The Canadian Government and the Great White Lie -- Canadian Constitutional repatriation issues.
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DOCUMENT: WHITELIE.TXT
T H E C A N A D I A N G O V E R N M E N T A N D
T H E G R E A T W H I T E L I E
In June of 1978, the Federal Government of Canada announced its
intention of seek patriation of the Canadian constitution. Two months
later the National Indian Brotherhood passed a resolution at its
annual general assembly that a delegation of Chiefs and Elders would
go to England to visit the Queen and make representations to her based
upon the historic and legal ties of the Indian Nations to the Queen in
Right of England. The Chiefs and Elders were seeking the support of
the Queen in their efforts to prevent the patriation of the Canadian
constitution until the outstanding issues between the Indian Nations
and the Canadian and British Governments were resolved. When the
representatives arrived in England, the Prime Minister of Canada
refused to allow the Queen to meet with the Chiefs and Elders. The
reason for this move by the Prime Minister is clear. In a
confidential document prepared after October, 1980, entitled "Briefing
Material on Canada's Natives Peoples and the constitution" the current
federal position is unambiguously set out:
"There is likely to be a major effort by Canada's Native peoples
to win national and international support (especially at Westminister)
for their stand against patriation. If the Native peoples press
forward with their plans and if they succeed in gaining support and
sympathy abroad, Canada's image will suffer considerably. Because
Canada's Native Peoples live, as a rule, in conditions which are very
different from those of most other Canadians - as sample statistics
set out below attest - there would be serious questions asked about
whether the Native Peoples enjoy basic rights in Canada:
- Indians have a life expectancy ten years less than the
Canadian average;
- Indians experience violent deaths at more than three
times the national average;
- approximately 60% of Indians in Canada receive social
assistance;
- only 32% of working-age Indians are employed;
- less than 50% of Indian homes are properly serviced;
- in Canada as a whole the prison population is about 9%
Native, yet Native Peoples make up only 3% of Canada's
population. In 1977, there were 280 Indians in jail per
100,000 population, compared to 40 for the national
average.
This document reveals the federal government's strategy to deal
with the Indian Nations' determination "to obtain a better future for
their peoples." The strategy is consistent with the Trudeau
government's tactics over the past decade in diluting the Indian
position and protecting Canada's "image" in the eyes of the world.
Providing Indian organizations with funds to develop their position on
the Constitution is seen as a way to sap the energy of the Indian
leadership in promoting time consuming discussions while patriation,
in the meantime, is being accomplished.
The federal government pleads ignorance as to what aboriginal
rights are. Yet the Indian nations have provided the government with
a clear and precise statement in the Aboriginal Rights Position Paper
which was adopted by the National Indian Brotherhood in 1980. The
government has had this statement for a year and has not responded in
any manner, expect to continue to profess ignorance as to the Indian
position. Canada has not allowed the Indian Nations to participate in
the constitutional discussions as equal partners with the provinces.
The talks have proceeded without the Indian voice being heard, talks
which concern a re-distribution of the resources in Canada as between
the federal and provincial governments. Much of these resources
belong to the Indian people as 40% of the land in Canada is unceded
Indian territory.
The government states that a mechanism is set up the patriation
package which would allow for discussions to continue with the Indian
leadership after patriation. And yet its internal Briefing Material
reveals the true position:
"Native leaders realize that entrenching their rights will
be enormously difficult after patriation, especially since
a majority of the provinces would have to agree to changes
which might benefit Native Peoples at the expense of
provincial power. They therefore demand an entrenchment
of Native rights before patriation."
Canada represents to Britain that it has done its duty to Indian
people by including in the Charter of Rights the recognition of
aboriginal and treaty rights. However, those rights are not defined
in the Charter. The Briefing document recognizes the falseness of
asserting that substantial rights are included in the Charter.
"Constitutionalizing treaty rights, for example, which
many Indian leaders have called for, begs the questions
of how treaty rights should be interpreted. Additionally
to constitutionalize treaty rights does nothing for the
vast majority of Native peoples in Canada, who either
have never been party to treaties or who have excluded
themselves from the groups which did sign treaties."
