Tag: Indigenous peoples

What is the Idle No More Movement … Really?

I have been honoured by the request of the Idle No More Founders to be one of their organizers and spokespersons. Working within this movement was a natural extension of the work we already do in First Nations with leaders and citizens. In the last few weeks, many of the media’s questions related to how the movement started, what do we want and where it might be headed. I have done my best as one of the spokespeople to answer these questions based on the views shared with me by some of those in the movement. Al Jazeera Panel on Idle No More: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2013/01/20131282718188634.html CBC’s Power and Politics: http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/ID/2322717557/ CTV News http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=836122&playlistId=1.1095861&binId=1.810401 My article in Ottawa Citizen explaining the movement: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/op-ed/Idle+More/7753967/story.html Tonight, I’d like to try to answer those questions as an individual. Thus what follows represents my own opinions, analysis, views and aspirations about the Idle No More movement. The Idle No More movement is part of a larger Indigenous movement that has been in the making for several years now. Indigenous activists all over the country have been monitoring the political and legal scene in Canada at both the federal and provincial levels and making a concerted effort to help inform First Nation community members and leaders about any potential threats. We noted a clear assimilation agenda that emerged within the Conservative government and we started planning on how we could address that if Prime Minister Harper insisted on putting his plan into action. http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/pamela-palmater/2012/09/harpers-manifesto-erasing-canadas-indigenous-communities We of course worked very hard to try all the usual channels to address our growing concerns, which included lobbying, letter-writing, testifying before Senate and Parliament, endless meetings with MPs, Senators, Ministers and others – all to no avail. The Harper government was not interested in talking to us, let alone consulting or getting our consent. Harper decided instead to use the Assembly of First Nations as his primary vehicle to call all the shots. Harper’s government set the agenda, they drafted the joint action plans and they alone decided what was and was not on the table. In other words, Harper managed to bully his assimilation plan onto the First Nation agenda with hardly a squeak of opposition at the political level. http://www.indigenousnationhood.blogspot.ca/2012/02/war-and-peace-illusions-of-partnership.html At the co-called Crown-First Nation Gathering (CFNG) last January 2012, Harper promised First Nations his government would not unilaterally amend or repeal the Indian Act. After the CFNG, he broke that promise and proceeded with an aggressive legislative agenda that will include upwards of 14 bills that will devastate our First Nations in various ways. It is the White Paper 2012 with a twist – instead of it being a policy, like the 1969 White Paper, which wanted to assimilate Indians, Harper’s plan will be law. This is the spark that ignited the Idle No More movement into action. We always knew action would be required at some point, but the legislation posed an imminent threat and required immediate mobilization. That is how a movement was born. In the early days, some were calling the Idle No More movement, some calling it an Indigenous rights movements, but we all agreed that we needed to immediately oppose Harper’s assimilatory legislative agenda. So many of the early activities included teach-ins which helped explain the legislation’s potential impacts on First Nations and more importantly, what we could do to oppose it. Early protests started out as opposing the massive omnibus Bill C-45, but later came to include the whole suite. First Nations Fiasco – First Nation legislation will create social and legal mess: http://lawandstyle.ca/opinion_first_nations_fiasco/ When Legislators Make Bad Law: Bill C-3’s Assault on Democracy: http://www.oba.org/en/pdf/sec_news_sept11_c3_palm.pdf Presentation on Legislation (Part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STatNSjcrvo Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBt8yqth1n0 Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ku8vVELYs Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okLmloA70zk The Idle No More movement, initially started by women, is a peoples’ movement that empowers Indigenous peoples to stand up for their Nations, lands, treaties and sovereignty. This movement is unique because it is purposefully distanced from political and corporate influence. There is no elected leader, no paid Executive Director, and no bureaucracy or hierarchy which determines what any person or First Nation can and can’t do. There are no colonial-based lines imposed on who joins the movement and thus issues around on & off-reserve, status and non-status, treaty and non-treaty, man or woman, elder or youth, chief or citizen does not come into play. This movement is inclusive of all our peoples.

To my mind, the true governing power of our Indigenous Nations has always been exercised through the voice of our peoples. The leaders were traditionally more like spokespeople which represented to views and decisions of the people. In this way, the Idle No More movement, led by grassroots peoples connects very closely to our Indigenous traditional values. But it is not a movement where the people stand alone, their elders, elected leaders and traditional leaders stand with them. This movement is not in competition with any First Nation political organization or elected leaders. This movement is focused on the critical issues before us, not power-struggles, political games or competing for government funding. Everyone so far has donated their time, money, energy and skills to making this work despite the inevitable critiques, push-back and misinformation. Yet, what makes this peoples’ movement so unique, is also what makes it so difficult for many Canadians and the media to understand. Generally speaking, people understand that each government, group or organization has a leader, a clearly defined hierarchy and rules about who can say and do what. This movement on the other hand, is very organic in nature and first and foremost respects the sovereignty of individual Indigenous peoples and their Nations to participate how and when they choose, if at all. This will mean that some First Nations leaders will choose not to participate, but some of their members will. It could mean one First Nation community organizes teach-ins whereas First Nations peoples living in urban areas will get together and organize flash mob round dances.

Think of the many ways in which this movement has already developed. We had teach-ins at Louis Bull, Saddle Lake and other First Nations. We have posted information, publications and videos online for all to access. We have engaged the media to help educate the public about why this impacts them as well. The Chiefs organized a protest during the AFN assembly to oppose the legislation (including Bill C-45). Chief Spence is on a hunger strike standing up for all First Nations and the treaty relationship which Canada has forgotten. Kids in schools have held Idle No More Rallies and there have been marches, protests and temporary traffic and railways slow downs. The core unifying theme to all of it has been that they are peaceful activities meant to help educate Canadians about how this is in all our interests. We do have structure, we are organized, we work very closely with one another across the country to strategize and we are growing. We have worked with active First Nation leaders on the ground since the very beginning and many of us continue to do so. Our allies increase every day as more and more organizations are joining the movement. Now we have widespread international support which also grows everyday. Pretty soon you will see more and more prominent figures stand up to put pressure on Canada to come to the table in a real, meaningful way.

http://idlenomore1.blogspot.ca/

To me, Idle No More is a responsibility – a responsibility to live up to the sacrifices of our ancestors, to the duty we have as guardians of the earth, and to the expectations that our children and grandchildren have of us to protect them. Every single one of us has that responsibility, though, at any given time, we all have different capacities, skills and opportunities in which to fulfill it. Regardless of our situation, I believe that we all carry that responsibility from the very moment the Creator blesses us with our first breath until our last. This responsibility means that it is not good enough to work hard, get an education, find a job, and provide for one’s family. These are important things, and our ancestors did their best to ensure that we would have a prosperous future. Many even negotiated these provisions in some of our treaties. But, it is not good enough for us to simply be comfortable, at least not as long as we have brothers, sisters and community members who live without food, water or housing. Right now, many of our Indigenous peoples are facing multiple, overlapping crises that require emergency attention. The very grassroots people standing on the front lines of this movement are there because they are the ones without clean water, housing or sanitation and the politicians have done little to address this. Stretched Beyond Human Limits: Death by Poverty in First Nations: http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/crsp/article/viewFile/35220/32057 This movement is set apart from any other before it. Unlike the Occupy movement, this movement involves peoples with a shared histories, experiences, goals and aspirations. We as Indigenous peoples are all related, we all care about each other’s futures and we share the same responsibility to protect our rights, cultures and identities for our seventh generation. This movement also has a special spiritual significance in that this was prophesied – that the seventh generation would rise and restore the strength of our Nations, bring balance and see that justice was restored to our peoples. This movement is also unique in that it includes Canadians as our allies. Just as the early days of contact when the settlers needed our help to survive the harsh winter months, and seek out a new life here, Canadians once again need our help. They need our help to stop Harper’s destructive environmental agenda. First Nations represent Canadians last best hope at stopping Harper from unfettered mass destruction of our shared lands, waters, plants and animals in the name of resource development for export to foreign countries like China. Why? Because only First Nations have constitutionally protected Aboriginal and treaty rights which mandate Canada to obtain the consent of First Nations prior to acting. These rights are also protected at the international level with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf When First Nations organize in Idle No More to oppose this legislation, they do so to protect all of our interests – First Nation and Canadian alike. The most precious resources in the near future will be farmable lands and drinkable water. If there is no clean water, this impacts everyone. We are standing up not only to protect our lands and waters, but we are also standing up to restore justice for First Nations and democracy for Canadians. We can work together to defeat this threat to Canada and find a way to share the lands and resources as the treaties envisioned. When asked what do we want, that question can be answered in two parts: (1) In the short term, Canada must withdraw the suite of legislation impacting First Nations, amend those omnibus bills which threaten our lands and waters, and restore the funding that was cut to our First Nation advocacy organizations and communities; (2) In the long term, Canada must set up a Nation to Nation process whereby First Nations and Canada can address many of the long outstanding issues related to the implementation of treaties and sharing the lands and resources. Ultimately, we want to be free – free to govern ourselves as we choose; free to enjoy our identities, cultures, languages and traditions – i.e., to live the good life as we see fit. This means Canada must respect our sovereignty and get out of the business of managing our lives. Given that Canada has worked hard to put us in the situation we are in, Harper will have to come to table with some good faith and offer some solutions to address the current crisis facing many of our communities in relation to the basic essentials of life – water, sanitation, housing, and education. If Harper can do no more than appear at a meeting on January 24th as requested by the AFN, our most vulnerable citizens will not see justice. What Idle No More means to me is the coming together of Indigenous peoples from all over Turtle Island to work together to restore pride in our peoples, to stand up for our rights and live up to those responsibilities we have to one another and Mother Earth. It is inspiring hope, when many had lost hope that anyone would ever stand on their behalf. It has inspired pride in who we are as Indigenous peoples because our peoples and the ways of our peoples are beautiful and something to be cherished and defended. It has inspired leadership in those who thought they had nothing left to offer their Nations. It has inspired a reconnection of youth to elders, citizens to leaders and men to stand beside their women. It has inspired the most oppressed peoples to stand up and exercise their voices. We are alive again and the spirits of our ancestors are walking with us on this journey. I believe in the power of our peoples – we can do this!

