ukcanuck wrote: 4 hours by rail north west of Ft ST James. The camp being in land claims or at least the cut block was, had natives working as agreed to by canfor and they by and large were useless. Basic concepts like a work day were so foreign it was almost laughable. These people who less than a generation ago were working trap lines for subsistence don't know what factory time is. How can we expect them to think and act like we want them too?
The Tatla, some families are ok to deal with, others, monkeys with razor blades.
A special concern in BC is that treaties were never signed so our land claim issues are wide open. It is a part of the Federal jurisdiction that has been relatively inactive. In the mean time there has been a recent resource development boom stymied Indian negotiations. A lack of leadership on the Federal and Provincial front. A court mandated responsibility to consult with possibly affected Indian bands on what they claim may their territory that has been interpreted by many as veto on development projects.
The only defined guidelines for developers is a responsibility to consult. The defined owner of the resources is still the Crown. The legal framework is still through Provincial and Federal regulatory bodies.
In the absence of a legally defined Indian right on resources, individual companies are left to negotiate agreements with Indian Bands who claim a traditional right on the land of the development whether they indeed have that right or not. It has led to a messy patchwork of agreements in BC with each subsequent agreement being better for the Indian Bands involved. Because there is an escalating benefit in holding out on an agreement, project development is needlessly delayed.
This doesn't even touch on the issue of overlapping land claims where several Bands claim the same piece of land.
And lets not be fooled by the term claim. It is no different than you or I claiming a piece of Crown land because we grew up hunting and fishing in that area.
When it comes down to it, we are dealing with race based discrimination. The Supreme Court has already said sentencing for Indians needs to be lighter than sentencing for all other Canadians. The Supreme Court has also said that DFO is not enforce fisheries regulations against Indians but is to do so against any other Canadian fisherman fishing withe same techniques at the same time. Oh, the Indians are allowed to use the fish for commercial purposes too.
ukcanuck wrote: I suppose the question is fault and responsibility and who owns it.
I like Harper being a westerner and a hockey fan and all, but it is his responsibility when a chief goes on a hunger strike no matter how misguided or ridiculous the claims may be...
The auditors informed the Band and the Government back is September of the irregularities. Yet Spence went on her pantomime protest anyways. No wonder the government and the AFN has shunned her. Her actoins have demonstrated several things about her.
1) She's dumber than a post.
2)Her media spectacle is a sham.
3) The emperor has no clothes.
4)She's an embarrassment to the people she portends to represent.