Cooperation theme of CPJ meeting

SMITHERS – A national Christian public policy organization advocating aboriginal rights held its annual general meeting in Smithers June 6.

Citizens for Public Justice featured Charles MacKay as its keynote speaker at the meeting which was attended by about 30 people.

As vice president of the Terrace Nisga’a Society and a key member of the negotiating team that put together the Nisga’a treaty, MacKay agreed with the CPJ’s call for a protest vote in the B.C. Treaty referendum.

He emphasized that respectful co-operation between First Nations, B.C. and Canada is the only way to resolve native land claims.

"The most important thing that I want people to take away from this meeting is that the Nisga’a accomplished what they did by sitting down together and talking to each other as people," said MacKay.

He spoke highly of joint ventures underway between Nisga’a and non-aboriginal interests which are fostering productive relationships, and cited a current example of this in Terrace.

Through a partnership between the Terrace Nisga’a Society, Terrace local government, banks, and local business, an apartment block construction project will take place next spring. It will include a main floor of commercial retail space and employ many Nisga’a people.

MacKay characterized the TNS as a kind of embassy for the Nisga’a people, in that it advances Nisga’a interests and promotes mutually beneficial relationships with the surrounding on-aboriginal community.

Citizens for Public Justice Executive Director Harry Kits expressed his organization’s position on B.C.’s treaty referendum, the results of which are expected by the end of July.

"We have a problem with a majority voting on the rights of a minority," he told The Interior News June 5. In Kits’ view, the referendum questions were inappropriate because they solicit opinion on matters that fall outside of B.C.’s legal jurisdiction — particularly the sixth question.

"That question asked whether First Nations self-government should have the same status as local government," said Kits. "But this and other referendum issues have already been described in the Constitution and in Supreme Court decisions. The primary responsibility for renegotiating these lies with the federal government, and B.C. needs to abide by these."

Citizens for Public Justice was founded 39 years ago on the belief that governments and all other institutions have a responsibility for the common good. It undertakes research, critical analysis, publishing, public education and advocacy on issues of poverty, refugee concerns, aboriginal rights, and faith and public life.

About 400 of its 1500 contributing members live in B.C., of whom about 30 reside in Smithers.

Reprinted with permission of the Interior News, Smithers B.C., June 17, 2002