The Bloodvein First Nation in north eastern Manitoba has decided that it will ban all non-indigenous hunters from entering a huge swath of Crown land surrounding its reserve. It has put up a blockade. This is clearly illegal, but this is how CBC reported the illegal action:“Chief Young told CBC that Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures Minister Ian Bushie has been in contact with the First Nation. She said that the minister, along with other First Nations in the area like Poplar River and Berens River, support Bloodvein's decision to limit hunters on it's land.”It’s land? The problem here is that the person who wrote this article, the First Nations politicians, and even provincial politicians do not appear to understand that the land surrounding the Bloodvein reserve is not “its land” at all. The land is Crown land. This reporter — like most CBC reporters — seems to believe that Indians are the owners of Crown land. The same reporters also appear to know very little about what the numbered treaties actually say. I suspect that they have never taken the time to read them.Bloodvein is governed under Treaty 5, also known as the Winnipeg Treaty. Here is what Treaty 5 says: “The Saulteaux and Swampy Cree Tribes of Indians and all other the Indians inhabiting the district hereinafter described and defined, do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to the Government of the Dominion of Canada, for Her Majesty the Queen and Her successors for ever, all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever to the lands.".MORGAN: Another day, another mass burial hoax.Simply put, the Indians gave up all rights to the land. That land is not “stolen land”, it is not “shared land” and it is certainly not “their land”. It was properly ceded to the government. Anyone interested in knowing exactly how the treaties were very carefully and fairly written can read the book written by the man who personally negotiated most of the numbered treaties - Alexander Morris. Here is the book he wrote.Here is what the Indians received as consideration for signing the treaties:“And Her Majesty the Queen hereby agrees and undertakes to lay aside reserves for farming lands, due respect being had to lands at present cultivated by the said Indians, and other reserves for the benefit of the said Indians, to be administered and dealt with for them by Her Majesty's Government of the Dominion of Canada, provided all such reserves shall not exceed in all one hundred and sixty acres for each family of five…”As well, the Indians received farming implements, $5 per year, and other miscellaneous items.As for the land surrounding the reserves, now routinely referred to as “traditional lands” or CBC’s Lauren Scott as “their land” - or even by some, like Winnipeg Free Press’s Nigaan Sinclair - as “stolen land”, the Indians had the right to hunt and fish on the land until the government needed it for any other purpose. Here is how it is phrased in Treaty 5:“Her Majesty further agrees with Her said Indians, that they, the said Indians, shall have right to pursue their avocations of hunting and fishing throughout the tract surrendered as hereinbefore described, subject to such regulations as may from time to time be made by Her Government of Her Dominion of Canada, and saving and excepting such tracts as may from time to time be required or taken up for settlement, mining, lumbering or other purposes, by Her said Government of the Dominion of Canada, or by any of the subjects thereof duly authorized therefor by the said Government.”In short, the Indians could use the land for hunting, until the government needed it for any other purpose..The Natural Resources Transfer Agreements(NRTA) of 1930, transferred resource control to the provinces, and included a constitutional provision protecting First Nations' treaty rights to hunt and fish on unoccupied Crown lands, subject to the provinces' regulatory authority. In short, the province has complete control over hunting, fishing and trapping on Crown land.All of this means that the blockade by the Bloodvein First Nation is clearly illegal. The Manitoba Wildlife Federation has denounced the blockade as illegal, and demanded that it be ended. The WWF is completely correct. The Bloodvein Indian band has no right to block people from entering Crown land. But the WWF shouldn’t expect much help from the RCMP, or Manitoba’s politicians. The Premier, Wab Kinew, appears to be completely under the control of Manitoba’s increasingly aggressive chiefs.Here is a MWF spokesperson accurately describing the situation, and politely asking Kinew to show leadership on this explosive issue. To date Kinew has said nothing..FLETCHER: How can island tribes claim ancestral territory on the mainland?.So, that’s it. Bloodvein First Nation is acting illegally by imposing a blockade barring non-indigenous hunters from accessing Crown land. Bloodvein doesn’t own the land they have blockaded. It is not “their land” any more than Crown land is all of our land. The Bloodvein people can hunt on the land until the government needs the land for some other purpose. I can legally hunt there too if I purchase a hunting license from the provincial government. In short, the Bloodvein resident has exactly the same right that I have. I have no right to stop them from exercising their right, and they have no right to stop me from exercising my right. Similarly, I