Mr. Speaker, last night was an infamous time in Canadian history. The opposition parties in the Ontario legislature conducted an illegal occupation and sit-in of the Ontario chamber. This was unconscionable and I plead with them to consider the example they have set.
I can understand their frustration because being an opposition member facing a juggernaut of a majority government can be disappointing, frustrating and disillusioning.
The Reform Party faced that shortsighted stupidity and abuse of power exercised by the federal Liberal government when it used a pile-driver to ram through the Yukon Indian land claims and self-government in June 1994.
Believe it or not, we now have government in Canada based on race. The federal government has turned over massive sections of law making in Yukon to aboriginal people. Let me put this in the most transparent terms. Aboriginal persons can make certain laws that directly impact non-aboriginal persons, and non-aboriginal persons have no democratic recourse.
In South Africa this was called apartheid when the majority of blacks were dictated to by the minority of whites. What do we call it in Canada when the majority of non-aboriginals are dictated to by the aboriginals?
This is going on in Yukon. The stupidity of the government's ham fisted legislation is that it has constitutionally removed freedoms from aboriginal people in Yukon as well. In part of Canada's Constitution the federal government has delegated law making to certain Indian nations but in turn those nations do not have to construct those laws through a democratic process. Those nations may delegate law making to an individual in the Indian nation.
Both aboriginal and non-aboriginal residents in Yukon can now become subject to certain laws with absolutely no recourse, no democracy. Dictatorship for Canadians enshrined in the Canadian Constitution by the government? It is unbelievable.
This is why the Reform Party has raised the issue of the B.C. treaty negotiations today. B.C. residents, indeed all Canadian citizens, are about to have an agreement in principle that has been negotiated behind closed doors which will be rammed down their throats. It will be an agreement in principle that will be the starting point for a constitutionalized treaty. If there was ever a time to protest, to obstruct, to go to the extreme, this is it.
Unlike the financially driven issues in Ontario that are very serious, the issue of the B.C. treaty process is that the B.C. treaty and the Nisga'a agreement in principle will explicitly impact Canadians' democratic freedoms. The process and treaty will permanently, constitutionally, enshrine some personal rights based on race.
If we do not respect democratic process and combine our protests within the democratic process, we have destroyed democracy. I have asked the MPPs who occupied the Ontario legislature, what is the difference between the 19 aboriginal protesters who occupied a Toronto Revenue Canada office last year or the occupiers at Ipperwash? What is the difference between them and the occupiers of the Ontario legislature? A lot. If the members of the provincial parliament, the law makers, will not respect the law how
can they expect ordinary citizens to respect the law? Without respect we have anarchy.
However, this is not a one-sided issue. If the government at Queen's Park or here in Ottawa is bull headed, provocative, uncaring and insensitive to concerns of citizens, as expressed by members of the opposition, it shares an important part of the responsibility for lawless actions.
The Liberals here have such a responsibility. They have a responsibility to really listen and respond. How can I describe my rage that they used a pile-driver to smash personal rights and freedoms of Canadians in Yukon? The Liberals would not entertain a Reform Party motion that would have subjected the attack on personal rights and freedoms of Yukon residents to the Canadian charter of rights.
Reform Party members used every parliamentary tactic in June 1994 available to them to slow the race based, democracy bashing Yukon acts. It became a choice: break the law ourselves to stop the Liberals' stupidity or work within the system and respect this institution in spite of the Liberals' bullheaded stupidity.
For Yukon it is too late but for B.C. it is not. I plead with the Liberals. Listen, learn and recognize that the Liberal process is not only out of touch with reality but, most important, will lead to permanent civil disobedience and racial gridlock.
In my office in Cranbrook I have been approached by aboriginal people. Members of the Ktunaxa nation tell me their negotiators are out of touch with them. These Indian people resent and reject being left on the outside of the negotiating process.
At least these constituents who represent about 3 per cent of the population in Kootenay East will have a chance to ratify a negotiated agreement. They will get one person, one vote, but what about the other 97 per cent? Approximately 70,000 people who will have to live with the treaty will get two persons, their MP and MLA, with two votes. Their MP with one vote in the House will be pitted against members like the member for Peterborough and members from Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Ontario: one of 295 votes to represent the interests of my 70,000 people.
Do we have democracy when an aboriginal gets a vote but a non-aboriginal does not? I think not.
I suggest the aboriginal negotiators who may presently be considered to be out of touch by their aboriginal constituents are negotiating the aboriginal position with popular ratification of the final agreement in mind. They clearly understand their negotiations will be rejected if they do not reflect the wishes of their constituents.
It is not just an issue of fairness. It is more than enforcing the principle of equality of all Canadians. It is about a workable process that will lead to a real solution to a real problem. If we do not get it right, we will end up with civil disobedience, unrest, racial friction and a giant, tangled, constitutionalized mess.
I am asked constantly as to who is negotiating for the non-aboriginal citizen. People come in to my office and want to know literally who is negotiating for them. They want to know who the negotiators are, how they are selected, where they meet, when do they meet and more important, what their mandate is and who gave it to them. A constituent asked me: "How will they know what I will accept? Why do I not have the same rights as the aboriginal with the ratification vote?" People tell me: "If I have not been part of the process, if my interests have not been explicitly taken into account, I have no interest in the agreement".
Let me clearly explain what this means to the Indian affairs minister and the Liberal backbenchers who are forced to support him. Let me also explain this to the provincial negotiators. If the negotiators knew during the treaty negotiations that their process was going to be subject to popular ratification, they would negotiate in a substantially different way. They would know that their bottom line, that the results of the treaty process negotiations would have to be accepted, in my case by 97 per cent of Kootenay East residents.
Impossible, the Liberals say: "We would never get an agreement". Well that is precisely the problem. Contrary to the Liberals' old party assumptions, Canadians will not have government imposed top down solutions. Let me repeat that Canadians clearly have shown in everything from the Charlottetown accord to the cablevision fee increase kerfuffle last year, that they would not accept those increases and they would not accept the Charlottetown accord. They will not have their future dictated by Ottawa politicians. There we have it.
When talking about the B.C. treaty process of the Nisga'a agreement the facts are the same. If Canadians are not part of the solution, they will be part of the problem and with a vengeance.
The difference between the problems today and tomorrow are two. First, non-aboriginal residents of B.C. are scared, anxious and concerned. They are delaying investment decisions by the truckload. Their apprehension is magnified by the unknown. Tomorrow they will be resentful, surly and unco-operative, with their apprehension replaced by lack of co-operation with the government and a bad attitude toward the people who have special position and privilege based on their race. Second, today we have some flexibility. Tomorrow the decisions will be etched in granite because they will be constitutionalized for all time.
Do we get the picture? We permanently remove one serious problem and immediately replace it with a problem 20 times worse.
We will use the finance minister's comment from question period today. We will use his example of an incapacitated driver racing down a hill. The Reform motion we have put forward would slow down the driver, bring him to a stop and hopefully sober him up. The Liberals will leave the driver racing down the hill until he crashes.
Will the Liberals listen? Will the B.C. NDP government which is on its way out take heed? I doubt it. And more the shame because they are putting the same unconscionable pressure on the Reform Party that the Ontario government put on its opposition. The federal Liberals have a responsibility to be reasonable and they are blowing it.