K’ómoks First Nation members vote overwhelmingly in favour of modern treaty

The chief of the K’ómoks First Nation on Vancouver Island says members have voted in favour of both a treaty and constitution, opening the door for the nation to reclaim a culture that faced eradication under the Indian Act.

The First Nation, which is comprised of just over 350 members, has four reserves on central Vancouver Island. Its main reserve is located in the Courtenay-Comox area.

Nation leadership has been working for more than three decades on a treaty to assert self-governance and full ownership of 35 square kilometres of land in the nation.

The nation says 83 per cent of the votes went in favour of ratifying the K’ómoks constitution, and over 81 per cent of members voted in favour of the treaty, which allows for co-management of wildlife, parks, water and forests in the area.

The nation’s elected Chief Councillor Nicole Rempel said the treaty will allow future generations of the nation to revitalize their culture.

“To be able to determine who our K’ómoks people are in the future, and not have someone in Ottawa make that decision for us, it’s really exciting,” she told CBC News.

Just under 240 K’ómoks members were eligible to vote on the treaty, and there was a 91 per cent turnout on Saturday.

Rempel said the Indian Act — federal legislation that governed Indigenous affairs for decades and came to be widely criticized for its regressive approach to Indigenous peoples — was designed to essentially wipe out the nation’s way of life.

“I think it’s really exciting to have the opportunity to get out of the Indian Act,” Rempel said.

“I think that was really what I felt the most passionate about, because our ancestors didn’t have that choice. It was thrust upon them.”

The treaty will now need to be ratified by the provincial and federal governments to go into effect, which Rempel estimates will take around three years.

A statement from the First Nation says work over the next three years will involve restructuring its governing bodies and developing laws, while “carefully considering the tremendous economic opportunities that lay ahead.” 

B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Christine Boyle congratulated the First Nation’s leadership for the successful vote on a treaty that’s been in negotiations since 1994.

“I remain firmly committed to taking this path alongside the K’ómoks people,” Boyle said.

Challenge from nearby First Nation

The K’ómoks treaty has faced opposition from the Wei Wai Kum First Nation, which has overlapping claims of traditional territory in central Vancouver Island.

Chris Roberts, elected chief of the Wei Wai Kum, filed an injunction application in B.C. Supreme Court last week seeking to stop the treaty vote. He told CBC News last year that the treaty would extinguish rights claimed by the Wei Wai Kum.

The court rejected the application on Friday.

James Quatell, hereditary chief of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation, said he felt fine with the results of the treaty vote and had “no qualms” with the overwhelming support it received.

Despite the injunction, Quatell said the Wei Wai Kum First Nation would prefer to keep the matter out of the courts, and that he wants the nations to sit down together to discuss how to move forward.

“I said, ‘K’ómoks, you have your … big house down there, let’s sit in there. If you don’t want to sit in there, then come up to ours and sit in here,'” he told CBC News. “You know, there’s a way that that can be done.”

Rempel said the K’ómoks treaty contains provisions that prevent any impact to other nations and their rights and title.

She said she hoped to celebrate the nations’ shared history.

“As a nation, we really want to work with our neighbours and build those relationships,” she said.

“Because when we work together, we work really well together and we’re stronger together.”