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Don't trade in bad faith

An open letter to First Nations leaders who oppose the Northern Gateway Pipeline: Let's get one thing straight: I am a status Aboriginal, I support the Northern Gateway Pipeline, and I am certain that opposition to this project can only harm our peop

An open letter to First Nations leaders who oppose the Northern Gateway Pipeline:

Let's get one thing straight: I am a status Aboriginal, I support the Northern Gateway Pipeline, and I am certain that opposition to this project can only harm our people and culture.

You may call me what you wish - a red apple, a sellout, a white washed native. But the fact of the matter is it is you, not me, who have forgotten the basis of our relationship with the Canadian people: trade.

Some of you might argue that you are looking to trade land usage rights for cash. But the ultimatums you have shouted in the press show that this is a trade made in bad faith, and you would be liars to not admit it. Imagine if the descendants of Europeans held all items brought to our lands after Columbus hostage? I for one would not enjoy walking everywhere on foot, or using spears and bows to catch my dinner as my ancestors did, since before the Europeans arrived my people didn't even have horses, let alone rifles.

No, unlike you, I am willing to trade in an honest manner. The governments of Canada and British Columbia have set aside hundreds of thousands of dollars for those of us aboriginals who are willing to go to school and gain the skills needed in a resource-based economy. Thus, I have committed to complete a program at the College of New Caledonia, and to stick out my trade for a number of years; in return both governments have promised substantial incentives and scholarships. That is the very definition of fair trade.

Why can't we just shut up and take their money? What are we so afraid of? Honest work makes for honest people, and with these kinds of incentives, only a fool would turn them down.

Don't any of you understand that our people have suffered long enough from poverty, and the social ills it causes? The flipside of the reconciliation and apologies that Canada has offered to our people for its past offences is that our people no longer have to live in victimhood. We can now join as full partners in Confederation with an incredible amount of resources just a click or phone call away.

Others have declared that our people have a special relationship with the land, even a spiritual one. Thus, we cannot bring development that poses any risk to the environment our ancestors left in our care. But that's a false interpretation of our ancestors' legacy. Archaeology clearly shows that our ancestors utilized whatever technical means they had at their disposal to make their lives easier, some of which caused extinction and changed landscapes beyond recognition. We, the First Peoples of Canada, did not have a net-zero impact on the environment, and that's a fact.

Opposition to this pipeline in the manner it is currently being conducted is not only ludicrous but undignified and counterproductive. I guarantee that if these displays continue, and if this project really is stopped, we will watch business opportunities and funding for aboriginals dwindle, as we become known as a people that can't be reasoned with whatsoever.

In the end, we must honor the precedent set by our forebears, whether one traces it to the two row wampum belt or to more recent treaties; our ancestors clearly had an openness to trade, and so should we. While it is true that treaties have been offended in the past, that does not give our people or their leaders the license to make ultimatums in the present. This new age of trade offers the same opportunities that trade with Canada has before: a chance for our people and our culture to flourish in ways never seen before.

We just need to seize the moment.