Sacred Reserve System

Well, the much-anticipated meeting between the Crown, represented by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a generous two-handfuls of Cabinet Ministers facing sweetly and concernedly off with several hundred First Nations chiefs, has taken place. Yesterday afternoon, outside the doors of the old Ottawa City Hall on Sussex Drive, now part of External Affairs, a small and vocal crowd of protesters held signs that read: "Respect First Nations". This government most assuredly does.

The Prime Minister delivered an opening address that was conciliatory and empathetic to the ongoing plight of Canada's aboriginal peoples. Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations seemed to feel that the Prime Minister was speaking a language beyond his comprehension. And doubtless Stephen Harper strained to come to terms with the language of grievance and ongoing demands that Chief Atleo spoke at the meeting. A meeting of like minds it was not, exactly.

Atleo said Wednesday."> None of the steps agreed on this week between the Crown and First Nations can be taken in isolation, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo said Wednesday. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

The Prime Minister promised "creative ways, collaborative ways, ways that involve consultation between our government, the provinces, and First Nations leadership and communities ... ways that provide options within the (Indian) Act, or outside of it, for practical, incremental and real change". For his part, Chief Atleo stated: "..the proof of our commitment will begin tomorrow, and in the weeks and months ahead demonstrating that this time, this generation of leaders, will not fail to make the changes we all know are urgently needed."

Roughly 400 chiefs attended the meeting out of a total of 600 across the country, although only half of those present were able to crowd into the meeting room. The issues of private property on reserves, encouraging residents to feel a sense of personal responsibility and exert themselves to protect and take care of that property because of a personal investment would be a decided step forward. The issue of quality education for First Nations children is of paramount importance. The very viability of that sacred reserve system should come under closer scrutiny.

Did anyone address the critical issue of reserves existing in isolated geographic fly-in areas with no opportunities for employment, and that isolation and tedium of unemployment creating the ennui of lifelessness made tolerable by alcohol and drugs? Including the expense of supporting such an unrealistic system, along with the failures implicit in that system? Did they discuss the violent crime incident of on-reserve aboriginals at 7,108 per 100,000 people as compared to off-reserve statistics of 953 per 100,000 individuals?

That past failings, a paternalistic, European end view and disrespect for native culture would be re-visited is a given. And demands for government to opt out of band and First Nations governance, leaving decision-making and funding allocations entirely to the ongoing discretion of band councils, for certain. There's the division between the hundreds of chiefs represented by the Assembly of First Nations and the federal government, in a nutshell.

For the former it is the demand for more money and unequivocal control of everything and anything relating to First Nations affairs. For the latter it is accountability, the government wishing, logically and naturally, to know where and how the funding is being allocated and how it is increasing the quality of life for those it is meant to be used for.