Editor:
The recent ruling on the B.C. Tsilhqot’in First Nation’s land claim will be entered in the history books as being one of the more radical rulings ever rendered by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Without any consideration for the rights and needs of the other 4.5 million British Columbians it arbitrarily ruled all B.C. Crown lands and resources belong to First Nations.
It has put a big dark cloud of uncertainty over the province of B.C., as well as the rest of Canada in terms of citizenship, economic development, and rights to title and resources for all Canadians, First Nations included.
The failure of the B.C. government to consult is one issue, however, entitlement is quite another.
The court failed to make that distinction, and rendered a ruling that is unbelievably one-sided.
The ruling is also devastating for millions of multi-generation Canadians who were born and raised on Canadian soil, not to mention millions of immigrants who came to Canada and were told ‘we are all united as citizens and equal under the law.’
In other countries, when you become a citizen, you become a full partner with the same rights and responsibilities as all the other citizens.
That will never be the case in Canada for as long as we continue to be a British colony.
This ruling is just one more example of a dysfunctional judiciary that is appointed on a political whim, and accountable to absolutely no-one.
Andy Thomsen
Summerland, B.C.