Talk's cheap, so settle land claims

By Lorrie Goldstein - Toronto Sun commentator

Here's the thing about settling native land claims.

What Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced yesterday as a better, faster, more independent process for resolving them, isn't what we need. Nor is the government's promise to set aside $250 million a year for 10 years to settle them.

What we need is results -- actual, settled claims.

If the process Harper has proposed of having impartial judges make decisions on land claims where negotiations break down works, fine. Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine was certainly enthusiastic.

But Canadians have heard promises of breakthroughs on such issues before, only to be disappointed.

This time, Harper's proposed bill, to be co-written by the AFN, will have to get through a bitterly divided minority Parliament in the fall.

Between now and then comes a National Day of Action by the AFN on June 29. Fontaine has urged peaceful demonstrations to highlight native issues, but at least one chief has threatened to block rail lines.

Such antics will only undermine public sympathy for aboriginal people, lowering public pressure on politicians to do anything -- a cycle which repeats itself over and over again.
It has to stop. We must settle land claims with Canada's original inhabitants once and for all, quickly and fairly.

Aboriginals should not have to wait an average of 13 years to get one of 800 outstanding claims resolved.

It's unfair to them. It's unfair to communities such as Caledonia, Ont., which are held hostage when aboriginals take the law into their own hands to protest the slow or non-existent pace of land negotiations, while gutless politicians avert their eyes and do nothing.

Appeasing law-breakers out of misguided notions of political correctness isn't the answer. Quickly and fairly settling land claims is -- while showing zero tolerance for law-breaking.

Then we need to find out where the $10 billion we spend annually on aboriginal issues is going. It's certainly not delivering $10 billion a year worth of a better quality of life to Canada's aboriginals.

All Canadians, native and non-native, deserve better. Now.