Nak’azdli doesn't have a leg to stand on IMO. McLoad Lake band even made overtures to them over and beyond what could be expected. I have yet to hear a good line of argument from Nak’azdli as to why they should be a part of any deal... they aren't even in the same watershed. Its about ransom money pure and simple IMO.

"Glen Wonders advised that the mine is on the treaty land of the McLeod Lake band"

Isn't that a good reason?

I agree completely Eagleone.
It is interesting to note that the area in which the Mt.Milligan mine sits, is on the keyoh claimed by the Sam family of the Nak'azdli band.
It is also generally considered to be part of the Mcleod Lake watershed as the Mcleod Lake band claims, and that dispute is ongoing and has been for many years.
Chief Fred Sam is a member of that same Sam family, along with several other members of his family, who also sit on the band council.
It appears that they in fact would directly benefit from any compensation paid out by the government or by Terrane.
So what will the rest of the band and Mcleod Lake get out of any compensation paid out?
I see that as a direct conflict of interest that is not usually mentioned, but needs to be considered.
If the Sam family wishes to fight this on the basis that they are the owners of the keyoh,then it would only be right to step aside and resign from council and any decision making process being made that will affect the band as a whole.
It would be interesting to hear what the band itself has to say, as a number of them have already been employed at the mine site doing site preparation, as well as supplying equipment and trucking services.
This mine is so close to actually being a viable operation and it is much needed by the entire area in terms of jobs.
Those jobs are being offered to both Nak'azdli and McLeod Lake as well,in fact they are guaranteed.
It is also interesting to note that the provincal environmental certificate was granted right before the election and I do have to wonder about the timing?
Brownie points with the electorate perhaps, in favour of Liberal John Rustad who was seeking re-election?
Glen Wonders is correct that this dispute is more between the Nak'azdli band and the provincial government and it will be interesting to see how it is handled.
In any event,there is much more here than meets the eye.
This affects everyone,not just the Nak'azdli band, and that needs to be the first and foremost consideration in terms of economic benefits thorughout the area.
The ball is in the provincial government's court now.
They talk big,but now we get to see their true colors!

I think a no comment will speak for my thoughts!

Every square Inch of this Province is claimed more then once, the Lawyers will make a killing and who will pay for it?

Government to government?
Those people are not a government, they are an Indian Band. They, and many other Indian Bands in B.C. make all sorts of unreasonable demands, why do people of all creeds and colours that actually contribute to the country's economy have to support their every whim and claim?
Because their ancestors were "here first"?
What, did they build this continent? Did they create the mountains and the streams, and the trees? I thought the creator did all that, for mankind. Apparently the creator built it all just for a certain number of mankind, and now the invaders have taken it all over and made it better, so the original people who were given the land to live on want it all back and then some.
The notion of granting full governmental powers to an exclusive club who demand to be completely supported by the taxpayers of the land, while also receiving a cut of the proceeds from resource extraction is bloody ridiculous. It is time to settle this, and have one country, one people, one law. Oh, one government, even as screwed up as our government is.
metalman.

I think Andyfreeze is correct, the whole Sam family will benefit the most here. All
indications are the vast majority of Nak'asdli band members and businesses support this project. They will benefit greatly from work opportunities. It seems
the Sam family doesn't want to promote their members having high paying jobs and some sort of independence. Very unfortunate to keep holding your own people back. As far as consultation with government and Terrane, they have been in that loop for the last 4 years so that is
simply not a factual statement.

It is time this BS is stopped once and for all. If our spinless courts and goverments will not do it mabey the citizens and taxpayers who are paying the bills should. My old dad used to say some day you go to far boy...

When is Fred Sam going to step out from hiding behind his politics on this "government to government" excuse?

Get on with it Fred, and tell the people of Canada,BC, and Terrane exactly how much to write the cheque for, that you want payable to Fred Sam.

After a long time of complaining about these types of issues i, have decided to just bombard our government with my objections to such actions!

Posting my thoughts on those groups go nowhere on here!

We have elected officials that we voted in to speak on our behalf....use them!

Like any other special groups we have a legal right to protest against anything that we feel is unjust.

Contact your local, Provincial and federal Government official and express your concerns.

Why would Fred or Anne care about the direct jobs and all the spinoff jobs for this region. Even though we are in a recession and people are losing their jobs and homes as we speak,it's same old same old at Sams place. If the INAC money was cut by 40 or 50% they may have a different outlook. Just keep running deficits instead of dealing with the problem!Wouldn't you like free medical,free dental. and free education for you and your kids while holding the taxpayers hostage. We can't keep going around in this circle. Something has to give!

For all the natives born before 1950, they get $250,000.00 All the natives born between 1950 to 1965 gets $150,000.00. from 1965 to 1980 gets $100,000.00 and all the natives born after 1980 get $50,000.00

They would only qualify if they had lived on the reserve for more than 40% of there lives. otherwise, the card allows them $10,000.00

Percentage of native blood determines the percentage of money.

They of course sign on the dotted lines, and this is final. They are entitled to welfare, but no claim on land titles.

So what if it costs us a ten billion dollars. Think about it as a final settlement. Think of it as saying to the rest of the world that, the issue has been settled. How much have we spent on the issue already. two, three billion already.

Good point He spoke, and it does have merit.
Only problem is, I seriously doubt that FN leadership would even allow the people themselves to even vote on it!

how come they are claiming everything?
what if we start charging them for using the roads ane rails and transport systems that we put in.lets get the economy going here.this mine is so beneficial to everyone in this area.

