Living Treaties, Lasting Arrangements

Tags

Comprehensive Claims Policy, Federal Liberals Comprehensive Claims Policy, Living Treaties Lasting Arrangements

Report of the Task Force to Review Comprehensive Claims Policy, 1985

This report is a timepiece – exposing a brief window of candor on the part of Canada’s political engineers. It is an analysis of the federal approach to minimizing Indigenous scope for land title restitution – after the Supreme Court failed to unanimously agree that Aboriginal rights no longer existed, after Calder in 1973, Canada wrote its Comprehensive Claims Policy. The report includes corresponding insight and recommendation.

The report is attached here in 7 parts via the link above.

It came in the midst of the First Ministers’ conferences on implementation of constitutional Aboriginal rights, 1982-1987.  Written after the 1982 Constitution Act, grappling with Section 35 where “Aboriginal and treaty rights are hereby affirmed” and before that First Ministers Conference series imploded in 1987 (accomplishing nothing except a formal return to “talk and log” politics), this report is unique in its unequivocal, explicit recognition of extensive Indigenous rights and the corresponding Canadian obligations. The Task Force received submissions from 60 Indigenous nations and organizations during its work.

Note that this volume is now all but inaccessible. Also note this report’s extensive and useful bibliography.

Canada’s laws, policy create “immunity” for perpetrators of violence against Indigenous women

Tags

aboriginal title, IACHR, Missing Women, Murdered Women, National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Report by Inter-American Commission highlights institutionalized discrimination; judicial ineffectiveness; culture of inequality.

The Inter American Commission on Human Rights has released a 125 page report on the situation of “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada.” The IACHR is the most significant human rights mechanism in the Americas; it is an arm of the Organization of American States.

The report refers graphically to the many and frequent realities among indigenous women of violence, murder, suicide, poverty, discrimination, marginalization, imprisonment, psychological harm, child apprehension, social and cultural deprivation, lack of housing, lack of education; and it overwhelms the imagination.

“Discrimination” is the root cause of disproportionately high incidences of murder and disappearance of Indigenous Women, according to the report’s findings. In fact, its key recommendation to Canada focuses on the resolution of that deadly discrimination:

“…This means addressing the past and present institutional and structural inequalities confronted by indigenous women in Canada. This includes the dispossession of indigenous lands, as well as historical laws and policies that negatively affected indigenous people, the consequences of which continue to prevent their full enjoyment of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.”[i]

Discriminatory practices and norms of the colonial process are now firmly embedded in Canadian law; in Canadian institutions such as the RCMP and the public education system; have caused very recent historical harms; and permit prejudice in the mainstream culture and society. The Commissioners have focused on substantial evidence of these many kinds of endemic discrimination and the link it makes to “immunity” for those who commit crimes against indigenous women.

It’s the real and perceived lack of consequences for crimes against indigenous women which results in their being eight times more likely to be murdered than Canadian women. (p.49 #90)

The Commissioners referenced a dozen major United Nations human rights treaties in order to deal with Canada’s rejection of the IACHR report (pp.57-63). The Inter American Commission has jurisdiction to look into human rights issues which are covered in the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, a treaty applicable to every state member of the Organization of American States, but in making its formal observations on the IACHR’s report, Canada suggested it “is not bound by obligations contained in human rights instruments to which it has not consented to be bound.”

An array of secondary factors contributing to the exceptional vulnerability of indigenous women are caused by the same dominant theme of discrimination. These are not the front-line brutalities of homicidal racists, but social and economic problems created by state laws and policies which expose indigenous women, uniquely, to those murderers. In its study the IACHR report has shown a number of mechanisms, many of them organized and funded by the state, which churn indigenous women out onto the street and into desperate circumstances.

The IACHR report is so extensive in its documentation and findings that Canada will now finally have the international reputation it deserves.

The types of recommendations the Commission concluded its report with were so basic, such as police training to accurately receive reports of missing women and girls; and so consistent with the calls for action coming from Indigenous Peoples and indigenous organizations for the past twenty years, such as support for victims’ families to pursue justice, and a national inquiry; that the “discrimination” Canada is charged with is clearly an institutionalized, active, and meaningful – if not coordinated – attack.

The Commission notes many instances of failures to prevent violence against these women and failure to properly punish, or even find, the offenders – but those failures have carried on for decades and even generations. The situation appears less like a “failure” of justice and more like a “success” for Canada’s overarching goal to control all the lands and resources without interference from Indigenous Peoples. But that reality is not contemplated in the IACHR’s highly political report.

The report is dated December 21, 2014, and was produced over the last two years from data provided by sources in Canada, international conferences, and interviews conducted by Commissioners during an official visit to investigate the circumstances surrounding the internationally infamous magnitude of violence against indigenous women and girls in Canada. The Commissioners travelled to and held meetings in Vancouver, Prince George and Ottawa in 2013.

The report focuses on British Columbia

The number of cases in BC is the highest across Canada with 160 cases: 28% of the database compiled by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC). The province with the second most cases is Alberta with only a little more than half the number from BC: 93 cases, 16% of the NWAC total. As of 2010, NWAC had compiled a list of 582 women and girls missing or murdered in the past 30 years. NWAC’s funding to pursue that documentation was cut off by the government of Canada in 2010.

The RCMP has disclosed a number of cases of murdered indigenous women which is double that of the NWAC data. In May of 2014, the report “Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview,” showed 1,181 cases of indigenous female homicides across Canada between 1980 and 2012. 120 of those cases have not been solved. This number only includes files held by the RCMP, and not provincial or territorial police organizations.

When the Walk4Justice group crossed Canada on foot, annually, between 2008-2011, organizers believed they had collected the names of over 3,000 indigenous women who had been murdered or disappeared.

While BC has the most documented cases of murder and disappearance, the IACHR report says:

“This figure does not include the potentially large number of cases that have not been documented due to marginalization and fear of the victims, and deficiencies in the investigation.” (p.17, A. 3)

 

Discrimination: in law, institutions and mainstream culture

RCMP and Discrimination

“The kinds of irregularities and deficiencies that have been denounced and documented include: poor report taking and follow up on reports of missing women; inadequate proactive strategies to prevent further harm to women in the Downtown Eastside; failure to consider and properly pursue all investigative strategies; failure to address cross-jurisdictional issues; ineffective coordination between police; and insensitive treatment of families.” (p.12 #6)

Relying on testimonials from family members of victims, Commissioners described a stark picture of the experience of reporting a missing woman or girl at a police station. Many families of victims told the Commissioners that “police officers did not take their complaints seriously and frequently stereotyped the women as transient.” (p. 35, #55) Stunned by the response of the RCMP when he tried to find out the progress of investigations into his sister’s disappearance, Siam Moody told Commissioners in Prince George, “For years the RCMP did not do anything, like if there were different rules for her.” (p. 35, #55)

A family member who went to RCMP to report a relative missing from the Downtown Eastside was told by the officer, “whoever is doing this is cleaning up the streets.” (p. 35, #57)

While the State advised IACHR Commissioners in 2013 that there is no waiting time to report a missing person, testimonies by families of missing women and girls repeatedly included being made to wait 72 hours before being allowed to report a person as missing, even if that person was a child. (p. 35, #58)

A report prepared by Human Rights Watch in 2013 documented the regular assault of Indigenous women by RCMP in northern British Columbia, and this was referenced by the IACHR in their study.

Commissioners often assumed a defensive posture in framing their report. Presumably this is because Canada’s response to their report was an attempt to dismiss or undermine the status of outstanding human rights violations on their own part. However, “…the Canadian state is obliged to continue the investigation of unsolved cases… The authorities cannot justify the failure to complete an investigation or prosecution on insufficient proof if the reason for the insufficiency is deficiencies or irregularities in the investigation.” (p.13 #12)

One of the fifteen recommendations the IACHR made to Canada to help it solve the problem of high rates of murdered and missing indigenous women was development of policy for officials responding to a case of a missing person, in particular an indigenous woman. Another recommendation suggested oversight of officials involved in such investigations, and mechanisms to hold them accountable. Of all the irregular and questionable actions taken by police, at least those analyzed in the BC Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry, no charges were pursued against those officers – because they had retired.

