Nothing more scary than change

Page 5

To slightly twist a remark by Winston Churchill: Governments will always do the right thing, but not before exhausting all other alternatives.

Events in Ottawa and British Columbia this month made us think of that quote.

Confidential documents we obtained show that the B.C. government is starting to make the right noises about doing the right thing and dealing with the reality of Aboriginal rights and title in that province.

Of course, the courts helped enlighten the government enough to send it down this path. The provincial Liberal's record on First Nation issues shows us that bunch would never had made that leap if the courts, with the Haida case especially, and the Taku River and Delgamuukw cases as well, hadn't pushed them towards the cliff they had to jump off to land in exactly the place Native leaders kept telling them was the right place to be.

Now that voters have told them they needed a little more opposition in the legislature-by sharply reducing the size of their majority on May 17 in the provincial election-the Liberals may be a little easier to deal with with the NDP holding their feet to the fire.

We strongly disapproved of the referendum that Premier Gordon Campbell and his government conducted a few years back, and all the insincere talk of reconciliation at the time. We saw the Forest Range Agreements the Campbell government tried to pass off as consultation in as poor a light as the courts did when they slapped that process down this month as well.

And now, suddenly, the B.C. government and bureaucracy have had an epiphany. We'll believe it a year or two after we see it. Sorry, but history tells us we'd be fools to get too giddy about a few enlightened sounding words.

Maybe it is a great thing that the Summit, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and the B.C. AFN are working together and pressuring the government to come to terms on Aboriginal title and access to resources. But we always get nervous when First Nation leaders start acting and talking and looking like mainstream bureaucrats and/or politicians. Real nervous.

Can we maybe get something in writing that these leaders aren't going to just create jobs and wealth for themselves and their friends? And it would be nice to know that they aren't going to commit their people to something permanent without letting the people have a say first. You can't give somebody else's rights away-or at least you shouldn't be able to.

The Assembly of First Nations proposed accord on moving towards real self-government was cunningly constructed to close off all the loopholes that get employed to create false impressions that won't be noticed until it's far too late. You might want to get the people who worked on that agreement to take a look at anything the B.C. government bureaucracy comes up with on consultation and accomodation. Because, and we'll say it again for emphasis, history states quite clearly that First Nations people would be fools to trust any Canadian government official for even a nanosecond.

As for the purported deal for residential school compensation mentioned on Page 11 of this edition-read the above and repeat. The first government attempt to deal with this in 1998 was, as the national chief rather poetically put it, sort of like what the insurance company does when you try to file a claim. Former Indian Affairs minister Jane Stewart's "apology" was less than honest, intentionally designed to create a false impression of government generosity and good faith in the mind's of those who vote (and who don't read doublespeak documents in their spare time).

Once again the courts have forced the people in Ottawa to move towards doing the right thing and once again, they're doing it as a last resort.

So keep an eye on them and don't accept anything at face value. We'd love to just say, "Whoopie," but the feds haven't earned that kind of trust, not by a long shot and it will be one heck of a long timebefore they have.

If somebody resists doing the right thing until left with no choice whatsoever, DON'T TRUST THEM!

That only makes sense, right?