A New Relationship is
Required with Indigenous Peoples
The Onus Is on Canada, Not Indigenous Peoples
- Barbara Biley -
Since his election in 2015, Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau has repeatedly said that "no relationship is more important to
Canada than the relationship with Indigenous peoples," going so far as
to tell the Assembly of First Nations meeting in December 2018 that a
"new relationship" with Indigenous people was the legacy he wanted as
prime minister.
Talk is cheap and Trudeau's words have been
overtaken by the reality of not only the failure of the government to
address the chronic problems facing Indigenous communities, including
the crises of housing, lack of potable water, unemployment, poverty and
youth suicides, but the repeated use of police violence against
Indigenous people defending their rights. In case there was any
confusion about where the government stands, the federal government is
appealing through the courts the Canadian Human Rights
Tribunal's decision that Canada has been underfunding on-reserve child
welfare. Estimates are that over $9 million has been spent so far to
appeal the orders of the Tribunal, including its order of September
2019 that the government pay each affected child $40,000.
 Talk of "reconciliation" and the "rule of law"
is now more than tiresome, with even cabinet ministers acknowledging
that words are being bandied about without action to back them up.
Worse, the government continues to carry out actions that show a
different face, with a deep-seated racism and contempt for Indigenous
peoples and for the rule of law. Both Prime Minister Trudeau and BC
Premier John Horgan have been called out repeatedly for their
disrespectful treatment of the hereditary chiefs, refusing to
meet with them since the current crisis began with the eviction notice
issued to Coastal GasLink on January 4.
With their backs against the wall from the massive
and
country-wide actions in support of the just stand of the Wet'suwet'en
hereditary chiefs and Wet'suwet'en members living on their territory,
along with their supporters, the prime minister and premier have
reluctantly assigned cabinet ministers to offer to meet with the
Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs. For their part, the hereditary chiefs
continue to uphold the principled position that first the RCMP must
completely withdraw from Wets'uwet'en territories. The hideous face of
Canada's colonial institutions can be seen in Trudeau's feigned
patience with what he clearly portrays as "unruly chiefs" who refuse to
act sensibly. His position is based on a pretense that his
government has gone the distance, respected disobedience long enough,
encouraged dialogue long enough and now the "onus" to dismantle the
blockades belongs to the Indigenous leaders. He reiterated this
nonsense of where the "onus" belongs four times in his February 21
press conference. The message he sought to communicate came across loud
and clear: if they continue to refuse to dismantle the
blockades, they will get what they deserve.
None of these threats and duplicitous, hypocritical and
cynical
statements change the fact that the onus is on the government of Canada
to uphold the hereditary rights of the Indigenous peoples. The
government's failure to do its duty gives those who are upholding
hereditary rights just cause. Might does not make right, no matter how
many weezel words Trudeau throws at the
problem. Recognition
of Indigenous rights and title has become like a fish bone lodged in
the throat of the Liberal government that can't be swallowed and can't
be spat out. It will remain a choking point as long as there is no
break with the racist Indian
Act
and the colonial arrangements that were founded on dispossession of the
Indigenous peoples of their lands, which continue to this day and are
the foundation of the current crisis.
On January 4, the Wet'suwet'en, based on their own
laws on their own unceded land, issued an eviction notice to Coastal
GasLink. That law and the hereditary rights of the Wet'suwet'en cannot
be extinguished by whatever Trudeau and Horgan and others mean when
they self-righteously cite the "rule of law" and then rely on heavily
armed colonial police to assault, arrest and remove people from their
land.
Under the existing law, based on colonial
arrangements,
the Canadian state is derelict in its fiduciary duty to Indigenous
peoples, both those whose nations have treaties and those that have
not. To discharge that duty the Canadian state should, as a first step
in building a new relationship, ensure a Canadian standard of living,
including guaranteed income, education, health care, housing and
infrastructure that meets the needs of the community, wherever it is.
Canada has the means to do so. A government serious about new
relationships, especially one that can spend billions on the Trans
Mountain Pipeline, has the wherewithal to do so and has no excuse for
maintaining the fiction that Indigenous people are 'welfare cases,'
lazy, privileged or otherwise unworthy. Federal and provincial
government leaders have to stop speaking and acting as if they have
nothing to do with righting the historical wrongs or that Canadian
society should not and does not have the means to do so.
The Onus Is on Canada, Not
the Indigenous Peoples!
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 5 - February 22, 2020
Article Link:
A New Relationship is
Required with Indigenous Peoples: The Onus Is on Canada, Not Indigenous Peoples - Barbara Biley
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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