B.C. opposition growing

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Opposition to the referendum is gaining force in British Columbia, where the president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has said he rejects the Charlottetown

Accord and Canada's referendum process "in their totality."

"What we see is a clear and present danger to our peoples' aboriginal title and rights, to the integrity of our traditional territories, and to our survival as distinct Nations processing inherent tribal sovereignty since time immemorial," said chief Saul Terry.

"The Charlottetown Accord will do away with the Nation-to-Nation relationship (with the Crown) once and for all, for treaty and non-treaty peoples alike. We will cease to be Nations within our respective traditional territories," Terry said.

"In our humble opinion, we are being asked to give up all of our lands back to Canada and then they will negotiate with us to get bits and pieces back."

First Nations are being asked to accept the obligations of self-government without any guarantees from the federal government of sufficient financial resources to meet community needs.

"Let us be clear. The agenda of the Charlottetown Accord is termination, not self-determination.

There is a lot of confusion and many First Nations people who not understand what is going on, Terry added. The union will do "whatever it takes" to insure people are directly consulted and have the opportunity to give or refuse their full and informed consent.

Louise Gabriel, spokesperson for the Okanagan Nation Elders Council, said the council rejects the accord and the referendum process and that it will have no influence, force or effect on the Okanagan Nation and traditional territories.

No representative Indian organization, including the Assembly of First Nations

and the B.C. Claims Task Force, can consent on behalf of the Okanagan Nation, Gabriel added.

The current constitutional reform process is nothing more than a self-serving politically expedient exercise designed to salvage the political future of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his conservative government, said Chief Archie Jack, chairman of

the Okanagan Tribal Council, in a press release.

The absence of a legal text and the desperate last-minute time frame means all Canadians have not been allowed to be involved in the process.

"We have no choice but to maintain the status quo, until such time as a proper constitutional reform process is established which shall serve the future needs of all Canadians and not just the prime minister and his conservative government," he added.

B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Wilson called the latest constitutional package a "recipe for disaster" and he said Canada's aboriginal people have been sold a bill of goods at the constitutional table.

The language on aboriginal rights is not clear and the deal pits provinces against Natives, Wilson told a town hall meeting in Kamloops recently.

The deal means the government only agrees to discuss the issue for a five-year period with the right to turn matters over to the courts afterwards.