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Three decades of Indigenous resistance in Canada inform today's movement.
January 3 gathering at the UBC First Nations Longhouse in support of the Idle No More movement. Photo: D. Beers.
Indigenous people here, like African-Americans in US, face criminal injustice built on structural discrimination.
Much has been said recently in the media about the relationship between the inspiring expression of Indigenous resurgent activity informing the #IdleNoMore movement and the heightened decade of Native activism that led Canada to establish the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in 1991. I offer this short analysis of the historical context that led to RCAP in an effort to get a better sense of the transformative possibilities in our present moment of struggle.
The federal government was forced to launch RCAP in the wake of two national crises that erupted in the tumultuous "Indian summer" of 1990.
Elijah Harper's filibuster. The first involved the legislative stonewalling of the Meech Lake Accord by Cree Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper. The Meech Lake Accord was a failed constitutional amendment package negotiated in 1987 by then prime minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, and the ten provincial premiers. The process was the federal government's attempt to bring Quebec "back in" to the constitutional fold in the wake of the province's refusal to accept the constitutional repatriation deal of 1981, which formed the basis of the The Constitution Act, 1982. Indigenous opposition to Meech Lake was staunch and vocal, in large part due to the fact that the privileged white men negotiating the agreement once again refused to recognize the political concerns and aspirations of First Nations. In a disruptive act of legislative protest, Elijah Harper initiated a filibuster in the days immediately leading up to the accord's ratification deadline, which ultimately prevented the province from endorsing the package. The agreement subsequently tanked because it failed to gain the required ratification of all ten provinces within three years of reaching a deal.
The Oka conflict. The second crisis involved a 78-day armed "standoff" beginning on July 11, 1990 between the Mohawk nation of Kanesatake, the Quebec provincial police (SQ), and the Canadian armed forces near the town of Oka, Quebec. On June 30, 1990 the municipality of Oka was granted a court injunction to dismantle a peaceful barricade erected by the people of Kanesatake in an effort to defend their sacred lands from further encroachment by non-Native developers. The territory in question was slotted for development by a local golf course, which planned on extending nine holes onto land the Mohawks had been fighting to have recognized as their own for almost 300 years. Eleven days later, on July 11, one hundred heavily armed members of the SQ stormed the community.
The police invasion culminated in a 24 second exchange of gunfire that killed SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay. In a display of solidarity, the neighbouring Mohawk nation of Kahnawake set up their own barricades, including one that blocked the Mercier Bridge leading into the greater Montreal area. Galvanized by the Mohawk resistance, Indigenous peoples from across the continent followed suit, engaging in a diverse array of solidarity actions that ranged from leafleting to the establishment of peace encampments to the erection of blockades on several major Canadian transport corridors, both road and rail.
Although polls conducted during the stand-off showed some support by non-Native Canadians outside of Quebec for the Mohawk cause, most received their information about the so-called "Oka Crisis" through the corporate media, which overwhelmingly represented the event as a "law and order" issue fundamentally undermined by Indigenous peoples' anger and resentment-fuelled criminality.
