“Nothing less than the transfer of land, wealth and power to Indigenous peoples will set things right,” Palmater says. “The truth of Canada’s colonial past must be fully exposed…and Canada’s discriminatory laws, policies, practices and societal norms must be reconciled with Indigenous rights, title, treaties, laws and jurisdiction,” adds the lawyer and Ryerson associate professor of Indigenous governance. “Real reconciliation will be painful,” says Pam Palmater, a Mi’kmaw from Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick. But it will require “starting over” and forging a radically new relationship – a sincere, not a feigned, nation-to-nation relationship. A new and mutually-beneficial relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canadians is possible, Wente said. People stripped of their culture and language. People dispossessed of their ancestral lands. Last week CBC Radio One culture critic Jesse Wente, an Ojibwe from Serpent River First Nation in northern Ontario, called reconciliation a “myth.” He said it “deserves to die, as its truth remains too much for this country to bear.” The truth is indeed ugly. They appear to signal a new era of sustained, disruptive resistance by Indigenous peoples no longer willing to accept endless government platitudes about reconciliation. The sustained nature of the protests, many led by university-educated and fiercely-motivated native youth, are unprecedented in Canadian history. The blockades have cost Canada millions in lost revenue. The chiefs oppose the building of a 670 km pipeline through environmentally-sensitive and sacred ancestral lands. For several weeks Indigenous groups, acting in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, have brought rail movement across much of Canada to a halt. Justice Murray Sinclair, former chairperson of the TRC and now a Canadian senator, said it will “take generations” to “create tools of reconciliation.” The conventional calculus of reconciliation may be changing. No one said reconciliation would be easy or quick. She said the government has to move past a non-Indigenous definition of public interest, and its own paternalism, to put the Calls to Action on the front burner. Jewell cited “a lack of urgency” by the federal government to fully act on this and other calls. That right is protected in section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act (1982) and, importantly, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). A central recommendation of the TRC report was full recognition of Indigenous people’s right to say “no” – “no” to mining, forestry, hydraulic fracking and pipeline projects on designated Indigenous lands. In a recent National Post survey, 62 per cent said Canada has not delivered on his promises to Indigenous people. A majority of Canadians are also dubious about Trudeau’s and his government’s commitment to reconciliation. “Since 2016…only four (of the calls issued specifically to the federal government) have been completed,” said co-author Eva Jewell, an Anishinaabekwe from Chippewas of the Thames First Nation in Ontario. He embraced the probe into Canada’s notorious residential schools, and its 94 Calls to Action, as a “blueprint to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.” “Dreadful progress” – that’s the conclusion reached last December by the Ryerson University-based Yellowhead Institute’s analysis of Ottawa’s headway in implementing the TRC’s recommendations. One benchmark for progress Trudeau cited is the December 2015 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). What would Gord think now? Would he give the prime minister a passing grade? Trudeau had indeed campaigned on “getting ’er done.” He convinced many that he, unlike previous prime ministers, was dead serious about addressing colonial injustices committed against native peoples. He’s gonna get ’er done.” Trudeau was shown nodding in agreement. Referencing the many socio-economic problems that plague First Nations communities, Downie said, it’s time to “get ’em fixed.” Then, looking at Trudeau, he said, “We got the guy to do it, folks. Downie, whose death from brain cancer was imminent, was a committed advocate for Indigenous rights. Kenny Article contentĭuring his last public concert in August 2017, Tragically Hip front man Gord Downie called out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was in attendance. 3 minute read Join the conversation Gary W.
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