January 4, 2013
Urgent Situation Report on Humanitarian Crisis in Canada

This blog post is not an official report, but is modeled off situation reports from international groups and organizations about specific crises in other countries. Canada portrays itself as a model nation but always hides the darker side of the historic genocide perpetrated on Indigenous peoples and the aggressive assimilatory actions it is taking currently — which only serve to make poverty in First Nations much worse I. Highlights – Children in care crisis – 40% of children in care in Canada (30,000) are Indigenous children; – Over-incarceration crisis – 25-30% of prison populations are Indigenous and increasing; – Water crisis – 116+ First Nations do not have clean water, 75% of water systems med-high risk; – Housing crisis – 40% of First Nations home in need of major repair, 85,000 home backlog; – Indigenous women safety crisis – over 600 murdered and missing Indigenous women; – Health crisis – Life expectancy is 8-20 years less for Indigenous peoples due to extreme poverty; – Cultural crisis – 94% of Indigenous languages in Canada (47/50) at high risk of extinction; II. Situation Overview Although the Government of Canada has been presenting a picture of stable relations with and improved living conditions for Indigenous Nations, the reality on the ground shows many Indigenous individuals, families, communities and Nations suffering from multiple, over-lapping crises. Although federal, provincial, Indigenous and independent researchers have all verified the crises, Canada has refused to act. This is resulting in the pre-mature deaths of hundreds, even thousands of Indigenous peoples every year. Many of those that do survive, do so with higher levels of injuries, disabilities, diabetes, TB, heart disease, and other preventable health issues. There is a children in care crisis where 40% of children in care in Canada (30,000) are Indigenous children. The crisis of over-incarceration of Indigenous peoples in state prisons shows 25-30% of prison populations are Indigenous and increasing. The water crisis of 116+ First Nations not having clean water and 75% of their water systems being at medium to high risk is well-known. The housing crisis is particularly staggering when you consider that 40% of First Nations homes are in need of major repair and there is a 85,000 home backlog. There is a growing crisis of violence against Indigenous women with over 600 murdered and missing Indigenous women in Canada. The health crisis results in a life expectancy of 8-20 years less for Indigenous peoples due to extreme poverty. This does not include the cultural crisis where 94% of Indigenous languages in Canada (47/50) are at high risk of extinction. These are all exacerbated for communities who suffer from massive flooding due to hydro-electric operations. The gap between Canadians and Indigenous peoples with regards to education, employment, skills training, food security, water security, health care, and mental health services continues to increase. Statistics are often manipulated by Canada to show that conditions are getting better, but when reviewed over a 20 year period, the statistics are clear that the socio-economic conditions of Indigenous peoples are on a downward trend. The levels of poverty and ill-health in northern Indigenous communities are even more acute. Suicide rates are amongst the highest in the world with suicides starting at much younger ages, like 9 years old. While Canada rates in the top 4 countries when measuring the human development index, when Indigenous peoples are isolated, Canada drops to 78th. Indigenous Nations in Canada have attempted to work with federal and provincial governments to address these crisis areas, all to no avail. The closest Indigenous Nations came to accessing funding relief for the current crisis was in 2005 when the Government of Canada promised $5 billion over 10 years to address issues like education and housing. This commitment was later withdrawn when the Conservative Party came to power. Since then, Indigenous Nations, through their individual First Nation communities, representative organizations and advocacy groups, continue to try to raise public awareness and get Canada’s attention – but have been met with funding cuts, instead of assistance. These funding and other cuts are in direct violation of Canada’s domestic laws, legislated mandates and legally binding treaties and other agreements with Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples in Canada have been in a state of prolonged crisis and casualties continue to increase. The situation has become critical and many Indigenous individuals and communities are in need of immediate emergency assistance. Other communities not in a crisis, still require that their treaties be upheld, their stolen lands be returned and they have a fair share of the wealth that comes from their traditional territories in order to be self-sustaining. III. Security Threats The Government of Canada has initiated what can only be called a blitz attack on Indigenous governments and communities. From all available analyses, it appears as though the maneuver is designed to overwhelm Indigenous communities in the hopes that they will not have time to make their citizens aware of what is happening. This observation is supported by the fact that the Government of Canada has plotted an aggressive, assimilatory suite of legislative amendments that would do several things: (1) transfer all financial liability to Indigenous communities, (2) transfer jurisdictional authority to provinces, and (3) open up the remaining Indigenous lands and resources to pipelines, mining companies and land acquisition companies. The level of legislative and policy changes being forced on Indigenous peoples without their free, informed, and prior consent, are historic in their number, scope, and the speed at which they are being implemented. The Government of Canada has decided to ignore even domestic laws which require that, at a minimum, it consult and accommodate the Aboriginal and treaty rights of Indigenous peoples which are constitutionally protected. Canada has been, and continues to be in breach of legally binding treaties on a daily basis without any consequences from the international community. The Government of Canada has tried to minimize any possible Indigenous resistance to these offensive measures by implementing severe funding cuts to Indigenous representative organizations. Indigenous communities are at significant risk of confrontations with Canada’s police and military forces as Canada has been known to use armed forced to quell any Indigenous resistance to the further theft and destruction of Indigenous lands and resources. Other security risks for Indigenous peoples include: (1) Canada’s use of their Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) to monitor individual Indigenous activists, which is well outside the scope, mandate and resource allotment of INAC; (2) Canada’s use of CSIS to monitor individual Indigenous activists and leaders is a form of intimidation to deter resistance; (3) Canada’s use of its national police force, the RCMP, to surveil Indigenous individuals and communities for signs of co-ordinated activities; (4) Canada’s use of the military to quell Indigenous resistance and portraying them publicly as “terrorists” in their own territories; (5) Canada’s use of resources to fund contracts to monitor social media activities of Indigenous peoples and their allies and to engage in counter-information campaigns against them; (6) Canada’s use of Parliamentary privilege and the media to smear, villainize and otherwise degrade Indigenous peoples, their communities and cultures which encourages similar behaviour from the public; (7) Canada’s use of law enforcement to over-incarcerate Indigenous men, women and youth to prevent Indigenous resistance on the ground; (8) Canada’s use of the child welfare system to remove additional generations of Indigenous children from their families, communities and Nations which would also reduce those who might engage in resistance in the future. IV. Humanitarian Needs and Response Some individual Indigenous peoples and communities in Canada require immediate aid in the form of critical supplies, infrastructure, emergency services, and international intervention at the state level: Critical supplies: – potable water; – healthy food; – warm clothing and outerwear; – blankets; – medicine and various physical aids ; Infrastructure: – safe housing; – water infrastructure; – sanitation infrastructure; – access to solar, wind or other power generation; – communications (phone, Internet, emergency infrastructure); – schools & day cares; Emergency services: – Fire prevention; – Medical centres; – Mental health centres; – Indigenous policing/public safety centres; – Emergency management centres; International intervention: Indigenous Nations require the assistance of the United Nations and/or any individual state to put pressure on Canada, via economic, legal, political, or other sanctions, to ensure that the root causes of the crises in Indigenous Nations are addressed. Primarily, assistance is needed to ensure that any and all unilateral development on Indigenous lands and water must be halted until restitution has been made for past thefts and illegal takings, compensation for loss of use and nation to nation agreements are made with regards to the sharing of natural resources and other wealth on Indigenous lands are negotiated. (This does not include activities or development underway in partnership with Indigenous peoples) Unilateral state activities include, but are not limited to: – land development; – All new hydro developments; – All Crown land purchases, leases, transfers, and permits; – All pipelines, hydro-fracking, and mineral extraction; – all clear-cutting and timber and gravel removal; Similarly, all new legislative and policy initiatives related to Indigenous peoples and their territories must be withdrawn or held in abeyance until proper nation to nation negotiations, including, but not limited to: – All legislation directly or indirectly impacting Indigenous peoples; – All litigation targeted against Indigenous peoples; – All enforcement activities against Indigenous peoples in their traditional activities; – All enforcement activities against Indigenous peoples engaging in economic activities; Government-based funding transfers to Indigenous governments must be maintained and protected during negotiations, including, but not limited to: – Federal and provincial funding transfers to Indigenous Nations, their First Nations communities and their representative organizations; – Government transfer levels to Indigenous governments must be adjusted to reflect current population and inflation levels; – Additional funding to cover the costs of current emergency services; – Additional funding to cover the backlogs created by multiple decades of chronic underfunding; – Permanent funding transfers to account for taxation, fees, permits, licences, business profits and other wealth generation which come from traditional territories; It must be remembered that these funds are not “hand-outs”, but in fact come from the wealth off of Indigenous lands that are denied to Indigenous peoples. These funds are also legally binding treaty agreements. The wealth off Indigenous lands actually support all Canadians and the Canadian state – thus, if there are any hand-outs they come from Indigenous lands and resources to support everyone else. It is time Indigenous Nations saw their fair share. V. Coordination There are specific Indigenous governments, communities and their representative organizations who are ready to work with international bodies to address the current crisis in Canada. Coordination can be done via video-conferencing, conference calls and meetings. Special arrangements will have to be made for any international travel of Indigenous representatives as Canada has already started to attack our own Indigenous passport systems. It is advisable that a strategic planning session take place to coordinate public information, international interventions and emergency action on the ground. Not all Indigenous communities are in crisis, but those that are need attention urgently. A major public education campaign is needed to counter the misinformation campaign and Indigenous allies can help in this process. Other states can offer assistance in a variety of forms, but the United Nations has an opportunity to play a significant role and help Canada live up to the principles in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples. VI. Funding It is absolutely critical that the international community contribute funding to address the immediate crisis, as well as fund advocacy activities to help Indigenous peoples organize and address the current situation. Currently, more than one third of the funding that is set aside for Indigenous peoples is confiscated by the federal bureaucracy to pay for their large salaries, vacations, and professional development, which is used to increase the capacity and strength of Canada’s bureaucratic army against Indigenous peoples. This of course, does not include the funds spent on legal counsel to fight Indigenous peoples in court. If Indigenous peoples are not put on an equal footing with the state, they have very little chance of successfully resisting this blitz attack. There is more than enough wealth which comes from the traditional lands and resources of Indigenous peoples – the issue has always been the illegal theft of those resources by the state. Emergency measures must be put in place to address those that die everyday in foster homes, prisons, or homeless on the street and the many thousands without clean water, food, heat or housing. State bodies have been calling these issues a crisis for over a decade and little action has been taken to address them. How many more Indigenous peoples need to suffer? VII. Contact Please contact Indigenous governments and their representative organizations directly. You may also contact me at palmater@indigenousnationhood.com for more details or for information about how to connect with specific Indigenous governments, communities and organizations. For more information about the current crisis, please see my article “Stretched Beyond Human Limits: Death By Poverty in First Nations” published in the journal – Canadian Review of Social Policy: http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/crsp/article/viewFile/35220/32057

