"This is a step to tell Weyerhauser that we are sick and tired of what they are doing on the islands, what they are doing to people and to communities," said logger Bernie Lepage, one of the organizers of the protest. "We are making this statement to the provincial government as much as to Weyerhauser. We are backing the Haida."

Dale Lore, also a logger, said that current harvesting levels are compromising the sustainability of forest-dependent communities who live on the islands.

As many as 400 Haida and loggers, members of the newly-formed Association of Forestry Workers, participated in a day of celebration at the Native village of Skidegate. Of 155 resident forestry workers, 135 have announced their support for aboriginal title to forest lands.

"There’s no work at Weyerhauser today," said Council of Haida Nations president Guujaaw, who uses his single Haida name. He welcomed the loggers and their families as allies in a battle, which he said "is now a political issue" aimed more at the provincial government than at Weyerhauser.

"This is pretty major. These are actual workers for Weyerhauser," Guujaaw said of the important shift in the position of the loggers. Earlier this year, the British Columbia Court of Appeals had ruled that the Haida should have been consulted by the province and Weyerhauser Canada about logging activities on the land claimed by the Haida.

The Court of Appeals decision held that aboriginal title would be an encumbrance on the government interest in the Queen Charlottes’ land, trees, and waters and called the likelihood of the Haida succeeding in establishing aboriginal title "inescapable." There are approximately 7,000 members of the Haida Nation.

On the heels of that victory, the Haida filed a suit March 6 in the Supreme Court of British Columbia laying claim to all 1,884 islands that make up the Queen Charlottes, and the waters surrounding them. Like the vast majority of Natives in British Columbia., the Haida never signed a treaty with the government, meaning they never gave up their rights to the land. Between 2,000 and 3,000 Haida remain on the Queen Charlottes, mostly in or around the villages of Massett and Skidegate. An estimated 3,800 non-Natives live on the islands.

Aboriginal title would not convey outright ownership of the Queen Charlottes to the Haida, but it would grant them a role in almost every aspect of land use there. "It would mean we would hold a tenure within the laws of Canada. Anything that would happen would require our approval," Guujaaw said.

Louise Mandell, the band’s lawyer, called the claim "groundbreaking," saying she believes it’s the first time an aboriginal band has laid title to surrounding waters and offshore resources. The claim includes the Hecate Strait between British Columbia’s northern mainland and the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The area is believed to contain some 9.8 billion barrels of oil and about 25.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The federal government imposed a moratorium on offshore oil and gas activity in 1972. The British Columbia government brought in its own ban, which was extended indefinitely by the previous New Democratic Party government. But the British Columbia Liberal government is considering lifting the moratorium.

The Haida people are opposed to any offshore oil or gas development, fearing environmental disaster and devastation if it proceeds. Their community is concerned about the high risk of oil spills due to violent storms in the region. "What if a spill happens?" asked a 17-year-old Haida woman, Celeste Mitchell. "Everyone on this island lives off the fish and the ocean."

The action by the loggers in support of the Haida claim is another reflection of the growing support by working people for the rights of Native people. The First Nations, a coalition of Native groups, was in the lead contingent of the massive May 25 march in Vancouver against the provincial cutbacks and other attacks on working people.

Only 760,000 people sent in their ballots to the provincial government in the anti-Native referendum on treaty negotiations. The First Nations Summit, one of the groups that organized a boycott of the anti-Native referendum, has issued a "thank you" letter to all the groups and individuals who supported the boycott.

Ballots were dropped off in bulk at the offices of Native, trade union, church, and other organizations. On June 14 at a meeting in North Vancouver, the First Nations Summit will announce the results of gathering together these protest votes.

Beverly Bernardo is a meat packer.  
 
 
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