Earlier this year the federal government reintroduced the Westbank Self-Government Agreement (Bill C-31). This is a disastrous piece of legislation. If Members of Parliament pass this agreement, Canada's elected officials will deny certain Canadians the right to vote in community elections and in so doing will strip the fundamental rights of Canadian citizens

The proposed Westbank Self-Government Agreement (Bill C-11) will shield the Westbank government from application of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By doing so, Westbank laws would be immune from a Charter challenge. In other words, Westbank laws could discriminate between residents of Westbank based on their race, religion, or gender and the victim of discrimination could not use the Charter to strike down the offence.

There are some who will argue that the Westbank agreement is not a Treaty, therefore, it is merely a piece of legislation that can be amended and/or abolished at anytime. They will further argue that the Charter will still apply to Westbank. Not necessarily.

Even though the Supreme Court of Canada has repeatedly rejected the claim that "inherent-right" to self-government for Aboriginal peoples is contained within the 1982 Constitution Act, The Westbank agreement is written on the premise the "inherent-right" to self-government is implied under Section 35 of the Constitution. Section 35 of the Constitution protects existing Aboriginal ("existing", meaning prior to 1982) and Treaty rights. Therefore, the Agreement has the real possibility to become entrenched in the Constitution and in effect, "written in stone."

Once entrenched in the Constitution based on the premise of an "inherent right" to self-government, this means Section 25 of the Constitution will also apply to the Agreement. The equality rights of the Charter do not apply to Aboriginal communities under Section 25 of the Constitution. This will be the case no matter what is written in the Agreement because the Constitution is the supreme law of Canada.

It has been said that the Westbank Agreement is widely supported in the community and is "democracy in action". Really

It took 3 votes by Westbank Band members to finally agree to the deal. The Agreement successfully passed on the 3rd vote because they reduced the required majority from a super majority to a simply majority. Of the 430 Westbank eligible voters, 195 voted for and 170 against. Seems like a divided community. Furthermore, the 7,500 non-natives who live or own business in Westbank were not allowed to vote on the Agreement at all.

Not being able to vote in community elections will be ongoing at Westbank. If passed, the self-government agreement will give the Westbank Indian Band members absolute power over the entire community of 8,000 people. The Westbank Indian Band will collect taxes from non-Aboriginal people who live or own businesses on the reserve, but the Indian Band will not let these people participate in community elections - a clear violation of the Charter. This amounts to taxation without representation.

Accountability will be severely lacking within the Westbank community. Under the terms of the Agreement, Westbank law will prevail over any federal or provincial law that may be inconsistent; the Agreement only provides that Westbank's financial accountability standards are comparable to other public governments. However, there are no provisions to make Westbank disclose its financial statements. So a government elected by 500 and receiving taxes from 8000, and receiving federal transfer payments provided by Canadian taxpayers, will only be accountable to itself.

The federal government plans to use the Westbank self-government agreement as a template for future negotiations. This piece of legislation will set a precedent which other Indian Bands will follow. Clearly, this Agreement will have national repercussions for generations of Canadians.

Incredibly, all parties in the federal parliament plan to support the measure and have supported it through the first two readings. Given the many flaws of this Agreement, Canadians can only hope their elected Members of Parliament come to their senses and vote against the Agreement.