Stupid or Cynical

By Roger Bill

It’s puzzling. Candidate Tony Wakeham promises voters a referendum on a new Churchill Falls deal with Quebec. Later, Premier Tony Wakeham says there is no time for a referendum. Cynical move. Right out of an old political playbook.

Candidate Tony Wakeham says there is no need to rush into an agreement with Quebec. Then later, Premier Tony Wakeham tells a gathering of NL Trades members, “We need to get building right away. We need to get this deal done today, and we need to act now.” More from the old playbook.

What is puzzling though is that Premier Tony Wakeham then does something stupid. Like promise the Innu in Labrador an “independent” audit of the records in the Provincial Archaeological Office (PAO).

The Innu are unhappy about the PAO’s view that they’ve only resided in Labrador for a few centuries. The Labrador Innu contend they have resided in Labrador for thousands of years. And what makes this disagreement a top-of-mind issue for Premier Tony Wakeham is he needs the Labrador Innu onside in his Churchill Falls deal.

The Premier seems to think an “independent” audit may discover a dust covered box, full of artifacts hidden away in the back of a storage room in the bowels of the Confederation Building, those artifacts will support the Innu claim, and then they’ll be happy partners in his Churchill Falls deal.

The Stupid Part?

There is no dust-covered box of artifacts waiting to be discovered. All of the evidence in the Provincial Archaeological Office has been disclosed over the course of several years in two trials of Innu caribou hunters charged with violating provincial wildlife regulations.

Premier Wakeham, want to see the PAO’s collection of artifacts? Want to review the evidence? Go read the transcripts of the two trials.  

Unfortunately, neither of the two trials reached a verdict. The charges were stayed so the Province and the Innu never got the benefit of the ruling of an “independent” auditor in a Labrador courtroom.

An “Independent” Audit

Before Tony Wakeham announced an “independent” audit of the PAO he could have asked himself this question and this is part of the stupid part. Would the Innu have accepted the judgement of a court in Labrador if it found the evidence of the PAO more convincing than the Innu version of history?  

If you checked the “doubtful” box, then Tony Wakeham doesn’t need an “independent” audit. He needs an archaeologist whose interpretation of the collection of artifacts aligns with the Innu view of their history. That is Tony Wakeham’s immediate need and that should not be a problem.

Archaeologists disagree about lots of things and finding one or several who favour the Innu’s view of their history is easy. Nobody is going to unearth a conspiracy. Different archaeologists interpret artifacts differently.

Or… There is an alternative. If Tony Wakeham really cared about whether the Innu have been in Labrador for 300 years or 3,000 years, then he could skip the differing archaeological interpretations of the artifacts.

Tony Wakeham could ask for DNA testing. The Innu could demand it. Does the DNA of the Innu in Labrador today match the DNA of the remains of early occupants whose gravesites have been identified by archaeological field research?

Don’t expect Tony Wakeham to do it or the Innu to demand it. Ask yourself, why not? Then resign yourself to the fact that Tony Wakeham’s “independent” audit isn’t going to arrive at a definitive answer to the question of how long the Innu have been in Labrador. At best it will just be another opinion by another archaeologist that will fail to satisfy ever