The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

~ Tobacco "law" has to be enacted by Confederacy (Continued from page 1) sible. "We are definitely looking for input from the commu- nity on what we are working on," she told a crowd of about 60 people last Wednesday. Aaron Detlor, HCCC legal advisor, said Hau- denosaunee history and trade on Turtle Island dates back more than 60,000 years and the draft law is meant to demonstrate to outside governments and the courts that the Hau- denosaunee have an inher- ent right to trade tobacco without the threat of crimi- nalization. "What we're really trying to do is get all this stuff and put it into a I 0-page docu- ment that respects this long history we have with re- spect to trade and com- merce," he said. "The trade and commerce is a smaller piece of your 60,000-year history." Thomas also stressed the importance of Hau- denosaunee sovereignty with respect to trading to- bacco and self-government. "We know under the Great Law we have an inherent right to govern ourselves and that includes the right to freely use our lands and resources for the prosperity of our people," she said. "Since contact, external governments have contin- ued to put their laws in our canoe. At what point do we say enough is enough? We know the HCCC has never relinquished its inherent law-making power and it's always operated outside of the Indian Act." The local industry's strongest protection against Bill C-1 o. she said, is to enact "our own legislation." And that has to be done by the HCCC, said Thomas, not the elected band council. She said the jurisdiction of band council is limited to the by-law making powers of the Indian Act. "Those are very Limited powers· ... she said. "Any by- law that's enacted by the band council has to get ap- proval from Indian Affairs. The likelihood of them ap- proving a law that's going to run contrary to Bill C-1 O and approve that law is pretty minimal. We're using the word 'law' so external governments will under- stand what we're doing and the authority that we're act- ing under." She said the working group is looking at translating the final version into one of the traditional Haudenosaunee languages. but she acknowl- edged the difficulty of trans- lating English words into a Haudenosaunee language. "Those are discussions that we're having as well." She said it is vital that the community unifies to make the new Haudenosaunee to- bacco law works. "We cannot afford to re- main divided," she said. "This is not going to wor~ if we cannot find that unity of our people." One community member asked how the HCCC will ensure the Canadian gov- ernment recognizes the new tobacco law and Thomas said it will have to be tested in court. "If we look at a legal chal- lenge, it's prob_ably going to happen because one of our people are going to be charged criminally," she said. Thomas also said Six Na- tions people have an edge in court if somebody gets charged under Bill C-1 O be- cause the federal govern- ment did not consult with any Haudenosaunee com- munities before enacting the legislation. "If you can prove the right was such a great infringe- ment that you should have actually had our consent, then it can also be struck down on those grounds." Cam Staats asked about treaties going into courts, but Detlor said they wouldn't be taking treaties into courts. "What we do is we come up with a strategy to make the Canadian system follow Canadian law," he said. He also said the Hau- denosaunee tobacco law will ensure those in the to- bacco trade have more strength in numbers if they are brought into court and they argue their right to trade tobacco is a collective right. response, it's much tougher to pick on me or anyone else. They may be more con- cerned about other people involved in this industry and leave the Haudenosaunee alone. We don't know those things yet but if you pick on one of us, you pick on all of us. That's reallywhat all this is about." Staats asked if the HCCC could negotiate with Canada and Ontario instead Bill C-1 o in force Friday By this Friday. police forces across the country will be able to enforce the controversial Tackling Contraband Tobacco or Bill C-10. The Governor General announced on April 2 the bill is coming into force on April I 0, 2015. Bill C-1 o is a new federal law that carries mini- mum prison sentences for anyone caught trafficking in so-called "contraband tobacco" - that is. tobacco that is not licensed by the federal government, and would · include tdbacco products made and sold on Hau- denosaunee territories. It was introduced in parliament in November 2013. The legislation enactment comes just as the Hau- denosaunne Confederacy Council is developing its own Trade and Commerce laws that include regulations sur- rounding the tobacco industry. Some community members questioned how Six Nations will ensure the Canadian government recognizes the new law. Detlor said, "It's going to happen that Canada is going to come and say, 'this is our law. Your law doesn't mat- ter.