Confrontations with angry Indian leaders are nothing new for Indian Affairs ministers. September 29 will be noted as the first time one has been confronted by an angry mob of non-Indians. The first, but almost certainly not the last: time bombs set by the Supreme Court of Canada's 1997 Delgamuukw decision continue to detonate, leaving some dazed British Columbians wondering whether their province still exists.

As Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault met in Vancouver with Musqueam leaseholder Kerry-Lynne Findlay, about 100 leaseholders and their supporters demonstrated outside, chanting, "It's your fault, Robert Nault." Mr. Nault fled out a side door, avoiding those who vow to be dragged from their homes rather than accede to the eviction orders he has signed.

Vancouver's Musqueam reserve has about 200 leaseholders living in 75 homes. The tenants signed 99-year leases with the Department of Indian Affairs in 1965. They paid little at first, about $400 per year. In 1980 land management of the reserve was transferred secretly to the Musqueam; this was followed in 1991 by the transfer of property taxation authority. Meanwhile, the Musqueam were seeking big rent increases.

The Federal Court of Appeal in December 1998 set the annual rent at $22,000. Leaseholders owe between $62,000 to $112,000 in rent and taxes on their now worthless homes. On September 25 Indian Affairs gave them 30 days to pay in full. After his meeting with Ms. Findlay the minister declared, "Nothing has changed"; he insists he is merely enforcing the law.

Musqueam lawyer Lewis Harvey agrees, arguing that the leaseholders have for years benefited from a legal agreement that cheated the Indians. "The band would never have accepted such a lease that tied them to fixed rents for 30 years, with no chance of getting a market return," he says. "I didn't hear a single person taking up the band's complaints when the band was watching other people growing wealthy off their land, and they were getting crumbs for rent."

Gordon Gibson, Fraser Institute senior fellow and former B.C. Liberal Party leader, responds, "Musqueam has already caused a backlash against the whole treaty process." He explains, "The Musqueam tenants thought they had signed a lease with the Queen. They thought taxation was going to be done by the City of Vancouver. These are two authorities well known to people in our political process: authorities where people have a vote...To say this is a matter of contract is [Ottawa] trying to get out from its responsibility."

While Ottawa acts as the Musqueam enforcer, it refuses to defend the property rights of the Province of British Columbia. On September 7 Kelowna's Westbank Indian band began logging crown land illegally. The province obtained a stop-work order, but on September 27 the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the band could continue logging until constitutional issues could be heard. Mr. Nault said only that he would attempt to broker a compromise.

Chief Ron Derrickson claims that Delgamuukw, which established that native title in B.C. had never been extinguished, has made the crown land Indian land. "We've been negotiating with the province for the last 10 months to try to get some basic amount of timber so we can get our people to work," he says. "The government is so selfish."

A treaty negotiation meeting was scheduled for September 30, but the province withdrew. "The government position has always been we wouldn't negotiate while illegal activities were taking place or threats of illegal activities or unauthorized harvesting activities," says Ministry of Forests spokesman Dave Hall. The band's lawyer sent a letter saying the band had stopped logging temporarily, as the court had requested. But the Westbank also demanded the province stop granting and renewing timber licences in the area; it refused. Victoria has appealed. "We have a legal responsibility to manage forests on behalf of all British Columbians," Mr. Hall declares.

Mr. Derrickson calls the province's conditions intolerable: "They say there is very little timber left available to us, yet they want to issue licences." The band also wants to skid and deck the logs to preserve the wood, but the province considers this an escalation. Mr. Derrickson is planning his own escalation. He says the Interior Alliance of bands will go to the UN and the World Trade Organization and have all B.C. wood declared "hot, stolen from First Nations." Several other B.C. bands have joined the illegal logging, with more to come. "The bands have just run out of patience," Mr. Derrickson warns. "Some of the young warriors in the new society are threatening to burn it all—if we can't have our share, burn it all. I don't want to see violence happen."

Meanwhile, B.C. bands are paying close attention to a September 17 Supreme Court of Canada decision that gave Nova Scotia Indians the right to hunt and fish year round and sell their catches. Non-Indian fishermen estimate that 100,000 pounds of lobster have since been taken, and they have threatened to destroy traps if the government does not act. Ottawa has announced it will not intervene unless stocks are threatened with depletion. If B.C. Indians imitate their Maritime brethren, the reaction of B.C. fishermen, who complain already they are being squeezed out, can only be imagined.

Greg Hollingsworth, president of the B.C. Foundation for Individual Rights and Equality, says of Delgamuukw, "Perhaps Westbank is a chance for the provincial and federal governments to straighten this out. It involves a lot more than a few logs they're taking out." He cautions, however, "From the viewpoint of an average citizen, I think the government better stand up and defend the province...We're losing the whole concept of equality."

Mr. Gibson concludes that Delgamuukw has left "an enormous vacuum of uncertainty." Is B.C. still sovereign over its territory? "The short answer is nobody knows," he says. "The Supreme Court of Canada has said that there is an aboriginal title over some B.C. lands. It has declined to say where title exists or how much there is." (Mr. Derrickson's band, for instance, has existed only since the 1960s.) He concludes, "It seems to me the very first thing you have to say is you're going to find out what it means. Governments are disinclined to do that. What they're finding is the public is worried about this on the one hand, and the demands of aboriginals post-Delgamuukw are far larger than they imagined on the other. The gap is becoming unbridgeable." BCR

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