Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

Burnt Church, N.B. 8/17/00 - I am amazed that in Canada at the start of the 21st century I am visiting a place where government agents are confronting indigenous people, and where just last year the flames of burning native boats and lobster traps lit the night.

The situation here looks chaotic, but actually the issue is simple: How will the many nations and peoples in this country share Canada's rich lands and resources, so that all can benefit equitably and none are locked out?

Federal Minister of Fisheries Herb Dhaliwal says that the events at Burnt Church are about the orderly regulation of fisheries, versus aboriginal illegality, greed, and refusals to negotiate.

The Minister and others are also saying that this situation is about the rule of law, and about one law for all irrespective of race.

First of all, the people who are saying this situation is about race-based standards need a basic lesson in Canadian law and their own Constitution. We have always been nations and peoples. This unique status has always been recognized in Canadian law and, since 1982, has been entrenched in Canada's Constitution. One aspect of this status is that we enter into treaties with the Crown.

Our distinct rights as First Nations flow from this unique status. We insist that governments and fishermen's organizations deal with us on a foundation of our inherent aboriginal and treaty rights. I would like to meet with the non-aboriginal fishermen to hear their concerns and to convey to them these basic facts about their system of government and law.

But there is a fundamental question that is not being asked: How can the people of Burnt Church and First Nations peoples across Canada survive and thrive?

The action of Donald Marshall when he went eel fishing and was prosecuted by the federal government all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and the actions of the people in Burnt Church, are about our rights as First Nations peoples to survive, thrive and redevelop viable societies.

The minister says that he has offered Burnt Church 17 licences and 5,000 traps. I understand that in this zone alone there are 240,000 traps being used by the non-native fishery. Burnt Church sees a gross disparity between the Mi'kmaq and the non-native fishers in the area, and they seem to be right.

Anyone can see that it is not First Nations peoples across this land who are the wealthiest of the wealthy, and who dominate the economic landscape. Our peoples are the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized and the most dispossessed.

In 1996, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples called for a fundamental redistribution of natural wealth and resources in this country, to end the cycle of poverty and dispossession faced by our peoples. In the Marshall case, the Supreme Court of Canada took a small step in that direction by affirming the Mi'kmaq treaty right to benefit from the Atlantic fishery.

We all know that the Atlantic fishery must not be taken for granted. But this situation is not truly about regulation for resource conservation. The Mi'kmaq have designed and are implementing an effective resource-management plan, apparently to the same or higher standards than the federal government's.

Let us not forget that it was federal-government mismanagement and non-native fisheries that led to the devastation of the East and West coast fisheries. First Nations peoples are the original conservationists on this continent. Our survival has always been tied to the health of the natural resources on which we depend.

The minister is now waging a sophisticated fight in favour of the status quo of inadequate access by First Nations to resources, in this case the fishery. He is trying to divide First Nations from one another. He is trying to turn Canadian public opinion against us. He is misrepresenting the issues of law, particularly the extent of the federal government's authority in this context. And he is clothing the actions of his government in legitimacy when there is none.

What possible interest could Canada have in keeping aboriginal peoples poor? Is the government of Canada hoping that if the current conditions of First Nations poverty and unemployment continue, we will be gone in a generation or two and then there will be no question of having to share anything with us any more?

We are not going to go down that road. We are here to stay as aboriginal peoples with viable land and resource bases. This is our right. I am saying to Canadians now, draw no comfort from the pronouncements of your ministers that the status quo affecting First Nations peoples in Canada is legal.

In April, 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that the Canadian status quo is a violation of aboriginal peoples' most fundamental human rights, including our peoples' rights to never be deprived of our own means of subsistence.

The Human Rights Committee specifically urged the government of Canada to implement the Royal Commission recommendations on lands and resources.

The minister has spoken of various fishery agreements with a number of First Nations peoples in this context. I have full faith in the leadership and people of those First Nations that have entered into such agreements. I have been a chief, and I know that leaders of First Nations here -- and right across this country -- face impossible conditions in trying to meet the employment, social, housing and other needs of our citizens, in the face of policies that leave us without adequate resources to do so. The decisions they make under these terrible circumstances are to be applauded, because they help our people to survive another day.

When individual First Nations peoples, such as Burnt Church, take necessary and courageous steps to raise the standards for all, I will be there to stand with them. And when they point out to Canadians that fairness and equity are essential if there is ultimately to be social peace and justice in this country, I will be there to stand with them. And their national organization will bring their message of human rights and social dignity right across Canada and to the world.

I say to the minister: Call off your troops. I have always been opposed to the use of force for political ends, particularly when it is used by governments against Indians. I believe that all Canadians want fair end equitable solutions that will enable our people to get off welfare, get to work, raise our families, and build vibrant communities. For this to happen, we must regain access to and jurisdiction over lands, waters and resources, for more than our people to just scrape by with the bare "necessities" of life -- food, shelter if we are lucky, clothing and a few amenities.

This is the cry from the heart of Burnt Church.

Matthew Coon Come is the Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.