October 9, 2012
Harper’s Indigenous Manifesto: Erasing Indigenous Peoples from Canada
Early Indian policy was designed to accomplish two main policy objectives: (1) acquire Indigenous lands and resources, and (2) reduce financial responsibility to Indigenous peoples. The primary way in which these two objectives were to be achieved was through the physical, legal, social and spiritual elimination of Indigenous peoples. I say “elimination” because that is the word which best describes government intentions. Most people today use the term “assimilation” but to my mind, this word is much too soft to describe the design and impact of government policies on Indigenous peoples in Canada. To some readers, the term “elimination” may seem a little harsh, somewhat of an exaggeration, or perhaps rhetoric blown out of proportion which forgets the good intentions governments, churches and traders had for Indigenous peoples. I beg to differ – not because I fall into any externally imposed category of left-wing, liberal, radical or “nutbar”. I beg to differ because the facts – the brutal, uncomfortable facts tell us a much different story. My biggest concern is not that the colonization project devastated Indigenous peoples, because the historical record clearly shows it did; it is that the colonization and devastation of Indigenous peoples continues, albeit couched in softer terminology. Today, the few history books that have been amended to include mention of Indigenous peoples speak of the tragic loss of Indigenous cultures over time. They speak of this “loss” as a romantic part of our history where the strong, noble Indian chief on his horse looks across the horizon and realizes that the ways of his people are fading away with the coming of European trains, traders and technologies. This sort of representation may even invoke feelings of melancholy in Canadians who long for the simplicity of the old days. But it belies the truth about Canada and its direct and intentional “obliteration” of Indigenous peoples, cultures and territories. If the term “elimination” does not make some readers uncomfortable, surely the term “obliteration” will. The purposeful destruction of a people implies the kind of ill-intent, even malice upon which a country like Canada could surely never have been built? Terms like those imply that perhaps what happened to Indigenous peoples was not simply “progress”, “civilization” or a “good policy gone wrong” – no, this falls in the realm of a word that usually upsets the majority of readers: genocide. Many people do not understand the legal definition of genocide, nor are they aware of how genocide is considered internationally. Many are of the misunderstanding that genocide is the mass murder of millions of people all in one shot – something akin to the holocaust. In fact, genocide is defined in the United Nations Convention on Genocide as follows: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
That is the definition. In Canada and the United States, settler governments have committed genocide against Indigenous peoples, not under just one category, but under every single category noted above. We all know it, but the reality stands in such stark contrast to the mythology created by government about what Canada stands for, that many people resort to denial. Indigenous peoples who have raised the subject have been referred to as “nutbars”, “whackos”, “conspiracy theorists”, “radicals” and “terrorists”. The issue of genocide is radical – not because it is not true, but because it stands so far outside the realm of humanity and human rights that the tendency is to save the term for only the most obvious, horrific, well-known instances of genocide committed in places far away from Canada. http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/pamela-palmater/2011/11/unbelievable-undeniable-genocide-canada The term genocide is usually saved for instances where the victims are considered to be humans – and Indigenous peoples have long been characterized as non-humans for centuries. Aside from the historical depictions of Indigenous peoples as “savages”, “heathens” or “pagans”, they have also been treated by governments as “dangerous and sub-human”. The myth of Indigenous peoples being sub-human allowed governments to steal Indigenous lands under the legal fiction of “terra nullius” (lands belonging to no one). They knew better of course, but it allowed them to justify not only the theft of lands from Indigenous peoples, but the brutal acts of genocide which were committed upon them. The fact that early governments sent small-pox infested blankets to Indigenous communities knowing it would nearly wipe them all out, is a historical fact. These were not the actions of a few bad apples, or something that happened in the stone age. This has been acknowledged as modern “biological warfare” by publications in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The scalping laws in Nova Scotia were deliberate acts of murder which decimated the Mi’kmaw Nation population by almost 80%. The forced surgical sterilization of Indigenous women against their will, and often without their knowledge or consent, destroyed Indigenous peoples in a very physical way. The government and church-run residential schools knowingly created conditions that led to the mass deaths of the Indigenous children who attended – upwards of 40% never made it out alive. Incredibly, not only did government officials know that Indigenous children were dying and even “acknowledged” the high rates of deaths and their causes, but this was part of the overall objective: “But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards the final solution of our Indian problem.” (SI Indian Affairs, Duncan Campbell Scott) Why do I bring all this uncomfortableness up in my blog? Why am I asking readers to face the brutal reality that is Canada? It is because genocidal acts against Indigenous peoples continue to this day, hidden in government policies which purport to be in the best interests of Indigenous peoples. It is because every government (Libs and Cons) has had a hand in continuing the situation, but mostly because this Harper government has ramped up efforts to eliminate Indigenous peoples. In my opinion, the Harper Indigenous Manifesto is about erasing Indigenous peoples from Canada socially, culturally, legally and physically. What used to be forced sterilizations to prevent child births and control Indigenous populations is now pre-mature deaths from the extreme poverty directly linked to chronic, purposeful under-funding, over-prescription of addictive drugs, and lack of housing, water and sanitation. What used to be residential schools became the 60’s scoop and is now child and family services removing our children from our communities at alarming rates. What used to be European/western education forced on our children through residential schools, is now the provincial school systems, which for the most part, teach the same western ideologies, histories, sciences and politics to our children and specifically exclude our traditional Indigenous knowledges, languages and cultures. What used to be scalping laws, are now starlight tours, murdered and missing Indigenous women by the hundreds, and quelling land claims with brute military and police force. What used to be laws against Indigenous peoples leaving their reserves are now laws which take away rights when one leaves the reserve (taxes, governance, jurisdiction, trade, identity). What used to be laws against Indigenous peoples gathering in one place is now CSIS, RCMP, DND and INAC putting us on terrorist watch lists, monitoring our movements, and over-incarcerating our men, women and youth at increasing rates. What used to be laws against Indigenous peoples hiring lawyers to advocate on their behalf, are now devasting funding cuts to local, regional and provincial First Nation political organizations. All coming at a time when Harper wants chaos, confusion, and lack of political capacity to ensure there is little resistance to his comprehensive Indian Act-based legislative agenda. He hopes to strike fear and confusion in chiefs so that they don’t know whether to stay quiet and hope it doesn’t get worse, or take action. Either way, funding cuts will be imposed on local First Nations as well. This is not about whether regional political organizations are doing a good job or not – this is about Harper fulfilling the original intentions of Indian policy (1) accessing Indigenous lands and resources and (2) reducing financial obligations to Indigenous peoples. He just happens to see striking at political organizations as the best way to isolate individual First Nations, already overwhelmed with issues, so they are easier to bully into submission. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) either does not have the capacity or inclination to take these issues on. Regardless of the reasons, it is clear that local community members are going to be looking to their local First Nation governments to take action. In the same vein, First Nation leaders will be looking for assistance from their treaty, regional and provincial organizations. The days of waiting for the AFN to do something are over. If these funding cuts are ok, so will be the ones that come to individual First Nations, then will come the eventual constitutional changes, the accelerated extinguishment of Aboriginal and treaty rights, and the division and sale of the rest of our lands. If Canadians think that this does not concern them – they should think again. As your “Canada” slowly becomes a dictatorship led by a rogue Prime Minister who is obsessed with power, Canadian laws, rules, and regulations are breached with impunity. Everything from elections, ethics, budgets, and legislation are manipulated without regard for the rule of law. The damage done by these renegade Conservatives is already so severe that analysts feel it will take years to undo the harm. In standing beside Indigenous peoples to oppose these destructive policies, Canadians would be living up to the spirit and intent of the treaties and, in so doing, protecting their own futures. Economic reports have already shown that the costs of maintaining Indigenous peoples in poverty is higher than the solutions. Those same studies show that the costs of delaying the resolution of land claims and treaty implemention for example, are higher than if those claims were resolved equitably. Even the most basic math shows that it costs more to keep an Indigenous person in a federal prison for one year ($100,000) than it does to pay for a 4-year university degree ($60,000). If you think for a minute that once Harper is done erasing Indigenous peoples, that he won’t come after women, children, the impoverished, the remaining pristine environmental areas, water basins and sanctuaries all in the name of wealth and power, think again. There is no room for justice, diversity or freedom in a dictator’s view of the world. We are all compelled to act. Our reasons do not have to be the same. I can be a Mi’kmaw citizen and someone else can be a Canadian citizen, but still have a mutual interest in protecting the environment. Whether someone votes in federal and provincial elections, or like me, does not vote in elections – we all still share the desire to protect our waterways. One can be Maliseet and someone else French, but still feel it important protect our cultures for future generations. I have no intention of letting Harper erase me, my family, my home community or Mi’kmaw Nation. Let’s put our heads together about a plan of action. Extra sources: http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/crsp/article/viewFile/35220/32057 http://www.oba.org/en/pdf/sec_news_sept11_c3_palm.pdf http://lawandstyle.ca/opinion_first_nations_fiasco/ http://fusemagazine.org/2012/07/35-3_palmate
September 9, 2012
Harder Politics When No Skin in the Game: Time to Address Racism

