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Possible solutions

If that cloistered Court that sits only in Ottawa, and requires that its members reside not more than 25 miles from the nation’s capital, thought that its decision would facilitate land claim negotiations in BC, it is sadly mistaken. The native leadership has become exceedingly strident. The Vancouver Sun headline got it right: "BC Indian chiefs lay claim to entire province, resources."¹⁰  The five-page list of impossible demands from the native leadership delivered to the federal and provincial ministers on January 31, 1998, entitled "Statement of BC Native Chiefs to DIAND Minister Stewart and Provincial Aboriginal Affairs Minister Cashore" confirms it.

The need is not to get land claim negotiations going again. The clear and present danger requires other remedies. This court decision goes to the very question of BC’s sovereignty and the right of its government to conduct its public affairs. It is time to take the necessary steps to shore up provincial sovereignty and our legitimacy as a province. The ministers and the native leadership should step aside. This is a matter to be resolved, insofar as it can be resolved, at the highest level by the duly elected governments in Ottawa and Victoria. That is the government-to-government relationship that needs to swing into action. The prime minister of Canada and the premier of BC should agree on the two courses of action outlined below.

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Last Modified: August 23, 2000.