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Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
 Randi Talkington (left) and Jana Phillips will carry the round cards at The Citizen's “Champions for Children 2" amateur boxing show at the Duchess Park Secondary School gym Saturday night. The two could qualify as athletes themselves — they’re members of the Judy Russell Enchainement Dance Studio and have competed throughout the province in ballet and jazz dancing. The 12-bout boxing card brings together champions from 11 Western Canadian cities, with proceeds to children’s charities.
Unemployment rate rises in region
And the lucky winner is ... No. 2.'
   The unemployment rate in the Central Interior went up last month as it did for the province as a whole, and — thanks to Ontario — nationally as well.
   In the area from Williams Lake north, the unemployment rate rose from 12.5 to 13.6 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. For B.C.
 as a whole, the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 per cent to 9.9.
   “We’ve had a very active four months in terms of insurance claims,” Martin Winkelaar, manager of the Canada Employment Centre here, said today. “It seems to be a fairly accurate reflection of the situation in Prince George.
    “However, we’re still far better off than we were in 1982 and 1983 when the unemployment rates here were 17 and 18 percent”
    However, Statistics Canada traditionally warns that number for specific areas of the province are based on small samples and should be treated cautiously.
    The best place to job hunt in the
 province, according to the federal agency, is in the far north from Atlin to Fort St John where the official unemployment rate is 9.3 per cent For the country as a whole, massive job losses in Ontario propelled the national unemployment rate to a 5Vi-year high of 10.2 per cent in February.
Court rejects Indian claim
                                                                                                               Citizen news services
  VANCOUVER — The B.C. Supreme Court ruled today that Gitk-san-Wet’suwet’en Indians have no claim to a vast area of northwestern British Columbia.
  “In my judgment the aboriginal rights of the natives were lawfully extinguished by the Crown in the colonial period,” Chief Justice Allan McEachem wrote in a judgment that ran nearly 400 pages.
  The ruling, in what has been described as the biggest land claim in Canada, followed a three-year court case that cost an estimated $25 million.
  The claim included the salmon-rich rivers, minerals and forestry in the Bulkley, Skeena and Babine river systems in an area about the size of Nova Scotia.
  About six dozen Indians gathered at the courthouse stood in stunned silence after the judgment was released.
  One native leader put on a brave face, indicating the case will be appealed.
  “Regardless of what the decision is we as the Gitskan and Wet’suwet’en are assigning it the dignity it requires,” said Alice Jeffrey. “This is just the first step in the three steps that we have to make until there is a final decision.”
  “I’m disappointed,” a spokesman for the Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council said today within minutes of hearing the ruling.
  Tribal council leaders will not make any further comment until they have been briefed on the decision by their lawyers, Ron George of Telkwa said in a telephone interview from Smithers.
  The provincial government and forestry officials also say they need time to study the 400-page
The case at a glance:
  JUDGMENT: The Gitksan-Wet’suwet’en Indians have no claim to a vast area of northwestern British Columbia.
  AT ISSUE: The court judgment released today on the native group’s land claim in northwestern was against the Crown and was based on native ownership and jurisdiction, rather than treaty rights.
  B.C. LAND SOUGHT: More than 57,000 square kilometres, an area slightly larger than Nova Scotia. The Indians had said the
25,000    non-native residents could stay and keep their private land.
  CLAIMANTS:          Pronounced
GIT-san Wet-SOO-e-tan, this is
the name commonly used when talking about the land-title suit by the Gitksan and Wet’suwet’en Indians of northwestern British Columbia. About
8.000 natives currently live on reserves that total alx>ut 100 square kilometres.
   JUDGE: Chief Justice Allan McEachem heard the case in B.C. Supreme Court.
   COURT PROCEEDINGS: The court case began in Smithers in May, 1987.