Is it just me, or is there something about this unusually hot summer that has scrambled the brains of business owners, community groups and politicians? It seems to me that in the last few weeks, I have received no end of e-mails and messages on social media from concerned Indigenous peoples from all over Canada. What is their concern? It’s the fact that in the year 2012, we STILL have Canadians who believe it is acceptable to profit from or completely ignore the blatant racism being perpetrated against Indigenous peoples. Eska Water: Perhaps it is just the heat because last year around this time, I wrote a blog about the discriminatory advertising being used by Eska Water. Their commercial for “pure” water included three men who were a mish-mash of stereotypes depicting Indigenous peoples. When confronted with the racist commercial, a spokesperson defended the company by saying “the depiction was a generic one of native people and not meant to represent any specific group”. What??? http://indigenousnationhood.blogspot.ca/2011/07/eskan-racism-bottled-and-sourced-in.html The depiction was indeed a racist depiction of Indigenous peoples and they did in fact, mean to represent a specific group of people – Indigenous peoples. The fact that none of their non-Indigenous test group identified any problems and in fact offered positive comments about the ad, shows a much deeper problem. Racism against Indigenous peoples in Canada is so ingrained that some in society can’t even identify it when they see it. It is so ingrained in fact, that no one in the company thought to include any Indigenous peoples in the consumer test group. Recommendations: (1) Companies should include a broad cross-section of society in consumer focus groups (this includes Indigenous peoples). (2) Companies should use the multitude of resources available related to human rights, diversity and inclusion to prevent harmful situations of racism and discrimination. Royal Canadian Legion: Less than two weeks ago, it was reported that the Royal Canada Legion in Cranbrook, BC had published a newsletter which included a racist joke about Indigenous peoples. This “joke” was not your usual combo of insulting stereotypes, this one had a hateful undertone which mocked the killing of Indigenous peoples with impunity. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/08/16/calgary-cranbrook-newsletter-pulled-joke.html The response was that the joke “only offended one person” and that it was meant to “get a laugh”. I can’t imagine a time when a racist joke would be funny, but in no stretch of the imagination is the murder of an Indigenous person funny. Many of our Indigenous peoples lost their lives fighting alongside Canadian soldiers in war. On average, 40% of Indigenous children who entered residential schools never came out alive. Starlight Tours have resulted in countless deaths of Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples die pre-mature deaths everyday from conditions of extreme poverty caused by chronic underfunding of essential social services like food, water and housing. This is no joke. Simply removing the joke from the newsletter without a sincere apology and commitment to do better does little to educate their legion members about racism, discrimination and how it impacts all their members. I doubt it did much to make amends for the shock, insult and hurt most likely felt by the Indigenous members of the Legion, as well as other non-Indigenous Legion members who care deeply about the human rights of all members of society. Recommendations: (1) When an organization makes a mistake which hurts 1 person, 3 people or a 1000 people, own up to it, apologize, make amends, and take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. (2) Any organization can use this kind of situation as a learning opportunity to educate its members about discrimination, what it is, how it can occur, the harm it does and most importantly, how to prevent it altogether. Holy Chuck: Last week, I was again contacted by my social media contacts, this time about a restaurant in Toronto that allegedly used racist language in their burger menu. When I was sent a copy of the menu and read that one item was called the “Dirty Drunken Half Breed”, I honestly thought it was a bad joke (as in it wasn’t a real menu item). I went online and checked it out and it was indeed an actual menu item. http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2012/08/28/toronto-restaurant-scalded-after-using-slur-for-burger-name/ I personally found it hard to believe that anyone in Canada would NOT know that this type of language is both racist and discriminatory. In my opinion, the response from the restaurant was equally offensive. Here are some excerpts from their Twitter response which went from apologetic to angry and defensive: “We at Holy Chuck r truly sorry to anyone who was offended by our burger TDDHB. It has been removed…” “I can see why people are offended. We’ll chng name” “Our menu at HC is meant to be entertaining & funny!” “Once again I am sorry but I’ve never heard of the Metis people!” “Totally blown out of proportion” “Enough’s enough! … there’s nothing more we can do” “I’m done tweeting & there’s nothing else to b said! I’m on Vacation & I plan on enjoying the rest of it! Beach and Pina colada’s await!” After reading this series of emails, would anyone consider Holy Chuck’s apology to be sincere? It sounds more to me like the apology was an attempt to shake off the issue so the owner could get back to his/her drinks. No sincere apology ever starts with the words “I’m sorry but…” – that is merely a means of deflecting responsibility. Discrimination is not about the alleged intent of the perpetrator, it is about actual impact on the person offended. It would have taken literally 2 seconds on the Internet to find numerous definitions for the word “half breed” had the business cared as much about its customers as it did its profits. Definitions of the word “half breed” include: a disparaging and offensive word for the offspring of parents of different racial origin, especially the offspring of an American Indian and a white person of European heritage; or an offensive word for a person of mixed racial descent, especially a person of Native American and white parentage. Adding the words “dirty” and “drunken” to the mix makes it even more offensive. Trying to deny responsibility by claiming ignorance to the existence of Metis people in Canada can hardly be said to be an apology, but rather acts as further insult. Recommendations: (1) Anyone operating a business that provides a service of any kind to the public must know who their serving – the population of Toronto is made up of many different groups, including First Nations, Metis and Inuit – take the time to learn about them. (2) Business owners can avoid acts of discrimination by making themselves aware of human rights laws in their particular province, as well as any potentially applicable federal human rights laws. Nepean Redskins: The most recent issue of discrimination that has been brought to my attention is one that still has not been resolved. Ian Campeau, otherwise known as Dee Jay NDN from the music group, A Tribe Called Red, has, for some time now, been trying to work amicably with the youth football team called Nepean Redskins to help them change their name. http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/08/27/nepean-redskins-name-sparks-war-of-words Instead, the responses from the local city councillor and the team has been anything but apologetic or helpful. The football club’s President has been silent on the issue, although he was quoted last year as saying that they “don’t use the name in a racist way”. The city councillor, Jan Harder, said that “there is nothing wrong with the name” and that the issue has “nothing to do with her”. What a bizarre series of statements to make. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Names+matter+Minor+football+organization+should+change/7152812/story.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter First of all, when I used 3 seconds to look up the meaning of the word “redskin”, this is what I found: – an offensive and disparaging word used to describe North American Indians; – offensive slang and disparaging term for Native American; – dated and offensive term for American Indian; – offensive term for Native Americans like “red man” and “injun”. I don’t think there is any doubt that the term is offensive. But the word has far more meaning that just being a racist insult. Colonizers used to scalp Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States. In some areas of Canada, there were bounties on the scalps of Mi’kmaw men, women and children which decimated our Nation by up to 80%. The fact that American soldiers would sometimes skin an entire Indigenous person is horrific and a stark reminder of the genocide committed against Indigenous peoples in all its forms. How the Nepean Redskins team President, Stephen Dean, could say that the team does not use the name in a racist way makes absolutely no sense when the name itself is racist. There is no neutral use of the term “redskin”, unless you are talking about potatoes, and we all know that is not the case here. This shows an extremely deep level of ignorance. If we were to exchange any other racist name of another cultural group – there would be no question about the racist nature of it. The difference here is that its “just” Indigenous peoples we are offending, which appears to be very acceptable to some non-Indigenous people. The further offensive appropriation of Indigenous symbology and likeness for a non-Indigenous football team is also offensive. But the most telling comments came from city councillor Jan Harder who said there is nothing wrong with the name and the issue has nothing to do with her. We’ve already established that there is a lot wrong with the name. But Harder has hit on an important point: she has no skin in the game, so to speak, so what’s it to her? She is not Indigenous and she obviously knows or cares very little about the historical and ongoing discrimination against Indigenous peoples. As city councillor, she has worked on finances, land development, environment and hydro. Why on earth would she want to know anything about Indigenous peoples? Never mind that all of those issues impact the lives of Indigenous peoples in significant and often destructive ways. Over 13,000 Aboriginal people live in Ottawa – I am quite sure that some even live in Councillor Harder’s ward. Whether there is one Indigenous person who is offended or 1000, according to Canada’s laws, she is obligated to act on behalf of all people in her district, not just her and “anyone else I know” that looks, acts, and thinks like her. Personally, I would like to see Harder do her job and Dean stop hiding from the issue and deal with it. What else can Ian Campeau do? He has tried to deal with this amicably, he has offered to fundraise so that the team can transition to a new name and has contacted various people. By ignoring the issue, the team risks bad publicity, a human rights complaint, a boycott on their funders, and continued hurt amongst the Indigenous peoples in Ottawa and beyond. Recommendations: (1) The team could use this issue as an opportunity to get everyone in the community engaged and come up with a community-based strategy to transition from their current racist name to one that everyone can enjoy. (2) The team should read the following letter from Leanne Simpson, who expresses with great insight and gentle compassion, why the team ought to change its name. Seriously take the time to consider her words: http://leannesimpson.ca/2012/08/27/an-open-letter-to-the-nepean-redskins-the-national-capital-amateur-football-association/ Just in case you are not convinced, I invite the public to write, call or visit the councillor and team president to show them how much this impacts everyone who wants to live in a discrimination-free society. City Councillor Jan Harder Jan Harder Councilor, Ward 3 Barrhaven T – 613-580-2473 F – 613-580-2513 jan.harder@ottawa.ca President Stephen Dean Nepean Redskins 613-825-1903 sdean@rogers.com Ontario Human Rights Commission 180 Dundas Street West, Suite 900 Toronto, ON M7A 2R9 416-597-4900 info@ohrc.on.ca Also, here is a new petition started by Ian Campeau to have the name changed: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/changetheredskinname/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=button *Full disclosure – I used to work at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission as an investigator of human rights complaints.

