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July 31, 2009
First international delegation
Tsawwassen First Nation feels a kinship with both Jews and Israel.
PAT JOHNSON
On April 3 of this year, the Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN), 25 kilometres south of Vancouver, gained self-government, under the first urban treaty in British Columbia's history and the first modern treaty negotiated under the British Columbia Treaty Commission process.
Less than three weeks later, on April 23, the newly self-governing TFN welcomed its first international delegation – two members of the Israeli Knesset.
Shai Hermesh, a Kadima party MK, and Robert Ilatov, an MK for Yisrael Beiteinu, were welcomed in a ceremony that differed little from what honored guests would have experienced 100 years ago. The Israelis were admitted into a usually off-limits longhouse ceremony and presented with traditional gifts, including blankets with salmon motifs, vests and other handmade items.
The Israeli politicians were participating in a cross-Canada Jewish-Christian friendship tour, but the visit to the TFN had special resonance, given the new status of the band and the special relationship some Tsawwassen members feel for the Jewish people.
"There is so much similarity," said Charlene Jacobs, who helped coordinate the visit of the Israeli delegation. Jacobs has travelled to Israel twice and feels a deep theological bond with the Jewish people. She stressed the significance of the Israeli visitors being the first foreign delegation to visit the self-governing TFN, not least because Israelis themselves have struggled to achieve self-government.
"Israel would totally understand treaties, from 1948, when they became a nation again," Jacobs said, adding that the history of 20th-century Europe Jewry has parallels among the first peoples of North America, whose cultures, languages, lands and, in many cases lives, were intentionally taken from them. The attempted destruction of aboriginal peoplehood parallels the history of attack on Jewish peoplehood, Jacobs said.
"Hitler tried to destroy it, others tried to destroy it," she said. Jacobs added that she is deeply troubled by the anti-Semitic remarks of former Saskatchewan First Nations leader David Ahenakew. "I hold the Jewish people in very high esteem. To me, we all came from one of the 12 tribes anyway," she said.
Jacobs, who is married to the former Tsawwassen chief, Tony Jacobs, said that during her trips to Israel, she met Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister, and was particularly moved by the religious significance of so many sites.
"Everywhere we went there was a story from the Scriptures to go with it," she said.
Under the landmark treaty between the 358-member band, the government of Canada and the province of British Columbia, the TFN is to receive payments, settlements and other funds to help build its future, according to provincial government statements. The agreement includes one-time payments of $33.6 million and self-government funding of $2.9 million annually over the first five years of the treaty, as well as recognition of Tsawwassen sovereignty over approximately 724 hectares, of which 434 hectares are provincial Crown land and 290 hectares are former reserve lands, according to the province.
The treaty, which falls within the framework of Canada's Constitution, hands the TFN the authority to make laws in areas that had previously been under federal, provincial and municipal jurisdiction. TFN members ratified the treaty in July 2007. It passed the provincial legislature and received Royal Assent in November of that year and a multilateral signing ceremony took place in Ottawa in December 2007. In June 2008, the treaty was ratified by the Parliament of Canada.
Pat Johnson is, among other things, managing director, programs and communications, for the Vancouver Hillel Foundation.
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