Kwitsel Tatel shared a link. January 14 near Vancouver Sharing! January 14, 2014 Dear Mark Hume, Thank you for taking my call yesterday! I told you I would take time to write out what it is I am trying to say to you, how to get there in a few words is another story! The number of layers of law, legislation, rules, and regulations are many! Our Traditional Governance vs. the Indian Act regime is what I am talking about right now. Just how many lens must we perceive ourselves through? In law, there’s one lens. On the doors of each provincial court house in British Columbia, a sign reads, “Minister Responsible for Treaty Negotiations”. So, what does that mean? There is a built in bias against us Indians as soon as we enter those courts. Not everybody understands this bias, evidently. For the Greater Good of our “Indian” Peoples in Canada, and on May 9, 2013 I beat Canada in the Chief Judge of BC’s court over whether or not I have the right & title to possess fish. I won after nine long years! The provincial court of BC, have only the power to criminalize us Indians. The Federal Agent, and chief factor, Mr. Jensen uses the Criminal Code of Canada at the front-line; then he utilizes the Fisheries Act, which does not reflect our Sto:lo title and rights. On many occasions, the Federal Prosecutor for the Minister of Justice and the Minister Responsible for Treaty Negotiations says this is just another ‘routine charge’ Your Honor”, in a provincial court. Not once did Jensen use the Constitution of Canada, section 35. Why not? Since Federal Agent for the Ministry of Justice, Jensen failed to recognize and affirm our collective Aboriginal and Treaty rights/title, I chose to rest my arguments purely from the Constitution Act, 1982, which says, “the Aboriginal and Treaty Rights of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.” From the very first day this trial began, on July 14, 2004, I lead the fishing case as a constitutional case. After Mr. Jensen criminalized me using the provincial court, he knew, I knew that the provincial court has no jurisdiction to rule on my federal aboriginal and treaty rights, human rights or fishing rights, but, have only jurisdiction to criminalize me. For the Greater Good, and, on behalf of my children, I chose to fight Federal Minister Responsible for Treaty Negotiations, Mr. Finn Jensen’s, Q.C., application that he entered into a provincial court. He claims, Your Honor, this is just another ‘routine charge’. Repeatedly over nine years, Jensen says to the Chief Judge of BC, this is just another ‘routine charge’, meanwhile, we still have no treaty in Coast Salish territories. This Queen’s Council representative lawyer for Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and under the auspices of the Fisheries Act of Canada, argued vehemently against us Indians on many hundreds of accounts as a Privateer for the Ministry of Justice. What the hell is a Federal Lawyer doing making his applications to a Provincial court for, when we have all those wins and no treaty, to boot! It took a long time, but, I convinced BC’s Provincial and Chief Judge of BC, Thomas Crabtree, that I was fighting against being criminalized for possessing my own fish! He ended up ruling, as you know, in my favor, however, it took a long time to get there. Since we were in the wrong jurisdiction, during the trial, there were many ‘voi dire’s’! Voi dires are described in legal terms as a “trial within a trial”. I had many voi dires over the nine years. Voi dires that I handled included funding issues, expert witnesses on a few accounts, generally, over process and procedure! I spent all of my time after July 3, 2008 working to level the playing field! Since our Aboriginal and Treaty rights and title were left for the end of the trial, I asked the provincial court for money to support my lead on the second and constitutional phase of the trial. I accused the Federal Crown for not placing this application in the proper jurisdiction, and claimed that he was not fulfilling his role as ‘fiduciary’ to us Indians, in fact, I told the provincial judge, since the Federal Crown is not protecting Section 35, then, indeed, I am! I told Jensen that he ought to be fired because he is not acting as the fiduciary to us Indians, and especially me when he filed his application for trial number 05670 into a provincial court. The ruling below is post stamped April 5, 2013. This is Judge Crabtree’s remedy as to whether or not Mr. Finn Jensen was in a ‘conflict of interest’ or not in his role as fiduciary. Justice Crabtree ruled that Mr. Jensen was not in a conflict of interest, using a nefarious ruling called the McDonald case to help him remedy the situation. I could see clearly that Justice Crabtree needed to use Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982 