August 28, 2012
Land Wars 2: Attack of the Fringe

The right-wing fringe are in full-swing these days. From He-who-shall-not-be-named’s racist, hateful tirades about First Nations on TV to the fringe right’s fav policy institutes’ lowly insults and name-calling of First Nation academics and activists on Twitter – they are working hard to spread their venom to a vulnerable public. I say vulnerable, because a large segment of the Canadian public is uneducated about Indigenous issues. This means they are open to be persuaded by the well-funded, flashy right-wing propaganda that has infected much of the mainstream print and TV media. What has got all the fringe right-wingers all a-buzz recently? It is the Harper government’s plans to divide up reserve lands into individual parcels of land (fee simple). The idea comes from Tom Flanagan’s book: Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights. http://reviewcanada.ca/reviews/2010/04/01/opportunity-or-temptation/ As I wrote in my last blog, the act is to be called the First Nation Property Ownership Act (FNPOA) and has the potential to destroy First Nation communities, but is being promoted as the answer to our woes. http://www.indigenousnationhood.blogspot.ca/2012/08/flanagan-national-petroleum-ownership.html The person behind the idea, Tom Flanagan, who was also an advisor to PM Stephen Harper, now uses Manny Jules (head of First Nation Tax Commission) to do most of the public promotion of FNPOA. Why? Because Manny Jules is a First Nations man, who is the former chief of Kamloops First Nation and the idea is that it will be easier to sell assimilation to First Nations if a First Nations person does it. http://fntc.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=7 The idea itself is not new. It’s the same idea Flanagan promoted in his book First Nations? Second Thoughts, except in his first book, his overt racist depiction of First Nations didn’t gain his ideas the support he had hoped. He has not given up on his idea to assimilate First Nations, he is just less overt about it now. In his mind, resistance to assimilation is futile. http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/the-man-behind-stephen-harper-tom-flanagan/ His idea is copied from Hernando de Soto who has travelled the world trying to convince Indigenous peoples that endless riches can be found in giving up their communal lands in exchange for individual fee simple holdings. It appears from all the research to date that these communities are far worse off after they have divided up their communal lands. So, naturally, this sounds like a great plan for Harper. In fact, some reports have shown that increasing the level of westernized legal concepts of property rights in communities with extreme poverty, “can actually lead to greater exploitation”. Other reports note that the impact of De Soto’s idea ranges from ineffectual to very “harmful”. But, we have to get real about what this idea is all about. The plan is not to create super wealthy, powerful Indigenous communities – it is for the maximized economic benefit of the political and corporate power-brokers all over the world. The very objective of this plan is to open up Indigenous communal lands for mortgaging, credit, loans, liens, seizures, taxation and for economic development in the form of mining and pipelines. This “unlocking” benefits banks, investment companies, the extractive industry and government – not Indigenous peoples. A few low-end labour jobs and a couple of education scholarships are the new beads and trinkets of today, especially when you consider that the corporate industry takes home trillions all over the world. This proposed bill (FNPOA), like the many others being drafted, introduced and debated without First Nations’ review or approval, is the core part of this assimilation plan. It will disperse First Nation communities faster than a police riot squad hose can disperse environmental protesters. Similar legislation has devastated Indigenous land holdings in the United States, some of them irrevocably. Canada’s magic key (also known as the land claims negotiating policy) is that once Indigenous lands transfer to “third parties” for any reason, they are gone forever. You will hear a great deal of media on this subject. The right-wing fringe literally drools at the thought of finally assimilating Indigenous peoples once and for all – more money, land and control for those who already have more than they need. They can’t wait to impose their pipelines across any territories they wish. Instead of informed, educated, fact-based discussions, they have and will likely continue to engage in their usual name-calling, smearing, belittling and taunting of Indigenous academics, community members, leaders and activists. We must keep in mind those Conservative right-wing fringe groups are the 1% mega-rich of settler societies who can buy and control just about anything – newspapers, TV stations, research, conferences, policy institutes, think tanks, economic institutions and politicians. They have large think tanks and private strategy meetings to discuss and implement their own plans. The closer we get to the truth about their activities, the more frantic and desperate will be their attacks. They will cowardly threaten, defame, ridicule and misinform – and it will be relentless. On our side, we have our communities – who, for all the hardships, difficulties, tragedies and poverty, still have our identities, cultures, languages, beliefs, spiritualities, practices, traditions, laws, economies and governments. We are so much stronger than those who wish to assimilate us. Even in our suffering we find the strength to hold on to who we are, we defend our sovereignty, treaties, lands, waters and skies and we refuse to give up. Our Indigenous Nations have thrived here since time immemorial and we will thrive again. Our ancestors left us everything we need to guide us and protect our future generations. We can do this. Don’t get distracted by the noise and drama of the right-wing fringe groups who seek to profit on our suffering. Many of them only do so because their media ratings (i.e. salaries) and “online hit count makes it worthwhile”. We have to focus on the issues before us, work together, help build each others’ knowledge and capacity and empower one another. We all have skills we can use to help better our families, communities and Nations. Make no mistake, this bill is a modern form of land war that will be waged on our Nations. I for one, will do everything in my power to stop this legislation. I will keep researching, publishing, speaking about it, answering questions and dispelling myths. I am often criticized for the volunteer work I do for First Nations. One prominent BC chief once said publicly that that “you get what you pay for with volunteers – they are worthless”. I hold the opposite view. I have a strong Mi’kmaw identity and attachment to my culture and Mi’kmaw Nation. I am blessed with a supportive extended family and strong, healthy children. I worked hard as a single mom to earn an education (four university degrees) and was lucky enough to find a good paying job. I am grateful to the Creator for my warm house (on traditional Indigenous territories) and access to healthy food and clean water. Coming from a situation where I lived on welfare with my two babies in a flooded, mouldy Aboriginal house which made my babies very sick – I appreciate what we have now. None of this makes me any more or less Mi’kmaw, but it does highlight my responsibility to do the most that I can do for our peoples. I have certain blessings that put me in a position where I am obligated, according to Mi’kmaw ways of being, to give back and help build up the Mi’kmaw Nation and other Indigenous Nations and peoples in Canada. So I will continue my volunteer work – regardless of the threats, slander or attacks from the fringe who just can’t comprehend our Indigenous collective loyalties to one another and our lands, waters and skies.