The government would leave the definition of aboriginal treaty
rights to the domestic courts. These courts have in the past been
hopelessly divided on the issue of aboriginal rights. some judges have
gone so far as to assert that treaty rights are mere promises which
the federal government may rescind at any time, and aboriginal rights
may be extinguished at any time. Canada recognize that the written
terms of the treaties, for example, does not reflect the actual
negotiations which took place with the Indian nations. Yet Canada
shields itself behind laws of its own making to say that "Canada's
governments have been legally correct in their dealings with Indians
and Metis."
Prime Minister Trudeau has over the years become more
sophisticated in the representation he makes about he position of
Indian people in Canada. Yet the underlying policies of his
government have not changed since 1969; all that has happened is that
Mr. Trudeau has come to realize he cannot afford to be so blatant in
his denial of Indian rights. In a speech on August 8, 1969, in
Vancouver, British Columbia Mr. Trudeau said:
"While one of the things the Indian Bands often refer to
are their aboriginal rights, in our policy, the way we
propose it, we say we won't recognize aboriginal rights.
We will recognize treaty rights... This will mean that
perhaps the treaties shouldn't go on forever. It's
inconceivable;, I think, that any given society one
section of the society have a treaty with the other
section of the society... But I don't think that we
should encourage the Indians to feel that their treaties
should last forever within Canada so that they will be
able to receive their twine or their gunpowder. They
should become Canadians as all other Canadians."
With respect to the stated Indian request for a preservations of
aboriginal rights he said: "Our answer...is no."
The policy of assimilation has prevailed in Federal thinking for
many years. In 1947 A Plan for Liquidating Canada's Indian Problem
within 25 Years was presented to the Parliamentary Joint Committee.
The objective was:
"To abolish, gradually but rapidly, the separate
political and social status of the Indians (and Eskimos);
to enfranchise them and merge them into the rest of the
population"on an equal footing. The realization of this
plan should:
A. improve the Indians' social and economic position, now
so depressed as to create "leprous" spots in many
parts of the country;
B. abolish the permanent drain on the federal treasury of
the millions of dollars yearly now spent on Indian
administration;
C. Fulfil the almost forgotten pledge of the government
when it adopted the system of confining the Indians to
special reserves.
The plan contemplated the appointment of a commission to "study the
various Indian reservations throughout the Dominion and to advise on
the best means of abolishing them, of enfranchising the inhabitants".
The assimilation policy, the objective of which is to destroy the
unique culture, traditions and, in fact, the very existence of the
Indians as a people is still the order of the day. In a policy
Document #408-79 entitled "Native Claims Policy - Comprehensive
Claims" date July 20, 1979, the government states frankly what its
policy is regarding the outstanding Indian claims:
"There has also been a spreading attitude among the native
leadership that Indian title, rather than being
extinguished, should be confirmed, which has been
diametrically opposed to historical federal policy."
No government should be fooled as to the objectives of Prime
Minister Trudeau in dealing with the Indian nations. The Indians
assertions of their rights to their traditional territory runs
completely contrary to the government's planned use of that territory.
When the federal government voiced its support for the Alcan Pipeline,
the question arose as to the interference with the development by
Indians asserting their claim to the land. The government's internal
policy document of November 30, 1977, reveals that Indian title will
not stand in the way of development:
"A few things are clear. The government Canada is prepared
to extinguish native land claims if necessary by
legislation to support its international work and
commitment..."
With respect to the proposed Alaska Highway Gas Pipeline, hearings
were conducted after the government had made a commitment to construct
the pipeline. The task for the presiding officer was simply to set
out the terms and conditions for the building of the pipeline, a major
portion of which went through traditional Indian territory. In his
report February 15, 1980, the presiding officer stated:
"Even a minor erosion of land base, income or socio-
cultural position could be serious for a people already
feeling hard pressed...'it is one thing to push a person
who stands in the middle of a field. It is very a
different matter to push a person who stands on a cliff
face.' The accumulative impact of oil and gas development,
forestry, agriculture and recreational and other
activities has now placed the Indian people 'on a cliff
face.' The pipeline could provide the final 'push'."