The state has an obligation to prevent violence, through all kinds of means such as public education; prohibitively effective sentencing for offenders; and even warning potential victims when a threat has become noticeable. (p.77 #171-177) The failure to prevent demands compensation, and an investigation into what caused the failure. The Vancouver police, the RCMP and Crown counsel could have taken a number of measures to prevent the death toll exacted by Robert Pickton. Today there are over 90 children of the deceased victims who are eligible for compensation for that failure.

The IACHR referred to a Human Rights Council resolution from 2010 regarding the state’s obligation to “exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of violence against women and girls, and that the failure to do so “violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”” (p.72 #156) And, significantly, “…a state may incur an international responsibility for failing to act with due diligence to prevent, investigate, sanction and offer reparations for acts of violence against women, a duty which may apply to actions committed by private actors in certain circumstances.” (p.73, #158)

The connection between police and the fact that Pickton continued to murder for two decades bears closer scrutiny. The word on the street is that a sex worker went in to the Vancouver Police Department to report her assault the night before at “Piggy’s Palace,” as the Pickton property was known, only to see one of the men from the incident standing on the other side of the counter in VPD uniform. She did not carry through with the report. A more heavily documented connection has appeared in the form of Corporal Jim Brown who, at the same time as working in an official capacity for the Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry, posed in a staged series of photographs: kidnapping a dark haired woman from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver; removing her to an isolated area; caging her; threatening her with knives; and showing sexual satisfaction. Brown was based in the RCMP detachment in Coquitlam, the same city where the remains of 49 women were found at Pickton’s pig farm. The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was examining why it took police so long to catch Pickton. Brown played a “minor role” during the investigation of Pickton, according to VPD. Those connections aren’t questioned in the IACHR report but they include that in his report on the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, Commissioner Oppal “noted that there were allegations of conspiracy and cover-up on the part of the police forces.” (p.90 #207)

The State provided one example of positive developments between RCMP and local people, the E-PANA Task Force which connects RCMP and the Carrier Sekani Family Services, among others. The CSFS at least reported improvements in safety and a positive experience. The Force was focused on increasing the speed of communication between police and community members, public outreach and more, and its funding was all but discontinued last year. The E-Pana task force, an RCMP investigation into eighteen deaths along the Highway of Tears, produced one suspect but was unable to link him to any other murders, most victims were Indigenous women, since it started in 2006 and spent $25 million.

Canadian Law and Discrimination

The Indian Act, and Indian Status, is identified in the report as a major cause of psychological, emotional, cultural and economic harm to indigenous women, leading to their increased vulnerability to predators. Poverty and homelessness are two of the main impacts of Canadian law concerning Indigenous women considered in the report.

Until 1985, indigenous women who married had to transfer their Band membership to the man’s Indian Band. Returning home from a failed marriage would be difficult, as Band membership is connected to eligibility for housing, and housing is inadequate for current needs on the Reserves to the effect that some waiting lists are fifteen years long. Indian women who married non-Indian men lost their Indian Status, they had children who could not be registered as Status Indians, and they lost rights to whatever minimal economic benefits may have come from Band membership. Although changes have been made, since 1985, to reverse some of these exclusions, the Indian Act “fails to fully address remaining concerns about gender equality.” (p 41, #68)

The resulting homelessness has been a major factor in exposing indigenous women to assault. Homelessness also makes all kinds of personal development, including economic and social, unreachable.

Canada has a very large carpet especially designed for sweeping problems connected to Indigenous Peoples under. It stretches out between the power of the federal government concerning aboriginal people, or Indians, and the provinces’ power over matters which affect aboriginal people. Sometimes, as in the case of on-reserve social services, only the federal government is involved – and other times, for instance when enforcing laws of general application, the province is involved. When there is a problem, an issue, or even a crisis of these proportions being studied here, the two governments can both refuse responsibility on the grounds that the problem is within the other’s jurisdiction. The State’s use of this trick was identified many times as having played a part in the ongoing nature of murders and disappearances of Indigenous women across Canada.

The BC Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women summarized another of the substantial impacts of the legal gap this way:

“Aboriginal women continue to be denied essential forms of assistance and to receive piece-meal services because of the lack of clarity about legislative jurisdiction and the competing interests of federal, provincial and territorial governments regarding governments’ constitutional, moral and financial responsibilities for providing services to Aboriginal peoples. This issue was first identified over 35 years ago, yet little has been done to ameliorate the situation.” (p.86, #191)

The IACHR report recommends Canada solve that problem.

The Commission identified the “structural discrimination” which is the Indian Act. It noted that in cases where discrimination is actually part of a State’s legal structure, work must be done not only to remove the sub-standard laws but to promote those who were discriminated against back into a position of equality. (p.66 #132)

Canadian Courts and Discrimination

The report summarizes the terrifying crimes of serial killer Robert Pickton, who is thought to have murdered 49 women around Vancouver – most of them Indigenous women. The Pickton case was closed by the courts after he had been found guilty of six counts of second degree murder and sentenced with six terms of life imprisonment. Trial to determine the fate of the other women believed to have been murdered by Pickton was never held, as those proceedings ‘couldn’t increase his sentence.’ The failure of the courts to see that justice was done for the other victims, and their families, does not seem to have been a consideration for the courts and this is noted by the Commission.

The report remarked on BC Judge David Ramsay sexually assaulting four Indigenous girls who had all appeared before him in youth or family court. The judge’s crimes continued for two years after an RCMP investigation began in 1999.

Unfortunately the IACHR never quite identifies what it is about Canadian law that is at the center of the “discrimination” they have uncovered. Canadian law and its imposition and enforcement in Indigenous homelands where there are no treaties to legitimize that law is the original, essential violation of the human rights in question. It is that dehumanization of Indigenous individuals and the centuries long all-out assault on their people, national economies, cultures, spiritual life – all in a competition for control of the land and resources – which is the wellspring of unrelenting hate, violence and dismissal today.

There are dozens of references to recent IACHR cases which should be informing Canada’s response to the crisis. Violence against Indigenous women is a not unique to Canada – it is widespread throughout the Americas. Cases from South America in particular are very clear on the fact that “judicial ineffectiveness” is the same as impunity for offenders against Indigenous women (p.81 #184). And judicial ineffectiveness is also widespread when it comes to providing a climate of impunity for crimes against Indigenous individuals, and women, throughout the Americas – but it is not acceptable, and instead of incorporating the development of human rights available through the IACHR, Canada isolates itself and has to be found out and directly advised of the dozens of precedents which should be influencing Canadian judges and the entire court system.

“The Inter-American system has consistently found that a lack of due diligence that leads to impunity, and engenders further incidents of the very violence that was to be targeted, is itself a form of discrimination in access to justice. The Inter-American jurisprudence has established that States have the obligation to use all the legal means at their disposal to combat such situations, “since impunity fosters chronic recidivism of human rights violations, and total defenselessness of victims and their relatives.”” (p.81, #183. Quote from I.A. Court H.R., Loayza Tamayo Case Reparations, 1998.)

