Transcription
A404-1Clip30

We ask the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada to realize what a shock it was for the Indians, especially of British Columbia, to be told in 1969 that the grievances relating to claims based on Native or Aboriginal Title to land are so general and undefined that it is not realistic to think of them as specific claims capable of remedy except through the new policy then proposed, a policy which, if unaltered, totally rejects this historic claim. For the Indians of British Columbia, sometimes as individuals, sometimes as organized groups, have for generations maintained a claim for compensation, adjustment or restitution based on denial. Without their consent and without compensation of their ancient rights to use and enjoy the land that was theirs. The Indians of British Columbia have long been conscious of and have endured with patience but a mounting sense of grievance, the positive loss and hardship which have flowed to them as a result of the occupation of their lands and the denial of compensation in a sense comproabable to the value of what was taken.