueam Indian band, are
beginning to walk away from homes assessed at $600,000. They say the tax
payments are driving them into bankruptcy, and the stress is damaging their
health. "The Musqueam Park homeowners have seen the equity in our homes
collapse because of the actions of the Musqueam band, the deception by
Ottawa and their refusal to get involved," says Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a
lawyer and leaseholder who has lobbied Jane Stewart, the Minister of Indian
Affairs, extensively on the residents' behalf.
"Many of our seniors are suffering deteriorating health from the sheer
stress of facing huge bills and perhaps personal bankruptcy in the years
they should be enjoying retirement." The tax bills were issued after the
Federal Court of Appeal ruled last December they could go ahead. The case
has been appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which isn't expected to
rule until fall on whether it will hear arguments on the matter. In the
meantime, the residents are on a tax strike. Last week, the leaseholders
accused the band of "misappropriation of hundreds of thousands of tax
dollars . . . and collection and pocketing of monies that the city of
Vancouver used to remit on their behalf for schools and [regional
government] levies." Stan Boulter, 87, and his wife Irma, 85, are among
the seniors who finally fled Musqueam Park after suffering serious health
problems. Mr. Boulter, a retired businessman, said "we got the news of the
court judgment allowing the Indian band to bill us $73,000 on Christmas
morning, 1998.
"We'd already paid one retroactive payment of $40,000 that year which just
about cleaned us out, so we tried to sell." The Boulters dropped their
price to rock-bottom, but got no offers. While carrying a placard and
protesting at city hall last year, Mr. Boulter collapsed. "They thought it
was a heart attack because I did have severe angina but the doctors
basically decided it was the accumulation of all the anxieties and stress
over the land dispute that had caused it," said Mr. Boulter. "My wife and I
both were in the emergency ward again after that." The Boulters' three
children finally moved the elderly couple to an apartment to safeguard
their health, but other seniors, said Mr. Boulter, haven't been so lucky.
Frederick and Lavender Chu have also abandoned their Musqueam Park house,
as have Donald and Winnifred Graham. Both couples have seen their health
deteriorate under the strain. "I worked hard all my life and paid taxes
and saved money, and now I find myself facing bankruptcy and committing
what they call civil disobedience," said Mr. Boulter. "It's so unfair."
Leonard Fratkin, a retired surgeon, and his wife, Priscilla, suffered ill
health from the stress and decided to sell. Even after lowering the price
to $132,000 they received "not even a serious nibble," says Mrs. Fratkin,
80. "The market has spoken -- our homes are worthless."
Says Dave Abbott, a leaseholder since 1982: "I signed a lease with the
federal government, not the Musqueam band, but the federal government has
abandoned us. After paying taxes all our lives, the feds tell us they have
a fiduciary duty to the Musqueam Indians. I guess they have no duty to us."
Mr. Abbott points out that Wendy Grant John, a former Musqueam chief who is
Indian Affairs associate director in Vancouver, bought a house in Musqueam
Park at "distress sale prices" of $254,000 last year. "We're told she's not
paying the lease, either, but isn't doing a thing to help us. She could
initiate a solution with one phone call to Jane Stewart," says Mr. Abbott.
The angry elderly residents, who claim they've been friendly to Ms. John
and invited her to residents' meetings, protested outside her house last
week but got no response.
The John home, sporting a 1998 Volkswagen bug outside, looks well kept. But
one elderly lady said, "Doesn't it look as though a native lives here? Have
you seen their homes, with cars and junk everywhere?" Then she apologized,
saying, "This dispute has made me a bigot."
Ms. John's husband, Ed John, the Tl'azt'en Grand-Chief and co-chair of the
First Nations Summit, denied residents have asked for Wendy John's help.
"In fact she's got poison-pen letters and unfriendly comments from them,"
he said.
And John Watson, Indian Affairs B.C. regional director, said Ms. John is
expressly forbidden as a federal policy maker to have anything to do with
the business of the Musqueam band. "She must keep this issue at
arm's-length," he said, denying Ms. John has any conflict of interest. Nor
does Mr. Watson plan to get involved, although he said the federal
government did offer to mediate. He says the residents signed the lease and
now have a duty to pay.
Gordon Wilson, B.C.'s Aboriginal Affairs Minister, has offered to try to
negotiate a land swap for the Musqueam band, which would allow residents to
buy back their land in fee simple. But the federal government has branded
it a "two-party dispute," which Ms. Findlay calls "disingenuous. This
terrible situation is entirely of Ottawa's making; they have a moral duty
to fix a problem they created by drawing up these leases and turning them
over to the band."
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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