After the Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry, BC, an advisory committee was appointed to oversee the province’s implementation of the recommendations. In May of 2013, the Honourable Steven Point resigned as Chair and has not been replaced. The IACHR “has not been informed who is currently chairing the Advisory Committee and what other steps have been taken to implement the recommendations…” (p.117 #291)

Commissioner Oppal’s report highlighted two urgent actions: a grant to the WISH drop-in center in the Downtown Eastside, which has been achieved by BC, and a public transit system on Highway 16, on which subject no tangible progress has been seen. Oppal made no legal findings of discrimination during the Commission. The Union of BC Indian Chiefs made a statement about how: “the failed inquiry, far from assisting Indigenous women from the Downtown Eastside, ironically reinforced their marginalization.” (p. 97 #226)

Cultural Enforcement of Discrimination

Indigenous women have major barriers to keeping housing in their home communities, because of the Indian Act, and lack of housing is directly connected to the violence in question. Victims had levels of education far below Canadian averages, but in keeping with the fact that as of 2006, 35% of indigenous women over the age of 25 had not graduated from high school. There is a direct link between lack of education and victims of violent crime – and lack of success in public schools by Indigenous students is exacerbated by the climate of aggressive cultural assimilation in the school cultures, text books and exercises there. In 2005, the median income for indigenous women was $15,654. This group has double the poverty rate of non-indigenous women – a direct result of BC and Canada’s ongoing legacy of dispossessing indigenous nations, refusing to recognize their human rights and criminalizing the people for accessing the natural wealth and resources of their homelands. Poverty is a general state of vulnerability notoriously connected to violence.

Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada and the BC CEDAW group made a submission to the UN Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination that remarked on “institutional racism towards Aboriginal people, and towards Aboriginal women and girls… with respect to the child welfare and criminal justice systems, and in the provision of education… and other essential services.” (p.76 #165)

Perhaps the most obvious expression of discrimination, representing the whole of Canadian society, is the state’s total public and institutional dismissal of these facts among indigenous women and the resulting crises in their homes and communities and nations. The report includes state acknowledgment that there is no accurate, comprehensive government data on this issue, although the high rate of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls across the country has been identified at the national and international levels. Police still do not consistently report whether a victim is indigenous. Police often fail to take or properly process reports concerning indigenous women.

Canada has failed, after 29 official inquiries in various places across the country since 1996, even to implement an incident processing policy that would collect the proper data needed to move in an informed direction.

And Prime Minister Harper recently told CBC television viewers that a federal inquiry into the preponderance of murdered and missing indigenous women “isn’t really high on our radar, to be honest. You know, our ministers will continue to dialogue, ah, with, ah, those who are concerned about this.” The PM went on to say that the government is taking action by punishing criminal activity, making “significant investments into, ah, preventative measures,” and to “try and enhance the legal and social status of women in aboriginal communities and reserves. You know, things like, basic things like having protections under the Human Rights Act, matrimonial property rights, these kinds of things that were not done in the past.”

Harper said action would be better than more investigations. The quality of Canada’s investigations into this subject has been found objectionable by women’s and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, in particular Canada’s “All Party Committee” report in March 2014. Apparently it was the same as a report from 2011. (p.93, 216) The IACHR referred to almost a dozen reports prepared by the State on missing and murdered Indigenous women – and along with each reference the disappointment and rejection of Indigenous parties was quoted.

Indigenous leaders from all over northern North America, and indeed from around the world, have been calling for a national inquiry into the genocidal proportions of the assault against Indigenous women and girls. Tribal Chief Shane Gottfriedson, Shuswap Tribal Council, Secwepemc, to CFJC tv news, Kamloops: “…a lot of our families have lost loved ones to the missing and murdered women file.

“This has got to stop. We cannot have our women and girls subject to this kind of treatment,” said Chief David Walkem, Cook’s Ferry, Nlaka’pamux. Chiefs Walkem and Gottfriedson, along with Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of BC Indian Chiefs, held a news conference calling for a federal inquiry. They held the conference to publicly add their names to a list of Indigenous leaders across Canada who have directly petitioned the federal government for an investigation. “We call on Prime Minister Harper to initiate a national public inquiry into this to allow a comprehensive investigation of all police services and all agencies involved in this issue across the country and get to the bottom of the reasons why this has been allowed to carry on.” The Assembly of First Nations has repeatedly called for an inquiry, most recently at their Annual General Assembly in Halifax last Fall.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada collected 23,000 signatures to a petition calling for a national inquiry. Other notable characters who have made formal recommendations to Canada to conduct a national inquiry include the UN Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, in 2012; the UN Human Rights Committee, in 2013, on the occasion of Canada’s Universal Periodic Review; and UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in his report on his official country visit, in 2014; and now the IACHR.

The IACHR report notes “Violence against women is not the root problem in most societies, violence against women occurs because other forms of discrimination are allowed to flourish.” (p.68 #68) The Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women stated in its 1996 report, “Racism is a major contributing factor in the continuing violence, oppression and systemic abuse that confronts Aboriginal women in Canadian society today.” (p.69 #144) Commissioners needed three pages in their report to refer to the connections between racism and violence against women. (pp.68-70)

When BC established the Minister’s Advisory Council on Aboriginal Women, the Minister selected the women to populate the Council. The IACHR recommends BC seek recommendations or appointments to that Council from Indigenous Peoples’ organizations.

Canada’s disinterest in the crisis is a failure to meet its international obligations. The Inter-American human rights system confirms appropriate state response to human rights violations: the obligations to prevent, investigate, punish, and to make reparations for human rights violations. (#153, p.71)

The “seven point plan” provided by Canada to the IACHR Commissioners during their visit does not include prevention, investigation and increased sentencing – instead it pertains almost entirely to coordinating online databases and giving money to Indigenous organizations to express themselves on the point of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The State’s plan is about as obvious as if they had dressed up Robert Pickton as Mrs. Doubtfire and put him in charge of a new public Missing and Murdered Women liaison office. But Pickton died in prison only months into his sentence. Perhaps he had accomplices who were happy to remain anonymous.

 

Historical harms

The Commission identifies in detail two past genocidal, or “discriminatory” – as the IACHR puts it, practices which have particularly affected the present day victims. They are Indian Residential Schools, and the invention of Indian Status and selective enrolment in that group according to whether a person is male or female. They note this latter practice has not been fully resolved by recent changes to the Indian Act, but they overlook the fact that Indigenous children would be seized from their families if those families refused to send them to the racist and assimilationist public schools today. The Commission does note, however, that the number of Indigenous children in state “care,” ie, having been forcibly removed from their families, is three times higher now than it was at the peak of the Indian Residential School era.

Canada’s withholding of Indian Status from women who married non-native men, and from children of those women, “creates a perception that certain subsets of Indigenous women are less purely indigenous than those with “full” status. This can have severe negative social and psychological effects on the women in question, even aside from the consequences for a woman’s descendants.” (#69, p. 42) This is of course also a serious violation of an Indigenous People’s right to self-determination and to guarantee membership to their own.

Indian Status on Reserve has also been a source of absolute sex discrimination, where women could not own property, cannot keep their birth Band membership once married, cannot leave an abusive relationship because of the lack of housing and certainty that their children would be apprehended if they did leave because they could not provide a house for their children independently.

State apprehension of Indigenous children by Canada and the provinces is so extreme that, “The IACHR is alarmed by the over representation of indigenous children and youth in the child welfare system.” (#86, p.47)

The IACHR quoted a report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in respect of those many Indigenous children who are seized from their homes by the State, placed in homes far away and consumed by the so-called child welfare system. “The UN Committee noted that such children are often unable to preserve their identity, claim their rights, and make and maintain connections to their families, communities and culture.” (#86, p.47)

Discrimination or Genocide

“This persistence of longstanding social and economic marginalization has given rise to large numbers of indigenous women living in vulnerable situations, including homelessness, and abusive relationships. It has led to the disproportionate engagement of indigenous women in high-risk activities such as hitchhiking, drug use, gang activity, and prostitution… making it more difficult for these indigenous women to escape the vicious cycle of violence.” (#78, p.44)

“…the root causes of these high levels of violence against Indigenous women… are related to a history of discrimination beginning with colonization and continuing through laws and policies… These root causes have laid the foundations of pervasive violence against indigenous women, and have created circumstances that contribute to the risks these women face, through economic poverty, social dislocation, and psychological trauma.” (#93, p.50)

Although the Commission never literally says so in the report, it has made statements like this one which match the definition of genocide, as defined in the UN Convention. Genocide is defined as any of five actions, the third of which is: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” What has not been studied by the IACHR is the impact of these deadly circumstances for women, rooted in state laws and policies, on the collectives of Peoples.

