FIRST NATIONS PROGRESS NOT HELPED BY DOOM & GLOOM RANT

(OSOYOOS TIMES — March 28, 2007) –

In the wake of the March 19 federal budget handed down by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, who heads the Penticton Indian Band and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, let fly with some very harsh words.
Some may well be justified. Some were definitely not.
Chief Phillip warned that the perceived lack of huge amounts of additional spending by the federal government on Aboriginal economic development, and a perceived lack of commitment to First Nations land claims shall trigger a summer of Aboriginal protests from one end of this country to the other.rnHe added this budget amounted to Strike 3 for the Harper government after its failure to support the Kelowna Accord and a UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
Chief Phillip continued, saying the violence First Nations people suffer is dangerously close to flashing over … to roadblocks, rail blockades and more Caledonia-style occupations of disputed lands.rnYes, economic development is needed. Yes, land claims settlements are needed. We see recent positive examples of both in the actions of the B.C. governments and the Osoyoos Indian Band, to name just two parties to the issue.
Governments are spending billions on First Nations issues, perhaps not all of it in the right way. But what is needed is constructive engagement by Chief Phillip on a mutually agreed upon direction forward, not dire forecasts of, as he says, a summer of barricades, balaclavas and burning tires.