Ottawa Report

Page 2

Oakalla Prison is not a nice place to visit and it's definitely not a nice place to live. The Vancouver area prison is 75 years old and it's more a dungeon than a prison. It's full of men who've been accused or convicted of murder, robbery and who knows what else.

I went to Oakalla recently and spoke with Robert Satiacum for more than two hours. When I met him, he was wearing green prison fatigues, tennis shoes and no socks. His black hair was streaked with grey. He used to be a championship athlete but after three and a half years in prison, he's fat and out of shape. His brown face was puffy. His brown eyes were sad and rarely sparked with life.

Robert Satiacum told me his life story and it's clear that he's no ordinary Indian. The city of Seattle, Washington was named after one of his famous ancestors ? Chief Seattle. Robert Satiacum is also a hereditary chief of the Puyallup Tribe of the Coast Salish Nation.

His troubles with the law began soon after he finished high school. He was fishing for salmon then ? against state law ? because he believed the Medicine Creek Treaty guaranteed the Puyallup people their fishing rights. He says he was arrested almost 50 times by the time the courts finally recognized Indian fishing rights in 1974.

At about the same time, Robert Satiacum became involved in another controversial business activity which he says is protected by the Medicine Creek Treaty. He began selling cigarettes on the reservation without charging state sales tax. Because they were cheaper, he sold a lot of cigarettes ? enough to make him a multi-millionaire.

He became active in big league politics and seven years ago he became the chairman of the Puyallup Tribe. As a successful businessman, a political figure and then the tribal chairman, Robert Satiacum had plans to improve the fortunes of the Puyallup people ? big plans. He wanted to use the tribe's tax-free status to build an international banking centre, a deep-water free port, and an oil refinery.

But his plans never became a reality. The state went after him for not charging sales tax and the federal taxman went after him for income taxes. (Indians in most part of this country, ironically, can sell cigarettes without sales tax and don't have to pay tax on income earned on a reserve.) In any event, Robert Satiacum was tried for being a racketeer ? a member of organized crime ? because of his cigarette business. He was convicted in 1982 but before he was sentenced, he fled to Canada. He was captured in November, 1983. Canadian Immigration then began the legal process to send him back to the U.S.

For the past three and a half years, Robert Satiacum has been in a five-by-nine foot cell in Oakalla Prison ? even though he has never been convicted of any crime in this country. Robert Satiacum wants to be accepted as a political refugee because he says he's been persecuted by American authorities. He also says he has the right to stay in Canada, because he says Canada cannot deport a Coast Salish Indian from the Coast Salish territory of Vancouver. He lost his first attempt to be accepted as a refugee and he'll go before the Immigration Appeal Board against on June 15.

It could take several more years before he exhausts all of his possible legal appeals. In the meantime, he wants to be released on bail. After all, he says, a Filipino bagman for Ferdinand Marcos, the head of the notorious secret police in Haiti and a Chilean policeman accused of torture and murder have all been allowed to stay out of jail while their cases have been heard by Canadian Immigration. He has also asked the United Nations for help because he says Canada is breaking its promise to protect the rights of prisoners facing trial. But the government says in its incredible and ridiculous response that he is not entitled to that protection because they say he isn't facing a criminal charge ? he's just being deported.

Robert Satiacum doesn't want to be deported for several reasons He was, he says, the victim of an illegal prosecution. He's confident he would win an appeal but because the authorities confiscated everything he owned, Robert Satiacum can't afford to appeal his conviction. What's more, he could be sentenced to 300 years in prison if he's returned. He wants to stay in Canada, to use his business experience to work with Native people.

Robert Satiacum has spent the last three and a half years in prison even though he is not accused and has not been convicted of any crime in this country. All the while, the federal government has made a mockery of its international promise to treat prisoners fairly. These facts should embarrass Canadians in general and outrage Native people in particular. Our people could certainly use someone with his talent and experience and I think Native people should gear up a campaign to get Robert Satiacum out of Oakalla. So let the cry go out: "Free Robert Satiacum!"