Originally Posted by
Rob Chipman
Man, that made me laugh! Don't get offended, but I think you need some blunt talk as well.
Look, I understand you're frustrated, but I think you need to start thinking about this a bit before you share your thoughts.
First, Indigenous title is traced back to the King of England and the Royal Proclamation of 1793 (and no, it wasn't the king running the show just like today, it was a bunch of politicians). We all know (or should know by now) where Indigenous title comes from.
After being recognized for political purposes by the Crown Indigenous title has been repeatedly tested and recognized in Canadian courts of law.
It's got nothing to do with oral history and it's not something you can blame First Nations for. The British crown, acting through the British Parliament, are the ones to blame. If you want to throw barbs at someone, aim them waaaay further east, across the ocean.
Something else you may not have thought through: social media is public. When you say things like "some oral records told by a bunch of drunken indians at the campfire smoking a peace pipe" you're giving anti-hunters ammunition to call all of us racists. You know exactly what a screen shot is. Now, we often say hunters should stick together and support each other because we're in the same boat.
Some of us are chopping holes in the boat. Those guys have to stop doing that.
Again, I get that you're frustrated, but how about you adopt my gun control policy? Hit the right ****ing target.
Again, I think you're getting confused. It doesn't matter what I'm ok with. Why would it? That's like asking if I'm "ok" with taxes, or rain, or forest fires. I never caused this problem and I can't cure it. I'm not celebrating it and, importantly, I'm not crying about it. I'm trying to figure out how to deal with it.
If you're not happy with it you should do something effective about it, or at least don't make things worse. Check your watch. Look at the date. The year is probably going to say something like "2021", not "1965". Like it or not we are where we are. When you say stuff in public like "indians" and "your property" you're in complete denial about how the game we're in is played. There is a legal argument to be made that "your property" is stolen property. Again I'm the messenger. Don't shoot me for telling you what the real world looks like today.
In the current game we're on our own. Indigenous people have Canadian law squarely on their side, and they've got G2G status in negotiations. Regular guys like you and I have to depend on the provincial and federal governments to look out for our interests. If you think they're going to do that then you've clearly been smoking crack. They are not looking out for us. That is the very nature of the problem. Woodward is right when he says most of BC is in for a shock.
You know what the shock will look like, right? I'll look an awful lot like what people in the Tsilhqot’in Nation Declared Title Lands have experienced.
You're like the guy not he team taking dumb penalties for no good reason. You are only hurting other hunters by pretending that the world isn't what it is and throwing around racist slurs (which really aren't a good look at the best of times).
Again, I get that you're frustrated. A lot of people are. Don't make things worse.