Episode Details

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On this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Parksville City Councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood sit down with John Jack, known in his own language as Sayaač̓atḥ, who holds two elected roles at once: Chief Councillor of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, a modern treaty nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and elected Chair of the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District.

Jack walks the hosts through what it took to design Huu-ay-aht's constitution from the ground up after ratifying a modern treaty in 2011: a legislative and executive branch fused into a single seven-member council, a hereditary leadership body he compares to “somewhere between the Canadian Senate and the House of Lords,” and a tribunal that functions as both an administrative appeals body and a Supreme Court. They dig into why BC's treaty landscape differs from the rest of Canada, from the Royal Proclamation to Section 35, and why Jack would rather build a relationship at the table than end up in court.

“The goal is boring,” Jack says of what good governance should aspire to - part of what he calls Huu-ay-aht's motto, “ancient spirit, modern mind.” It's a philosophy that shows up everywhere from hereditary leadership structures to his pitch for a standing, diplomatic-corps-style approach to First Nations relations at the provincial level.

Listen for:

• How Huu-ay-aht built a three-branch constitution, including a hereditary body that acts like a Senate

• Why the Huu-ay-aht Tribunal doubles as both an appeals body and a Supreme Court

• What makes BC's treaty landscape different from the rest of Canada

• Why Jack sees courtroom battles as an outcome nobody really wins

• Where consensus-based decision-making breaks down, using BC's forestry sector as an example

Non-Partisan Hacks is a Vancouver Island political podcast hosted by Joel Grenz and Sean Wood, featuring lively, independent conversations about local government, public policy and the issues affecting communities. Non-Partisan Hacks is part of The PULSE Podcast Community.

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