Referendum steam-rolling ahead

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British Columbia's treaty referendum is going full steam ahead. The province's Supreme Court rejected a bid by a Vancouver Island band to prevent ballots from being mailed to voters.

On March 27, Judge Robert Hutchison dismissed the challenge by the Hupacasath First Nation to the B.C. government's plan to poll its constituency on treaty principles. The First Nation argued the referendum questions are unclear.

First Nations leaders see this government's referendum as a red flag challenging constitutionally-protected Aboriginal rights at their most basic level. Some say it will derail the strained treaty-making process completely.

According to Hupacasath First Nation Chief Councillor Judith Sayers, the treaty process, if the government runs with the ideas in the referendum, "is dead. It's not a negotiation; it's a take-it-or-leave-it situation."

For example, referendum item 4 reads "Parks and protected areas should be maintained for the use and benefit of all British Columbians." Sayers said that means "any of our sacred sites, our ecological sites, anything that means anything to us, is not on the table." She added, "and so we cannot even begin to negotiate that, because it's now written in the sand they can't do that."

Sayers is the elected chief of her band in Port Alberni. The title 'chief councillor' distinguishes her from their hereditary chief, which she says is quite a common practice in British Columbia. Sayers is also a lawyer who has written an extensive analysis of the referendum agenda on the World Wide Web.

If the treaty process dies, she said, "we'll be looking to the federal government to do bilateral negotiations. (Minister) Nault has said that he would consider (that) if everything with the province doesn't go ahead. So I think that's where we're going to have to go, and the province will just have to remain on the sidelines . . . or we can continue to create economic havoc in the province until they come back to the table."

Attorney General Geoff Plant is reportedly "quite proud" of the eight questions comprising his referendum, according to Aboriginal Rights Coalition of B.C. member Bill Eastman, who said March 21 that some of their members had met with Plant the previous week. Plant did not return our calls to his office.

Kathryn Teneese, a member of the First Nations Summit Political Executive task group, said the fundamental question for them is not among the eight questions that comprise the referendum ballot.

"It's the idea of even going ahead with this kind of exercise at this stage of the game.

"We've been involved in treaty negotiations for a number of years now, and to be told by one of the parties who has been moving along with us that now they have to stop and get some instructions or some clarification about how they're going to approach negotiations at this stage and time just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us."

The referendum questions shelter many concepts that are anathema to First Nations. The idea that Aboriginal self-government should "have the characteristics of local government, with powers delegated from Canada and British Columbia," is one of them. Phasing out of tax exemptions for First Nations is another. The questions are on the Ministry of Attorney General's Treaty Negotiations Office Web site.

Premier Gordon Campbell's Speech from the Throne said the referendum that will be conducted by mail-in ballot "will put forward questions to guide the government in negotiating treaties, foster greater understanding of the treaty process and build public support for the critical need for treaties."

The Liberals are telling the First Nations Summit the referendum is a commitment they made during the election campaign that they have to fulfill.

The minister has said if more than 50 per cent of the ballots vote the same way on any question, the results are binding on his government. Native people in British Columbia aren't buying it.

As Teneese sees it, whther First Nations continue to participate in treaty negotiations at all depends on the result of the referendum. She said that is hard to predict the result because there is so much confusion around what either a 'yes' or 'no' to the questions might mean.

"If it results in a further limitation of the province negotiator's mandate, its going to be very negative in terms of whether or not we're going to be able to continue." She said they have previously expressed grave concerns about inflexibility. "If it's going to be further limited as a result of the outcome of the referendum, well, that's the final nail in the coffin."

The Summit will not participate in the referendum process.

"We don't agree that it's happening in the first place, and . . . we're certainly not going to participate in something so aberrant where minority rights are being placed in front of the majority."

Former Native affairs minister Jack Weisgerber was appointed by government this month to represent the province on the British Columbia Treaty Commission, which was set up to oversee treaty negotiations. First Nations people say the commission has been downsized since Campbell's government got elected.

Sayers said 25 per cent of the commission's funding was cut.

"So under the MOU, the federal government has to do the same. They did that unilaterally; they never talked to Canada, they never talked to First Nations, they just did it." That means they won't have money to travel to the treaty tables. All the funding to the advisory committees was cut, and several chief negotiators' positions were cut."

The commission is intended to be an independent body charged as "keeper of the process," according to Teneese. "But it's set up by government, so it can hardly be independent.

"(Weisgerber) was the minister that signed off on the establishment of the B.C. Claims Task Force, whose report gave birth to the B.C. treaty process."

Once outside of government, he became a member of the B.C. Reform arty, who "over the years has sort of floated around on what his relationship with Aboriginal people (is)," Teneese said.

Sayers was blunter. "He was an opponent to the Nisga'a treaty."

Eastman's group, which Teneese described as "the church people" who have been "very helpful," is in a quandry over how to support First Nations at this critical juncture. Their last two meetings have proved divisive. Out of these has come a "spoil your ballot" proposal, which Eastman said was distributed at a rally Feb. 23. It's on the Web and it's in their newsletter.

"Not all of us are certain that it makes any sense, because we have understood that the province is not going to pay any attention to spoiled ballots."

Eastman agrees with Sayers that the questions are phrased to invite 'yes' answers. Even if only 10 per cent of the ballots are returned and 51 per cent of the 10 per cent say yes to the questions, that's what the province will act on.

Eastman said one Native leader told his group a year ago that the reason Campbell's government is pushing ahead with the referendum is because two elections ago, when Campbell lost because the (former B.C.) Reform (party) vote "had blind-sided him . . . the Reform vote had promised a referendum on treaties for the red-neck crowd in B.C., unfortunately most of which has been elected. So, that's one of the promises that Campbell feels constrained to keep to pay off the Reform people, Reform legislators and constituency who supported him instead of voting reform in 2001."

Teneese expressed a similar view.

Eastman said a lot of people are saying "let this one blow over," in other words, ignore the referendum.

Ballots are being mailed to B.C. voters April 2 and the last day to return them is May 15.