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Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory/October 7, 2002 - "The inflammatory public threats made by Minister Robert Nault to ‘walk away’ from thirty tables negotiating comprehensive land claims is indicative of his bull-headed approach to our constitutionally enshrined and judicially recognized Aboriginal Title and Rights." Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), was responding today to media reports stating the Federal government is demanding certain pre-conditions to be met and if those pre-conditions are not met, then the Federal government will unilaterally walk away from negotiations.

Chief Phillip added, "The Federal government is demonstrating once again why the British Columbia Treaty Commission process is failing. If the government had negotiated in good faith we would have seen significant and substantial progress and we would not have seen such inflammatory and confrontational statements from Minister Nault. What we can now expect in the very near-future here in BC is a flood of litigation and more land-use conflicts as community frustration levels climb."

The UBCIC has urged both the Federal and Provincial governments, on many occasions, to respect the law and honour the Crown’s legal obligations to all First Nations in BC.

Chief Phillip concluded, "Rather than recognizing the Nation-to-Nation relationship between Canada and First Nations, the Federal government is imposing its own self-serving vision of what land claims settlement should be. The courts have repeatedly stated that negotiation is the preferred route rather than contentious litigation. Instead of using bully-boy tactics, the federal government should sit down and truly engage in good-faith negotiations."