OPEN LETTER

Prime Minister Jean Chretien
Government of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
CANADA

August 30, 2002

Dear Prime Minister:

We are writing to applaud your decision to retire from public office. However, we strongly urge you to consider hastening your departure from office, so that the Liberal Party of Canada can get on with choosing another Leader and begin the matter of governing the country, sooner rather than later.

We are also calling on you not to include First Nation issues in your "legacy agenda". As we have grave concerns about your perceptions of First Nations and your government's current legislative agenda as it affects First Nation peoples. Our preference, given your personal record-to-date as it relates to First Nations, is to have a discussion with your successor about the future of the First Nations-Canada relationship.

At the beginning of your political career you acknowledged you knew nothing regarding First Nations and our issues. In fact, you wrote in your autobiography "Straight From the Heart", that when you were campaigning in British Columbia during the 1968 federal election, you were asked what was the federal government's policy towards "Indians", and you replied, "I don't know a damned thing about it!" As you said in your little book, three weeks later you were named Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, a position you held from July 1968 until August 1974.

One of the first things you did during your tenure as Minister of Indian Affairs was to develop a "White Paper on Indian Policy", and you introduced it into Parliament in 1969. This was done after a questionable "consultation process" which First Nations Leaders participated in during 1968. After that your "1969 White Paper on Indian Policy" was introduced into Parliament and it was apparent that it did not reflect the outcome of the 1968 consultations. Robert Nault's so-called consultation process for your government's "First Nations Governance Act" (Bill C-61) seems to be a repeat of the 1968-69 fiasco.

During the so-called consultations of 1968-69, our leaders demanded that the federal government stop focussing on the Indian Act in order to recognize and respect our Aboriginal and Treaty rights. Our peoples were deliberately misled in the so-called "consultation process" that led to the unveiling of the 1969 White Paper.

Our organization, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs was formed to stop the application of your 1969 White Paper. We objected to the tenets of your paper which were:

· The termination of Aboriginal and Treaty rights by altering our political and legal status;
· The elimination of First Nation reserve lands and severing First Nations connection to traditional (and treaty) territories;
· The assimilation of First Nations into Canada's mainstream property and tax system.

These 1969 White Paper tenets are alive and well in your government's legislative agenda consisting of the Specific Claims Resolution Act (Bill C-60); First Nations Governance Act (Bill C-61) and First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act.

It does not matter to us that your government has been able to recruit some former chiefs and technicians to champion your legislative initiatives.

We oppose all three pieces of your government's "legislation suite" because the legislation was drafted without our involvement or consent. Moreover, the legislation fundamentally violates our constitutionally protected and judicially recognized Aboriginal title and rights.

We remember the battle over the Patriation of the Canadian constitution to include section 35 in what became the Constitution Act 1982. It was the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs that organized the "Constitution Express" in 1980, to bring First Nation peoples to Ottawa in order to ensure our voices were heard and that our Aboriginal title and rights were recognized and respected in Canada's new constitution.

During your tenure as Minister of Justice at the time, you traded our rights off to the western provinces, particularly Alberta. When First Nations from across the country began to respond to our exclusion from the draft constitution, by taking political and legal actions, you agreed to re-insert the clause regarding Aboriginal and Treaty rights. However, you added the word "existing" into the clause in a blatant attempt to limit or restrict future negotiations and court rulings between First Nations and the Crown. You and your government's intentions became evident during the 1983-84 First Ministers Conferences on Aboriginal Matters, which a federal Liberal government presided over.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court of Canada in it's first ruling on section 35, the 1990 Sparrow decision, the judicial branch of the federal government rightly held that section 35 recognizes and protects those rights that existed upon Patriation, in other words, as at April 17, 1982. In our view, that includes our Aboriginal title and rights.

As the Prime Minister of Canada and Leader of your Party from 1993 until now, we hold you personally responsible for deliberately misleading First Nations and Canadians with the broken promises contained not only in your now infamous "1993 Red Book" but the "Aboriginal Platform", which you personally released in Saskatchewan in October 1993.

It is obvious to us that since you became Prime Minister you have consistently been applying your outdated 1969 White Paper views, in your government's negotiations with First Nations, as well as, your government's First Nation policy and legislative initiatives.

As far as the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs is concerned, your legacy regarding First Nation issues doesn't sit well with us.

If you want to be remembered by First Nations across the land for something other than introducing the "White Paper on Indian Policy" and breaking your 1993 "Red Book" promises, you should immediately withdraw your government's oppressive neo-colonial First Nations legislation, and commit senior federal officials into a policy reform process with First Nation that would lead to the development of mutually acceptable terms of a First Nations-Canada bilateral process.

This process should be based upon a joint review and implementation of the rights-based recommendations of the Final Report and Recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), which unfortunately you and your government has chosen to largely ignore.

As you now know, the United Nations, Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination has just issued its report, raising concern about Canada's incomplete implementation of the RCAP recommendations, as well as, the discrepancies between recent Canadian case-law regarding Aboriginal title and your government's outdated Comprehensive Claims policy.

In conclusion, we suggest that it is not too late for you to do right by First Nations and at the same time improve Canada's international reputation, which is becoming increasingly besmirched by you and your government's backwards policies and legislation regarding First Nations.

If you do not reverse your current course of action regarding First Nation issues, you can be rest assured that memories Canadians will have of your legacy will be First Nations' political and legal actions challenging your government's unilateral approach to impose your "1969 White Paper" inspired agenda during your final months as Prime Minister of Canada.

Sincerely,

[Original signed by Chief Stewart Phillip]

Chief Stewart Phillip
President

-- Established in 1969, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs is a political organization protecting the Aboriginal Title and Rights of our member communities. We are based in Kamloops and have an office in Vancouver. For further details visit our website at http://www.ubcic.bc.ca.