Defiant Westbank Indian Band Begins Logging Crown Land in B.C.
9/8/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Defiant Westbank band begins logging Crown land
One native leader says a security force will be formed to
block attempts to halt the timber cut.
Source: Vancouver Sun
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 8, 1999
Byline: Jim Beatty with Kim Pemberton
VICTORIA -- In a move that some say could spark native Indian unrest
across B.C., the Westbank First Nation asserted Tuesday what it says
are its aboriginal rights by logging Crown lands without the
necessary provincial approvals.
And the head of the neighbouring Penticton band said a security force
of 50 of his members is ready to block any attempt by the RCMP or the
forests ministry to halt the logging.
Frustrated by months of provincial inaction, Westbank Chief Ron
Derrickson ordered more than a dozen loggers into an Okanagan forest
Tuesday afternoon, citing the Supreme Court of Canada's Delgamuukw
decision.
"We have basically all the Indians in B.C., along with some in
Alberta and the Yukon, supporting us as we begin cutting our own
aboriginal lands," Derrickson said shortly after his men began
falling timber.
"If they go in and try to stop us, this whole province is going to
get shut down. Every other band is going to exercise its rights. I
think it will be so widespread it will have an explosive effect."
Numerous native groups are backing the Westbank band and say
Tuesday's action could have widespread effects as other bands grow
increasingly frustrated by lengthy treaty talks and the failure of
the B.C. government to recognize aboriginal title.
Chief Stewart Phillip, who heads the militant Penticton band as well
as the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said a security force of more
than 50 of his own band members has been established and will move in
if any provincial authority attempts to stop the tree cutting.
"We would provide security by way of a blockade to deny access to any
enforcement agency -- either RCMP or forestry," said Phillip.
"To be honest I'm a bit nervous. The provincial government is in
complete disarray. When a government is so low in the polls they
could try and increase their popularity by coming in in a heavy-
handed way."
Forests ministry spokesman Paul Lickhoff said the staff from Kamloops
and Penticton district have been in touch with the Westbank band and
intend to visit the logging site today.
"We're making arrangements for our compliance and enforcement staff
to visit the site [today] and we'll assess the situation," he said.
"We're going to see if they're cutting down a whack of trees or one.
We don't know how much of an issue they got going here."
The logging is taking place about 20 kilometres northwest of
Westbank, a community just across Lake Okanagan from Kelowna.
The Westbank band claims the province has been unwilling to recognize
native entitlement and has refused to allow the band to cut timber on
land it has traditionally claimed.
After 10 months of inaction and frustration, Derrickson said it was
important for natives to assert their aboriginal claim on the land.
"We are not a blockade type of band. We are businessmen. We
negotiate," Derrickson said, adding he became frustrated with a
province unwilling to offer realistic solutions.
In taking Tuesday's action, Derrickson cited the Delgamuukw decision,
which says aboriginal title is protected by the Constitution. The
sweeping judgment found natives have a legal interest in resource
development on lands whose title was never surrendered.
The Westbank Indians are a small but moderate, progressive and
business-like band who have been more likely to be involved with
negotiations than with militancy.
Frank Cassidy, an aboriginal affairs specialist at the University of
Victoria, said the Westbank action may be a sign of increased native
unrest.
"It's certainly not an anomaly. It's the tip of the iceberg," Cassidy
said Tuesday. "What aboriginal people are saying is that if you won't
recognize our aboriginal title, we will assert our aboriginal title."
Cassidy said the B.C. government has failed to adequately address the
ramifications of the Delgamuukw decision -- and that has led to
increased native frustration.
"It's more than a tactic, it's more than a strategy. It's a move to
put the Crown on notice that it" must adequately respond to
Delgamuukw, Cassidy said. "The Crown is going to have to prove that
it has a better title to that land than Westbank has to that land."
Peter Smith, spokesman for the aboriginal affairs ministry, played
down the controversy and said it would likely have little effect on
other bands.
"I don't think this is a powder keg waiting to go off," Smith said
Tuesday.
"While Westbank has taken this action, I don't think it signals First
Nations breaking away from the treaty process," he said, suggesting
the action is counterproductive to settling treaty claims.
Smith called it a serious situation but could not say what action the
government might take in response.
Tuesday's action, which was threatened for weeks, is being supported
by the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and Grand Chief Phil Fontaine of
the Assembly of First Nations, as well as the Okanagan and Shuswap
bands.
Derrickson said the forest ministry annually issues timber-cutting
licences to large companies for about 7.6 million cubic metres of
wood from the aboriginal area claimed by the Westbank.
In an effort to stimulate the native economy and get its members
working, Westbank has attempted to get annual cutting licences for
600,000 cubic metres.
All they have been offered, said Derrickson, are paltry amounts of
wind-blown and burned timber that isn't even within his band's
traditional territory.
"They won't even give us decent timber," he said. "It's just a joke.
Nobody will meet with us and now it's come down to this.'
There are about 190 bands in the province, of which about 130 are in
treaty negotiations with the province.
While the Westbank Indians are technically in the treaty process,
there have been no active talks for about a year.
The Westbank band is also involved in bilateral talks with the
federal government that would give it self-government status.