For many Indigenous people and their supporters, however, these two national crises were seen as the inevitable culmination of a near decade-long escalation of Native frustration with a colonial state that steadfastly refused to uphold the rights that had been recently "recognized and affirmed" in section 35 (1) of the The Constitution Act, 1982. By the late 1980s, this frustration was clearly boiling over, resulting in a marked rise in First Nations' militancy and land-based direct action. The following are some well-documented examples from the time:
The Innu occupation and blockade of the Canadian Air Force/NATO base at Goose Bay, Labrador. The occupation was led largely by Innu women to challenge the further dispossession of their territories and the destruction of their land-based way of life by the military industrial complex's encroachment onto the Innu peoples' homeland of Nitassinan;
The Lubicon Cree struggle against oil and gas development on their traditional territories in present day Alberta. The Lubicon Cree have been struggling to protect a way of life threatened by intensified capitalist development on their homelands since at least 1939. Over the years, the community has engaged in a number of very public protests to get their message across, including a well-publicized boycott of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics and the associated Glenbow Museum exhibit, The Spirit Sings;
First Nations blockades in British Columbia. Throughout the 1980s, First Nations in B.C. grew extremely frustrated with the painfully slow pace of the federal government's comprehensive land claims process and the province's racist refusal to recognize Aboriginal title within its its borders. The result was a decade's worth of very disruptive blockades, which at its height in 1990 were such a common occurrence that Vancouver newspapers felt the need to publish traffic advisories identifying delays caused by First Nation roadblocks in the province's interior. Many of the blockades were able to halt resource extraction on Native land for protracted periods of time;
The Algonquins of Barriere Lake. By 1989, the Algonquins of Barrier Lake were embroiled in a struggle to stop clear-cut logging within their traditional territories in present day Quebec because these practices threatened their land and way of life. Under the leadership of customary chief, Jean-Maurice Matchewan, the community used blockades to successfully impede clear-cutting activities affecting their community.
The Temagami First Nation blockades of 1988 and 1989 in present-day Ontario. The Temagami blockades were set up to protect their nation's homeland from further encroachment by non-Native development. The blockades of 1988-89 were the most recent assertions of Temagami sovereignty in over a century-long struggle to protect the community's right to land and freedom from colonial settlement and development.
From the vantage point of the colonial state, by the time the 78-day standoff at Kanesatake had begun things were already out of control in Indian Country. If settler-state stability and authority are required to ensure "certainty" over lands and resources to create a climate friendly for expanded capitalist accumulation, then the barrage of Indigenous practices of disruptive counter-sovereignty that emerged with increased frequency in the 1980s was an embarrassing demonstration that Canada no longer had its shit together with respect to managing the so-called "Indian Problem." On top of this, the material form that these expressions of Indigenous sovereignty took on the ground -- the blockade, explicitly erected to impede constituted flows of racialized capital and state power from entering and/or leaving Indigenous territories -- must have been particularly troubling to the settler-colonial elite.
All of this activity was an indication that Indigenous people and communities were no longer willing to wait for Canada (or even their own leaders) to negotiate a just relationship with them in good faith. There was also growing concern that Indigenous youth in particular were no longer willing to play by Canada's rules – especially regarding the potential use of political violence – when it came to advancing their communities' rights and interests. As then national chief of the Assembly of the First Nations, Georges Erasmus, warned in 1988: "Canada, if you do not deal with this generation of leaders, then we cannot promise that you are going to like the kind of violent political action that we can just about guarantee the next generation is going to bring to you." Consider this "a warning," Erasmus continued: "We want to let you know that you're playing with fire. We may be the last generation of leaders that are prepared to sit down and peacefully negotiate our concerns with you."
In the wake of having to engage in one of the largest military operations since the Korean War, the federal government announced on Aug. 23, 1991 that a royal commission would be established with a sprawling 16-point mandate to investigate the abusive relationship that had clearly developed between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state. Published two years behind schedule in Nov. 1996, the 58 million dollar, five-volume, approximately 4,000 page Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples includes 440 recommendations which call for a renewed relationship based on the core principles of "mutual recognition, mutual respect, sharing and mutual responsibility." The material conditions that informed the decade of Indigenous protest that led to the resistance as Kanesatake created the political context that RCAP's call for recognition and reconciliation was supposed to pacify -- namely, the righteous anger and resentment of the colonized transformed into an insurgent reclamation of Indigenous difference that threatened to unsettle settler-colonialism's sovereign claim over Indigenous people and lands.
The power of economic disruption
With respect to the emergent #IdleNoMore movement, although many of the conditions that compelled the state to undertake the most expensive public inquiry in Canadian history are still in place, a couple of important ones are not. The first condition that appears to be absent is the clear threat of political violence that was present in the years leading to the resistance at Kanesatake. #IdleNoMore is an explicitly non-violent movement, which accounts for its relatively wide spectrum of both Native and non-Native support at the moment.
