Westbank Indigenous Nation Begins Logging B.C. Crown Land
9/24/99
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Title: Westbank Nation Begins Logging BC Crown Land
Source: Toronto National Post
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 24, 1999
Byline: Charlie Gillis, National Post
B.C., Natives at Odds as First Nation Harvests Wood on Crown Land;
Other Bands Vow to Begin Logging Public Land in a Few Days
The B.C. government took its dispute over native logging to the
public arena yesterday, running media ads accusing the Westbank
Tribal Nation of breaking the law by cutting trees on Crown land.
At the same time, provincial lawyers initiated legal proceedings to
stop the band from logging in a valley outside Kelowna -- an area the
aboriginals say is theirs to harvest under a Supreme Court of Canada
decision.
"The Westbank First Nation says that [the] Delgamuukw [decision]
gives them the right to harvest Crown timber. It does not," said the
ads, which ran in two newspapers and on radio in the Okanagan.
"No court ruling, including the Supreme Court of Canada's Delgamuukw
ruling, has changed this .... There are peaceful, legal solutions
available."
The advertisements, which cost the province $7,000, were the latest
salvo in an escalating dispute pitting aboriginals against
government, the lumber industry and an increasingly vocal portion of
the province's non-native population.
Members of the Westbank Nation began logging near Hidden Creek 17
days ago after treaty negotiations with the provincial and federal
governments broke off.
They have since refused to comply with a stop work order from the
Ministry of Forests, and an attempt to mediate by Phil Fontaine,
Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, failed to produce a
solution.
In the meantime, the native loggers have cut more than 4 1/2
hectares, or 15 truckloads, of pine on a site about 20 kilometres
northwest of Kelowna, even though provincial law forbids mills from
buying and processing the wood.
So far, the standoff has been peaceful. While band members set up an
encampment a few kilometres down the road from the work site, they
have not prevented forestry officials from entering the area to mark
the logs as seized. The foresters, meanwhile, have not attempted to
confiscate the logs.
The aboriginals argue the so-called Delgamuukw Supreme Court decision
of 1997 guarantees their right to natural resources on Crown lands
never surrendered by treaty.
Delgamuukw also recommended the issue be resolved through
negotiation.
But with treaty talks at a standstill -- and the B.C. government in a
state of upheaval following the resignation of the premier, Glen
Clark -- native leaders decided to start logging, effectively forcing
the issue before a judge.
That process began yesterday in Vancouver, with a hearing over
procedural matters in B.C. Supreme Court. The province has applied
for a compliance order forcing the natives to stop logging, and is
expected to obtain a hearing date within a few days.
But Westbank tribal leaders suggested yesterday an order would not
stop them from cutting.
Ron Derrickson, Chief of the Westbank First Nation, noted yesterday
the province's stop-work order applies only to the cut block his
members are now logging.
"There's only enough wood to last a few more days, and then we'll
move on to another block," he said. "I guess the province will have
to get another compliance order."
There are also signs the province's aboriginal groups are forming a
common front to fight the government: At least two more bands in the
B.C. Interior have vowed to follow Westbank's example and begin
logging on Crown land within a few days. And representatives of more
than 100 B.C. tribal groups passed a resolution supporting the
Westbank action at a meeting in Vancouver last week.
Until yesterday, the government had responded gingerly to these
development, avoiding inflammatory statements and leaving the cut
logs on the site.
Dave Hall, a spokesman for the Ministry of Forests, said the ads were
intended to help residents make sense of the dispute.
"We're consistently getting the message that members of the public
don't understand what's going on, and what the legal issues are with
Delgamuukw," he said. "It's not that there's no real issues here.
It's a question of how to resolve them."