Dear Editor:
Our justice system has disconnected from the real world and is spiralling out of control.
The Haisla Indian Band is proposing to export LNG from a B.C. property that originally was slated for the Northern Gateway terminal to load and export oil.
Yes, the cat is finally out of the bag. It was all about money.
Forget about fish, water, environment, ancestry and holy spirits.
It was all about manipulating a judiciary that arbitrarily has adopted those massive claims for lands and resources as a vehicle to recreate Canada in its own image.
The June 2014 ruling on the BC Tsilhqot’in Indian’s land claim left a huge cloud of uncertainty over the issue of rights to lands and resources for all Canadians, Indians included.
The ruling states in part that “aboriginal rights are evolving and may only be clarified over time,” essentially extinguishing the concept of title.
Our judiciary has effectively decided to redefine Canada without any consideration for the rights associated with citizenship, and will instead proceed willy-nilly on a case by case basis, without providing the single most important criteria industry, governments and the people desperately need to move forward – closure.
The process will also continue to segregate the Indians and condemn them to live in poverty, without any realistic hope of developing a sustainable life style that will provide them with a quality of life enjoyed by other Canadians, and the resource industry will continue to be held hostage to our judiciary.
Andy Thomsen
Summerland
