From: Arthur Manuel <amanuel@telus.net> Date: 15 January, 2013 1:51:54 PM EST To: Arthur Manuel <amanuel@telus.

net> Subject: FW: B.C. chief urges halt to economic protests Dear Chiefs, Councillors & Friends:

The BC Regional Chief is making an effort to gain support to limit the scope of "Idle No More" (INM) actions to not focus on the BC government economy. The attached Vancouver Sun article clearly spells this out. Regional Chief Wilson will be having a conference call today with the ELECTED CHIEFS to talk about supporting her position. In an e-mail the Regional Chief gives the following information: "BC Regional Chief Jody Wilson-Raybould has called an All BC Chiefs conference call for tomorrow, Tuesday, January 15, 2013 from 3-4 p.m. (PST) to update BC Chiefs on the events of last week culminating in a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday, January 11, 2013. The conference call details are as follows: Conference Call Number: 1-866-512-0904 Participant Code: 3534239 If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact our office." I urge the elected Chiefs that support the Idle No More to get on the call and let the Regional Chief know that the Idle No More is a grassroots movement and that the Chiefs will not become a shield for the province, especially because the province is unjustly rich and the INM is grassroots moment that is systemically made poor. The BC economy has never benefitted Indigenous Peoples. It has always benefited Canada and BC settlers and industry. The only benefit that Indigenous Peoples' get is a Welfare Economy based on money from mainly the Department of Indian Affairs. The Welfare Economy is kind of the "economic rent" that Canada pays to manage us as dispossessed and impoverished land owners. Indigenous leaders should be fighting for building an Indigenous based economy, based on the recognition and affirmation guaranteed Indigenous Peoples under the Canadian Constitution in section 35(1). We cannot trust the settler economy based on section 91

(federal) and section 92 (provincial) to give us economic security. Our economic reality speaks for itself. BC is larger than California, Oregon and Washington States combined yet all Indian Reserves in BC are 0.36% of the total territory. Everything comes from the land. Ask your Elders. The fact that we only have 0.36% under our control under the Indian Act, is why we are poor. We are a small population. The population of BC is 4.5 million people and the Indigenous population is less than 200 thousand people. Given the size and population of BC our poverty could have been addressed a long time ago. Our poverty is systematically imposed by the settler economies. There is no reason for us to be on welfare. There is no reason for us to be poor. We need fundamental change and that was not what was promised in Ottawa last week. What was promised was to speed up the existing Comprehensive Land Claims Policy and BCTC Process through the results based approach. Canada wants "certainty" and "finality" in making so called treaties here in BC. When they say "certainty" is that they want us to agree that Aboriginal Title and Rights will not impact the distribution of law making powers between the federal and provincial governments. These are key provisions in the two so called modern treaties they signed in BC. The critical aspect that Canada and the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy want to "entrench" is that all decisions regarding "access and benefits" to our Aboriginal Title and Rights Territory will vest in the Crown. In other words all 100% decisions regarding our land will rest with all the land Ministeries of the province like it has in the past. That would mean the Ministry of Forestry will be in charge of our trees. The Ministry of Mines in charge of our minerals, etc. That is what is couched inside those thick treaties they are getting some First Nations to agree too. The federal Comprehensive Land Claims Policy is WRONG and violation of our rights. It will entrench the poverty we have experienced and our Elders, especially those who passed-on, have fought against. We are truly at a cross-roads where we need to make some tough choices. One road leads to economic impoverishment and dependency and the other road leads to economic security and independence. We are poor in one of the richest countries in the world. I know that because I have travelled the world. We do not need to be this way. We own this country. We can reverse this process if we are strong and committed to our Mother Earth and the grassroots peoples. When Indigenous leaders talk about economic "certainty" we need to be talking about our economic security and not the economic security of the settler status quo. We need a new economy here in BC. We need an economy that recognizes and affirms our Aboriginal Title and Rights. An economy that immediately reduces and eliminates the poverty in our First Nations. An economy that recognizes our Aboriginal Title and

Rights powers to participate and at times have a veto in making decisions regarding access and benefits from our land. Some settler politicians, media and even some Indigenous leaders think my thinking is raising the expectations of Indigenous Peoples too high. I disagree. I think settlers who think they can continue to benefit 100% from our fish, forests, minerals and water and keep us on welfare are living in an outdated and with unrealistic expectations. Indeed that kind of thinking is morally bankrupt, violates the very human rights of Indigenous Peoples and is systemically and economically racist against us as Indigenous Peoples. We need a better Canada. One based on the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP). These documents however are not followed by Canada and BC governments. But we have the Constitutional, legal and international frameworks. We can build. Indeed the United Nations has been very critical of Canada and has made many recommendations that Canada has not followed. Unconditional greed and racism is the basis of keeping the conservative status quo. This must change. It must start with ourselves. That is why our elected Chiefs should address our economic rights and issues with our BC AFN Regional Chief. Arthur ___________________________ Arthur Manuel e-mail: amanuel@telus.net cell: 1 (250) 319-0688