As indigenous nations we do not pay Canadian tax because our more than 500 nations have already paid taxes to the Queen in our own blood.
The sudden deaths of 90 per cent of our pre-contact populations was the ultimate price which we will never be compensated for. Not to mention the millions of square miles of unlawful squatting and unresolved land claims.
Asking Six Nations people to pay a Canadian tax would be like asking Jewish Holocaust survivors to help rebuild Germany. Sorry for this brutal comparison but, if you cannot see why we have tax exemption there’s something wrong with you. When I experience other shoppers complaining in line when I use my status card (it’s not a discount card) I tell them I would have no problem paying tax to a foreign government if my nation can have our original land base.
The blatant disregard of our international treaties such as the Two Row Wampum and other war crimes perpetuated by our colonial visitors, such as residential school, was our ticket into this new society.
But far away to the west in a little reserve called Hobbema, a corporation named Subway opened its first franchise on reservation lands.
Sixteen years ago, a Six Nations rap group named Tru Rez Crew met with a Hobbema, Alberta rap group named Warparty. These two groups were at the leading edge of indigenous rap and paved the way for countless artists from all over — they showed that natives could rap.
Out of the many discussions came a sentiment of brotherhood and a collaboration song. Tru Rez members also learned that Hobbema had a Subway on their reserve and it was mind-blowing.
It has not been clear if this Subway pays tax.
For the most part, corporations stay away from rez life because of the special status of reservation lands. Six Nations Reserve No. 40 is crown land in the minds of the Governor General and his Queen’s Privy Council — but it is still a grey area.
For us here on Six Nations of the Grand River, this land is our ancient hunting grounds, and burial grounds of countless centuries past — way before Canada and way before Frederick Haldimand. No alien state can grant us our own land, nor can they take it away from us.
According to Canadian law, corporations are non-human entities that have certain rights, privileges and protections. Many corporations have policies that require them to own the land that their franchise is built upon. It is impossible for anyone but an Indian to own a parcel of reserve land, according to the Indian Act of Canada and even then, we don’t actually own it but receive a certificate of possession or a notice of entitlement from Six Nations Elected Council.
A corporation cannot be an Indian, but on Six Nations many Indian Corporations are springing up. People have been wondering if we are paying hidden taxes for quite a long time.
