In his recent report on the 1995 death of native protester Dudley George, Commissioner Sidney Linden called Canada's failure to deal with native claims fairly and quickly "the single biggest source of frustration, distrust and ill-feeling among aboriginal people in Ontario."
Indications that this anger is boiling over are not hard to find. Land disputes in Caledonia and Deseronto, Ont., and a national day of native action planned for June 29 are just the most visible signs that, as Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine warned last month, many native communities "have reached a breaking point."
Their frustration is understandable, even if some of their protest tactics are not. Poverty and suicide are endemic. Many native leaders insist that settling specific claims, which in some cases would mean more money or power, is one way to help improve living conditions.
In a bid to deal with this problem, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government is taking welcome, but long-overdue, steps to revamp the way Canada addresses alleged breaches of treaty and other legal obligations. After years of promises and false starts, Ottawa has finally admitted its current approach is not working. Both natives and non-natives have paid a price for that failure.
The numbers tell a dismal story. Of nearly 1,300 specific claims filed with the federal government since 1973, some 800 have not yet been resolved. A Senate committee last year estimated that at the current rate cases are being heard, it could take 90 years to clear the backlog.
But unconscionable delays are not the only problem. Natives also have rightly complained the system is stacked against them because the Indian Specific Claims Commission, created in 1991 as an alternative to the courts, can make only recommendations to Ottawa rather than binding decisions. That has put the federal government in a conflict by allowing it to act as defendant and judge in claims against it.
To deal with these issues, Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice is proposing to set up an independent tribunal, staffed by judges, that would make binding rulings on claims when talks between Ottawa and natives break down. The current claims commission would mediate disputes. Ottawa would streamline the way it processes claims, and spend $250 million a year for the next 10 years to settle them.
The proposed changes would go a long way to hastening a process that has left many natives and their non-native neighbours in limbo for too long. Both should welcome the certainty, and social and economic benefits, from settling these claims once and for all.
However, much work remains to be done before Prentice's proposals become reality. Ottawa, the provinces and native leaders will spend the summer hammering out the details of the proposed legislation, which the government plans to introduce this fall. Fontaine has called Ottawa's proposals "a very important opportunity for the country."
Despite that optimism, Six Nations protesters who have occupied the site of a housing development in Caledonia for 16 months say Harper's proposal "doesn't change one thing" for them.
Let's hope most natives reject that view. This is a historic opening to change a process that has failed natives for too long. All parties should come to the table with all the goodwill they can muster.