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Don’t negotiate ‘til threats end
EDITORIAL Telegraph-Journal
31 Oct 2013
It appears the leaders of Elsipogtog First Nation have learned nothing from the riot that occurred two weeks ago. While publicly calling for negotiations, the First Nation privately has been circulating a call to "protectors and stewards" to enforce the band's claim that all Crown lands in New Brunswick belong to First Nations. The reserve also claims to have "evicted" SWN Resources.
It was self-styled "protectors and stewards," aka "warriors," who brought guns and homemade fragmentation grenades to the band's protest camp near Rexton and firebombed six police vehicles, while the protesters' attempted "eviction" of SWN involved blockading support staff in a compound and threatening to kill them. If such events had occurred on the other side of the Canada-U.S. border, or in the United Kingdom, we have no doubt they would have been treated by federal and state authorities as what they transparently are: acts of domestic terrorism.
Elsipogtog's support for aggressive and confrontational tactics threatens to undermine any spirit of co-operation that still exists between provincial legislators and New Brunswick's First Nations. It demands a response at two levels: from the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs in New Brunswick, and from Premier David Alward.
We do not presume to guess what the chiefs' response will be, but they must realize that public support for settling Aboriginal land claims and other outstanding issues ebbs away with each act of obstruction and violence that is committed on behalf of First Nations. It doesn't matter how many Hollywood celebrities throw their support behind Elsipogtog's cause, or how many commentaries The Guardian (U.K.) publishes purporting to understand the situation and expressing solidarity; the people who have to live in the atmosphere of threat that Elsipogtog's "warriors" are creating all live and vote here, and it is these hundreds of thousands of voters who will determine the response of public institutions.
In his negotiations with Elsipogtog, Premier David Alward has been accommodating to the point of seeming ineffectual. While we believe his interest in finding negotiated solutions to the First Nations' problems is sincere, we also believe his government has a duty to put public safety first. Accordingly, we ask the provincial government to formally adopt the policy position proposed by NDP Leader Dominic Cardy two weeks ago, when protesters at Elispogtog car-jacked three vehicles belonging to national media organizations.
That position, simply stated, is that provincial legislators will not participate in any negotiations with First Nations until all illegal activity and acts of intimidation cease.
It is time for the government, and all political parties in this province, to signal clearly that militancy has no place in government-to-government negotiations. First Nations activists cannot expect anyone to respect their legal arguments if they themselves display contempt for the rule and institutions of civil law.
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