in this case, but he did not! Crabtree did not use the constitution, he rested his ruling on the MacDonald case, which I told you last May, I did not have a chance to read that case for my own defense. I could see clearly that Mr. Jensen was not adhering to, or recognizing & affirming us Indians using section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, so I called him on his conflict of interest. Who is doing the recognizing and affirming? Justice Crabtree ruled that indeed, Jensen was not in a conflict of interest! So, I continue to ask, who in Canada is doing this recognizing and affirming of our Constitutional protected rights and title under s. 35? Who is it? Since the system is so wrought with conflict, I called it quits on this file. I did not know by calling it quits, that indeed I won! I wish I’d known what I know now, then! It would have saved many years of my children’s lives. Canada interfered with my family throwing this case to the provincial court for all those wasted years of my children, Kwiis Hamilton, now 19 years old, and my daughter, Sii-am Hamilton, who is 18 years old now. We still have no home to call our own for all Canada’s interference on my family, over fish. I finally received this ruling from the courts last few weeks ago! I do have other copies of rulings during this case if you want to see them sometime! https://wm.shaw.ca/service/home/~/20130411091643.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=25280&part=2 It is this ruling above that ultimately lead to me choosing to stop this trial! From the very beginning of trial 05670 on July 14, 2004, I have been denied and negated the protections afforded to me as an Indian/Aboriginal under Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, section 35. For me, it is about the Greater Good! I taught my children and they will teach their children as my parents, parents taught were them about the Greater Good of our families and nations. I chose to fight Mr. Finn Jensen, Q.C., for the Greater Good of Canada. What does that mean to many of us “Indians” in Canada today? Thousands of Indians across Turtle Island recognize the term for the Greater Good. I embrace what my seven generations mother’s and father’s taught me, and what I have taught my children, that we must consider and protect what we enjoy in this generation, for the next Seven Generations. That means helping protect our common clean air, water and soil, not only money. Instead, using Canada’s laws, the problems we Indians are suffering now are nothing short of assimilation and genocidal practices on each other. Our problems of internal-colonialism and internal-genocidal practices continue in the form of taking the meager transfer payments under the auspices of protecting our communities, while keeping us winners in law quiet. I say, scrap the Indian Act, and replace it with Section 35 Implementation and Enforcement Act, 2014! This re-writing of our own legislative processes and procedures then may become a powerful lever helping to promote better engagement and retention, cohesiveness and satisfaction where there is a role for everyone in our Coast Salish Nation; if re-organized right! The divisiveness of the Indian Act is genocidal! Our familial ties are broken down so much under its auspices, that having won on May 9, 2013 against Canada, in a provincial court, not one Sto:lo chief wanted to hear me speak on January 8, 2014. They’re all distracted, protecting their meager transfer payments or ill-fated BCTC treaty loans. The discussion instead was about Specific Claims in New Westminster and Yale Treaty business, and how can we deal with these two “side table issues”? How do we budget for those new items? Us Indians are dealing with imaginary lines constricting our movement and growth, so the governments of both BC and Canada can continue thieving, selling our lands and resources to China, Taiwaan and United States of America. I suggest, we need to re-group, and strategize on how to counter these corporate grabs on our remaining estates, especially in BC. How do we counter front-line workers for Canada, we meet with the Attorney General with our own agenda! We must get it through to Canada, and BC that we cannot eat oil or gas! We have human rights, locally and internationally! The ethical responsibilities for the Greater Good include managing the smallest footprint on our collective Mother Earth. Our human problems succumb to excess! We do not have to live with excess and pollution! The victory that I won on May 9, 2013 is for all Aboriginals in Canada, and especially in BC. The majority of our Coast Salish Peoples, Indians right across Canada can benefit from this victory, given the proper and right interpretation. Unfortunately, on January 8 in Scowlitz, this year at the