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Re: AFN chief asks UN to support First Nations’ opposition to B.C. Indigenous law change
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John Rustad’s reaction to National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak’s address to the United Nations deserves a direct response.
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Rustad called it “completely unacceptable” that “an unelected national chief” would bring this matter to an international body. He described it as interference in “the sovereign affairs of our province.”
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This framing contains a fundamental error — not a political one, but a constitutional one.
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First Nations peoples are not constituents of B.C. They are sovereign nations who predate this province, whose title to their territories was never ceded, and whose rights are recognized not only in Canadian constitutional law but in international human rights instruments that Canada has formally adopted. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is not foreign interference in B.C.’s affairs. It is a framework Canada signed, ratified, and legislated into provincial law through DRIPA.
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When a government that adopted DRIPA seeks to suspend it the moment it produces a ruling it dislikes, going to the UN is not interference. It is exactly the kind of accountability mechanism international human rights law exists to provide.
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Woodhouse Nepinak is not asking the UN to govern B.C. She is holding Canada to its own word.
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The question Rustad should be asking is not why the national chief went to the UN. It is why B.C.’s government made it necessary.
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Walter Persaud, Vancouver
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Cars should have mandatory black boxes
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It is amazing that the simple installation of cameras at dangerous intersections can decrease the number of fatalities by around 40 per cent. At the same time, this saves families a lot of grief and millions in taxpayer money as health-care expenses also decrease.
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Drivers are more careful if they suspect or know that their driving is monitored.
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That is why black boxes should be mandatory for every vehicle on the road. Privacy is not an issue when you drive on a public road. If the last hour or whatever is determined and recorded, the police and investigators would have an exact picture of what the driver did or has been doing in that time. If drivers know this, they will be much more careful, insurance rates could decrease further, and vehicle damage would decrease even more.
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Arno Penner, Abbotsford
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Queens of a floating dumpster fire
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The administrative maze that is B.C. Ferries includes the provincial government, the B.C. Ferry Authority, the B.C. Ferries commissioner and B.C. Ferry Services Inc. Nine directors is an inefficient organizational mess that forms a kafkaesque wall insulating the provincial government from even commenting on the almost daily nightmare of ferry service mishaps. The B.C. Ferry online app is routinely incapable of accurately describing the state of current conditions, particularly during service failures, leading to inconvenience, wasted time and frustration for customers. News coverage of significant service interruptions often lapses into a “who’s on first” conversation relating to the various participants as noted above, and spokespeople reiterating that everyone is trying their best and “they know you have important places to be.”