“Mental harm” is referred to repeatedly throughout the report in the way it is experienced by indigenous women: as “psychological trauma” and “crisis of identity” and “suicide” – rates are seven times higher among indigenous women than Canadian women. The entire report is a demonstration of the ways that Canada is “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” – or facillitating the bodily and mental harming by squeezing Indigenous women out of their homes and communities and failing to penalize offenders.

“Forcible removal of children” from the group has its own chapter in the IACHR report and is broken down into the many ways the State has removed indigenous children to other groups; the statistical nightmare lived by those removed children; and the incredible proportion of indigenous versus Canadian children who are apprehended by the state: they are overrepresented by five times the proportionate ratio in Canada’s population, and that does not include numbers of children in provincial and territorial care. The report includes documentation that the children are ten times more likely to be removed from their homes by the State than Canadian children are.

And of course, the first definition of genocide is: Killing members of the group.

About the IACHR’s role

Next to the Inter American Court, the Inter American Commission on Human Rights makes studied recommendations to states on the subject of upholding human rights and also mediates communication between states and their victims, sometimes referring those disputes to the Court.

Canada rejected the IACHR’s recommendations on the situation of the human rights of missing and murdered indigenous women in BC. Formally responding to the Commission in its observations of the report, Canada stated: “Canada… is not bound by obligations contained in human rights instruments to which it has not consented to be bound. … We give serious consideration to the views and recommendations of human rights bodies, but wish to emphasize that they are non-legally binding.” (#106, p.58)

However, the obligation to comply with the human rights standards expressed by the Charter of the Organization of American States is implicit in the action of becoming a member state of the OAS. The American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, flowing to the American Convention, is the document against which the IACHR compares State activities and practices.

The Commission followed Canada’s reply by reiterating its jurisdiction as a mechanism of the OAS to which Canada belongs; remarking that human rights must not only be protected from active violation but also ensured the capability of being practiced effectively, for instance, an indigenous woman should be able to exercise her right to equality; and that while the Commission cannot apply the American Convention on Human Rights to Canada, because Canada has not ratified it, the Commission must rely on the Convention in interpreting Canada’s obligations under the American Declaration. (* A Declaration establishes rights and freedoms or duties, while the Convention is a pact between the states as to the legalistic phrasing of the exact obligations a state has towards an individual, against which a state would be judged in Court.)

The Commission reviewed Canada’s obligations to protect Indigenous Peoples and individuals, noting the State’s national legal framework and its international obligations. Canada’s constitutional structure, requiring treaty with land purchase before colonization, was noted by the IACHR. (#113, p.60)

Other IACHR hearings leading to this study:

March 28, 2012, “The Situation of Aboriginal Women and Girls in Canada.” Requested by NWAC, the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, and the University of Miami Human Rights Clinic. A second hearing on this subject on March 12, 2013.

[i] If you look at Canada’s Sixth Periodic Report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, you will see that Canada does not report on Indigenous Peoples’ land rights under Article 1 on self-determination but under Article 27 as minorities subject to the federal and provincial government.  (Thanks to Arthur Manuel for this information.)

Confidential Report of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia, 1916

Confidential

Report of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia

Under Order-in-Council dated the 10^th day of June, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirteen.

* This document is housed at the Royal BC Archives in Victoria, BC.

(1)

Confidential

To Field Marshal

            His Royal Highness Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert,

                        Duke of Connaught and of Strathearn, K.G., K.T., K.P., etc., etc.

                                    Governor General and Commander in Chief of the Dominion of Canada

May it please Your Royal Highness:

            The Commissioners appointed by Letters Patent under the Agreement made on the 24^th day of September 1912, by Your Royal Highness’s Special Commissioner and the then Premier of British Columbia in respect to Indian Reserves and Indian land requirements in that Province, had but shortly entered upon the performance of their duties when they found that matters extraneous to the Agreement would be brought before them, and that for the satisfactory settlement of the whole British Columbia Indian question it would be well to hear such representations as might be made therein, reporting the same with an expression of the opinions formed by the Commissioners consequent upon such representation and their visitations of Indian Reserves.

            Your Commissioners thereupon adopted and conveyed to Your Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs a Resolution upon the subject of such extraneous matters. The Resolution and the Order-in-Council defining the extent and nature of the action to be taken by the Commissioners in respect to such matters as follows:

            RESOLUTION OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON INDIAN AFFAIRS FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA, ADOPTED 20^TH MAY, 1913:

            “Moved by Mr Commissioner McKenna, seconded by Mr Commissioner Macdowall and ordered:

“Whereas the Commission is of opinion that its jurisdiction is confined to the scope of the agreement referred to therein;

AND WHEREAS it appears that many matters and questions extraneous to the agreement will be brought before the Commission;

AND WHEREAS serious dissatisfaction among the Indians is likely to be created if the Commission declines to consider and report upon such questions;

AND WHEREAS for the satisfactory disposal of such matters and questions it may be necessary to report upon conditions and make suggestions as to policy;

BE IT RESOLVED: That it be intimated to the Governments of the Dominion and the Province that if they so desire and instruct the Commission, the Board will be pleased to deal with all such questions and matters and report, submitting suggestions as to the action to be taken and the policy followed.”

            ORDER-IN-COUNCIL OF 10^TH JUNE, 1913:

1. C. 1401.

“Certified copy of a Report of the Committee of the Privy Council, approved by His Excellency the Administrator on the 10^th of June, 1913.

The Committee of the Privy Council have had before them a memorandum, dated 31^st day of May, 1913, from the Acting Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, submitting a copy of a resolution passed by the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs in British Columbia, dated Tuesday, 20^th May, 1913.

            “The Minister observes that it is clear that the agreement between the representatives of the Province of British Columbia and the Dominion does not contemplate an investigation and settlement of matters appertaining to general Indian policy in British Columbia. It is confined to matters affecting Indian lands which require adjustment between the parties.

            “The Minister is of the opinion that it would be inadvisable to burden the Commission with the investigation of all matters that might be brought to their attention by Indians, many of which would be of slight importance not affecting the relations of the two Governments. Unless great care were taken misconception might arise in the minds of the Indians as to the action of the Commission if authorized to make a general investigation; the Commission having power to deal finally with all matters mentioned in the agreement subject to the approval of the two Governments, but having only instructions to report and make suggestions as to other matters.

            “The Minister submits that the Commission would, however, during its sittings in different districts of the Province obtain valuable information as to Indian conditions and progress and would probably form distinct opinions on these points and on the future policy which should be adopted by the Dominion Government towards the Indians of British Columbia.

            “The Minister, therefore, recommends that the Commission be restricted in action to the terms of the agreement but that the Commission be informed that this Government would be prepared to receive a general report on the conditions of the Indians with suggestions as to the future policy and administration of Indian Affairs in the Province of British Columbia, the Indians being distinctly advised concerning the scope of the enquiry under the agreement and that the Commission will merely convey to the Government the views of the Indians respecting any matters extraneous to the agreement brought to their attention.

“The Committee concur in the foregoing and submit the same for approval.

            (Signed) Rodolphe Boudreau,

                        Clerk of the Privy Council.”

            In accordance with the directions contained in that order, Your Commissioners heard representations made by the Indians on many matters extraneous to the Agreement, questioned the Indians with the intent to secure, as far as possible, elucidation of their views, and in the examination of the Indian Agents sought to secure their opinions thereon. The views of the Indians and the opinions of the Agents are conveyed in the twenty-seven volumes of evidence transmitted with the Report of May 31^st, 1916, on the work of the Commission within the scope of the Agreement, and insofar as such evidence bears on the social conditions of the Indians the same has been summarized in Schedule “C” in the sections of that Report dealing particularly with each Agency.

            And Your Commissioners now beg leave to submit in the form of a “general report”, as suggested in the said Order, the impressions formed as to Indian conditions and progress and future policy it might be desirable to follow for the further advancement of the Indians.