However, if the life of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence continues to be recklessly put in jeopardy by a prime minister who negligently refuses to capitulate to her reasonable demands, I predict that the spectre of political violence will re-emerge in Indigenous peoples' collective conversations about what to do next. The responsibility for this rests solely on the state.
The second condition that differentiates #IdleNoMore from the decade of Indigenous activism that lead to RCAP is the absence (so far) of widespread economic disruption unleashed by Indigenous direct action. If history has shown us anything, it is this: if you want those in power to respond swiftly to Indigenous peoples' political struggles, start by placing Indigenous bodies (with a few logs and tires thrown in for good measure) between settlers and their money, which in colonial contexts is generated by the ongoing theft and exploitation of our land and resource base. If this is true, then the long term efficacy of the #IdleNoMore movement would appear to hinge on its protest actions being distributed more evenly between the shopping malls and front lawns of legislatures on the one hand, and the logging roads, thoroughfares, and railways that are central to the accumulation of colonial capital on the other. For better and for worse, it was our peoples' challenge to these two pillars of colonial sovereignty that led to the recommendations of RCAP: the Canadian state's claim to hold a legitimate monopoly on use of violence and the conditions required for the ongoing accumulation of capital.
In stating this I don't mean to offer an unqualified endorsement of these two approaches, but rather a diagnosis of our present situation based on an ongoing critical conversation about how these differences and similarities ought to inform our current struggle. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Read more: Aboriginal Affairs, Rights + Justice, Politics,
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Hakuin
23 weeks ago
Race War.
That is The Chairman's plan. He will find a place as heterogenous as Canada is not so easy a mark for this old fascist, power-grab stand-by.
anne cameron
23 weeks ago
Chairman Harper
is meeting today with workers at an auto plant to tout and publicize the millions upon more millions he is giving to the auto industry to help them post even bigger profits in the future.
Pity he doesn't have a half hour to meet with
Chief Spence.
Perhaps he knows the auto industry will cheer and tell him he's a jolly good fellow and Chief Spence is not likely going to do anything like that.
Nor are many of the rest of us. He is NOT a jolly good fellow, he is a racist tool. He has told us he is a religious man of deep spiritual belief...he might benefit from reading the teachings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, then ask himself if he truly believes Jesus would approve of three hundred years of genocide.
Where can we send money to Chief Spence or the IdleNoMore people? Does anyone know?
Boris Badenov
23 weeks ago
Just wondering?
What the flap is all about.
I always considered Treaty Rights as surrender documents, like in the USA.
This stinks of racism against white people.
Skywalker
23 weeks ago
Right on Anne!
The same mentality of "the white man's burden" that colonized Canada in the beginning governs Harper's policy today. What shadows do these neanderthals lurk in that we allow them to get into positions of power. "A religious man of deep spiritual beliefs"? You have to be kidding me. Deep spiritual beliefs would be reflected in how one conducts himself politically.
Sine Nomine
23 weeks ago
Reality can be a harsh mistress
The indigenous people's of North America are a conquered people. Sadly, from an anthropological standpoint, one day their genetic contribution will be completely diluted and they will disappear from the landscape. They have been horribly treated. This recipie of passive genocide is very effective and has ruined many generations.
I don't know what the answer is, I just know it's going to end badly for them, especially if they choose a path of violence. That will just play into the hands of their oppressors and everyone will standby as they're crushed I guarantee it. It will be over very swiftly.
The sustained endless negotiations have created a cottage industry that is making many very wealthy on both sides of the fence and this too has become a barrier to success, but I think it's their best chance of getting anywhere.
Once the Chief refused the meeting with the minister of aboriginal affairs, my sympathy waned some. You have to play the game, even when you know it's rigged or you quickly lose credibility.