August 25, 2012
Maybe Oliver Needs a Job in Mining? Curing Conservative Dysfunction

Conservative Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver announced this week that amendments to Canada’s regulatory process are needed to speed up the approvals of mining and other extractive industry projects. Part of his justification for speeding up approvals is to transform “aboriginal communities’ which he considers to be “socially dysfunctional”. The cure for this alleged social dysfunction is to take even more oil, gas, minerals, and other resources from their territories at a much faster pace. http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Dysfunctional%2Baboriginals%2Bneed%2Bjobs%2BTory/6341582/story.html As Oliver’s heart bled for the poor Indians, he said it was his goal to “give” aboriginals some hope. His plan, in fact, is to “move them from despair to hope” by giving Indians jobs in the extractive industry. I have to agree with Chief Clifton from Gitga’at First Nation that the language was “insulting”. I would go further though and say that the language is also consistent with the Conservative’s assimilation plan. http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2012/03/20/are-we-being-assimilated-promo/ Harper made it clear that the objective is to give “individuals” jobs and to keep the Indian Act right where it is and will even impose additional legislation on First Nations to further control our governments and territories. The “problem” as defined by the Conservatives is that we are not fully absorbed into the body politic yet. The problem will never be resolved until Indians are “equal” with Canadians – i.e., have jobs, pay taxes and their communal lands are “open for business” (i.e. resource extraction). I am always struck when the Conservatives are able to convince the public that the source of the serious housing, water and poverty crisis in First Nations is simply because we don’t have jobs. In one line, Oliver is able to discount hundreds of years of brutal colonization and the well-known inter-generational effects of both the historical and ongoing colonial laws and policies imposed on our peoples. The residential schools system was not an “education policy gone wrong” (Minister Duncan)… http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/10/27/residential-schools-saganashduncan-apologize/ …nor can Harper say (in truth) that Canada has “no history of colonialism”. http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/534215/prime-minister-harper-denies-colonialism-in-canada-at-g20 Canada has met every criteria for genocide against Indigenous peoples, the only issue is that Canada is not likely to be charged with the offence any time soon. This does not make it any less genocidal, nor is specific intent for physical destruction necessary. http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/pamela-palmater/2011/11/unbelievable-undeniable-genocide-canada The laws, policies and political decisions that led to deaths in residential schools, forced sterilizations of Indigenous women, small pox on blankets, and gruesome scalping laws are some of the most destructive genocidal acts, but today we have children taken from our families at higher rates than residential schools, we have Starlight tours and deaths of our people in police custody, we have courts and judges who put our people in jail at higher rates than Canadians, we have hundreds of murdered and missing Indigenous women and the list goes on. Colonization hasn’t stopped, nor is the reason for homelessness in Attawapiskat, contaminated water in Kashechewan or child suicides in Pikangikum due to someone not having a job in the mining industry. But let’s talk social dysfunction for a minute. Here are some dysfunctional social conditions I have noted over the last few years: (1) Canada has one of the highest child poverty rates and when compared to 17 peer countries ranked at 13; http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/child-poverty.aspx (2) Children account for only 22% of the population, but represent 38% of food bank users; http://www.campaign2000.ca/whatsnew/releases/MediaReleaseRCNov24En.pdf (3) Homeless population in Canada is around 300,000 and 1.7 million struggle with housing affordability. 50% of Canadian population lives in fear of poverty and 49% believe they are 1 paycheck from being poverty stricken. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2007/06/26/shelter.html (4) The “measurable” health-related costs of violence against women in Canada is more than $1.5 billion a year! http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/pubs/women-femmes/violence-eng.php (5) Meanwhile, some municipal librarians are making 6 figure salaries. http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/salarydisclosure/2011/munic11a.html (6) Harper’s Conservatives were thrown out of Parliament for contempt. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/957379–committee-finds-harper-government-in-contempt (7) Conservatives are now implicated in robo-calls which may have impacted their re-election. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/mps-summon-elections-watchdog-to-talk-robo-calls-on-same-day-as-budget/article2379807/ Before Canada starts pointing fingers about our Indigenous Nations being dysfunctional because we don’t run to give up our lands in exchange for a mining job, I think politicians better look in their own back yard and clean up their own dysfunction. At least there are historic and ongoing reasons for our poverty – we are managed against our wills by the Canadian government. If Canada can’t manage its own affairs without dysfunction, how can it presume to manage ours and not expect the same results? If there was ever a justification for First Nation jurisdiction over our own lives (aside from sovereignty, treaties, and our right to self-determination) this would be it! To say that First Nation poverty, cultural trauma, and the inter-generational effects of colonization would be cured by a job in mining is ludicrous. Even just framing the discussion this way presumes that the best First Nations can hope for is a job – as if we don’t own the lands they want to mine. These lands are ours and it is up to decide to whether we want own, operate or stop mining on our lands. This is the very essence of Indigenous land title and our right to free, informed and prior consent which is now internationally protected under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Oliver should resign as Minister of Natural Resources and get a job in mining – maybe that will cure his dysfunctional mouth.

March 24, 2012
UNIMAGINABLE, BUT UNDENIABLE: GENOCIDE IN CANADA

I am moved to write this blog because of Minister Duncan’s outrageous remarks that residential schools were NOT cultural genocide. This has led to discussions about whether or not the murder, torture and abuse of Indigenous peoples in this country “qualifies” as genocide, given the more recent, and much more distant atrocities committed in countries like Rwanda. Rwanda gained international attention because upwards of 800,000 people died in less than a year by brutal means. The Srebenica genocide resulted in the murder of approximately 8,000 Bosnian men and women in 1995. The holocaust of millions of Jewish people is likely the most famous of all. These events all took place far away from our shores in North America and allowed Canadians and Americans to point across the sea and shake their heads in horror and disgust. North Americans have been able to rewrite their own histories so that they don’t have to face the atrocities committed here at home. They have the benefit of majority power which means that their teachers speak of peace and friendship with the Indians, their priests speak of saving Indians, and their politicians speak of things like reconciliation. Meanwhile, the horrors committed against our peoples, which resulted in the largest genocide in the planet’s history is a story that never gets told. As a lawyer, a professor and someone who does alot of public speaking about issues impacting our peoples, I am often faced with the question of whether genocide really happened here in North America (a place we call Turtle Island and includes Canada and the United States). When I answer unequivocally yes, the first reaction is usually – “You can’t seriously compare colonization with the vicious murders in Rwanda”? I agree – there is is no comparison. It was a different place, at a different time, with different methods and results. What I am saying is that what happened to our people on Turtle Island fits EVERY criteria of the international definition of genocide. In 1948, after the atrocities committed against the Jewish people in WWII, the United Nations passed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. http://www.un.org/millennium/law/iv-1.htm The Convention declared that genocide was a crime in international law regardless of whether it was committed during a time of peace or war. Any punishment is NOT limited by time or place and there is no immunity for public bodies, government officials or individuals. They defined genocide as follows: “The Convention defines genocide as any of a number of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group: – killing the members of the group; – causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group; – deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; – imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and – forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” That is not my definition – that is the definition by international law standards for which ALL nations are bound and Canada and the United States are no exceptions. Canada signed this Convention on November 28, 1949. The United States signed on December 11, 1948. Thus, in order for an act to be considered genocide, it does not require that all components be present, nor does it require that the entire group be eliminated. However, in both Canada’s case and that of the United States, ALL components of genocide are present. Specifically here in Canada: (1) killing members of the group – the deliberate infecting of blankets with small pox and sending them to reserves; – the enacting of scalping laws which encouraged settlers to kill and scalp Indians for a monetary reward; – the deliberate infecting of Indigenous children with infectious diseases in residential schools which led to their deaths; – the deliberate abuse, torture, starvation, and denial of medical care to Indigenous children forced to live at residential schools which resulted in as many as 40% dying in those schools; – the killing of our people by police and military through starlight tours, tazering, severe beatings, and by unjustified shootings; – the killing of our people resulted in severely reduced populations, and some Nations completely wiped out; – in the US, some groups were exterminated by up to 98%; (2) causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to the members of the group; – think of the torture and abuse inflicted on Indigenous children in residential schools like sexual abuse, rape, sodomy, solitary confinement, denial of food and medical care, and severe beatings for speaking one’s language, etc; – imagine the mental harm to Indigenous families and communities when their children were forcibly removed from them and left to die in residential schools; – even when residential schools were starting to close, social workers in the 1960’s onward stole children and placed them out for adoption in non-Indigenous families; – the torture and abuse of Indigenous peoples in order to force them to sign treaties and agreements; – the loss of language, culture, traditions, practices, way of life, beliefs, world views, customs; – the imposed divisions in families, communities and Nations through the Indian Act (3) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; – think of the deliberate and chronic underfunding of essential social services on reserve like housing, water, food, sewer and other programs fundamental to the well-being of a people like education and health; – the theft of all the lands and resources of Indigenous peoples and their subsequent confinement to small reserves where the law prevented them from leaving and providing for their families and so were left to starve on the rations provided by Canada; – or the relocations of Indigenous communities from resource rich areas to swamp lands where they could not provide for themselves; – Indian Affairs who divided large nations into small communities, located them physically away from one another, – the Indian Act led to the physical separation of Indigenous women and children from their communities through the Act’s assimilatory registration provisions; (4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; – the forced sterilizations of Indigenous women and men, most notably in Alberta and British Columbia; – the Indian Act’s discriminatory registration provisions which prevent the descendants of Indigenous women who married non-Indian men to be recognized as members of their community thus keeping their births from being recognized as part of the group; – the discriminatory INAC policy which prevents the children of unwed mothers from registering their children as Indians and part of their communities (unstated and unknown paternity); (5) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group – the long history of residential schools which had an express stated purpose – “to KILL the Indian in the child” and to ensure that there were no more Indians in Canada; – the 60’s scoop which saw the mass removal of Indigenous children from their homes and adopted permanently into non-Indigenous homes; – the prevention of children from being members in their communities due to the discriminatory Indian Act registration provisions; – the current high rate of children removed from their families which out numbers residential schools and 60’s scoop combined. Unfortunately, I could provide many more examples, but there is no need to do so when what is listed above more than meets the definition of genocide. So, when the Minister of Indian Affairs says that residential schools were NOT a form of cultural genocide, he is not only undoing what good the public residential schools apology did, but he is denying all of the horrors committed by Canada on our peoples – in essence, he is denying our lived realities. Watch the clips of Minister Duncan on APTN’s InFocus show that we just did on Nov.4, 2011 on the issue of assimilation and genocide in Canada: Part 1 of APTN InFocus: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/11/04/november-4th-part-1/ Part 2: http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/11/04/november-4th-%e2%80%93-part-2/ I find it hard to believe that while the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is going around Canada, that the Minister of Indian Affairs would be so disrespectful. Not only were residential schools “lethal” for some languages, cultures and family relations, it was literally “lethal” for almost half the children that attended. How much more lethal would he want it to be? 60%, 70%, 80%? The Prime Minister should immediately remove Minister Duncan from his position. That won’t happen of course, because the Conservative government STILL has a policy objective of assimilating Indians. The Indian Act’s registration provisions are modern day evidence of that. I invite you all to watch the documentary entitled: The Canary Effect. It is only one hour long, but is very difficult to watch. It hurts the spirit in so many ways and I imagine will be difficult for uninformed non-Indigenous people to accept. While it relates primarily to genocide against our Indigenous peoples in the United States, much of what is said applies equally in Canada. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/canary-effect/ We are in the fight of our lives and we need to turn the tide of this war around. We have to stop blaming ourselves and believing the lies that we were told. We are not inferior, we are not genetically pre-disposed to dysfunction, our men are not better than our women, and we certainly did not EVER consent to genocide against our people. All the dysfunction, addictions, ill health, suicides, male domination and violence is all the result of what Canada did to us. We are not each others’ enemies. We have to forgive ourselves for being colonized – none of that is who we really are as Indigenous peoples. Our people are beautiful, proud, strong, and resilient. We honour our ancestors by surviving. Now we have to honour our future generations by thriving. Our children carry our ancestors in their hearts and minds. They carry the strength, honour and passion of our ancestors in their blood. Our generation must find a way, despite all the barriers in our way, to love, support and nurture our children so that we can rise up and take back our sovereignty, our honour, and our future. Our children will still go through the pain of knowing what has been done and is currently done to our people by Canada, and all the dysfunction that it has created, but maybe they will finally know where to direct the anger and stop turning it inward and hurting themselves. That anger can be focused into passion which can then be channelled into action for our people. Our future depends on our children loving themselves and having hope. We can’t ever let them lose that. Canada may want us to disappear, but we don’t have to let it happen. All my relations… P.S. In case you want to express your concern to Minister Duncan, his e-mail is john.duncan@parl.gc.ca

