B.C. mine approved over First Nation objections

Sweet. Mines are pretty much our shops bread and butter now that forestry is dead and burried.

I agree. BC needs more mnes.

Good Lord. When are you people going to put a final end to this land claim BS?

The way our government works....ummmm....never?

Either A) Canada's constitution is amended to end all the racist BS built into it

or B) When the Natives own every inch of land in Canada

This one's the greatest news in the area. The whole town was worried that they gov't would cave in to a dozen malcontents. The mine is not in their jurisdiction. Period.
It's about a trapline, unused for years (duh I guess so eh? Who fucking traps in 2009?) and how the guy got himself elected Chief.
Now STFU and worry about getting your people jobs at the mine.

A few years back, the bands were asked to submit their land claims. After compiling the claims and doing the math, the natives claimed that they owned approximately 110% of the province.... Neat, huh?

Sounds like someone didn't get a cut for work they didn't do.

Ah, good old liberal Canada: sympathy for palestinians, sympathy for Black Americans, sympathy for all the exploited and down-trodden peoples of the world...except those goddam indians, who need to shut up, get a job, and accept their position at the bottom of the totem pole (no pun intended).

How about all historically disputed land is off limits to permanent development until its resolved?

All 110% of BC land?

Yeah, just like Obama is a secret muslim born in Africa. This so-called "fact" is nothing other than selectively chosen facts.

I mean, did anyone ever question the accuracy of this claim before they accepted it as truth and started circulating it around the water cooler? It doesnt pass the smell test: Lets use some logic for a second: how do you think this demand for 110% of land went down exactly? Do you think "they" demanded that the BC govt expand the surface of the planet or annex neighbouring provinces and states in order to accomodate them?

The fact that people just pile on the band wagon and accept questionable claims like this is just further proof that people form biased opinions first, then cling to whatever "facts" support their preconceptions second.

Yeah, just like Obama is a secret muslim born in Africa. This so-called "fact" is nothing other than selectively chosen facts.

I mean, did anyone ever question the accuracy of this claim before they accepted it as truth and started circulating it around the water cooler? It doesnt pass the smell test: Lets use some logic for a second: how do you think this demand for 110% of land went down exactly? Do you think "they" demanded that the BC govt expand the surface of the planet or annex neighbouring provinces and states in order to accomodate them?

The fact that people just pile on the band wagon and accept questionable claims like this is just further proof that people form biased opinions first, then cling to whatever "facts" support their preconceptions second.


Well, I tell you what. I call bullshit on some fo their claims - particularly the coastal ones. Some historical info suggests the natives did not penetrate to deep in to the rain forests, and having travelled extensively, I can say first hand that traversing a lot of that land is damned impractical.

Claiming land they never touched is just opportunistic and wroing.

well, alot of this "110%" nonsense is really based on competing land claims from different tribes claiming the same area. Some anti-Native opportunist figured out that if he added up the total area claimed by all tribes it would add up to some ridiculous amount.

But remember, Aboriginals travelled primarliy by water, not over land so it would make sense that they would claim areas near water. In addition, the provincial, federal, and British governments also made all kinds of promises to grant land, even if the natives weren't on that land. For example, the current Six Nations reserve here in Ontario is on land granted to Indians who fought for Canada in the war of 1812. Many of the Inuit in the Nothern Territories were relocated from the south due to land grants from the federal gov't. So its not just a question of whether their ancestors lived there, its a question of whether the land was promised to them or not. I get that up until 50 years ago or so, we made a lot of promises that we never had any intention of honouring, but that needs to be taken into account.


Second question, what if I was able to prove that you almost never went into your basement? Does that give me the right to claim your basement as my property? I mean, they lived here first and lived off of the animals that migrated all over the continent. Maybe when it comes to claiming land, instead of asking "what right do they have as the original inhabitants," we should be asking "what right do we have as invading conquerors?"

By the above statement, I mean to illustrate the fact that we feel entitled to claim everyting, except some small amount we must negotiate away to accomodate Natives. Maybe we should look at it from the other angle, maybe are entitled to everyting that we can not negotiate for ourselves? Ask yourself that question and it all comes down to our superior use of military force. But is that a fair basis for negotiation?

Beaver, in this case it is resolved. In this case a member of the grieving band married a member of the other long ago. And was granted a keyoh, an area to trap.
The direct descendants, not the majority of individuals in the Band (who want work) claim that means they own it, not the Band who has the treaty in the area.
In other words, if your Dad took a French warbride, France now owns Canada. (Paraphrased from a letter to the editor in the local paper)
The individuals holding the claim got themselves elected.
Now they have the entire Band resource to enforce their personal claim. And threaten to sue anyone who even suggests a conflict of interest.
So tack that to a populace that needs the jobs as the mills are down. Plenty of training grants for PLUS more grants only for native training. No one is being held back asides from those who are represented by those who (seem) more interested in personally gaining than those they represent.
Here we aren't saying 'go out and get a job', we're trying to make the jobs and so they can work beside us like we used to in the mill. That's what everyone wants, but because of our continuing bullshit of silent apartheid these guys do not have the democratic right to call a bullshit politician an ass without repercussions.
Don't claim the guy with 15 trucks, 4 graders, 6 cats and his 30-50 employees that you were elected to represent wants you to keep them sitting there idle.
I think we're close to seeing the next news article one about how the people storm an office and throw out their representatives.
There's hundreds of jobs involved in construction and hundreds in the mine itself when it opens. Good jobs. And thousands of spinoffs. There is no bottom on this totem pole.