have no right to stop a Bloodvein resident from entering a provincial or federal park, and they have no right to stop me from doing so. We are all Canadians, and except for their status Indian entitlements, we have exactly the same rights. What’s happening at Bloodvein is illegal, and it is wrong. But the same thing is happening in other parts of Canada as well. BC is perhaps the most worrying example - private property rights there are now directly under threat by an overreaching court, and the irresponsible Eby government - but this slow theft of our land is taking place from coast to coast. And it’s only going to get worse if Canadians simply sit back and take it - as they have done for the last ten years, while land acknowledgements were recited at them. That was all “grooming” behaviour on the part of activists. By making us listen to meaningless land acknowledgements they softened us up for the real land theft that was coming. Activists have now embarked on a campaign to close public parks, and other public land areas. Those closures will become longer and involve more public land. The eventual goal is to give all public land to people claiming to be the descendants of ancestors who had their land “stolen” from them. The campaign is called “Land Back”. The campaign is working. Meanwhile, indigenous land claims are becoming more and more aggressive. The Cowichan case is just the latest in lavishly financed lawsuits, prosecuted by some of the most expensive law firms in Canada - all paid for directly or indirectly by the very taxpayers who are being dispossessed. In Cowichan we see the absurdity of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Delgumuukw case to allow seventh hand hearsay evidence to destroy a system of property rights that has taken a thousand painful years to construct. Meanwhile, we are being told by politicians, such as Premier Eby, and indigenous activist apologists, such as Terry Glavin, that there is no threat to private property or our public land rights at all - we should all just “calm down”- that the Supreme Court has our backs..They are not telling the truth. The Supreme Court has become an advocate for all indigenous causes, and is not on our side at all. Their determination to achieve the elusive “reconciliation” at all costs is a direct threat to every Canadian. By allowing seventh hand hearsay to dispossess the 98% to please the 2% our own Supreme Court has betrayed every Canadian. The “Aboriginal Title” literally invented by the Supreme Court in the Delgumuukw line of cases, and now radically expanded in the Cowichan case, must be reversed if Canada is to survive.Lord Nigel Biggar explains why a concept like “Aboriginal Title” is an absurdity.Canadians should not accept this slow theft of their land. Indians have no more right than anyone else to the use of public land. It is not “their land” it is land belonging to all Canadians. As mentioned, Canadians politely sat through “land-acknowledgements”, not realizing that they were being softened up to this assault by stealth on their property rights. .LYTLE: Do we really want to double oil production?.Now they are watching their provincial and federal parks being slowly taken over by people claiming ancient tribal rights. The people in Richmond BC woke up to find that their property ownership was now “junior” to a seemingly constitutionally entrenched “senior” Aboriginal Title right. Simply put, they were told by an overreaching judge that they didn’t own the land that they had bought and paid for.Don’t look to the RCMP to help you assert your right to enter Crown land or a public park in the face of an illegal indigenous occupation. Instead, expect them to assist the illegal occupiers, and evict you. The RCMP has become a political tool, and completely subverted by its leaders’ reconciliation at any cost agenda.They proved that when they refused to properly investigate the false Kamloops graves claim. A proper investigation would have quickly revealed those claims about evil priests and secret burials to be baseless. Canada would have been spared that entire, ridiculous “evil priests kill children” hysteria.Neither can we depend on our courts on indigenous claims. The casual disregard for private property rights shown by the judge in the Cowichan case is truly shocking, but it is just a radical extension of an activist Supreme Court that has played fast and loose with our property rights in pursuit of their “reconciliation” holy grail.And you might not be able to depend on your elected representatives either. BC Premier Eby has clearly chosen a side - and it’s not the side of the Canadian property owner. Eby and his ilk are surreptitiously out to undermine property rights to achieve some unknown goal that makes sense only to them.For my part, I refuse to listen to those insidious land acknowledgements. I politely walk out when I hear one coming. And I refuse to accept advice from a government official or police officer who tells me that I am not allowed to enter a public park just because an indigenous group demands exclusive access to it. As for the judge or politician who dares to tell me that the property I have worked hard to purchase now belongs to someone claiming to be the descendant of some ancient who hunted or fished there a few hundred years ago, I will simply not accept such an absurdity. I will actively resist.And so should every Canadian.
