Adam Olsen: Wet’suwet’en conflict calls for good-faith dialogue
Credit to Author: Hardip Johal| Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2020 02:49:46 +0000
As the last legislative sitting of the decade came to a close in November, every member in the building voted to pass Bill 41, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
With its introduction we reaffirmed that Indigenous rights are human rights and our belief that the path forward — although not always clear or easy — is one that we must walk together.
The act does not confer any special rights or privileges. It merely upholds the rights that are already well-established in the courts and calls on the government to align its laws with those standards.
The passage of Bill 41 also marked the beginning of our next chapter of work — efforts that have been immediately tested in Wet’suwet’en territory.
Like many British Columbians, I watched with worry as the new year began (for the second year in a row) with escalating tensions between Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs fighting the Coastal GasLink pipeline slated to cut through their traditional territory, those working to advance construction, and the RCMP standing between them trying to enforce court orders.
This situation is a legacy of Canada’s colonial history and I know better than to underestimate its complexity. As an Indigenous person in Canada, I feel how strong and destructive that legacy can be. As an MLA and the interim leader of the B.C. Green party caucus, I see how it shapes where and how we live, how decisions are made, how lands are stewarded, where power lies, and the purposes for which it is used.
When the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs invited me to their territory last week, I was honoured for the opportunity. I also contacted the RCMP contingent in Smithers and asked if I could meet with them while I was in town. And I booked another trip to Prince George for the following week to attend the Natural Resource Forum.
I want to hear all perspectives and, crucially, I wanted to learn more about Wet’suwet’en laws and customs. We cannot use a narrow interpretation of the “rule of law” to shield us from the hard work of fair and just governing.
Courts in our country have been recognizing Indigenous law as legitimate for decades. The Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the rights of Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan hereditary chiefs specifically is, itself, decades old — as established in the 1997 Delgamuukw v. British Columbia decision.
With the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, I learned about their sophisticated governance structure that stretches back thousands of years. We may be more familiar with the band council system, which was put in place by the Indian Act, but that system does not govern all, or even most, Indigenous people in B.C., and it certainly has not extinguished everything that came before it.
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act does not give anyone veto power, but it does commit everyone to a new model of working together. It recognizes that the “rule of law” in British Columbia and Canada is complex and includes Indigenous law.
Now is the time for the B.C. government to embody the principles of its new act by making the time to peacefully work through challenges with a spirit of humility and willingness to listen and learn.
Adam Olsen is the interim B.C. Green party leader, the MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, and member of the Tsartlip First Nation.