Three weeks from today, Tla’amin Nation will be self-governing. The community has been challenged to create laws that embody traditional principles and function in today’s society. In the final part of the series of articles for the Peak, Janet May from Powell River Diversity Initiative analyzes what kind of laws are coming and how will they work.
The first duty of the Tla’amin government, just past midnight on Tuesday, April 5, will be to pass modern-day Tla’amin laws. About 30 laws have been drafted, covering a range of specific areas from citizenship to subdivision.
“Our laws will reflect Tla’amin values and principles,” said chief treaty negotiator Roy Francis. “They are built by Tla’amin people for Tla’amin people and are a very positive step in our evolution as a nation.”
Francis emphasizes that Tla’amin continues to recognize Canadian laws in many areas. “Our laws are meant to parallel the existing laws in Canada; our treaty does not affect that in any way,” he said.
RCMP will continue to enforce provincial and federal laws on Tla’amin land and the BC provincial court has jurisdiction to hear prosecutions of offences under Tla’amin law.
Tla’amin laws have a long history. As elder Elsie Paul wrote in her book, Written as I Remember It: Teachings (ʔəms taʔaw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder, “Our people always had their own justice system in place. And their own government. Our people governed themselves. They took care of one another.”
In 2008, Tla’amin citizens began working in community groups to draft Tla’amin’s constitution. Tla’amin chief councillor Clint Williams remembers “they created work groups in specific areas and met with community members, elders, youth, workers and the general public around our community and asked, if you could fix something, what would you fix? The constitution was written by our community.”
The constitution affirms Tla’amin values such as responsible, sustainable stewardship of natural resources and the principles of fairness and accountability. It is grounded in traditional Tla’amin teachings, called Taʔow, which are the foundation of the laws that have been written to date. Each law begins with a preamble that reflects the constitution’s guiding principles.
“Our constitution set the bar really high, which was a good thing,” said Williams.
Taʔow is an integral part of the lawmaking process as well, according to Melissa Louie, a member of the Tla’amin governance community working group.
“At the beginning we started unpacking the traditional teachings and Elsie [Paul] contextualized the values for us as young people, grounding us in our understanding of what it means to be a Tla’amin person. It was a way of reconnecting with who we are,” said Louie.
The group was tasked with blending Taʔow with the western legal system.
“As Coast Salish people, our teachings arise through an oral tradition,” said Louie, “and seeing our laws codified, written for people to examine, and have outside courts interpret, raised a lot of questions for some people.”
Louie said if an issue did come up in front of a Canadian court, legal counsel would likely have to bring in experts. Tla’amin’s experts would be its elders, who would guide any interpretation, she said.
“I am not afraid of exploring that side of reconciliation,” said Louie. “If anything, it forces Canadian courts to look at who we are as people and what we bring to the table, which is something that hasn’t been done to date. It is a real opportunity for growth, for ourselves as first nations, for all Canadians, and for Canadian judiciary as well.”
On April 5, Williams will become Hegus (hey-goos, meaning “leader”) and the current Sliammon council will become members of Tla’amin’s legislature and executive. These elected leaders will be the transitional government until the first Tla’amin election takes place in September 2016.
Francis expects Tla’amin leadership to “establish a range of committees for specific areas; youth recreation or language and culture, for example. Information will flow from committees to our elected leadership and be taken into account.”
Tla’amin’s laws can be divided into three main areas: governance, finance and programs and natural-resource management. The laws span the functions of three levels of government. Examples are citizenship law at the national level; health, education, social development and family law at the provincial level; and property-taxation law at the local level.
Citizenship law and regulations will define who is eligible to be a Tla’amin citizen. A person must be able to trace his or her family connection on the community’s comprehensive family tree. Those who enrol as Tla’amin citizens will retain their Canadian citizenship, BC residency and membership on the status Indian register, if they have status. Only Tla’amin citizens can vote in Tla’amin elections.
A number of laws focus on protection and management of lands, forestry, water, fisheries and wildlife. Tla’amin is responsible for enforcing these laws.
“We are managing resources from the deepest ocean cod to the top of the mountain. There will be gaps and we would like some help in filling those gaps,” said Williams.
Williams said he would like to see a collaborative approach to compliance and enforcement on Tla’amin lands. He is inspired by a project called the collaboration for the protection of cultural and heritage sites on the Sunshine Coast.
“Kim Meyer of the forest service did an amazing program some years ago, which brought together RCMP, BC Parks, coast guard, fisheries, all agencies out there dealing with natural resources,” said Williams.
Williams would like to see Tla’amin people working within a local office, such as the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
“My reasoning for that is we have lands spread all over the place and for us to buy a boat and buy a quad, it is silly,” he said. “To duplicate the organization would cost us a heck of a lot more and we will be riding on the same road, looking at the same things.”
Having title to and lawmaking authority over the land is hugely significant to Tla’amin, said Francis.
“I believe we have unlocked the wealth of the land base. It makes a big big difference to us. It comes along with the need for work and to grasp hold of our own vision for our community going forward,” he said. “When you see the big governance house coming up out of the ground, it represents an emerging of something new, exciting, challenging and a little bit scary. I really like where we are today.”