November 5, 2011
More than Empty Promises: Canada’s Military Still Fighting Indians Today

Why is it that Indigenous Peoples are always accused of creating an us vs. them dynamic in Crown-First Nation relations, when in fact it is the opposite that is true. Our treaties were negotiated so that we could move forward cooperatively, yet Canada (which includes Canada includes ALL federal departments, agencies and commissions as well as the provinces and territories) has broken every promise it has made. Given that our treaties were to maintain peace and friendship, Canada has breached the treaties at every step. We wanted to maintain our connections to the land and Canada wanted to assimilate us. When we exercise our “Canadian” right to peaceful assembly and protest, Canada sends in the military to take us down. It seems that no matter what we do, Canada’s answer always seems to be to “get rid of the Indian problem” and it does so by very strategic military means. Canada has long used military tactics against us to accomplish its goal of taking our land and resources. In the beginning, it was blankets filled with small pox and scalping laws. Even the treaty “negotiations” consisted of brutal force to sign treaties: Their quarrels and wars were not for ambition, empire or bloodthirstiness but to defend their property and bounds…

Their injuries have been very great, as divesting them of their land by force or fraud, first making them drunk and then to sign what they knew not what…

Ad to this our inhumanity to them … We vilify them with all manner of names, and opprious language, cheat abuse and beat them, sometimes to the loss of limbs, pelt them with stones and set dogs upon them … too often an Article of Peace has run in one sense in English and quite contrary in Indian, by the Governor’s express order… (T. Bannister to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Calendar, vol. 28).

We all know what happens when a First Nation protects its traditional lands from destruction – we have the RCMP, the police and the military come in and take our people down – even to the point of shooting and killing us. In between military maneuovers against us, Canada has adopted an ancient military tactic of starving us off our lands. Our people are the poorest in the country and thousands of us die pre-mature deaths directly related to the chronic and purposeful underfunding of critical and essential life services like food, housing, water and health programs. Of course, there is also the other military tactic used around the world – that is to jail the political opposition. No one can argue with the current incarceration statistics highlighted for many years by Canada’s own Correctional Investigator. Our people are arrested, detained, and jailed far more often, for longer, and with less rehabilitation programs or likelihood of probation than non-Indigenous people. In some prisons out west, the women’s detention centres can be 80-100% filled with Indigenous women. How is it that all this happens in plain sight and with the passive acquiesence of democracy and equality-loving Canadians? It is because it is in their vested interest to criminalize every aspect of our lives so that Canadians can continue to enjoy the benefits of stolen lands, resources and power. Hunting and fishing has been our traditional means of providing for our communities since time immemorial – now doing so can land us in jail, or worse risk being shot at or run over by enforcement officials. Similarly, preserving the balance on our territories and making sure the land is cared for in such a way that it continues to sustain us and our people seven generations into the future – can land us in jail. Why then, does Canada continue the facade that it wants to “reconcile” and develop a better relationship when we all know that its actions speak otherwise. Why bother apologizing for the assimilatory foundations upon which residential schools were developed if the plan is to continue assimilation under the Indian Act? Why does Canada promise to apologize for calling us terrorists or spying on us whenever it gets caught doing so, when we all know those apologies will never happen – nor will the spying ever stop. When news of any of this hits the media, there is usually some uncomfortable word-smithing by federal representatives and occassionally a promise to apologize at some point in time in the future. Always in the future… Yet, treating us like domestic terrorists and spying on us continues. Don’t bother making more empty promises, just admit you are at war with us and let the chips fall where they may. If you are going to be our enemy, have the backbone to admit it. Why am I ranting about this today? Well, it’s because once again Canada got caught spying on us. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/military-intelligence-unit-spies-on-native-groups/article2199496/?from=sec431 And that made me think back to the promise by the military to offer us a now long overdue apology for calling us terrorists – which has never happened. http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/military+apologize+warriors/4019344/story.html And because despite Canada agreeing to support but not endorse or implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Conservatives have ramped up their spying efforts with INAC (now AANDC) as the lead. https://pampalmater.com/2011/06/secret-agent-harper-conservative-spy.html Canada seems to have a great deal of time and money to spend spying on our people and keeping us in poverty. Since I will no doubt be labled a “radical”, I guess there is no harm in sharing some of my radical ideas: why don’t we put that extra money into providing lawyers for those granted standing at the murdered and missing Aboriginal women inquiry? Or perhaps invest some in First Nations schools to close the education gap? Or, even more radical, why don’t we provide equitable funding for child and family services, housing, water, and sewer on reserve… I think it’s time we all got real about what is happening here and stop promising to make future apologies for military actions against our people when we all know it will continue. It is no longer other distant countries we can point to and sit in judgment over how their militaries treat their citizens. It’s time to put the focus back on our own country and stop the war against our people once and for all. For rabble fans, see my blog at rabble.ca.

October 13, 2011
Ontario’s Invisible People – Where are Aboriginal Issues in the Ontario Election?

