Complete Integration Concerns

Oops, that's kind of ugly. Somewhat like the Province of Quebec's insistence on stringent French-language-only signage in their attempt, so they say, to preserve the French language, and obviously to prevent English from taking precedence. Only the Band Council of Kahnawake, Quebec, has clearly overstepped those bounds, focusing not on language, but purity of genetic inheritance.

That is, if there really is such a thing now in Canada. Where most intelligent people might agree that, after all this time, assimilation into mainstream society would be most advantageous for aboriginal peoples. Giving them clear and better access to all manner of opportunities not available when they prefer to sequester themselves in tribal villages, and worse yet, native enclaves called reserves.

Where there is no such thing as private property because funding for just about everything under the Indian Act comes from federal transfer payments through the Canadian taxpayer. And irrespective of the funding levels the lifestyles of First Nations peoples who prefer to maintain themselves in a semblance of authentic living off the land, what they end up with is substandard lives.

Inadequate shelter, health care and educational opportunities for their children. Unemployment remaining sky-high, for where are the opportunities in geographically scattered and option-stranded remote communities? In any event, we're talking specifically about Kahnawake, where enterprise in smuggling of illegal tobacco, drugs and alcohol helps many to earn an uncivil living.

Not bad enough that First Nations leadership has strait-jacketed their population to believe that they are better off in reserves where they live truncated lives lacking decent futures for their children and the suicide rate among the young is tragically impossible. It makes a kind of warped sense for reserves to want to remain purely the abode of aboriginals. It doesn't make much sense to punish native women who marry whites, or vice versa.

And then, extending the situation to towns like Kahnawake where the Mohawk council has forwarded warnings to those dwelling there who are not aboriginal that they have been identified as non-compliant with tribal law. "There have been numerous complaints regarding individuals contravening Mohawk law by residing in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake without a right to do so.

"We trust that you understand the seriousness of this letter and that you will govern yourselves accordingly", informing those individuals whom other residents of the town have identified that they are expected to accept eviction. This kind of racial cleansing for the purported purpose of maintaining the integrity of an ethnic, religious, racial group would be anathema were it to occur anywhere but on a native reserve.

And while the federal Indian Act permits First Nations to establish their own rules for band membership legally advancing the eviction move as an internal Kahnawake matter, it is a repulsive, intolerant and unnecessarily hostile action. Self-identified 'special' groups always feel distressed with the prospect of intermarriage with other groups, fretting that their exceptionalism will be dissolved through integration.

Focusing on bloodlines and traditions and safeguarding culture reeks of racism. First Nations are forever accusing the greater society of racism with respect to how they feel they are detrimentally viewed. And where that racism does exist it needs to be expunged. Anywhere it exists.