Perry
23 weeks ago
Tom Flanagan, Harper's former
Tom Flanagan, Harper's former adviser (maybe still is?), yesterday on CBC's Power & Politics actually blamed Indigenous peoples themselves for the poor educational outcomes in Indigenous communities. It was a disgusting display of historical amnesia leading to victim blaming, exactly what Harper did in the House of Commons in his first public comments on the crisis in Chief Spence's reserve at the beginning of last year. Shortly after that speech, anti-Indigenous racism on mainstream media sites exploded, and is even more rampant today, turning many Canadians into the new ugly Americans on the block.
Flanagan also completely dismissed the Idle No More movement as irrelevant, and Harper has yet to even acknowledge it in his public comments. While the racists are busy exposing their immorality with myths and lies, allies within the settler culture are connecting with Indigenous activists. Harper's government is taking a huge risk by dismissing and ignoring this grassroots movement.
Perry
23 weeks ago
Sine Nomine said: "Once the
Sine Nomine said: "Once the Chief refused the meeting with the minister of aboriginal affairs, my sympathy waned some."
It is a bit patronizing, don't you think, to assume you know the best path she should take? It seems to me your sympathy is quite tenuous if it could wane over that. Besides, the Indigenous Peoples need more than our sympathy, though that's a good place to start.
As for violence, there has been no threats of violence by Idle No More spokespersons. The event I attended did not have even a hint of violent tendencies. Every indication so far is that it is a non-violent movement. Furthermore, it is important to recognize and remember that it has always been the Canadian or provincial governments who initiate any violence that has occurred at Indigenous protests. The state has always fired the first shot when there has been violence in past protests. It is the state that most often chooses violent action, but you are right, if it does go down that road it rarely ends good for Indigenous peoples.
Fiat lux
23 weeks ago
This is obviously the
This is obviously the beginning of a similar movement that ultimately broke down and wiped out communism, the idiot twin of capitalism.
There are endless historical examples of when religions and ideologies empower ruling classes to take total control, they ultimately self destruct as we have been seeing it and can see it now.
This is based on well known physical law of all actions causing equal reactions, and nothing can stop them.
The dictatorial rule of globalization, using the perceived power of imaginary money is finished and kaputt. The future lies in democratically controlled local economies based on ecological and not on imaginary monetary economics.
An excellent book "Occupy World Street" by Ross Jackson just came out on this subject.
Ed Deak.
lynn
23 weeks ago
Straussian deception as policy
Much agree, Perry....I'm glad you mentioned Flanagan, who still has his hands on the steering wheel despite sly and carefully orchestrated appearances to the contrary.
From: The Walrus: "The Man Behind Stephen Harper":
"That libertarian loathing of special rights for any group is the philosophical underpinning of Flanagan’s most provocative work, First Nations? Second Thoughts, which unleashed outrage not only in aboriginal circles, but in the usually restrained corridors of academe. “These aren’t second thoughts,” says Joyce Green, an associate professor at the University of Regina and a Metis herself. “They’re the same old first thoughts that the colonizers came with from Europe. It’s a celebration of the original arguments that supported the subordination of indigenous peoples.”
For Harper and Flanagan, (both political soul mates and cold-blooded Straussian libertarians), the humanitarian concerns of 'people', the inherent right to human dignity and decency, have, for them, always been viewed as the main obstacles standing in the way of the fulfilment of their warped ideology.
In order to lethally incorporate a living breathing world their perverted world view demands the subjugation and enslavement of humanity through a ruthless and coldly systematic stripping of human rights.
Their main task has thus been to smear the idea of the governance .....by manipulating it in their own self-interest to smear and privatize and effectively end all cooperative efforts intended for the welfare and common good of all people. First Nations, Quebecois, all the people of this land are viewed as enemies that must be overcome and subordinated to the dark hypocritical dictates of the Harper Oppressive Straussian 'State' of The Walking Dead and its perverted reverence for all 'things' that subordinate and suck the life from the vital world of being.
