-Caveat Lector-
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Subject: [2ndrepoftexas] Then we will liberate Texas!
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Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:52:03 -0800
From: Don <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Subject: Protecting Knowledge: BC, In Canadian Court,
a Native Nation Claims Offshore Rights
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Subject: [NatNews-north] BC, In Canadian Court, a Native Nation Claims
Offshore Rights
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 10:55:26 -0500
From: Senior Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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In Canadian Court, a Native Nation Claims Offshore Rights
By DeNeen L. Brown
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, March 26, 2002; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17230-2002Mar25?language=printer
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Guujaaw, president of the Haida Nation of native
people, has come to this concrete and glass city to save it from itself,
though he concedes the people on the street don't know that saving is
needed. They don't seem concerned that the ocean has lost its richness,
he said, that fish are being depleted and the land is being wasted. They
cannot hear the cries from the bottom of a disturbed seabed pierced for
oil.
"Look at them," Guujaaw is saying. A window separates him from people
walking on sidewalks in suits, carrying briefcases and umbrellas to
protect them from the empty sky. "Most people haven't ever killed
anything for their supper and haven't dirtied their hands to go get
something to eat, so each one of them in the cities feels they're
innocent."
The demand for material things, he said, is taking a toll on the planet.
"The measure of those excesses is seen in the forests and in the natural
parts of the Earth. And the people who live there, as we do, are the
ones who live with the consequence of supplying the raw material for
those excesses."
Earlier this month, the Haida, a nation of about 7,000 people who live
on the Queen Charlotte Islands, a stunning string off Canada's Northwest
Coast, filed a lawsuit that they contend will help set things right. The
suit asks the British Columbia Supreme Court to recognize that the Haida
have an "exclusive right to make decisions about their land" and the
surrounding waters, which geological surveys suggest contain huge oil
and gas reserves.
The suit may be the first time that a First Nations group, as aboriginal
people are called in Canada, has claimed offshore resources in court. If
the Haida win, and some analysts here say that is possible, they could
stop any government plans to issue licenses to drill offshore for oil
and gas.
The filing comes as tensions are rising between aboriginal peoples and a
government that has never defeated them in war, as happened in the
United States, but instead has sought to negotiate treaties with them.
The suit could shift the focus of relations to the more adversarial
forum of the courts. "The suit marks a turning point in the way in which
many of our First Nations will try to settle their relationship with
Canada," said Peter Russell, professor emeritus of political science at
the University of Toronto.
The suit is the latest development in a long fight on the Northwest
Coast about oil and gas development.
In 1972, the Canadian government imposed a moratorium on drilling off
the shores of the islands, citing environmental concerns. In 1989,
British Columbia issued its own moratorium. But last year the provincial
premier, Gordon Campbell, commissioned a study on the impact of offshore
drilling in the Queen Charlotte basin. He said he would support drilling
if it were proved the environment could sustain it.
The attorney general of British Columbia, Geoff Plant, told reporters
that courts have judged the province to be the landlord. "I think the
offshore oil and gas in the long run, if it can be done in a way that's
environmentally safe, could offer huge opportunities, economically, for
First Nations up and down the coast of British Columbia," he said.
Oil and gas industry officials say they are concerned that the lawsuit
will scare off investors for an eventual project. "Until the governments
sort out . . . what the rules are regarding what's going to be allowed
in there . . . then our companies are actually developing elsewhere,"
said Greg Stringham, vice president of the Canadian Association of
Petroleum Producers.
Guujaaw said the Haida turned to the courts because of the government's
demeaning offers during efforts to negotiate an overall treaty. The
Haida broke off negotiations this month and walked away from the table,
making headlines across the country. Treaty talks are one of the biggest
political issues in Canada -- "bigger than race relations in the United
States," Russell said.
Guujaaw said going to court is the logical thing to do now. "We really
have nothing to lose because we're not getting anything," he said. "I
mean, we could bring the economy of this province to a grinding halt [by
blocking development] and it wouldn't hardly affect our people at all
because we're used to being broke."
The suit follows the election of a Liberal Party provincial government,
a swing to the right from the previous administration. "Non-native
opinion is more and more divided," Russell said. "There is a backlash
among non-native Canadians against aboriginal people as they try to
assert their rights under the constitution."
Campbell, the provincial premier, plans to hold a referendum this year
on British Columbia's approach to treaty negotiations, a move that has
proven controversial. "He is putting minority rights up to a majority
vote," said a recent editorial in the Globe and Mail, a national
newspaper. "What of constitutional obligations, what of the courts, what
of inalienable rights?"
Some aboriginal groups have called the referendum racist.
The Haida, known worldwide for grand totem poles, have a culture and
language that have survived pressures that killed off other native
cultures.
The Haida say there is evidence in the land and in the trees that they
have occupied the islands for thousands of years. Their oral history
claims they were there before there was a visible sun or moon, that it
was the raven who coaxed mankind from a clamshell; the "brown-skinned,
black-haired" people who emerged were the original Haida, the first
humans.
The legend, as depicted by the late Bill Reid, a well-known Haida
carver, also says that for many generations the Haida "flourished, built
and created, fought and destroyed, lived according to the changing
seasons and the unchanging rituals of their rich and complex lives."
In 1774, the Haida were there to meet the first Spanish explorer, Juan
Perez. Their homeland was named the Queen Charlotte Islands by
Europeans; the Haida call them Haida Gwaii. Before 1850, about 8,000
Haida lived on the islands. By 1915, the population had dwindled to 588,
as thousands were eliminated by smallpox and other diseases.
"They almost wiped us out with smallpox," Guujaaw said. "It went down to
500 people. We had driven off the miners and every attempt to colonize
our land. We whooped them every time. It was pretty clear from our point
of view that the smallpox was deliberate. We have documented evidence
someone dropped off one man on our island with smallpox and our people
attempted to care for him."
He added, "They made the mistake of leaving some of us alive."
The Haida's lawyers argue that there should be no offshore drilling near
their islands. "There has been no conclusive evidence which persuades
the leadership and the chief that offshore drilling would be safe for
the fish," said lawyer Louise Mandell. "This is also an earthquake zone.
There is an additional risk of plate-shifting."
Some Haida members have said they would support oil development that is
environmentally responsible. And in the lawsuit, the Haida are also
seeking royalties for timber being cut on the island.
Earlier this month, they won a victory against lumber giant Weyerhaeuser
Co. when the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that the company,
which has a license to log in the islands, must now consult with the
Haida before cutting more forests.
� 2002 The Washington Post Company
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