A rchive Date
[ 17-02-2020 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
|
[https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/gunter-a-misunderstanding-over-indigenous-sovereignty
A misunderstanding over Indigenous sovereignty
Lorne Gunter
Published: February 15, 2020
Let’s say for a minute that the Wet’suwet’en people of northern B.C. had sovereignty over their land, as claimed by those Indigenous and non-Indigenous protesters across the country who oppose the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
The protests along the route of the pipeline and at multiple other sites across the country are based, in part, on the assertion that the Wet’suwet’en never ceded control over their land and thus retain sovereignty to this day.
It’s not quite that simple.
Canadian courts do recognize Indigenous sovereignty, but only if individual nations have signed treaties giving them sovereignty, settled a land claim or gone to court to assert their sovereignty.
The Wet’suwet’en have done none of those things.
But let’s say for the sake of argument that the Wet’suwet’en people do have recognized sovereignty over their traditional lands. That still wouldn’t give them an automatic right to veto any proposed project across that land.
Non-Indigenous property owners don’t have an unchallengeable right to prevent development on their land. Private property is expropriated or otherwise claimed by governments all the time for highways, power lines, wind farms, pipelines, subdivisions and other alleged public purposes, provided adequate compensation is paid.
Indeed, if you told the lefty, non-Indigenous protestors who are demanding the Wet’suwet’en be granted unquestioned power over their land, that non-Indigenous landowners would be given that same level of control over their own property – a power that could potentially prevent most government action – those same hypocrites would accuse you of advocating Darwinian capitalism.
As courts have said again and again, the duty to be consulted or even to be compensated is not the same as the power to veto.
But the current gross misunderstanding of just what Indigenous “sovereignty” means comes mostly from myths and fallacies First Nations have told themselves over the last three or four decades; myths and fallacies that have been encouraged and reinforced by politically correct politicians, academics, activists and judges.
This week, a group of Treaty 8 chiefs walked out of a meeting with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney over child welfare policy. They insisted they didn’t have to abide by changes in provincial programs because “contrary to what the Government of Canada and Province of Alberta says (sic), we did not cede or surrender our lands.”
Good try. But Treaty 8, like most of the Prairie treaties, explicitly says the signatories “hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to the Government of the Dominion of Canada … all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever to the lands …”
That couldn’t be clearer. Yet for years now, bold-faced claims such as the Treaty 8 chiefs’, have been met with nodding acceptance by timid politicians and elites afraid of being called racist.
There will be no meaningful reconciliation so long as these fanciful absolutes are accepted as truth and permitted to determine what constitutes success.
You are never going to satisfy people who have convinced themselves the only way they can be sure they have been properly consulted is when governments and companies give into their demands fully.
If you and you alone get to decide how much is enough, what is to prevent you from upping the stakes, then upping them again, endlessly?
I’m all for self-governance by First Nations. Indigenous communities should have all the same rights as non-Indigenous ones to be consulted, to fight for their views, set policy and share in the rewards of development.
But so long as the current false sense of rights is allowed to fester and grow – that it’s their way or no way – Canada will get nowhere.
Most First Nations have under 500 members. They can function on a level similar to non-Indigenous towns and villages (with some inherent special status, such as mineral rights). But to insist they have special rights to hold up all development is a recipe for economic stagnation and political division.
© 2020 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|