   EVIDENCE: More than 100 witnesses, 10,000 documents and
30.000 pages of trial transcript
   COST OF CASE: $25 million, which includes fees for lawyers representing the Indians.
decision before commenting on its impact
   Native Affairs Minister Jack Weisgerber and Attorney General Russell Fraser have scheduled a news conference for 11:30 a.m. Monday to comment
   During an interview in Prince George this week, Weisgerber said that although native land claims are disrupting the economy of the province, B.C. would await McEachem’s decision before deciding whether or not to appeal it directly to the Supreme Court of Canada.
   McEachem acknowledged in his judgment that his decision is not expected to be the last word. The case will not likely be resolved until much later in the 1990s when it is referred to the Supreme Court of Canada.
   Federal Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon described the ruling as “a very important decision
which will give us important inj-sight into the existence and meaning of aboriginal rights in Canada.;
   “We will be studying it very, very thoroughly over the next few days and I want to assure aboriginal Canadians in particular that we intend to give serious consideration to the findings and recommendations of the chief justice.”
   The decision took a provincial Native Affairs Ministry official by surprise.
   “The ruling is one that has provided for a recognition of certain aboriginal rights over unoccupied Crown lands in the Gitksan area but does not acknowledge Gitksan sovereignty and jurisdiction over that land nor does it acknowledge aboriginal title in a way that would recognize it as the Gitksan described it in court,” said deputy minister Eric Denhoff.
says decision hard to take
The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, MARCH 8,1991 70 CENTS
                   (Plus GST)
                                                                                               Low tonight: -3 High tomorrow: 3
Native leader
                                                                                                        by BEV CHRISTENSEN Citizen StafT
   Indian leader Ed John said today it is very hard for him to accept Chief Justice Allan McEachem’s decision that aboriginal rights were extinguished during the colonial period of B.C.’s development.
   “As a lawyer and a native person, as a chief and an hereditary chief the manner in which he has addressed the nature of Indian history is very, very difficult for me to accept,” John said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.
   John is the chief of the Tl’azt’en Nations, which live north of Fort St. James, and is a former chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, which represents 13 bands which live in the area from Bums Lake to the Alberta border.
   He said he is particularly concerned about the sections of the 394-page decision which say what was in the minds of the colonial governments of this province prior to 1871 is more important that
  what the views of the Indian people were at that time.
    “In most cases most Indian tribes or nations had no inclination of what was happening,” he said.
    John, who was in the Vancouver courtroom when the judgment was read, said McEachem has dismissed the actions against Canada, the claims for ownership and jurisdiction over the land, aboriginal title and the claims for damages.
    “He clearly says that there was clear intent on the part of the colonial government to extinguish aboriginal rights and that intent does not have to be stated or expressed in language or even mentioned in writing,” John said.
    “What he has done in my view, is a very pointed and serious undermining from the court’s perspective of the rights of aboriginal people.”
    He believes the narrowness of McEachem’s decision opens the door for an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
   More Socreds quit
   PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. (CP) — The second of two leaders of a bid to force a formal review of Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s leadership has resigned as a Social Credit constituency president.
   “I’ve lost my enthusiasm to make any more effort for the Social Credit party,” Ken Tuninga said Thursday night after quitting as president of the Port Coquitlam constituency association.
   He said four association directors also resigned with him.
   Tuininga said he made his decision some time ago and Mel Cou-velier’s resignation Wednesday as finance minister was not a factor.
    “I feel the efforts we make at the constituency level are simply diminished by the actions of our leader,” he said. “You get tired of it finally.”
    Tuninga said he has not decided if he will join the fledgling B.C. Pacific party, which organizers announced Wednesday as a free-enterprise alternative to Social Credit
    Tuninga and Donna Telep had been the driving forces behind an unsuccessful attempt to force a review of Vander Zalm’s leadership.
    Telep quit Monday as president of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Socred association.
 Included T\ T times
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I HUGE AREA WEST OF PRINCE GEORGE
War sanitized by TV
 Albanians loose in Italy PCJHL playoffs begin
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