Canada's National Disgrace
Another summer of discontent looms. Canadians are bracing for inconvenience. Although most native groups plan to mark a planned national day of action by attempting, through public interaction and publicity to raise awareness in the greater population with respect to ongoing issues relating to native communities, there are some, like the Tyendinaga Mohawk reserve in eastern Ontario which have made plans to disrupt traffic on Highway 401, Ontario's major vehicular transit route, and along the main CN rail line running between Toronto and Montreal.Canadians wait with bated breath. And no little amount of trepidation. We are, after all, approaching our national holiday, Canada Day, on the first of July. What a pain. Who needs the interruption in service, the pain of it all? Distracting from much more important things, like celebrating Canada Day. Like enjoying lazy summer week-ends. What's the matter with those Indians, anyway? Why can't they resort to the courts to settle their problems with the government? Why bring on the potential violence of confrontation through that kind of civil disobedience?
Good questions all. And setting aside the burning issues of broad dysfunction in too many native communities, the undeniable fact that those communities and above all, their leaders need to confront and manage the intractable problems that beset and bedevil their communities, there are other problems that fester. Yes, there is the dysfunction caused by disinterest, indolence, alcoholism, drug trafficking, neglect and abuse of children, destruction of public property corrupting the native community.
But then there is the canker of a long succession of Canadian governments ignoring many of the problems they're responsible for incurring, like the plight of native children forcibly removed from their homes to attend residential schools, and the dreadful abuse suffered there. There is the not-to-be-overlooked problem of native claims not addressed, allowed to languish through a court system unprepared to bring them to closure. We have failed, spectacularly, to aid and assist our native brothers and sisters.
Prime territory in the Fraser River Valley in B.C. once formally granted to the Douglas Reserve of the Sto:lo First Nations in Chilliwack in the 19th century was later taken from the reserve, and in its stead, while other valuable Crown properties were available as substitutes, the reserve was offered alternately, swampland and an abandoned Defence department rocket range crowded with unexploded munitions. That's a horror story, but it seems to be typical of the duplicitous manner in which government approaches it's responsibility in this area.
The Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine has called for a day of peaceful demonstration to take place june 29, to highlight the grievances of his people, and enlighten Canadians about the lax attitude taken by government to native rights. But they're not monolithic and some native chiefs propose instead action of a more dramatic nature, like the installation of illegal blockades of highways and rail lines. Nothing quite draws the attention, even if it's in the form of ire, than inconvenience.
Although all of this is meant to alert Canadians and the government to the fact that Canada's aboriginal population is well and truly fed up with the lack of progress on long-unsettled land claims, all too often these vigorous protests turn violent and it is the protesters themselves who pay the piper. Kanesatake, and Caledonia and Ipperwash Park bring to mind the tragedies that followed and the racism that took the lives of Neil Stonechild (drunk and frightened and left in an isolated winter area to freeze to death) and Dudley George.
First Nations, Metis and Innu people are still awaiting recognition of their place in Canadian society, still waiting for the promises given to their ancestors to be honoured, still waiting for unsettled land claims to be properly resolved. Instead, the lands in question have been taken for public use; railways, tunnels, hydro lines and 'sold' for use by land developers and housing developments. Who wouldn't be bitter. Who wouldn't protest? And when that avails nothing, who wouldn't mount muscular opposition?
Taking the 'lawful' course through the courts now takes over a decade for most claims to see resolution, let alone the years needed for federal bureaucrats to research each claim, then report whether the government is willing to proceed with negotiations. The outdated and antiquated Indian Act badly needs overhauling - if not to be handed over entirely for native administration - with due accountability.
And yes, the band chiefs need to be accountable for the use of billions of dollars that have gone their way, despite which one-third of on-reserve aboriginal communities are in financial duress, assistance and services to their charges are lacking and so is an explanation for the puzzle that no one seems able to answer: where has that money gone?
Canada is left, in the meantime, in a state of national shame.
We need to know why the current $8-billion-plus spent by Canadians on aboriginal programmes and services has had such a negligible effect on providing the necessities of life for aboriginal populations. Why their living conditions, rather than improving, are continuing to decline.
We need to know that our government is really serious about solving this implacable impasse. Lives hang on the outcome. So does the pride of Canadians in a country that boasts its inclusiveness and egalitarian values.
Labels: Canada, Justice, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, June 28, 2007
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