So in case you didn’t know, the Ontario provincial election is happening in 4 weeks on Thursday, October 6, 2011. There is lots of election activity happening in Ontario and lots of confusing political messages and attack ads on tv. Elections can be very confusing, especially to our younger population who may be voting for the first time. http://www.electionalmanac.com/canada/ontario/ The contenders for the top spot of Premier are: (1) Progressive Conservative Party’s Tim Hudak; (2) New Democrat Party’s Andrea Horwath; (3) Green Party’s Mike Schreiner; and (4) Liberal Party’s Dalton McGuinty. McGuinty is the current incumbent (i.e., he is currently in the position of Premier and hoping to be re-elected). You are entitled to vote in this upcoming election if: (1) you are at least 18 years old, (2) a Canadian citizen, (3) you reside in an electoral district and (4) have not already voted. This means that for those Aboriginal people in Ontario who want to, you can vote in this election. http://wemakevotingeasy.ca/en/who-can-vote.aspx However, if you do vote, I STRONGLY suggest that you read the election platforms (i.e., promises made by politicians about what they will do if elected) of each party beforehand. It is not because I believe that most contenders will fulfill all their election promises, but if they are not making ANY promises in relation to key issues that concern you, then this should act as a major red flag. As a Mi’kmaw woman who now lives in Ontario, my primary concern is for the First Nations living in Ontario and how their views, concerns, needs, rights and interests will be addressed by each party. I don’t vote in elections, so I won’t be voting, but I participate in other ways, like helping to inform others about who and what they are voting for – if they do. It is for this reason that I have gone through all of the election platforms, including the Liberal Plan which was just released today. The first thing that struck me was that not a SINGLE plan mentioned Aboriginal peoples at all. There was no mention of First Nations, Métis, Inuit, or their rights, interests or needs. The solitary reference to Aboriginal peoples was in the Conservative’s tough on crime section of their platform where they made a reference to “illegal” activity on reserves. Tim Hudak and the Conservative Party of Ontario’s election platform is called the “Changebook” and can be found here: http://www.ontariopc.com/changebook/ Andrea Horwath and the NDP’s election platform is called “The Plan for Affordable Change” and can be found at this link: http://ontariondp.com/en/policy Mike Schreiner and the Green Party’s election platform is called: “It’s Time: A five point plan for Ontario’s future” and can be viewed here: http://www.gpo.ca/sites/gpo.ca/files/gpo_platform_2011.pdf Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal Party’s plan was just released today and is called: “Forward Together” and can be accessed at this link: http://www.ontarioliberal.ca/OurPlan/pdf/platform_english.pdf In all of the platforms, there are lots of nice pictures of happy white people riding bikes, taking strolls in the forest, holding hands, or working hard mining, farming, or assembling vehicles. All of the contenders for Premier themselves are all white people. There is not a single picture of a First Nation community, celebration or leader in all of these platforms. It is like we do not exist in Ontario. The province of Ontario has the LARGEST population of Aboriginal peoples of all the other provinces and territories. There are almost 300,000 Aboriginal people living in Ontario, which means that 21% of all Aboriginal people live in Ontario. Even more astounding is that 80% of the Aboriginal population living in Ontario lives OFF-RESERVE. There are also 133 First Nations within Ontario, making it the province with the second highest number of First Nations after British Columbia. http://www.aboriginalaffairs.gov.on.ca/english/services/datasheets/aboriginal.asp So why have we become invisible to Ontarians? Is Pikangikum’s child suicide crisis not visible enough? http://netnewsledger.com/2011/09/01/pikangikum-first-nation-faces-suicide-epidemic/ Or what about Attawapiskat’s deplorable school conditions? http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/dec10/attawapiskat.asp Or how about the long, unresolved land claims in Six Nations? http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/caledonia-landclaim/ I am sure that most people remember the senseless murder of Dudley George at Ipperwash: http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/inquiries/ipperwash/report/vol_4/pdf/E_Vol_4_Full.pdf What about the First Nations that live in the Ring of Fire and their Aboriginal and treaty rights? http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/mining/First-Nation-pushes-back-against–Ring-of-Fire–mine,-rail-project-510.aspx I could literally go on and on about the numerous Aboriginal issues and concerns in Ontario, but that is not the purpose of this blog. My point is to highlight that our issues have been completely ignored in this election. The only party that took any notice of First Nations was the Conservative Party, but not in a good way. True to right-wing form, they only mention First Nations is in the crime section of their platform. (see page 33) There, the First Nation traditional tobacco growing, manufacturing, and trading activities are characterized as “illegal”, “criminal”, and “dangerous” because it is run by “organized crime that uses it to fund their drug and weapons trades”. The Conservatives racist attack on First Nations is bolstered by their view that “honest businesses who are robbed of revenue, and every Ontario family, as we lose at least $500 million each year in tax revenue.” We, as First Nations people are invisible when we are dying of starvation, our children kill themselves at alarming rates or our schools are condemned. However, if there is even the most remote chance that we might be able to benefit from using OUR land or OUR resources, then they crack down with all their police, military, and legislative might to ensure that we stay where we belong: living in extreme poverty on reserves out of the hearts and minds of “honest”, “hard-working” Canadians. Even the Liberal platform, which labels Dalton McGuinty as the “Education Premier” brags for pages about the education levels and achievements of Ontario residents. Sure, Ontario can boast about 85% graduation rates, 75% of students exceeding provincial testing standards, and how they have invested $4 billion in new classrooms, libraries, buildings and labs. I guess it would not look very good for the Liberals to talk about Aboriginal education statistics. They will fall back on the jurisdictional argument that Aboriginal people are federal jurisdiction. Well, in fact, as the province knows very well, the only Aboriginal group that is definitively federal jurisdiction is First Nations living on reserve. Given that 80% of Aboriginal live OFF-RESERVE, this means that Ontario has at least some role to play in ensuring that EVERYONE who lives in Ontario has access to all these wonderful educational benefits. None of these candidates deserve our vote, but they do deserve to called on their lack of honesty and failure to stand up for EVERYONE who lives in Ontario. Speak up and call them on it. I know I will!

September 5, 2011
Secret Agent Harper: Conservative Spy Games in Indian Country

Ok, I have to admit that had anyone told me that the Conservative government’s first order of business would be to pay half a million dollars to hire private detectives to spy on First Nations, I might have viewed them with some level of skepticism. After all, I am not naive enough to think that the Conservatives are not doing things we don’t know about, however, what is being reported sounds more like the plot for a conspiracy theory movie than reality in a liberal democratic country like Canada. Yet, it appears to be true. The Conservatives put a contract out for tender to hire private detectives to investigate First Nation band elections and will pay up to $500,000. http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Federal+government+hire+private+eyes+investigate+native+elections/4876903/story.html My mind is still spinning. Honestly, I thought their last contract for tender to make Metis people CSA approved was a little on the paternalistic, controlling side, but this goes to the very core of the relationship between First Nations and the Crown. Canada is still treating First Nations as though they are enemies of the state – forgetting of course that this is OUR land and that we have agreed to share the land on the basis of our treaties. Nothing in our treaties provided for Canada to divide, control and assimilate us and they certainly do not provide for espionage in our own communities. The Conservatives have made their move – they are challenging our inherent right to be self-determining and may even hire First Nations people to be the ones to engage in these activities. After all, so many of our people are living so far below the poverty line that Canada ranks well below not only developed countries but even some developing ones. Canada’s own Auditor General has criticized Canada for failing to address First Nation poverty. http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Fraser+parting+challenge/4866304/story.html Therefore, it would not be much of a shock for Canada to be able to find someone hungry enough to take one of these contracts. But have you noticed that any time the Conservatives get bad press for their abysmal failure with regard to First Nations, that all of sudden there is news about alleged corruption in First Nations? Time and time again, the Conservatives try to duck and avoid accountability for their lack of action by vilifying our people and turning Canadians against us. We are supposed to be rebuilding our relationship in a the post-apology era. Remember how Harper apologized on behalf of all Canadians for the assimilatory attitudes and ideology of cultural superiority towards First Nations? Canada continue to fail to live up to the honour of the crown and its fiduciary duty towards First Nations under the guise of empty apologies. http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/rqpi/apo/index-eng.asp We even get labelled as “insurgents” and “terrorists” if any of our impoverished conditions make it to the media. https://pampalmater.com/2011/05/from-savages-to-terrorists-justifying.html First Nations crisis in water becomes news, so we see allegations of lack of accountability in First Nations. Canada withdraws funding for Sisters in Spirit – more allegations of over-spending in First Nations. Now, Canada’s failure to address inequality in funding for First Nations is made public by their own Auditor General and surprise – we see a contract to hire PI’s (aka spies) to infiltrate our communities and look out for corruption in our elections. How hypocritical given the fact that the Conservatives were BOOTED from Parliament for lying – failing to be open, honest and accountable to the people. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-03/26/c_13798642.htm Now, if they continue to act this way would it be acceptable for First Nations to infiltrate the federal bureaucracy and spy on them to see if they are acting corrupt? I dare say we would be jailed faster than we already are – and that is saying alot given that all of our people – men, women and youth are over-represented in jail as it is. It should be noted that this is NOT because we are more likely to be corrupt or criminal, but is in part a symptom not only of extreme poverty but also of ongoing discrimination in the entire justice system. http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20052006info-eng.aspx It is bad enough that the Conservatives want to invade our private space online and “correct” our “misinformed” thoughts and conversations, but to seriously pay people to infiltrate our communities without our knowledge and consent to monitor our potential to engage in election corruption is taking their role too far. I can only assume that this contract is meant for some of Harper’s retired police officers who ran in the election and lost – seeing as all the Senate seats were given away to conservative losers already. http://www.nationalpost.com/m/blog.html?b=fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/05/18/scott-stinson-on-the-cabinet-i-was-a-sucker-for-believing-in-harper&s=Opinion You would never know that INAC was in a collaborative process with the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nation Chiefs (APCFNC) and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) on electoral reforms under the Indian Act. I doubt very much they were apprised of this spy-for-hire contract. Time and again, the Conservatives criticize First Nations for being “overly aggressive” when dealing with the government, while at the same time stabs them in the back every single time First Nations do work with them. https://pampalmater.com/2011/03/no-natives-allowed-how-canada-breeds.html Our ancestors taught us to be proud of our identity and culture and to protect our communities. If we don’t stand up for ourselves now, what are we telling our children who will be watching and learning. If the suicide of our children is not enough to make us take notice, I am not sure what is. I don’t know about any of my readers, but the thought of Conservative spies crawling around any of the communities I love and cherish totally creeps me out. I think it is about time that ALL of our leaders stood up and said enough – regardless of where their national or regional organisations sit on the issue. If they wait for the women in our communities to do it – we will – but they might not like it when the power shifts permanently in our direction. UPDATE: No sooner did I post this blog, than the following article was posted which claims that documents from ATIP (Access to Information and Privacy) reveal that the Conservatives started their spying campaign against First Nations as soon as they came into power: http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/first-nations-under-surveillance/7434 I have not seen the actual documents, so I can speak to the veracity of this report – except to say, I may check my phone for bugs tonight…

June 2, 2011