Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise this afternoon and add my voice to the long list of voices that have expressed concern over the Nisga'a treaty when it comes to our particular party, and particularly to those voices out in the province of British Columbia. Being from the adjacent province, my riding of Calgary Northeast, I also recognize the concerns expressed by my colleagues, especially those from British Columbia.
There cannot be a good, valid or an arguable reason for passing the Nisga'a treaty without further debate on these much needed amendments that the Reform Party is encouraging today. In so doing, the Liberal government is again resorting to an arrogant tactic that has marked its tenure and power and which has characterized so many Liberal governments of the past that have tried to ramrod dangerous and divisive social change through parliament.
Why is the government so afraid to debate this issue? Why is the government so nervous about discussing the particulars of this treaty? Why does the government label all opponents of this treaty in the cowardly manner that it does? Why does the government constantly seek to invoke closure, an undemocratic, cowardly and desperate act that attempts to smother free speech in the House? In its actions, the government is no different than the NDP government in B.C. which has also ramrodded the Nisga'a treaty through the provincial legislature against huge opposition.
What is most disturbing about the attitude of both governments is the dismissal of that opposition and the dismissal of the democratic consultation and open debate process. Despite deep and disturbing concerns about this treaty, critics are ignored and uncertainty is chided. The fact of the matter is that these concerns have to be addressed. This uncertainty must be acknowledged. This is a controversial treaty that threatens to change the shape of the Canadian nation. It will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. It will rework the justice system and entrench a cast system in our society.
Every day more Canadians are realizing that this treaty will be a catalyst for racial intolerance and not a cure.
Canadians are getting angry that they were not consulted about this deal and were not told all the facts. Now they want to be consulted. They want the facts now. They will get the facts sooner or later. We will not let this legislation pass without opposition. We will not sit back and watch the government ignore the will of the people.
The Nisga'a treaty is a fatally flawed treaty that is bad for natives and non-natives. The Prime Minister was effusive in his praise of this treaty today, but 30 years ago he recognized the need to integrate natives into Canadian society when, as the Indian affairs minister, he advocated that policy. I suppose he still had a sense of individual rights in those days and of all Canadians being equal under the law.
The Nisga'a treaty is a giant step backward into a world where status and power is defined by one's race and position and where national unity is divided into fiefdoms of privilege. With the passage of the Nisga'a treaty, we are embracing a regressive social system that could easily have been designed in the middle ages. To begin with, all the residents on Nisga'a land will not have the right to vote for their local governments under the Nisga'a treaty. Only the Nisga'a peoples will be allowed to vote. Non-Nisga'a residents are excluded on the basis of race. This is not only immoral but unconstitutional.
How could any Canadian agree to a treaty with this kind of a provision? There is one reason why the B.C. Liberal Party opposed the Nisga'a treaty, and in a B.C. Liberal Party guide to the Nisga'a treaty, this objection and others were outlined for B.C. voters to see. It is a pity that the federal Liberals were not affected by the same degree of common sense that seems to prevail at the provincial level. It was heartening to hear the B.C. Liberal leader, Gordon Campbell, condemn this act, condemn the closure that was attempted to be foisted upon this parliament and condemn the process that was pushed upon the people in British Columbia.
It is this creation of a two race system that we in the Reform Party find most disgusting in the Nisga'a treaty. Can we think for a moment about what we are saying in this document? Can we consider for a moment what the consequences of this treaty will be? Where has the passion for democracy, for individual freedom and for equality under the law gone in this country and in this parliament? Is a race based society justifiable if those judged to possess special status just happen to be non-white?
Other countries have attempted to define their rights and freedoms on the basis of race. We have condemned their philosophy. This House has condemned their philosophy. We have opposed their tyranny and have died fighting in the belief that all people are created equal, as my colleague from Edmonton pointed out.
Can members imagine the reaction if we denied rights and freedoms to a specific race in the rest of Canada? Yet we are prepared to grant one race status over another because it involves native land claims. This represents a perilous disconnection of thought and judgment, and one that we ought to oppose at every opportunity.
The Nisga'a treaty has been identified as the balkanization of Canada. We need only to look to the Balkans to see how tragic this transformation can be. Today, over 4,000 Canadian military personnel are in the Balkans struggling to maintain a peace after years of brutal civil war. The region has divided into nation states based on religion and ethnicity and subdivided again into warring factions.
The Canadian lesson has been that there is strength in unity and integration. We cannot have two political systems, two styles of government and two justice systems.
It is the awesome potential for a national tragedy that makes the acceptance of the Nisga'a treaty so fraught with difficulties, for truly this agreement has been hailed as a template for other native land claims across B.C., and indeed across Canada.
Are we to deliberate on this form of self-government, one based on race and consider it positive for Canada? Is that what we have to deliberate upon? And, at what cost? The Nisga'a treaty will cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of $490 million according to the B.C. government, the treaty's most earnest supporter. It could well be more.
When this treaty, which is a template for all other land claims agreements, is applied to other negotiations the cost will be much more, perhaps in the tens of billions of dollars, and the cost will keep climbing. The government in passing this legislation is serving a writ of sentence to upcoming generations in the country, a sentence of taxation to pay for inequality for non-Indians and special status for Indians under Canadian law. It is also establishing a tragic political legacy.
The government has made an art out of its catering to special interest groups. It cannot even think in terms of individual Canadians who hold inalienable rights. It thinks only in terms of competing groups and of pitting these groups against each other for the sake of political expediency. The country will pay dearly for this slavish devotion to special interests.
The Liberals have not dealt very well with this crisis. Instead they have planted the seeds for an even greater crisis with the Nisga'a treaty. Overnight they have significantly raised the spectre of racial unrest in the country and they do not even seem to care.
They care so little that they have avoided any sort of comprehensive debate as to how the Nisga'a treaty will affect the future and impact upon all our lives.