This narcissistic brute at the helm, he of low character and high chicanery, and his scheming Calgary School accomplice are about to be surprised as to how strong is the resolve of First Nations and how tight is the linking of arms between all people of this land.
lynn
23 weeks ago
About respect
"Once the Chief refused the meeting with the minister of aboriginal affairs, my sympathy waned some." ~ Sine Nomine
But Chief Spence asked for a meeting with Harper and the Gov-Gen...not with Weston. The GG also likes to say he is above the political and can't meet with Chief Spence but he has been promoting trade for Canada at Harper's special 'request'....reporting to Harper both before and after the trade meeting. (This has never been part of the GG's job description.)
As for Harper not meeting with Chief Spence, Dr. Pamela D. Palmater, a Mi'kmaw lawyer and member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick said: "Well, Harper had no problem meeting with Justin Bieber".....surely then he can meet with Chief Spence.
Skywalker
23 weeks ago
Right on Perry!
As for Tom Flanagan, I have almost stopped watching Power an Politics for that reason alone. I also find the glaring absence of any commentator even on a guest basis once in a while a really outrageous omission. Are there no intelligent political pundits west of the Rockies worth having on the show. If Flanagan is the best they can come up with, better to have another person from Ottawa.
Perry
23 weeks ago
lynn, glad you mentioned Pam Palmater
lynn, glad you mentioned Pam Palmater. Her blog is essential reading on these issues. Here is her latest post:
What is the Idle No More Movement ... Really?
http://indigenousnationhood.blogspot.ca/2013/01/what-is-idle-no-more-movement-really.html
She has been one of the spokespersons for the movement, so you will see her on various media outlets, but this post is her own personal views and analysis of Idle No More. Her blog articles also appear on rabble.ca
LeftSeater
23 weeks ago
Uh---err--- hello---Perry...
“Furthermore, it is important to recognize and remember that it has always been the Canadian or provincial governments who initiate any violence that has occurred at Indigenous protests. The state has always fired the first shot when there has been violence in past protests. It is the state that most often chooses violent action,...”
Really!?
I guess you've forgotten about Caledonia in your sweeping statement...
Shachi
23 weeks ago
Another viepoint
Without meaning to be disrespectful to previous comments or the article itself. There are a few details that are missing and deserve answers. A popular refrain from non First Nations is "where has all the money gone"
The DeBeers Victor mine is located 90 km from Attawapiskat. Prior to building the mine, they signed agreements in 2005 with 4 different First Nations communities. Since 2006, DeBeers has spent $360 million with solely owned or joint venture companies run by the communities.In 2012 alone $40 million was spent. Presently 60 employees are from the four communities plus 100 from other Fist Nations . Where did all the funds go ? In 2011 Theresa Spence as Chief hired Clayton Kennedy as Co-Manager & Director of Finance with a contract that paid $16750 per month plus all expenses. At no time was it disclosed that Mr.Kennedy was the "Life Partner" of Chief Spence . At a later date when asked why this was not disclosed..her response "Everyone knew we were living together". If one digs deeper, then look at all the assets owned by the Band including shares in a Casino. Enuf said ?
Skywalker
23 weeks ago
I ask again.
What does all that have to do with the government unilaterally changing the rules governing land use, waterways and requirement to consult? They change makes the laws meaningless It makes the control over their territorial lands meaningless. Com'on it ain't rocket science!
aDriftwood
23 weeks ago
Hopefully
Harper has now agreed to meet with Indian Leaders on Jan 11, so hopefully something positive will come of that.
But the big story here is that non violent activism brought the Canadian government to the table.
Congrats to the Natives for achieving that, whether it will do them any good when the majority of Canadians cannot influence government policy remains to be seen.
lynn
23 weeks ago
Perry, thanks for that link
What a remarkable woman Pam Palmater is - her insights equally so.