I once belonged to a union. Every other word out of their mouths was the word democracy. I was not able to vote for my national union president. My delegate did that for me. Now they are replacing Freddy Fontaine as leader. Do all the Indians get to vote for a replacement? Not in your life. The band chiefs and councils most likely are all delegates. They vote for the new leader. The word democracy is whored by these two examples. Sure am glad I don't have delegates voting for my politicians. Maybe one day it will come to that.

True Harbinger, but you do have delegates voting for the leader of a particular party.
If you want to support the Liberal party, for example,you don't get a say in who the party leader is.
If that party wins,you have a PM that you did not vote for.
It stinks.

"For all the natives born before 1950, they get $250,000.00 All the natives born between 1950 to 1965 gets $150,000.00. from 1965 to 1980 gets $100,000.00 and all the natives born after 1980 get $50,000.00"

Before we do that, how about we just give every person living on reserve the ability to actually have their own name on the title of their home, instead of being a permanent house guest for their forseeable lifetime.

Good one NMG.
I know a lot of first nations people who agree with that but as usual, nobody is listening.

There isn't that many natives in canada. Give them all .5 mil and it's over. There is about 350,000 all told including inuit. Of course that would take a lot of money from a lot of other people who depend on our stupidity. Lawyers,judges,Indian Affairs - the list is huge - but it costs way more to keep that list financially sound.

I think the socreds mulled this buyout option in their last days, before they went extinct.

It definitely has merits in my opinion and at some point the decision must be made whether we are to have numerous nations within Canada, each with this authority over "their lands", OR we are going to have a country which equality of its citizens is paramount.

At this point in time, and realising that for the last few decades, that the federal government has lead our native peoples to believe that being a "First Nation" also meant that these native groups had far reaching authority, rights and even title to large areas of "Traditional Territory" is something which we now probably must
have to pay for.

These Traditional areas (as claimed or asserted) encompass practically all of Canada. How is Canada going to function if most of Canada is governed by numerous First Nations? Our country is being paralysed by this and two things need to occurr.

One is that the definition of "traditional territory" be brought back to its original meaning that applied to an area for fishing, hunting, trapping and gathering for traditional subsistance use, and trading between bands/tribes...and nothing more. That is what it meant when it was promised to native peoples. It did not mean it was to bestow authority over the land, water or the natural resources outside of Indian Reserves.

Canada has enshrined human rights to all its citizens including native peoples and there is no need nor justifications for additional or special rights to anyone.
This is not South Africa of the 70s and we do not have aparthied and no such disgrace in the ways which Canada has treated its native peoples.

The ineptness of the federal government has left all this to the courts to decide what traditional rights are and what a traditional territory represents and hence chaos has ensued.

The second and justified thing (because of the misleading actions of the federal government)which must occurr is to buyout these unique rights (whatever they are)of the individuals and end this dual nationality and citizenship notion once and for all.

It is the only peacefull means to transform Canada into the nation which it was supposed to be, for the good of all.

If we don't deal with this it will continue to become very unpeacefull, disruptive and break the country and then where would the feds, the native leaders, and all their lawyers get their funding from?

"This is not South Africa of the 70s and we do not have aparthied and no such disgrace in the ways which Canada has treated its native peoples"

Are you for real? I suggest you read some of our own Canadian history from back in the day . . .

And who can proof you where here first, which people did you replace ?

Ok NMG, your right in that the distant past has some less than flattering moments, as does every country's history does.
Remember that in every part of the world for as long as anyone knows..and including North America and yes even its tribal wars... that killing each other..raiding...enslaving the dominated peoples..overpowering the weaker group..taking their lands...imposing a new government...simply was the way they did things.
Pre European settlement was not a time that there were no killings or tribal wars over territory or wealth in the land that we now call Canada. That is a relavent piece of history as well.
Ironically and ever since the European settlement of Canada occurred, that these tribal wars..the killing of one tribe by another tribe has stopped.

What I was trying to say is that at this point, the equality exists, opportunity to anyone who lives in Canada, their individual human rights are as good as anywhere in the world..whereas they were not and probably still are not so in South Africa.

"What I was trying to say is that at this point, the equality exists, opportunity to anyone who lives in Canada, their individual human rights are as good as anywhere in the world"

I suppose it's all a matter of perspective. I don't imagine that a kid growing up on a reserve near Ingenika or Northern Quebec would have that same feeling of "equality" as a kid growing up in Southridge, nor would they realistically have the "same" opportunity to get ahead as that kid from Southridge. This isn't to say that they can't succeed, but to believe that everyone is on equal footing is a bit of a stretch IMHO.

The real kicker is that there are still many native folks living today who directly experienced the stuff from the so called "distant past" and you can bet that those memories don't just fade away after receiving some dough from the government. You can also bet that those experiences were also passed down and entrenched for many future generations to come, just like they would have been in any culture around the world.

The reality is that for many, many, years, the Canadian Government undertook a strategy to systematically and destroy the culture of native peoples in Canada. It's completely unreasonable to think that we can undo those actions by simply chanting "One country, one people, one law", by cutting some big cheques, by giving native peoples the right to harvest trees, salmon or gold, etc. We've got a LONG WAYS to go before the past actions of our governments will no longer continue to have an impact on our current situation. Heck, the average Canadian is still ticked about the GST being introduced over a decade ago. Imagine how long it would take for you to get over the fact that the government tried to take your entire heritage away from you.

Or you could play the "poor me poor people" card for the next thousand years.

It's got nothing to do with a "card", it's just the reality of the situation and the fact that it will take a great deal of time to resolve even when we start dealing with it properly (which in many cases we haven't).