By Carol Martin
SooToday.com
Thursday, February 04, 2010

Citizens of Garden River First Nation are frustrated and desperate enough about the incoming harmonized sales tax (HST) that they're prepared to stick a toll booth on the Trans Canada Highway, says Band Councillor Blaine Belleau.

The idea of charging travellers to use Highway 17 where it crosses Garden River was discussed at a community meeting this week.

Belleau (shown in a file photo taken at a recent HST protest) says some feel more strongly about the issue than others, but the overall perspective in Garden River is that the HST is wrong and will not be tolerated.

And he says Garden River has every right to put a toll booth on the highway.

"When the agreement to offer them a corridor of land for use as a highway was signed, there was a section in there that said the government of Ontario agrees not to put a toll booth on the highway," Belleau tells SooToday.com. "But they said they wouldn't - not us. And the underlying issue of it all is that we still own the land."

Belleau said the agreement allowing the highway was made when the Ontario government was considering charging highway users in Northern Ontario a toll to help pay for the infrastructure.

Garden River citizens wanted a guarantee that they would never have to pay the Ontario government to use a highway across their land, so they negotiated that clause.

Belleau believes, based on the agreement's wording, that it can't be interpreted to mean Garden River also agreed not to charge a toll.

Whether Garden River will charge travellers on Highway 17 A and B will depend on the the willingness of the governments of Canada and Ontario to negotiate with Garden River on a nation-to-nation basis, he said.

"If they insist on forcing us to pay an extra 15 percent on our purchases in Canada, then we may act to cancel the equation," said Belleau.

The Highway 17 toll booth was one of several ideas discussed at a regular monthly community meeting in Garden River on Tuesday evening.

Belleau says the community supported the idea of charging Highway 17 users to recoup some of the money it believes it will lose if HST is forced on Garden River.

Community members also supported Band Council’s direction against the HST.

In recent weeks, Garden River, Batchewana First Nation and other Anishinabek Nation members have taken action to protest against the HST.

These actions included shopping in the United States and temporary road closures to raise awareness of the implications of HST.

"Our ancestors negotiated and agreed to the Robinson Huron Treaty in 1850," Belleau said. "That was before Canada was even a country."

Canada did not have a mandate to legislatively impose the British North America Act or the Indian Act upon Anishinabe nations because those documents postdate the precedent-setting treaty those nations agreed to, Belleau maintains.

Canada certainly doesn't have the right to impose taxes, he said.

"At no time have we ever relinquished our sovereignty or our nationhood, but the attitudes of your government leaders are clear in the words they choose," Belleau said. "When we hear your prime minister and his cabinet refer to us as 'our Canadian Aboriginals' even in his apology to us, we can't help but wonder if they get it."

Every year, every member of Garden River First Nation is eligible to collect $4 on what's called Treaty Day.

That money is the government of Canada's token recognition that the Robinson-Huron Treaty is still in effect, Belleau maintains.

Citizens of Garden River First Nation and other Anishinabe nations would like to see the Indian Act challenged before a world court so their neighbours will finally realize they are a sovereign nation.

"We seem to be non-existent," Belleau said. "We seem to be there at the pleasure of someone else. Our words seem to be falling on deaf ears."

Belleau believes, based on input received at this week's meeting, that Garden River citizens will stand firm against the HST and nothing will force them to give way.

"The main focus is basically the HST," he said. "And the [federal and provincial governments are] saying 'I don't give a care what you think, it's going to go ahead.'"

"We have to now interject ways to get them to the table. That's what this is about. They seem to think we don't have a foundation for an argument."

Ontario's Anishinabek Nation, including Garden River, has drawn a line in the sand over the HST because of the principle of sovereignty and because many nations are desperate, Belleau said.

Too many people can barely afford the necessities of life.

He blames the Indian Act for the extreme poverty found in many Anishinabe communities.

"Our people can't afford to wait a year for money that shouldn't have been taken from them to begin with, only to have to turn around and pay some accountant to figure out how they're going to get it back."

The idea of burdening a people who already have so little with an additional tax is ludicrous, Belleau said.

"Certainly half of our problem is that newcomers to our country don't take the time and effort to understand the history from Columbus' great landing to today," he said. "I think that is partly perpetuated by the government."

Belleau believes the government of Canada is still trying to assimilate Anishinabek nations, culture and people.

He said the HST is another example of an action designed to attack Anishinabe sovereignty along the same lines as the residential school system, the Indian Act and negative stereotypes perpetuated by government representatives and public institutions.

"They came forward and apologized for what happened in the residential schools only because they got caught," Belleau said. "But they haven't stopped."

Earlier SooToday.com coverage of this story

One hour of inconvenience today. More coming (17 photos)
HST protest snarls traffic in downtown Toronto
Michigan Soo Wal-Mart 'full of brown faces'
Anishinabek announce direct-action campaign against HST