 

            CONDITIONS

            No one who has informed himself of the condition of the Indians a half a century ago cannot but be impressed by the very great advancement that has been made. In the earlier part of that period the advancement was solely due to the self-sacrificing labours of the missionaries. The work they began and so wonderfully extended and carried on was buttressed by the wise policy of the Dominion in the establishment of schools and the appointment of Indian Agents to help on the advancement and safeguard the interests of the Indians. It was some years after the Union that the Dominion’s Indian policy was effectually extended to British Columbia, but as the years have passed it has been broadened in its application and adopted to local circumstances insofar as the peculiar conditions consequent upon the land question admitted.

            With the removal of the difficulties to which that question gave rise, there is no reason to doubt that Your Royal Highness’s Government will be put in a position to pursue a still more progressive Indian policy in British Columbia.

            To that end Your Commissioners respectfully submit the following suggestions:

ADMINISTRATION

Size of Agencies

            Certain Agencies, for instance New Westminster, Kamloops, Lytton, Williams Lake, Stuart Lake and the Naas are too large for supervision by one Agentand might each be so divided as to give ample work for two; the Kamloops and Lytton Agencies might be advantageously divided into three Agencies.

Farming Instructors

            In certain districts adapted to extensive farming, Farming Instructors might with beneficial results be attached to Agencies, as in the Prairie Provinces.

Horticultural Instruction

In fruit growing districts there should be made for some years provision for more continuous instruction and more direct supervision of horticulture,

Land in Severalty

The time has arrived when action should be taken to give the individual Indian security of tenure. That would give an incentive to individual effort, and to the making of permanent homes, and would create a spirit of self reliance, that can never be expected from a system of common Band ownership where the Chief is the practical dictator as to what land a man may use or cultivate. From a system of holding land in severalty within the Band could be operated a plan which would gradually lead fit Indians to full citizenship, which should be the goal of an enlightened Indian policy.

Utilization of Waste Land

Much good land is kept from cultivation, or has lapsed into a wild state after years of cultivation, because the present holders under tribal customs are unable, through old age or extreme youth or from other reasons, to cultivate it; and under a system of allotment in severalty a similar condition, though not in like measure would occur, for allotment would have to be made with equitable regard to established individual or Indian family interest, on a per capita basis, and there would be allottees unable to make use of the land by their own efforts through physical inability or lack  of capital. To the casual observer unused cultivable land in Indian Reserves appears to be an evidence that the Indians are in possession of much more land than they require and that it should be thrown open for settlement by people who would make use of it. They are quite unaware of the cause of the condition that offends. That land should lie idle which could be profitably cultivated is detrimental to the common weal and a matter of regret. But it is unfair to the Indians that they should be blamed for a condition which in large measure they are unable to change.

There appear to be two means of remedy which might be operated together:

• A system under which holdings of Indians unfit through youth or old age or physical inability from cultivating them could be leased to responsible white men. It may be objected that it is undesirable to have whites in such close contact with Indians as such a plan would necessitate. While that objection may have been well grounded in certain parts of Canada, it does not hold good in British Columbia. Under the policy of the Colony “the natives were invited and encouraged to mingle with and live amongst the white population.” That policy has rendered them in large degree immune from the dangers that might be feared from the suggested leasing system. There would be the benefit of neighbouring example to the Indian tillers of the soil; the Indian owners of leased land would derive a revenue that would, added to their slight and often precarious means of livelihood, ensure them a comfortable subsistence; and what would otherwise lie idle and run wild would be made profitable.

• By providing a fund from which the Department, on the recommendation of the Indian Agent, might make advances to industrious and capable Indians able to farm more land than they have, or to fit school graduates unable to obtain sufficient land, for the purpose of purchasing the improvements, if any, and securing the rights to holdings of the Indians unable to make proper use of them.

Medical Attendance

There have been but few instances in which Indians have expressed satisfaction with the medical attendance, and very many cases in which complaint has been made. Improvement might be effected (a) by appointing salaried physicians to devote their whole time to rendering medical attention to Indians and acting as Health Officers where there are a sufficiently large number of Indians within a reasonable radius with facilities of transport, and (b) where Indians are isolated by providing that medical attendance should be on call and the physician paid fixed attendance and mileage rates.

Nursing

The suggestion by Indians that a selected number of girl graduates of Indian schools giving promise of proficiency should, year by year, be placed in hospitals for training as nurses, with a view to returning their professional services to their people, is one worthy of favourable consideration. Such services would be more acceptable to the Indians than if rendered by others and would go far to furnish what is now lacking and is almost impossible to properly provide for in the medical treatment and care of the sick on Reserves.

Salaries of Agents

While doubtful whether the question is one coming properly within the scope of this report, it is felt that the salaries of Indian Agents are not proportionate to the cost of living and not on a par with remuneration paid in other spheres for services entailing commensurate labour and responsibility.

Local Executive

Upon the question as to whether administration would be made more efficient if there was an executive head of the British Columbia branch of the Department of Indian Affairs, with authority, within defined limits, to set and authorize expenditures, the Commission is divided. Certain Commissioners hold that the administration of Indian Affairs in British Columbia would be facilitated and improved if the Agents dealt with the Department at Ottawa through a local executive who would have such powers as would enable him to act on matters of routine and emergency without reference to Ottawa. Others are not prepared to concur in that view, and also hold that the question does not come within the scope of the Commission’s instructions.

 

TIMBER

Almost all the Reserves fronting on the seven thousand miles of Coast line, are more or less timbered.

Many of these Reserves are covered with scrub or wood suitable only for fuel, with here and there some clumps of good cedar used by the Indians for making their canoes, but some of the Reserves, in the more sheltered waters, carry timber of valuable commercial quality.

It has also been noticed that much of the timber of commercial value is ripe and, from an economical standpoint, it would be wise to have such timber cut and sold before it goes to waste.

The reversionary interest of the Province in the Reserves, of course, stood in the way; but that being removed the way is clear for a policy providing for the cutting and selling of the timber, and the application of the proceeds to the development of the lands of the Indians. While it is desirable that every practicable facility should be afforded Indians to clear land for cultivation, it would be advisable to allow them to clear and burn timber only in cases where the timber is of no commercial value, either on account of quantity or situation.

There are three methods by which the commercial timber could be cut:

• By giving logging permits to Indians when the amount of timber is small.
• By employing the Indians to cut the timber under the supervision of a knowledgeable foreman, the Department providing the necessary logging engine and other accessories, the working Indians to be paid wages and the surplus to form a fund for land development.
• To sell the standing timber at a specified price and with a specified time for removal.

Either the first or second method would appear to be the more desirable as they would lead to intelligent advancement in useful occupation.

AGRICULTURE

In some parts of the Province the Indians are engaged, in no small way, in farming and stock raising, providing not only what is required for their own consumption but a surplus for sale. This applies to the Okanagan, Kamloops, Williams Lake and Kootenay Agencies, as well as to parts of the Stuart Lake, Lytton, New Westminster and Cowichan Agencies.

In the first four names Agencies the Indians have, by their own exertions, developed into fairly good agriculturists with very little help either financially or by way of education, but rather by imitating white settlers, through employment on farms and otherwise. The time has now arrived when, in order to hold their own, some assistance in the way of advances to Indian farmers becomes necessary, just as it has been found necessary and has been provided for white farmers in this Province. While, perhaps, they have reached a stage where they can clear and cultivate the land to a certain degree of efficiency, measures should be taken for the attainment of greater efficiency and for the improvement of their stock by the provision of pure bred sires. In these Agencies agriculture is certain to be practically their principal occupation.

In the Stuart Lake Agency many of the Indians have, in recent years, taken to farming, and their efforts are indeed creditable. Stoney Creek and the newly established Euchinice Reserves are worthy of special mention, while in other Reserves they are doing well though on a less extensive scale.

This Agency affords a splendid opportunity for the establishment of an experimental farm in connection with an industrial school, there being very suitable land and with the Indians now realizing the importance of this industry as their permanent occupation they would doubtless avail themselves of every opportunity to qualify themselves for the work.