Sto:lo Chiefs Roundtable session, I heard with my own ears, Grand Chief Joe Hall mis-interpreting our Aboriginal victory from May 9, 2013, calling it the Kelly versus Regina case. The topic at hand was whether or not we as Sto:lo Nation and Sto:lo Tribal Council should file an application into the BC Supreme Court over Yale Treaty. In some of Hall’s statements on January 8 this year, during his discussion to the Sto:lo Tribal Council Chiefs and Sto:lo Nation Chiefs table, Hall was pitting “if you do not sign a Band Council Resolution to help us (Sto:lo Nation) file a petition/application to the BC Supreme Court, then your deemed to be ‘Against’ Sto:lo Nation, and if you do send your BCR you will be listed ‘Against’ the Yale Treaty. So, I go up to the chairmans’ seat, and and say, Joe, what are you saying? If you Chiefs don’t sign the BCR to file an application into the BC Supreme Court over the Yale Treaty, your band name then is listed supporting Canada’s bid to see this Yale Treaty go through. Further, if you send in a BCR supporting this application for the BC Supreme Court, then, you are against the Yale Treaty? I listened with no voice, because, in those Indian Act meetings, one must be a chief or councilor to say anything. I argued with Joe right there, saying he is mis-interpreting my/our victory! I told Joe, your using my life’s work as a pitting against each other and that is very wrong! I left all the papers connected to our victory of May 9, 2013, hoping some chiefs might read them, and give me a call for legislative change. No calls yet. We do not have a treaty, Us Sto:lo, nor do the majority of our Coast Salish and other nations in what we now call British Columbia. The Biggest Problem of all that we Indians have in Canada, is the divisive money on the table. What money is on the negotiations table, and under what auspices? Well, there’s the Indian Act money, and the government of Canada sends enough for a few on each reserve! As in, they send enough money to cause us to fight over the meager transfer payments; these transfer payments are a poor substitute for what could be our Aboriginal Rights and Title money over our resources. Then there’s the British Columbia Treaty Commission money. This money is generated from our own resources, then, given to us to negotiate over no more than 3 – 5% of our natural resources and land base, under the BCTC framework agreement signed on September 21, 1992 under the Mulroney, Harcourt governments! It was late Joe Mathias, the current Grand Chief Edward John and the previous elected leader of the Haida Nation who penned the Expensive and Useless mandates under the BCTC treaty process. Why would they sign this framework agreement, knowing it was so flawed? I suggest those borrowed treaty dollars are the same reason why the current chiefs are in office, for the money! During the vote, they make similar promises to the Peoples on reserves, and guard their income profusely! So, what good is it guarding that transfer payment money, transfer payment money does nothing for our hereditary and inherent rights and titles to our own resources and money. The elected chiefs and councilors seem to be busy protecting their transfer payments. I say, protect those transfer payments, go ahead, but, when will they hand over the reigns to a Resource and Development office, separate from the Indian Act money? By separating the two offices, then we can deal with the theft of our resources, without feeling our Indian Act money will be drawn back! Otherwise, both the BCTC process money and the Indian Act money are no more than SCAM money! Keep the Indians fighting over the meager transfer payments and borrowed treaty money in Canada. Keep the Indian Act leaders in power of all resources. Keep them fighting amongst themselves, so that Canada and the other provinces, including BC can keep thieving our lands and resources. This must stop, the Theft of our Indian resources in BC and Canada! Stand up! Stand up! Not only are we Indians suffering the onslaught of government thievery of our resources and lands, we are suffering from the influx of corporations from taking control of our remaining reserves lands! The small land base we have left on reserves is now being sold off for $1.00 in some of our reserves. For example, the Aquiline Group just won a referendum at Te Sleil Wa Tuth just before Christmas this year. The Aquilini’s received 10.1 Hectares for $1.00. What is going on here? Why must we sign deals like this one? It’s terrible and getting worse. We have assimilated! Is this subjugation and narrowing of ourselves is helping our communities? Who is making the most benefit under these two scams? On January 8 this year, Grand Chief Joe Hall says at the political legal table, “oh, we don’t want to talk about program