B.C. First Nations group's case goes to rights hearing in U.S.
The nation’s rules for making treaties is expected to be scrutinized by a foreign government this month, the Victoria Times-Colonist is reporting.
The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, made up of six Vancouver Island First Nations, will have a human rights complaint heard Oct. 28 by the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
At issue is the claim by the 6,400-member First Nation that Canada violated their human rights by “failing to recognize and protect their rights to property, culture and religion.”
The case is unprecedented and a ruling favour of the Hul’qumi’num could affect treaty-making throughout Canada, said the treaty group’s chief negotiator.
However, a positive decision would support the scrapping of the land claims policy and replacing it with something that follows international human rights standards.
The complaint arises from 830,000 hectares on Vancouver Island’s east coast that was handed to the E&N Railway in 1884 as payment for constructing a line from Victoria to Comox.
Approximately 270,000 hectares of the land — much now owned by forestry companies — makes up the traditional territory of Hul’qumi’num bands.
First Nations were allocated only small reserves but, even though there is little remaining Crown land in the area, the federal government says private lands are not on the table during treaty negotiations.