It is very evident that she is not, nor will she ever be fooled by Harper's duplicitous ways.
It was interesting to read the following from her blog, in light of Harper's coy announcement today where once again he refused to even mention Chief Spence:
"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."
No more, Mr. Harper. No more.
And therein lies IdleNoMore's real strength - that it's rallying power exists outside of and beyond the reach of mere manipulative politics.
Let the people speak.
alive
23 weeks ago
Motherhood & Applepie
There are subjects best left alone, this is one of them!
However, allow me to point out that the aboriginals were a nomadic people, constantly on the move as their current area was denuded of anything useable.
By todays standards they were NOT green at all.
Obviously when a small number of people travel across a vast land as ours, they can eventually claim to have lived everywhere and their trail is often quite obvious.
Having said that, do tell me why "a conquered people" have so much claim in todays society?
We all have been involved in contracts that later on proved to be not to our benefit --- try to go to court about that!
ModestyBlaise
23 weeks ago
..Anne Cameron
You ask where to send money to Chief Spence. One of the original organizers, Apischi Kihiwikwan Iskwew has posted the address on her Facebook page:
[Apischi Kihiwikwan Iskwew
December 23, 2012 via mobile
For those who were wanting to send monetary donations for Chief Spence, here is the account information:
Clayton Kennedy
Scotiabank
account#
20016 0294381
Megwetch!]
The following day at 9:14am she (Apischi Kihiwikwan Iskwew) also said, "Theresa does not want anybody but Clay to handle finances"
In 2011 Theresa Spence as Chief hired Clayton Kennedy as Co-Manager & Director of Finance with a contract that paid $16750 per month plus all expenses. At no time was it disclosed that Mr.Kennedy was the "Life Partner" of Chief Spence . At a later date when asked why this was not disclosed..her response "Everyone knew we were living together".
According to aptn.ca/pages/news/2013/01/04/chief-spence-meets-the-spin-cycle/
"Fact: Kennedy is contracted to work 3 weeks out of four, 5 days a week. $850 x 5 days x 3 weeks x 12 months = $153,000 a year. If you count 4 weeks a month (which his contract doesn’t) you only get $204,000."
You can send money to him.
lynn
23 weeks ago
Two things
First, a correction to my above post, it should be John Duncan, not John Weston. I always confuse them - both have been MP's of this coastal riding - interchangeable members of The Hollow Men....and Women Brigade who now rule the day.
Second, some of these comments remind of those who are outraged that people on welfare actually have refrigerators. How dare they! Imagine the sheer luxury of having a cold metal box that prevents what little food they have from rotting. What audacity!
So for those so concerned here is where Chief Spence lives in the height of luxury. Looks just like Sussex Drive, don't you think? No doubt there are plenty of helicopters hidden in the backyard for jaunts on a whim in the style of that trillion dollar F-35 Mackay guy....and there's gotta be a two million dollar fake lake in the backyard at the ready for a $300 million two day photo-op summit...and of course, plenty of Oda style concierge service. Oh, the humanity!
http://www.netnewsledger.com/2011/12/20/where-does-chief-spence-live-in-attawapiskat-there-are-no-mansions-in-attawapiskat/?wpmp_switcher=desktop
Chief Spence's letter to John Duncan. 'One year' ago today:
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/282370-chief-spence-reply-to-minister-duncan-jan-6-2012.html
lynn
23 weeks ago
Thirdly....and then I'll go away....
As Pam Palmater expressed in the link Perry provided:
"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."
RickW
23 weeks ago
Royal Commission
So Canada established the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in 1991. That is 20+ years of much exhalation of hot air - and the latest I hear from selected chiefs is that they want to exhale yet more hot air. As a "white man", my take on the IdleNoMore campaign is that enough is enough, and it's time to DO SOMETHING. But the chiefs just want to talk.