There is absolutely no question but that the federal government,
despite all its representations, is prepared to allow the destruction
of the Indian nations if they obstruct the direction of the
government. Canada has adopted the politics of expediency in relation
to the Indian people in Canada. It will say whatever is convenient,
shifting its position depending on the prevailing political climate,
desperate to shield from world view the true nature of its treatment
of the Indians.
In 1931, when the Statute of Westminster was passed, Section 141
of the Indian Act of Canada made it an offense, with imprisonment of
up to two months, to solicit funds for the purpose of pressing land
claims. The same statute made it an offence for Indians to celebrate
their religious ceremonies (Section 140). While these sections have
been repealed, Canada continues to deny the Indian nations their land
rights. During the Helsinki conference the Canadian government was
asked to account for its treatment of Indians. The response was that
the Indians in Canada were British subjects.
In November of 1980, the Fourth Russell Tribunal held hearings on
the rights of the Indians of the Americas. Representatives of the
Indian Nations in Canada made a submission concerning the patriation
proposal. In its report, on page 37, it states:
"(5) Violations of All Forms of Internal Self-Government
and even of the Right of Local Community-Level
Government, as in the cases of the communities of
Colcabamoa and Tayacaya and elsewhere in PERU, of
virtually all Brazilian groups, of the Mapuche in CHILE,
of native groups refused recognition as Indians in
CANADA, the UNITED STATES, and elsewhere, and also with
the Pitt River Tribe, the Lakota, the Puyallup and other
nations in the UNITED STATES. This is a general problem
in almost every country of the Americas.
Special mention should be made of the 'termination'
policy of the USA, which asserts the ultimate right to
totally eliminate native societies as governmental units.
"(6) The general Refusal or Failure to Involve Native
Nations in the Creations of Constitutions or Basic
Instruments of Government in the States of the Americas,
even in instances where the federal principle of
government obtains, as in the current creation of a new
constitution in CANADA where Indian rights are, at
present, not being considered. As sovereign units of
governance, Native Nations and Republics or Pueblos
possess the inherent right of refusing any incorporation
or of being authentically represented as a self-governing
unit where their territory has been included in the area
claimed by a state apparatus. In other words, a
constitution and government cannot be imposed on Indian
people without authentic participation and the right of
refusal to be incorporated involuntarily is a
precondition."
Canada has not responded to this criticism or altered its
intended course of conduct in any way. In the introduction to its
report the Tribunal made some general comments about the nature of the
testimony before it:
"Many voices have spoken before us and have expressed
vividly the vitality and the capacity for resistance,
found among the Indian people.... A significant number of
Indian nations and communities in the Americas have
preserved their own identity and cultural initiative, in
spite of the unremitting efforts of genocide and
ethnocide directed against them.... The program of
cultural destruction and social oppression of the native
People of the Americas did not cease when the several
countries of the American continent declared their
independence. On the contrary, they simply assumed new
forms. Since then, the machinery of internal colonialism
has been continuously consolidated, ruthlessly seeking
the disintegration of Indian communities. Now we are
seeing an intensification of aggression led by
governmental and local ruling groups, often dominated by
transnational centers of powers...."
"We are faced with a universal uprising of oppressed
nationalities and growing demands for autonomy. They
seek an end to enforced alienation and the recovery of
cultural identity. Centralized governmental structures
are experiencing crises in states which include different
nationalities and ethnic groups. This situation
coincides, in America, with the breakdown of a European-
centered concept of civilization according to which the
only civilized people are those who act like Europeans or
those elites who pretend to be carriers of 'western'
culture.
This tribunal has served as a forum for testimony against
ethnocidal oppression and for the free expression of the
will to struggle against those powers that still wish to
wipe out the authentic character of the oldest cultures
of America."
These observations should be kept in mind when Britain considers
what the government of Canada is doing in relation to the Indian
people in patriating the constitution.
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