B.C. natives lock up band office in feud over land-claim windfall

ROBERT MATAS

From Friday's Globe and Mail

June 20, 2008 at 2:43 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — Angry members of one of the wealthiest native groups in the country have padlocked the band's administration centre on their reserve in south Vancouver, demanding to know what happened to millions of dollars that the federal and British Columbia governments recently gave them.

The protesters chained a rusty padlock on the front door and blocked the back entrance of the building with an all-terrain vehicle after staff left on Wednesday evening. The padlocking was an escalation of a protest that began on May 29 with the "occupation" of the centre's front lobby and plastering the outside of the building with protest signs. The dissidents say band members have seen none of the money.

Protesters said they locked the doors after an administrator locked them out when they went outside for a smoke. A band council member said the doors were locked because the administrator wanted to go home and no one was inside.

Gail Sparrow, a former Musqueam chief and spokeswoman for the group, said the front door will remain padlocked until the band council agrees to call a band meeting to disclose where the money is and to allow band members to vote on how the funds should be dispensed.

"They keep asking me how long are you going to be here, and I said, 'as long as it takes to have someone listen to us,' " Ms. Sparrow said in an interview outside the office.

Chief Ernie Campbell said later in an interview that the band council can account for all the money and has held several meetings to discuss what will be done with it.

Information about their discussions will be presented to band members at a meeting on Monday. The band members will have a chance to vote on what will be done at a meeting that has not yet been scheduled.

"We have been very patient in an attempt to be accommodating to a small group," Chief Campbell said. "The great majority of the community support the process that the chief and council are doing."

The Musqueam First Nation live on a reserve in south Vancouver on the banks of the north arm of the Fraser River. The reserve has around 1,300 residents, but only 600, including 150 children, have aboriginal rights under the federal Indian Act.

The band, which is involved in the federal-provincial treaty negotiations process, claims its traditional territory encompasses all of Vancouver and Richmond and portions of four additional cities in the region. In addition to its 190-hectare reserve, the Musqueam band owns prime land that has been leased out for two golf courses and for housing. The band also has a hotel and is in involved in a multimillion-dollar residential development in neighbouring Southlands.

The B.C. government wrote a cheque to the Musqueam First Nation for $5-million in mid-March and another cheque for $15.3-million in mid-April as part of a settlement resolving three outstanding court cases, a B.C. government official confirmed.

The cash was part of a settlement that included transfer of 59 hectares currently used for the University of British Columbia golf course, seven hectares currently used for the River Rock casino development and an additional 22 hectares, some of which will be developed for housing.

The federal government has also announced a transfer of $17-million in recognition of 2010 Olympic activities on land that the Musqueam claim as their territory. Negotiations are continuing on an additional $3-million for unspecified programs. The Musqueam band has also received $800,000 recently for compensation for the impact of the Canada Line, a new rapid transit line that crosses their fishing grounds in the Fraser River.

The protesters say band members have not seen any of the money and have no idea what happened to the funds. "We want full disclosure of our funds that we received in our settlement," Ms. Sparrow said. "We've been asking for that since December [when band members heard that payments were to be made]."

Ms. Sparrow says she was speaking on behalf of more than 100 band members. When the lobby protest was locked out, she drove around the reserve to get direction from band members. "The people said, 'get back in there. This is only beginning now,' " Ms. Sparrow said.