The Indians of Cowichan, New Westminster and Lytton Agencies, have a diversity of occupations, some being fishermen, while others are engaged in fruit growing, truck farming and, to a small extent, stock raising, according to their location and the climate and soil conditions.

Although in the Coast Agencies the Indians are mostly fishermen, there is a tendency to utilize the limited areas of cultivable land; but, as the Indians leave their Reserves at different seasons to engage in fishing, thus causing neglect of the land cultivated and seeded, very little is being accomplished. Arrangements might be made by which some, who are too old, or otherwise unfitted to engage in fishing could be induced to remain on the Reserves and cultivate enough land to provide vegetables, which now are purchased and brought in at considerable cost, or are to a large extent dispensed with.

Taking the Province as a whole, the best means of encouraging agricultural development would be through the employment of capable practical men as farm instructors who would be able to interest and direct the Indians in the best methods of clearing and cultivating land and, by studying local conditions, secure the introduction of suitable varieties of fruit, grain, vegetables and stock. However competent the Agents may be, their many and varied duties preclude them from giving that direct attention to agricultural matters which the advancement of the Indians in the industry demands.

Tools, machinery and seed might in many cases have to be provided to enable Indians who have so far given but little attention to agriculture to take full advantage of such instruction in farming; but whatever expense might be thus entailed would be more than compensated for by the encouragement in production which would result in ample provision for their own requirements and eventually in a surplus for the markets adjacent to their Reserves.

WATER RIGHTS

The importance of securing, under the Provincial law, all requisite water rights for Indians cannot be over stated. In the dry belt water is an essential of the land. Without it the land is practically useless. It is evident that in the past systematic care was not taken to secure water rights in connection with the law. It seems to have been taken for granted that the allotment of water by the Commissioners who set apart Reserves was sufficient, though there is grave doubt as to whether the Commissioners had such power. And, from the evidence of Indians and enquiries made, it appears that there are numerous records of water for Reserves not noted in the Schedule of Reserves, and of which it may be the Department has no official record. A good deal has been done of late to have Indian water rights established, and to compile accurate information as to their source, nature and extent. It would be well, however, to have a thorough checking up of the records, so as to make sure that every possible requisite right is recorded, and that the Indians are given priority where the same is establishable.

There are parts of the Province outside of what is strictly defined as the dry belt where water is in a measure required for successful farming, gardening and fruit growing, and, if in such localities water rights have not been secured for the Indians, steps should be taken to secure them.

And it must be remembered that where water is required for milling and other industrial purposes. Or for domestic use from streams flowing through reserves, the Indians’ right to the same must be secured under the law and recorded.

There are reserves in the dry belt where Indians have done remarkably well by their own efforts in bringing water on to the land. But there are many cases in which the providing for the proper utilization of available water is too large and too technical an undertaking for the Indians, even when monetarily assisted by the Department. The direction of an expert is essential. Indeed it would be well to have an Irrigation Engineer go over the Reserves in the dry belt with a view to gathering information for detailed plans and estimates for the utilization of the water recorded for each Reserve, so as to ensure the best possible use thereof and prevent the waste which is now in many places quite considerable. A comprehensive scheme of water utilization could thus be effected for all the Indian Reserves in that part of the Province, where without irrigation the land is of little or no use to the Indians; and when once properly put in operation the system could be easily maintained.

SURVEYS

A great deal of misunderstanding which has led to serious difficulty has arisen on account of the decay or removal of Indian Reserve posts; and lines have become overgrown and obliterated to such an extent that the Indians have inadvertently extended their improvements beyond the boundaries of certain Reserves to find later on that the lands thus improved were covered by timber concessions or had been otherwise alienated, while there are cases in which white men have unwittingly trespassed on Indian Reserves.  This has caused considerable friction between the Indians and their white neighbours. To prevent this there should be an examination of the corner posts of all reserves, and iron posts plainly marked should replace those destroyed or destroyable, and where boundary lines have been questioned by neighbours they should be retraced and clearly defined.

In cases in which the areas of Reserves have been diminished by erosion or other natural cause, or by the passing of unsurveyed roads therethrough, new surveys should be made so as to insure accurate record of acreage.

The area and location of new reserves constituted by the Commission are, in many instances, only approximate, and certain additional Reserves in unsettled districts have had to be allotted subject to location within extensive areas.

If the report of the Commission as to these Reserves is adopted they should be definitely located and surveyed as soon as possible after such adoption, so that, without evitable delay, they may be conveyed to the Dominion.

For many years Mr Ashdown H. Green has had charge of the surveys for the Indian Department, and is, without doubt, the best informed surveyor in the Province regarding Indian lands. He has a great amount of information which should be preserved for the future use of the Department; and in view of the extent of the survey work to be done it might be advisable to temporarily establish an Indian survey office at Victoria, with Mr Green at its head, empowered to select assistants with the requisite local knowledge, to secure the expeditious and economical completion of the surveying of the new Reserves, the replacing of posts, the re-defining of obliterated boundaries in connection with old Reserves, and the compiling of the information of which Mr Green is possessed. It will of course be understood that instructions to surveyors as to surveying new Reserves allotted by the Commission outside the Railway Belt must have the approval of the Surveyor-General of British Columbia, and in the case of new Reserves within the Railway Belt the approval of the Surveyor-General of Canada.

FISHERIES

Fishing and the policy in operation thereanent give very grave concern to the Indians. Many depend largely upon the fisheries as a principal means of livelihood; and with most fish is the chief article of diet, the fish being preserved by drying and smoking, and in few cases by salting, for the winter’s use.

At all meetings which the Commission held with Bands outside of the strictly agricultural and stock raising areas, expression was given to a sense of injustice consequent upon the operation of the fishery regulations as they bear directly upon the Indians.

Throughout the several districts of Northern British Columbia wherein fishing is a principal industry and Indians form a considerable proportion of the population, such Indians have strongly represented to the Commission that they at present suffer through discrimination against them, in that they are debarred from fishing under what are known as “independent” licenses. It has also been represented to the Commission, under oath, by some of these Northern British Columbia Indians that they are the owners of suitable boats and are in a position to provide requisite nets and gear to operate under such “independent” licenses if allowed. These Indians have also represented to the Commission that the refusal to them of “Independent” fishing licenses is not a consequence of the exercise of discretion by the local Fishery Officers, but is the outcome of the deliberate Fishery policy of the Dominion insofar as it affects the northern waters of British Columbia. Such “independent” licenses are issued to Indians of the Fraser River to their advantage and without any detriment to the public interest.

The Commission is unanimously of opinion that the Indians of Northern British Columbia are – but should not be – discriminated against in the issuance and use of these “independent” fishing licenses; and that there is no authority conferred by the law. Or intent therein expressed or suggested, for such class or racial discrimination. The Commission is of opinion that in the matter of “independent” fishing licenses, applications of Northern British Columbia Indians should (as are the applications therefor of white fishermen and of Indian fishermen on the Fraser River) be considered and dealt with upon their individual merits and not refused because of the applicant being an Indian, the Indians of British Columbia being British subjects and as such entitled to equal consideration with their fellow British subjects.

Attached Licenses

With respect to the allotment of “attached” fishing licenses, general and widespread dissatisfaction also exists among the Indians of Northern British Columbia, the preponderance of Indian testimony received by the Commission herein being to the effect that Japanese fishermen are given preference over Indian fishermen. “Attached” licenses are issued in blocks to the several salmon canneries, the number of such licenses allowed to each cannery being in proportion to its size and importance; the cannery in turn allots such licenses to fishermen engaged to fish with the cannery boats and gear, such fishermen being required to deliver their catch exclusively to the employing cannery. It appears to have been and to be the policy of the Dominion Department charged with the control of the fisheries to provide that canneries in the engagement of their fishermen under the attached licenses allotted to such canneries shall give preference to the Indian fishermen of the locality wherein such canneries operate. The evidence of the Indians is, however, directly and emphatically to the effect that a reverse policy is pursued by many of the cannerymen, the Japanese fishermen being favoured both in the allotment of the attached licenses and in the quality of the boats and gear issued to them. These Indians in their testimony declare that the alleged partiality of the management of canneries for Japanese fishermen is due to the fact that the Japanese are willing to and do operate on Sundays and during prescribed closed days of the fishing season, and that they resort to other illegal expedients in increasing the volume of their catch. The statement that Japanese fishermen are favoured on account of their greater dependability and continuity of servies is contradicted by Indian witnesses, and the declaration is made by them that the Indian is fully as competent, reliable and successful a fisherman as the Japanese.

