Nisga'a debate educating some legislature members

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It used to be that only the "Red Man" knew exactly how he'd been screwed around.

The ratification of Bill 51, the Nisga'a Final Agreement Act by the provincial government has put many aspects of the lives of First Nations people under intense scrutiny. One advantage of this scrutiny is that many non-Native Canadians are now seeing beyond the crude caricatures of Native people portrayed by Hollywood, the strange absence of Natives in the history books of schools across the nation and the ugly stereotypes. The ratification of the Nisga'a treaty has brought the Native experience in Canada to centre stage for many representatives in the British Columbia legislature and has proven to be an invaluable education for them.

One member whose voice speaks loudly in support of the bill is the NDP MLA from Burnaby North, Pietro Calendino. In his address to the House, Calendino recounted that when his family first came to Canada in the 1950s, his only exposure to Native peoples were the images pumped out of Hollywood and little else.

"I learned that the squalid conditions of their reserve was not of their own choosing but rather was imposed on them by an intolerant and racist society and by a code of law called the Indian Act," said Calendino in his speech to the legislative assembly.

Calindino heralds the Nisga'a Final Agreement as a bold new step toward the eradication of the Indian Act. He quoted Nisga'a Chief Joe Gosnell's historic address to the House when he said the treaty would be "the end of more than a century of humiliation, degradation and despair for the Nisga'a people."

Calendino cited the results of a questionnaire on the Nisga'a treaty that he had delivered to 2,000 households in his constituency. The first question - Should the Nisga'a be able to govern themselves like most local governments, but with the additional powers over their own culture and language? - saw 67 per cent of his constituents say "yes." A hefty 74 per cent of the replies responded in the affirmative to the question of whether they were comfortable with Aboriginal self-government provided it is subject to all provincial and federal laws, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Criminal Code of Canada. When asked if they would prefer that land claims be settled by negotiation or through the courts, 73 per cent of the responses favored negotiation. To the question "Should the BC Legislature hold a free vote (not along party lines) on the Nisga'a Treaty?" 95 per cent of his constituency voted "yes." Calendino said 66 per cent of his constituency instructed him to vote in favor of the Nisga'a treaty, while 34 per cent told him to vote against it. Calendino proudly claimed that he was thankful that his constituents had given him the mandate to vote in support of the Nisga'a Treaty and chided the opposition for their lack of support. Calendino reminded the House of the debilitating legislation that were leveled at the First Nations people. He cited disparaging and racist comments made by government representatives in the past, quoting Premier William Smithe who said in 1887 that the Natives were "little better than wild animals that rove the hills..."

Claiming to hear echoes of the past coming from the opposition, he asked if they are still in "colonial thinking mode." "The Nisga'a treaty... is about to correct the mistakes of the past and settle historical wrongs in the most reasonable way possible, without litigation, without violence and without roadblocks," say Calendino. Although all of the M.L.A.s agree that there has to be a settlement to the land claims, the Opposition doesn't seem to agree to this particular settlement according to Calendino. He is concerned with the Opposition's demand for a referendum and considers it contradictory. He agrees that the M.L.A.s have been elected to represent and make decisions on behalf of their constituents and feels the referendum would undermine their positions and the process they've been elected to A referendum can be called if the Nisga'a Treaty alters the Constitution of 1982 and according to Caledino the Treaty entrenches the Rights and Title which are already recognized and guaranteed in Section 35 of the Constitution.

"There was never a referendum held on important social policy such as the introduction of Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan. There was no referendum when the Indian Act was enacted, so why should there be one to end it?" demanded Calendino during his address. "It (the Nisga'a Treaty) brings Nisga'a people into the mainstream of society," Calendino asserts.

"It will finally give Nisga'a people the right to become free citizens and full and equal participants in the social, political and economic life of British Columbia and Canada. Not an unreasonable wish after 22 years of negotiations and 111 years of painful waiting." The legislature will resume the reading and continued debate of the bill when the House reconvenes on Wednesday, January 13 when the last few M.L.A.s have their opportunity to speak and concludes with the address by Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Dale Lovick.