Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Let's Make A Deal: Into the Meeting Rooms and Away From the Streets

It seems that one First Nation's crisis is another's opportunity. Mining
companies are making deals in record numbers with Ontario First
Nations.
We have deals with Liberty Mines in Wabun, Escape Gold in Bearskin,
Richview Resources in Mish and no doubt many others flying under the
public radar screen.

Good for them. All First Nations should have the right to know and
decide on a project.

But do all these deals help resolve the underlying issues between First
Nations and the Crown that are at stake in KI? In a word, no.

If you look at all the deals being made you will find that many of them
contain the provisions that were imposed by the Court on KI.

But KI didn't want a deal. They wanted the right to say no.

The deal-making First Nations are making the most of the opportune timing of a mining commodity boom and the KI hammer. What better way to reabsorb protest into the system then through concessions made by corporations. Very convenient for the Crown who remain standing on the sidelines. Just ask Wabun about how helpful MNDM officials were, and are, in their negotiations. We don't see smiling bureaucrats or Ministers in the photo op.

But where do all these deals leave the Ontario? Certainly no closer to reconciliation and a new Mining Act that incorporates the right of First Nations to know and decide on an exploration project. These deals are all soft agreements yet to be tested in the courts and perhaps even beyond lawful obligation. Certainly the Mining Act does not require them.

Will a hundred yes'es in deals lead us to the One Big No of real First Nation jurisdiction and decision making power over their lands and resources?

I doubt it. Deals and negotiations diffuse discontent rather than focusing it. Concessions are an age old elite strategy for controlling the poor. And organization building( read Northern Table) and maintenance can become ends in themselves.