The Commission is of opinion that a policy designed to secure preferential treatment of Indian fishermen in the allotment and operation of attached licenses having been adopted, the Fisheries Branch of the Naval Department (through its local officers) should see that the intention of the Department in this regard is fairly carried out, and that cannerymen refusing to engage Indian fishermen should be required to show reasonable cause for doing so.

Complete Exclusion of Indians

In the beginning of the salmon canning business in the North and for years thereafter only attached licenses were issued. Then independent licenses were introduced, and the policy was adopted of diminishing year by year the “attached” and increasing the number of “independent” until the attached licenses would cease and the canneries of the north, as those of the Fraser River, be made to depend upon the catch of independent fishermen for their supply of salmon. The Indians being debarred in the meantime from independent licenses will in a few years be completely cut off in the North from the salmon fishing industry.

Take as an instance Rivers Inlet. The Commission is advised that this season the licenses in operation, independent and attached, totaled seven hundred; of these three hundred were independent and four hundred attached, the latter being divided between Indians and Japanese and possibly some others. Last year two hundred and twenty independent licenses were issued, ad of the attached licenses the Indians received two hundred and fifty-eight. This year their share is much smaller by reason of the increase in independent licenses. The result is that many Indians were unable to secure this season any fishing licenses at Rivers Inlet. Indians from the West Coast and Kwawkewlth Agencies have fished in these waters for the canneries from the very inception of the industry, and they have come to depend upon their earnings as fish catchers for the canneries as their principal means of livelihood. The policy in operation makes dark their outlook. One cannot but marvel at the patience and forbearance they have displayed in the face of such unfair, inexcusable and most disheartening treatment. It is hard to believe that the policy has been deliberately entered upon; yet the evidence compels to that conclusion. It has no warrant in law. If it could be pleaded – and it cannot – that the early exclusion of Indians as fishermen in the northern waters was in the larger public interest, that would be no justification for the injury inflicted.

The Commission feels, however, that the Government of Canada cannot be aware that under one of its Departments a policy has been designed and is being enforced which will exclude the Indians of northern British Columbia from the salmon fishing industry; and that when the Government is seized of the unjust bearing of such policy upon His Majesty’s loyal Indian subjects – the very men the canneries had to depend upon for fish in the beginning of the industry – prompt and effective remedial measures will be taken.

Indian Fishery Plants

In 1875 Mr Walkem wrote: “No good reason exists why ‘Fisheries’ such as those established by our merchants on Fraser River for curing and exporting salmon and other merchantable fish, should not be erected in suitable places for the benefit of the Indians, and in time profitably controlled and conducted by themselves.”

That suggestion is still worthy of consideration. Indians who fish for commercial concerns have in evidence expressed the conviction that they are competent to engage independently in such industry. For instance, at the meeting with the Fort Rupert Band, Wallace Kwawkewlth stated that the Indians wanted the Government to help them “to make a cannery” for the Kwawkewlth people, “that,” he went on to say, “we may have something to fall back on when the time comes when we will lose our chance of work at the canneries.  We would like to can our own fish….. and also to can the calms that are on the beach…. And we would also like to have a place for cold storage in connection with the cannery,” the purpose of the cold storage being, as was explained, to enable them to deal in halibut and various kinds of fish, as well as to engage in the business of salmon and clam canning.

It may be urged by others that Indians are not sufficiently constant in effort to warrant the establishment of businesses that would have to depend for success on their unintermittent labours. That, however, has been disproved by the veteran missionary, the Reverend William Duncan who, with Indian fishermen and Indian labourers as shareholders, successfully carried on the business of salmon canning. A.E.Allan, a member of the Kincolith band, has successfully operated a small cannery, and his product has been awarded highest honours in open competition with the product of other canneries at the Provincial Exhibition held at New Westminster. And Indians at Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands, established of their own initiative and conducted with success a dog-fish oil factory. When the Commission visited Skidegate the operators had, it was stated, $1,500.00 in the bank to their credit.

Of course it would be necessary to have competent operative and financial management, and beginnings should only be made at places where experienced and dependable Indians are within reach, and then under agreement binding to regular work during the fishing season.

The fishing industry of British Columbia may be said to be still in its infancy. Large development may be looked for in the near future. To-day it is almost exclusively confined to salmon canning and the shipment of halibut in cold storage to Eastern American markets. There are many other directions in which the curing of fish for home and foreign markets are sure to be developed.

That the Indian, to whom the Pacific waters are as his fields to the farmer, should be put in a position to make, not alone a good living, but a profit therefrom is a matter of an importance beyond the Indian interest alone; it is of public interest, for in proportion to the prosperity of the Indian is his contribution to the common wealth.

The question is difficult and complicated. So was the question of turning into cattle raisers and farmers the buffalo hunters east of the mountains; and similar wise administrative effort might have commensurate beneficial results if applied to the problem of Indian fisheries in British Columbia,

Special Privileges

Throughout the printed “Schedule of Indian Reserves, 1913” will be noted references to the allowance and definition of special fishing privileges granted to Indians of British Columbia by former Indian Reserve Commissioners, both in the establishment and constitution of “fishing station” reserves and in the bestowal upon named tribes or bands of exceptional or even exclusive rights to fish in certain particularized waters.

The Commission would suggest that the acts of former Commissioners in the bestowal of such rights and privileges be reviewed to the end that an authoritative and formal decision be given as to whether they had power and authority to grant such rights and privileges. If such rights are found to have been legally granted, steps should be taken to protect them. In the event of its being decided that such Commissioners went beyond their powers in so doing, then it should be considered whether the acquiescence of the Government therein and the definition of such rights and privileges in the printed Schedule issued by the Department of Indian Affairs have not given the Indians a moral right, which they by official action and usage have been led to believe is a legal right, which now should, if possible be implemented, and if not possible in all or any case of implementation, compensated for in some form.

Streams in Reserves

The merit of the claim advanced by certain of the Indians as to their exclusive right to take fish in streams flowing through their Reserves should also, in the opinion of the Commission, be authoritatively determined; and if such right be adjudged to be properly and legally enjoyed by such Indians, steps should be taken to protect the same, nor should the Indians be permitted to be deprived thereof without their formal consent and due compensation.

Fishing Stations

With respect to small Reserves described and constituted as “fishing stations” and covering streams from which the Indians from earliest days have been accustomed to obtain their food fish supply, it has been in numerous instances declared in evidence by the interested Indians that the purpose and utility to them of these Reserves has been wholly or in large measure destroyed by the subsequent allowance of cannery seining licenses by which such “fishing stations” have been blanketed and rendered of no use to the Indians. It is even stated, in testimony taken by the Commission, that Reserve foreshore has been occupied in connection with the operation of cannery seines, without consent of or compensation to the Indian proprietors of such Reserves.

In the opinion of the Commission this question should be made the subject of careful inquiry so that the purpose for which the fishing stations were established may be preserved, and that no portion of an Indian Reserve be used or occupied in connection with the drawing of cannery seines without formal permission having first been obtained, with due compensation for the use of foreshore and Indian Reserve land.

Peddling Fish

During the course of its meetings with the Indians throughout British Columbia, it has been repeatedly brought to the attention of the Commission that the drastic enforcement of the regulation prohibiting the sale of fish (except under fishing licenses as prescribed) not infrequently operates harshly upon the older Indians who depend upon fishing almost exclusively for their maintenance, and who count upon selling a few odd fish in order to procure flour, tea, sugar, clothing and other similar present day necessities of the Indian’s as well as of the white man’s existence.

