Referendum has no legitimacy

VANCOUVER SUN, Thursday, April 04, 2002

LETTER TO EDITOR

Rob Gordon
Vancouver Sun

Arguing for or against the referendum assumes the referendum has some value or legitimacy. It doesn't.

The B.C. Treaty Commission stated back in July 1998 that a referendum is the "wrong tool" for treaty negotiations because "treaties are about rights, not voter preferences." Section 35 of the Constitution Act guarantees aboriginal title, as does the International Bill of Rights of the United Nations and the Supreme Court of Canada in a number of decisions (ie., Regina versus Sparrow, Regina versus Gladstone, Calder versus Attorney-General of B.C., Delgamuukw versus British Columbia) have recognized aboriginal rights.

This is good enough for me.

Many British Columbians don't feel they have opportunities to voice their concerns or be consulted. We do have an avenue of involvement, though. We can write letters to MLAs or the Treaty Commission, protest at the legislature or express our concerns to First Nations (or, better yet, speak with them to understand why fair treaties must be reached). We can also attend open negotiation sessions that include a question and answer period.

So the referendum will go out and people will complete it and those who do will expect the Liberals to uphold the results. One person who I feel certain will complete the referendum is a gentleman on a bus who stated he was sixth-generation Canadian and he didn't get anything special for it. I guess we could give him a commemorative plaque or something. But in fairness, if we give him something, we need to give First Nations something also because they have lived in Canada since the Stone Age.

Then there was the letter to the editor from a gentleman who used a boxing match analogy to describe how First Nations lost B.C. and they should accept the fact and leave the ring. For argument's sake, based solely on military strength, wouldn't the boxing match have been between Mike Tyson and Don Knotts. Is that fair?

Rob Gordon
Victoria

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