Lawyer to head B.C. Treaty Commission

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Alec Robertson faces stormy political waters as the new chief commissioner of the British Columbia Treaty Commission. He was appointed jointly by the B.C. First Nations Summit, the provincial and federal governments, and will take office on May 15.

"The big change has been that the atmosphere has become more politically charged," he said. "That will bring to bear considerable pressure to take a bigger role in public education, through round-table

discussions and media events in which the story can be told of why this process is under way."

Robertson, who accepts the post after practicing law in B.C. for more

than 35 years, expects the public role of defending the commission's

activities to be the biggest change under his leadership. He has seen attitudes to land claims harden in the populace at large over the last

couple of years.

"Historically, we're different from the rest of North America,"

Robertson said. "By and large it's because of the treaty-signing

process being interrupted by politicians in the mid-19th century."

There are 14 or 15 treaty bands on Vancouver Island, he explained, according to the 1763 proclamation that government was the one to acquire land and redistribute it to settlers, which was the reason behind treaty negotiation. The process was halted by political leaders who refused to accord any right at all to the Aboriginal peoples resident on the land. These peoples are not entering negotiations with the provincial and federal governments.

"What we are doing is designed to ensure and facilitate a process that has already been set up," he said. "Two successive (provincial) governments have affirmed that Aboriginal rights do exist and that there has to be proper resolution of Aboriginal claims. Our role is to

institutionalize this commitment to treaty negotiation and

establishment."

Robertson brings experience in dealing with major players in any land

dispute in B.C.: the lumber companies. He is a director of Daishowa

Canada Co. Ltd., Daishowa Forest Products Ltd. and British Pacific

Properties Ltd., and his business law practice has emphasized the forest industry. He will resign the directorships before he formally becomes the treaty commissioner.

He has also dealt with the government and in quasi-non-government bodies for his administrative law practice, so he should be at home there, as well.

"I suspect that one of the reasons that all three groups chose me is that someone had probably to be not totally acceptable to all three , nor completely unacceptable," Robertson candidly said. "I don't see (my business ties) as an impediment or a conflict. From my knowledge of the industry I can draw many useful thing which may make me a more effective commissioner."

Robertson will serve a three-year renewable term. He explained that the commission is beginning, as he sees it, the second of three phases. In the first, the last two years, there was initiation of the

commission's role and getting bands and groups involved in the process. The current phase is the movement to where negotiation can begin and the third will be involvement of more parties and the beginning of significant negotiations.