The Commission would suggest in this connection that consideration might advantageously be given to the desirability of providing for an Indian hawker’s or peddler’s special permit, under which the holder might, in specified limited quantity, dispose of fish taken at any season, for domestic consumption exclusively, in order to provide for the permit-holder’s reasonable requirement of variation in food, and thus, doubtless, prevent his becoming a suppliant for Departmental aid.

HUNTING

Much dissatisfaction has been expressed by Indians over the Province with the game laws and the enforcement thereof. The Indians are entitled to special consideration. They are not destroyers of game, and in many parts, though in varying degrees, game is counted upon them as an important food supply. The question should not be incapable of adjustment; but it is thought that it is one that should be taken up directly by the Dominion Government with the Government of the Province, with a view to the removal of the cause of the Indians’ grievances.

TRAPPING

As settlement extends trapping gradually vanishes as a profitable business. There are, however, parts of the country in which it is still followed with profit and parts which are peculiarly and almost exclusively adapted to fur raising. But conservation must replace crude methods or the fur industry will soon cease to be of appreciable importance.

In 1875, the Hon. George H. Walkem, then Attorney General of the Province wrote:

“It is a notarious fact that valuable fur bearing animals – large and small – are wastefully and even wantonly destroyed at unseasonable periods of the year. “ He thought that the Indians should be taught to regard the localities productive of fur, but, generally speaking, unsuitable for agricultural purposes, “as fur-preserves, to avoid indiscriminate slaughter, to kill only at proper seasons of the year, and to carefully protect a source of wealth” which is “now gradually but too surely” being destroyed.

The Indian trapper had always regard for the preservation of animals whose pelts were merchantable fur. He was indeed the first fur-farmer. The beaver grounds of different family groups were, for instance, well recognized and care was taken to make them a continuous as well as an immediate means of profit. Fox dens too were protected. And the Indians who make fur trapping a principal occupation today have as keen an eye to their future as their forbears.

The danger to the fur industry today comes from casual white trappers who have no interest beyond the profits of the day. Indians have frequently made grievous complaint of the use of poison by such men. Breeding grounds, fox dens and beaver and muskrat houses are destroyed. Even the Indian trapper’s right to his traps as placed has been ignored, and in some cases his traps have been destroyed. The Department of Indian Affairs has no authority over trapping in the Province other than it may have on Indian Reserves, but it might be well to make direct representations to the Provincial authorities with a view to devising means to put a stop to such predatory proceedings.

In 1875 Mr Walkem suggested fur preserves. That is an idea yet worth considering. But the success which white men have met with in fur-farming in this Province, and more particularly in prince Edward Island, suggests that the introduction of fur-farming among Indians living in localities suitable to that industry and not much fitted for any other, is a subject deserving of serious consideration. The Indian’s instinctive knowledge of nature and his familiarity with the habits of wild animals, would seem to go far towards making him a successful fur-farmer. And it would appear as if the time is not far distant when, if fur is to remain a valuable product of British Columbia, the ancient methods of procuring it must in large measure give way to new.

EDUCATION

During Colonial days no particular provision was made by the Government for the education of Indian children. The first teachers were the missionaries who early saw that the education of the youth was a requisite of progress and permanency in the civilizing and christianizing of the natives. As early as 1861 a boarding-school for Indian children was established by the Oblate missionaries at St. Mary’s, near what is now Mission City, and in 1864 the Church Missionary Society established a school on the Naas. Instead of ignoring the work of the Churches the Dominion Government, through the Department of Indian Affairs, builded upon it; and today there are eight industrial boarding schools with an enrollment of 492 pupils, ten boarding-schools with an enrollment of 398, and 45 day schools with an enrollment of 1,367 pupils. The total enrollment at the schools out of an Indian population of about 25,000, is 2,257 and the average attendance 1,323.

The Commission has been impressed with the quality and extent of the work which is being done. Indian education was given a marked impetus under Mr Duncan C. Scott, as Superintendent of Indian Education, and, as Deputy Superintendent general, he is, within the measure of the means provided, continuing the work of modernizing the buildings and equipment, and developing and extending the system. It is in no fault-finding spirit, therefore, that the Commission offer the following suggestions:

• That in farming districts more practical and scientific training be provided for the Indian pupils who are destined to make farming their occupation;
• That in the schools, especially on the West Coast, where Indians must depend and must continue to depend almost exclusively upon fishing, some system should be devised of training the Indian boys as fishermen, lest, being long removed during residence at boarding-schools from the influence which at home would make fishermen of them, they grow up unfitted to continue the work of their fathers instead of being so trained as to improve upon the methods of their forbears;
• That provision should be made for the thorough training in industrial arts of Indian youths who have not aptitude for, or will not in after life have opportunity of occupation as fishermen or farmers;
• That, in as far as possible certificated teachers should be employed and the curriculum of the public schools of the Province followed, so that pupils of Indian schools could be prepared where desirable for the examinations, the passing of which are necessary to higher studies under the Provincial system;
• That if the per capita system of Governmental aid to Indian boarding-schools is to be continued, the per capita grant should be kept proportionate to the cost of living, so that the educational work will not be crippled or disadvantageously interfered with through the effect upon the management of a financial stringency; and
• That a system should be devised for establishing school graduates in the occupations for which they have been trained.

It may be added that, while the Commission is pleased with the present educational system and its promises of progress, there are members of the Commission inclined to the view that it would be better if the Government had the direct control and management of all Indian schools and was charged with the full cost of maintenance.

LIQUOR LAW

Frequently at meetings of the different Indian Bands the question of fines imposed on Indians under the clauses of the Indian Act relating to liquor have been discussed, and Mr George Jay, Police Magistrate for the City of Victoria, which includes the several Indian Reservations situate in Saanich, Esquimalt and Sooke Districts, has made the following statement and suggestion to the Commission :-

“Under the terms of the Indian Act, Sec. 137, an Indian who has in his possession any intoxicant is liable to a fine of not less than $25.00 and under Sec. 144 an Indian who is found in a state of intoxication is liable to a fine of not less than $5.00.

“In those cases in which an Indian is found in possession of an intoxicant it is usually confined to a bottle of whiskey or gin, and sometimes only a small flask.

“The penalty of $25.00 was fixed by Statute some years ago at a time when it was a practice amongst a certain class to supply large quantities of liquor to Indians in remote Reservations.

“With regard to fines for being under the influence of intoxicating liquor, it frequently happens that an Indian appears in the Police Court at the same time as white men charged with the same offence. The practice for many years here has been in the case of those other than Indians to impose a fine of $2.00 for a first offence and a slightly increased fine in the case of a second or subsequent offence, but with regard to the Indians a Magistrate has no alternative but to impose the minimum fine of $5.00, which must to the Indian appear to be a marked discrimination against him.

“I would respectfully recommend that the Indian Act be amended with regard to the penalties for these offences by allowing Magistrates wider discretion and by eliminating the provisions as to minimum fines, thus leaving it to the judgment of the Magistrate dealing with the offence to impose such fine as may in his opinion be proper, not exceeding, of course, the maximum fine provided in the Act.

“I may add that I have resided at Victoria for the past 45 years and have had much experience of the habits of the Indians of the southern portion of Vancouver Island and the Islands of the Gulf.”

Your Commission are of the opinion that, were these suggestions followed, it would tend to remove from the Indian the feeling that he is looked down on with contempt and his race deemed unworthy of being treated in a manner similar to other British subjects in His Majesty’s Dominion, and that the greater latitude allowed to Magistrates in their discretion, would have a tendency to elevate rather than debase the Indian.

INDIAN ACT

There seems to be a desire among the more intelligent of the Indians to understand the terms of the indain Act, and it appears to the Commission that, were copies of the Act furnished to such Indians, the result might be beneficial.

 

All of which is most respectfully submitted,

(signed)

N.W.White

Chairman

J A McKenna

Saumarez Carmichael(?)

J P Shaw

D H Macdowall

Commissioners,

Victoria, B.C., 30^th June, 1916.