Like a family’s silence at Thanksgiving dinner about Grandpa’s excessive drinking, there are uncomfortable things not being said about the Squamish Nation trailer park saga that need to be aired.
For example, it would be justifiable for First Nations to feel a bit of satisfaction watching a group of “settlers” being ousted from Aboriginal land.
Everyone in Squamish, unless Aboriginal, is living, working and playing on unceded territory.
Perhaps this incident should cause some reflection by non-natives on what it must have been like for generations of peoples to be ousted from their land, including here in Skwxwú7mesh.
The response to the Squamish Nation leadership closing the Riverside Trailer Park has led to statements by some that sound nothing short of hypocritical: ironic calls for the Nation to be “nice” and let the residents stay or to pay them “fair price” for their homes.
Our European ancestors, sadly, did not extend the same generosity.
Ultimately, the Nation was well within its rights to close the park. The residents were never issued permits by the Squamish band to reside on the reserve and no rental or lease period existed, according to the Nation.
The homeowners owned only their trailers and paid a fee for the pads.
The Nation went further than they had to, frankly, in offering cash incentives for those who moved early and free pad rentals for a year. But there is another truth that makes the whole situation sadder. The Riverside tenants were not wealthy, oppressive settlers. In fact, some were among the most vulnerable in our community. One family was struggling with their child’s cancer; another tenant was recovering from a bad car accident years before; a few were seniors on fixed incomes and a few others were young people just starting out. There were single moms and dads barely keeping their heads above water in an increasingly unaffordable town.
Moving when you want to is hard enough, this was a whole other level of stress for tenants. None of them could afford to lose their homes or the up to $50,000 to move them.
The criticism that the residents should have known better when they bought in Riverside is unfair. Since the 1960s trailers were bought and sold in the park without incident. It was only in 2012 that it became clear something was amiss when the Squamish Nation took over management and took over the portion of the park a band member had been operating without jurisdiction.
In December of 2012, the 19 residents were given notice that they were in effect trespassers on the land. That notice effectively rendered their homes worthless.
In the end, many walked away, leaving their homes behind.
The whole episode is unfortunate and difficult, but perhaps voicing the unsaid can start the road to healing in a way silence never can.