and services at this Roundtable”. So far in my life experience, I have learned that these bureaucratic and Indian Act leaders are protecting their own pockets and the pockets of their children, primarily! So, if this is the case, then what is happening to the majority of our hungry ones? We are the hungry ones now! We have more hungry band members than not? What about our homeless family members? What do we do when the majority of our elected council members are continuously on a learning curve? The characters elected as Chairs for Sto:lo Nation and Sto:lo Tribal Council, and, especially the Grand Chief of Skawalook tell us they are fighting for our future generations. Chief Chapman spoke about lateral violence to the Assembly of Chiefs at the Union of BC Indian Chiefs on September 12, 2013. During that speech, she describes what ‘lateral violence’ is! She said it could mean controlling who gets to say what, or it could mean whether or not a person get work or not! I suggest this elected leader had control as to whether I got to speak or not, along with the elected leader of Leq’a:mel, who did not stick around for the full meeting. She left, after it was made clear that I would not get to share aspects of my / our victory with the Indian Act leaders at the table on January 8, in Scowlitz. So, who’s voice got heard on that day? What was accomplished but sweet bugger all, as usual! So, I left! What is the difference between the elected leadership and the traditional leadership? Under the auspices of the elected leadership, those elected, also Hog all the bureaucratic jobs in the office. Our hereditary/inherent system of governance accounts for every one! Since the inception of the Indian Act, there are more “Indians” in jail or homeless than any other nationality in Canada. What are those elected leaders doing to protect the People, nothing? What are the hereditary Leaders doing, they are doing their best to maintain their course of meager transfer payments! What do we have, we have conflict! That’s intended by the government, their scam is to make us fight each other. We have assimilated! Thanks in large part to Indian Act leaders like Joe Hall, Maureen Chapman, and Doug Kelly! Those “grand” characters. We the hereditary leaders must get to the legislature at minimum to have any chance for change for the Greater Good of our Peoples. What are we talking about in Canada anyways? We are now talking about clean air, clean water and clean soil for our future generations. This argument is not about whether or not we have Indian Status and Indian Act powers? We must be protect our common clean air, water and soil in North America and Canada. The only way we will maintain our clean air, water and soil is if we band together and work to save ourselves, and the next seven generations chances for the same things we enjoy today! Simple, right? Unfortunately, what are we talking about really? We are talking about Canada’s 1969 assimilationist White Paper Policies of past Prime minister, Pierrre Elliot Trudeau, and then Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chretian. I told you in our brief telephone discussion yesterday that I am sad that their white paper policy has succeeded. As an example, the discussion on January 8 at Scowlitz was in part about Chapman telling Hall, “don’t step on my toes”! I never heard that talk before! Back in the day, our leaders of the 50’s and 60’s had it right, they fought together! Now, all we seem to do is fight each other! There are many well-known issues among and between us Indians and Canada, and British Columbia. Since contact, it is well known to scholars and others from inside and outside of the reserve system of governance that we are now fighting for clean air, clean water and clean soil. Unfortunately, some people who wear the colonial Indian Act Chiefs Hat, are taking money from Kinder Morgan; such as the Chief of Leq’a:mel. How much money did Chief Alice Thompson take from Kinder Morgan, and why? I did not give her consent to take money from that corporation. These cagey types in office seem to want money for themselves. The current Indian Act leaders should be ashamed of themselves for they’re not in office for the Greater Good! How do we develop strong leaders in our traditional system of governance, when the government is so powerful at dividing us? I believe we have a slender thread of hope, but, it is not under the regime of the Indian Act. We can and will, if we go back to our Traditional form of Governance where there is room for everybody to survive and live together. Thanks again for listening! Even though we are so divided, I still have hope for Our Greater Good.g
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 22:30:30 +0000
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