I wonder how much actual support the chiefs have amongst the hoi polloi..........
aDriftwood
23 weeks ago
I read the blog too
http://indigenousnationhood.blogspot.ca/
And these words were pretty hopeful:
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...
Way I see it, what they are asking for is not much different from what your average Canadian would also like. Ironically, we all want more rights from the Canadian Government. Maybe we too should make a treaty with Ottawa.
Skywalker
23 weeks ago
I agree aDriftwood but...
...I worry about all the focus on Chief Spence. I would hate to see the grass roots movement be upstaged by a bunch of Politicians who cut a deal and leave the genuine concerns of the people in the dust. It is being set up by the Harper Apologists as being all about Chief Spence and her hunger strike and this leaves the IdleNoMore movement vulnerable. We'll see if they are sold out or stand firm.
RichW may have a point. The leadership structure is a white man's creation. The IdleNoMore movement is from the FN People.
aDriftwood
23 weeks ago
Skywalker
You miss the point; we all need protection from unaccountable government. I`m only saying that while the Natives have suffered more from them, we also suffer from them.
That is being recognized around the world, it is not a Red versus White issue. It is an issue of human rights. What Dr. Palmater is suggesting is that if we recognize Native rights we might also begin to recognize our own rights. That too is rather ironic.
aDriftwood
23 weeks ago
To repeat:
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...
Dont you wish had those rights to contravene the wishes of a government which represents far less than half of the Canadian electorate.
Fiat lux
23 weeks ago
It makes absolutely no
It makes absolutely no difference whether Chief Spence is a saint, or a fake. The important thing is that she started a movement that will spread, also probably reignite the Occupy movement, waking people up all over the world and can no longer be stopped.
The same way the Polish and Hungarian uprisings, although suppressed at the time, signaled the beginning of the end of communism.
Ed Deak.
RickW
23 weeks ago
Ed
It is worthy to note that the IDLE movement began in the winter, and that the OCCUPY movement fizzled out in the winter. An indication of more staying power......?
Fiat lux
23 weeks ago
The IDLE movement was started
The IDLE movement was started by 4 women in Sask. , even though we now associate Chief Spence with it.
The Occupy movement did not fizzle, but went silent for a while. These movements against exploitation and enslavement are now starting and growing all over the world, and because they have no real leaderships, they come and go for a while, but at the same time so is the dissatisfaction and desperation with the present system.
They took some 40 years to bring down communism, against the most vicious and and brutal oppression.
Now, with instant communications and relatively free speech and expression, they may take 4 years, but nothing can stop them.
The rulers of the world may be jubilant being within the reach of world dictatorship and control, and may organize a worldwide depression to force people to beg for their mercy and dictatorship, but I have the feeling that it will no longer work.
The only thing I'm hoping for is NO VIOLENCE, as it never solves anything, but causes more problems.
Sitting down and telling the lords to go and screw themselves would be the best way to stop them.
Ed Deak.
jeannievan
23 weeks ago
troubled by Sine Nomine's comments
I don't usually write in, but enjoy reading the lively comments on Tyee articles. This time I felt the need to comment on the troubling commentary by Sine Nomine.
quoting the commentator: "The indigenous people's of North America are a conquered people. Sadly, from an anthropological standpoint, one day their genetic contribution will be completely diluted and they will disappear from the landscape."
To be clear, the Indigenous peoples of North America that I have in mind, are not conquered people destined to disappear. This of course has been the goal of settler nations states around the world, that rely on the erasure and assimilation of Indigenous peoples to have untroubled access to land and "resources". Despite all of the efforts of these powerful nation states, Indigenous peoples have not disappeared, but remain resilient to the historical and ongoing colonial efforts that seek to eradicate them. The Idle No More movement is but one more example of the resilience of First Nations peoples. The use of "from an anthropological perspective" clearly positions Sine Nomine's comments within the much critiqued Western paternalistic paradigm which naively pretends to know more about cultural groups than the people themselves. Anthropology has been a part of the colonial effort, and continues to be so through such commentary. Perhaps Sine Nomine can turn that anthropological gaze in the direction of the self and Western culture in the settler nation state at this time in history, and provide us all with more lived insights. I write all of this as a settler on unceded, ancestral and traditional territory from the University of British Columbia. Thanks to Doug Coulthard for the historic contextualizing for Idle No More.
