BC's new treaty a sham: Straightgoods.com
 
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:28:09 -0600 (CST)

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from: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature7.cfm?REF=44
New treaty a sham

Province uses treaty to circumvent Agricultural Land Reserve.

Dateline: Tuesday, January 16, 2007

by Bill Tieleman

One does not sell the land people walk on. Crazy Horse, Lakota warrior, 1875

The tentative treaty between the Tsawwassen First Nation and the provincial 
and federal governments must be rejected.

It is totally unacceptable that the treaty terms would take 207 hectares of 
valuable farmland out of the Agricultural Land Reserve and turn it over to 
the Roberts Bank port terminal for container shipping expansion. And a 
further 278 hectares of farmland could also be turned into an industrial 
wasteland.

One can only hope that the Tsawwassen First Nation members themselves will 
vote against this agreement for that reason, even though it is worth well 
over $120 million.

But if not, it is up to the British Columbia Legislature to vote to send 
the treaty back for renegotiation.

Unfortunately, what should be a positive development in BC's long history 
of neglect of rightful aboriginal land claims is instead a looming disaster 
that would both destroy precious farmland and discourage future treaty 
settlements.

The reason is clear the treaty with the Tsawwassen First Nation is wrongly 
being used by the provincial and federal governments to remove farmland 
from the Agricultural Land Reserve that could never be taken out otherwise....

whole article at: http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature7.cfm?REF=44

Penney Kome, author and journalist
http://penneykome.ca
Editor, Straight Goods, http://straightgoods.com