· In the worst case sce- nario, the government comes down and applies this. If we did nothing, they would have a better chance of success in criminalizing people and putting people in jail. If we do this (law), we have a better chance of making sure that doesn't happen. But this is not a perfect solution." Detlor said while Canada has already started levying fines for contraband tobacco under other legislation, so far, there hasn't been a col- lective response to make the government concerned about doing that. "If they just come after me, I'm all alone in my fight. But instead ifthere's a collective of going to court. Thomas said, "I think ideally, a negotiated resolution would be better because you have a better chance of guaranteeing what the out- come would be. We know that traditionally, that's what our chiefs would have done, is used that creative diplomacy to negotiate a resolution." The draft Haudenosaunee tobacco law calls for licens- ing, payment of licensing fees, setting minimum price_s for tobacco products, and provisions for enforce- ment of the law. It also calls for a governing body to en- force the law and to impose sanctions on anyone caught contravening the law. The law stipulates that only I 00 per cent Hau- denosaunee-owned tobacco enterprises are allowed on the territory and it provides for the banishment of non• Haudenosaunee owners or partners involved in the trade. That stipulation does not apply to non-native people who are merely em- ployees in the tobacco in- dustry. At least one community member expressed displeas- ure with the contents of the draft law. Don Tripp, who is currently facing sentencing in a Brant- ford court for arms dealing, said he and others might not like the idea of being "forced" to follow the Hau- denosaunee tobacco law. "How are you going to get people to unite if you're shoving laws and fees ... this is not going to work," said Tripp. Green said the delegation is working on a costing model that will set prices for to- bacco on the territory that's "viable" for the community. "The intent isn't to hurt any of the businesses - it's in- tended to make sure that our businesses prosper," said Green. She also said the law will ensure that non-native peo- ple who are "making a lot of money at our expense" could be banished from the territory. Thomas again stressed the importance of unity in en- suring the strength of the new law. "If we can bundle our ar- rows together like we're supposed to, we will be a force to be reckoned with. But because we continue to divide ourselves, we remain weak. They (the govern- ment) play on that weak- ness and they play on the division. Our greatest strength is if we can unify our people." Bill Monture, of the Six Na- tions Men's Fire, said he's in support of the draft law and he asked people not to "rip the document apart." "We need to support this," he said. "Let's just keep thinking positive and unite ourselves. Right now, there are a lot of people who are doubting this (law). They don't have faith in who they are. We need to get that back. I'm all for it. We need to get together and get all these (tobacco) prices level across the board for every- body, so our people for a change can make some money." Green said the draft law is not set in stone. "We're doing the best that we can, given all of our his- tory," she s~id. "We brought it to the commu- . nity to hear what we need to do and how we can do it better. We want your sug- gestions; we want your comments. but we're look- ing for solutions. If we don't get something right, we'll fix it." The Six Nations tobacco in- dustry employs over 2,000 people and spills over into other areas of the commu- . nity, in terms of donations to community initiatives and fueling the local econ- omy, said Thomas. "If the tobacco industry is shut down, it will have far- reaching impacts," she said. The law will apply to any grower, manufacturer, re- tailer, importer, exporter, transporter or stamping agent on the territory. Green and Thomas said at first, the Haudenosaunee tobacco law won't apply to anyone with a federal li- cense including tobacco manufacturing giant Grand River Enterprises because the company has a federal license, but the delegation hopes to meet with GRE in the future. The delegation hopes to in- volve the Six Nations Police at some point, said Thomas. Thomas said any Hau- denosaunee person will be eligible as long as they can trace their ancestry back to Six Nations of the Grand River. "We don't want to ex- clude anyone," she said. "It's not our intent that we get to decide who is Hau- denosaunee and who is not." The next meeting is today Wednesday, at 6 p.m. at the Six nations Community Hall.