NoReally
23 weeks ago
Reasonably balanced I think, but ....
I don't agree with everything stated here - PM Harper is NOT directly responsible for any danger Chief Spence may be in; the hunger strike is her own decision after all - but on the whole the article seems reasonably factual.
What a shame then that it's written in such convoluted, difficult-to-decipher bureaucratese. This for instance:
"The material conditions that informed the decade of Indigenous protest that led to the resistance as Kanesatake created the political context that RCAP's call for recognition and reconciliation was supposed to pacify -- namely, the righteous anger and resentment of the colonized transformed into an insurgent reclamation of Indigenous difference that threatened to unsettle settler-colonialism's sovereign claim over Indigenous people and lands."
Good grief! I think I did disentagle it but only after paraphrasing and listing its sub- and sub-sub clauses in a kind of table where I could decide which releted to which.
Some interesting historical review, though.
lynn
23 weeks ago
The Chairman's Lazy Lapdog Lamestream Media
The audit so conveniently just released by the Harper Cons was for 2005-2010.
Chief Spence was elected in 2010.
Can you say smear job?
It's about time the media started doing its homework.
So-called journalists should actually read the report - there were many constraints put on the reservations that limited just how and where the money could be spent.
As one commenter on the CBC site explained:
"Of 104 million dollars over 5 years, about 8 million was for housing, which was further restricted by constraints on how and where that money could spent.
One million designated for new housing .... after a sewage/flood disaster.
Most of the complaints in the report were about a lack of documents on home inspections to prove that the homes were being maintained to code (after the sewage damange) ... and problems with collecting rents (from tenants living in sewage contaminated over crowded homes) ... I can kind of see why she wouldn't be too keen on pushing the "code" so far ... given that there was other place to displace the residents"
The media has failed to see the constraints put on this funding to First Nations and the complications of this very complex issue. Their superficial reporting has done a great disservice to First Nations and to Chief Spence.
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
The most relevant point of history involved:
Under the laws Canada claims to live by, the only possible way the land we all stand upon now could possibly be legitimately claimed is by gold or the sword.
The Indians did not sell their land. The invading whites did not fight a war of conquest and plunder.
Rather, it was by lies. Canadian law does not admit lying as a recognized means to acquire land. Either a final war of extermination must be fought, or a fair market price paid and freely accepted. But no more lies.
Oomingmuk
22 weeks ago
Is IdleNoMore globally relevant?
The World Indigenous Tourism Alliance expresses its global support for Idle No More ... it's been said that this movement is more than an "Indian thing" ... I would argue that it is more than a "Canada thing" - it is becoming a global flashpoint for conversation about the Rights of Indigenous Peoples around the world. I only hope it continues to grow and that these issues of poverty and self-determination become part of the public discourse.
Would love to hear the thoughts of others...
http://www.winta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Open-Letter-in-Support-of-the-Idle-No-More.pdf
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
Oo:
If they can ram corporate feudalism down the whole planet's throat by calling it "globalization of markets" then yeah, the people getting screwed the worst sure as hell have the right to create an international movement and even fight a war if need be.
apathy sux
22 weeks ago
Motherhood & Applepie response
I keep hoping that alive's post was tongue in cheek ..but I greatly fear that this is indeed his take on the historical context of North America's native people. If so...might I recommend a good read entitled 1491:New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus for a more accurate view of history. Just to be clear...the indigenous people of the Americas were NOT primarily small numbered groups of nomads. At least, not prior to gifts of smallpox ridden blankets...