Minister blasts Liberal leader

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Gordon Wilson, British Columbia's Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, says Gordon Campbells' plan for a province-wide referendum is insulting, unethical, and will force First Nations to commit acts of civil disobedience.

"To suggest he's going to hold a referendum without having a clear understanding of what the question would be, but that it's going to be loosely worded around equality, presupposes that the status quo provides some level of equity or equality for First Nations which is ridiculous," said Minister Wilson.

"It is completely unethical for the leader of the official opposition, who seeks to be premier, to suggest that after hundreds of years of discrimination and isolation of First Nations people from mainstream Canadian society, that somehow he's now going to go out and consult with presumably non-Aboriginal people as to whether or not there ought to be some level of equality brought into discussions with First Nations. I think that is highly offensive and highly unethical."

According to Wilson, the Liberal's plan for a referendum is merely their first step in shutting down the treaty process altogether.

"His Aboriginal Affairs Critic Mike DeJong has said they will shut down treaty negotiations, and that is exactly what the Liberals will do. They will shut it down," said Wilson. "What he's saying is, 'I'm in charge, I'm in control, and I'm going to continue on the kind of paternalistic attitude towards First Nations that existed in previous colonial times'. It's absolutely outrageous."

Calling Campbell's accusations against the Nisga'a Agreement "ridiculous", and "very ignorant", Wilson paints a bleak picture of the treaty process under a Liberal regime, accusing Campbell of plotting to dissolve the B.C. Treaty Commission, and pull provincial negotiators away from their tables all around the province.

"If we're so unfortunate as to have Campbell form a government, then he will divide First Nations from non-First Nations people in British Columbia," said Wilson.

"A referendum would be an absolute betrayal of trust, and my guess is you'll have bad faith bargaining charges laid against the government, and you'll have massive litigation, and when that frustration boils over because the courts are very slow and very expensive, you'll have civil disobedience in B.C. And he doesn't even care about that. He's pushing a very narrow, extreme right-wing agenda that basically wants to keep First Nations people on reserves."