-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.19/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.19/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 19 </A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times May 10, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 19 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Separation by the Numbers by Peter Topolewski Gaining independence has never been easy, and rarely is it beautiful. These days we need only watch the horror show in the Balkans, the epic drama in the Middle East, or even the comedic follies in Quebec, Canada (where francophones eternally threaten to secede but never do) to bear witness to this bitter truth. In Canada, however, Quebec�s minority effort to form an independent state is not the most interesting or the most important threat to the country�s status quo. That distinction belongs to the irreversible course set upon to return land and self-governance to Canada�s native people. With potentially hundreds of independent governments to be established across the country, Canada is entering an era of immense social and political experimentation. Few deny that for the dismal plight of Canada�s natives to end, changes must be made. As a people they suffer from the highest jobless, suicide, addiction and incarceration rates in the county. They constitute the majority in Vancouver�s infamous Downtown Eastside, an armpit where chic Vancouver society has cast its poorest, sickest, and weakest to die in a spiral of addiction, prostitution, violence, and AIDS. The Downtown Eastside is a place where twenty women, nearly half of them native, disappeared without so much as a ho-hum from media, police, or Joe and Sally Punch-clock. Here, where native prostitutes are the majority and shooting up is the center of existence, HIV spreads among natives faster than among any other group. Establishing native self-government is not only a means to compensate natives for expropriating their land and other past injustices, it is an attempt to halt a tremendous human tragedy. Land is central to any form of native self government or compensation package. Reclaiming sovereign control of traditional native lands has long been a contentious issue in Canada, one that has at times led to armed standoffs. Many native groups, or bands, have adhered to a negotiation process that will, among other things, return small portions of their original lands to them. In the province of British Columbia, to take one example, that process is just now beginning to bear fruit, and with up to 50 native treaties to be signed over the next few years the province is entering an era of radical change. Although few citizens seem to notice that the treaty process holds the potential to re-shape the province and the nation, the real problem is that no one has a clue how fundamental, or rough, that change will be. In fact, indications are the country is walking a route to colossal and dangerous conflict. No Union Dues One native band in BC in the throes of a huge commercial development recently created a labor code that it claims supersedes federal labor legislation. The code, which the band began drafting when its employees had just unionized, bans strikes, lockouts, and union dues on the reserve. While union leaders say the band is "abusing the principle of self-government by trying to deny their employees basic labor rights", the band maintains that strikes and lockouts "would have the effect of dividing our community" and that union dues defy a section of the Indian Act that states the property of an Indian cannot be seized against his will. The federal Indian Affairs ministry has made it clear that the band has no legal authority to implement its labor code. But when asked what action would be taken if the band defied the ministry, an Indian Affairs spokeswoman replied, "I�m not sure what the response would be." The band has ignored the ministry and enforced its new labor code. So far the federal government has done nothing but wonder aloud. This conflict, whose resolution quite possibly lies outside the current legal realm, is one example in hundreds where self-governments can and will test the limits � and exceed the bounds � of their authority in efforts to broaden their power. A process for resolving this and the conflicts to come remains frighteningly non-existent. An Indian band on the more populous coast of BC presents a different problem. As one of the first urban bands to negotiate a treaty settlement, the Tsawwassen First Nation has a population of non-native residents significantly larger than the 200 registered band members. Non-native residents of the reservation have no voting rights in band elections. The problem is how to provide natives with self-government while preserving the democratic rights of their non-native tenants. Tom Isaacs, the province�s chief treaty negotiator for the region, admits that he knows of no system in the world that balances both needs. "We don�t have any model to base it on. It�s something we�re going to have to resolve." The need for resolution was made drastically apparent when a bitter dispute erupted between a nearby band and its tenants over sudden lease rate increases of nearly 7000 percent. With development plans to accommodate 5000 new non-native residents on the Tsawwassen reserve over the next 25 years, potential problems become more palpable for both the band and the local municipal government. As the mayor of nearby Delta says, "For non-band residents living on TFN (Tsawwassen First Nations) property it�s a case of taxation without representation. But these people can vote in Delta�s civic election, which is a case of representation without taxation because they don�t pay us any taxes." Count on a politician to see the issue in terms of tax dollars when what is truly at stake is the freedom and independence of the individual, irrespective of race. Unfortunately, self-government for natives means race must always remain at the center. A solution to this conundrum remains distinctly out of sight: if non-natives on band property are given the right to vote in band elections there is a danger, and in fact a likelihood, the band could be voted out of existence. Endless Work for Lawyers In 1998 the Nisga�a natives of northern BC signed the first modern treaty with the provincial and federal governments. The most ardent critics of the Nisga�a treaty argue that the means for solving native problems are no better than the causes. The system of self-government decreed in the treaty is, they say, a form of apartheid that will diminish democracy and hinder private ownership. But long before any of the affects of the treaty itself will be known, the very process for establishing this unprecedented form of self-government has proven to be a direct threat to the liberty of every individual in the province. This is in large part due to the province�s rudderless premier. Lost for a mandate and wallowing at the bottom of the polls, the premier saw the noble motives for the Nisga�a treaty as an opportunity to secure his place on the heroes side of history. Championing his newfound cause according to a tight political schedule, the treaty as presented can only be called incomplete. While establishing a third � and quite likely an unconstitutional � order of government and a massive native bureaucracy, the treaty completely shuns hundreds of unresolved issues. As though intentionally written to create endless work for lawyers, the treaty fails to spell out with any clarity problems of constitutionality, legal jurisdiction, funding, taxation, land use, fishing rights, and overlapping native land claims. That this is the state of the final treaty, as negotiated by natives and the provincial and federal governments, is a travesty in itself. What�s worse is the sales pitch suggesting the negotiations took place transparently. In reality, the treaty emerged from secret negotiations to be dumped on voters in a puppet show of public consultation. When finally presented in the legislature, where the official opposition party could publicly scrutinize all the gray and troubling aspects in the treaty�s pages, the government pulled out a rarely used parliamentary technique to shut down debate and pass the treaty. A full one third of the treaty, a treaty called the most important piece of legislation in BC�s history, never saw the light of day. This is a treaty that threatens individuals� democratic rights, establishes a sovereign form of government within Canada, and makes no provisions for funding it or resolving disputes with other government jurisdictions. This is the treaty that will set precedent for up to 50 more native treaties in BC alone. But for the premier, his party, and a handful of natives, not a soul rejoiced when the legislative debate of the treaty met its tyrannical end. Those in favor of the treaty think such a move tainted an otherwise historic occasion. Critics believe the shortsighted action plunges both the province and the country into an unknown future of competing governments. The trouble is the future is known, for it is here today. And the government looks a lot more feudal than democratic. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 19, May 10, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! 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