Courting Infamy

The man seems to enjoy courting controversy and celebrity, of bringing attention to himself and to the wrongs, real and imagined, suffered by Canada's aboriginal communities.  He has obviously surrendered himself not to making changes that might satisfy the needs of both Canada's indigenous populations and the population at large, but to seeking avenues of international reproach to shed a light of infamy on "European-based" interlopers.

Terrance Nelson, former chief of Manitoba's Rosea River First Nation has chosen a most unusual avenue to bring attention to the plight of Canada's First Nations.  Have the international community come face to face finally with a hidden reality; apartheid Canada.  In fact, Mr. Nelson seems to believe that a different kind of apartheid mightn't be a bad idea; two nations within one geography, each sovereign.

As a self-elected sovereign leader he is fully prepared to embark on an international diplomatic mission to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country whose current position he insists very closely reflects that of First Nations in Canada.  Shunned, isolated, blackballed, their economy stalled, their natural resources sidelined, their finances and banking system underhandedly hobbled; the international community at war with a perfectly respectable nation.

The similarities to what prevails within Canada in its relations with First Nations are irresistible.  A perfect match.  Making it perfectly reasonable that Mr. Nelson set out on an outreach expedition to Tehran where he plans to meet with government officials to praise them for their support of human rights for Canada's aboriginals, and to persuade them to use their influence on the 120-member Non Aligned community on behalf of Canada's First Nations.

Solidarity is the name of the game.  They will gravely discuss resource development and "human rights abuses" in Canada.  Tehran absolutely adores such discussions; Mr. Nelson will most assuredly be embraced and feted, and pumped for all the horrifyingly grisly details he will be willing to spell out about the manner in which Canada violates First Nations' basic human rights entitlements.

Mr. Nelson knows he is travelling to the right place on his "exploratory mission", recognizing that Iranian authorities "have always promoted the human rights issues of indigenous people in this country".  It is completely irrelevant to Mr. Nelson's cause that he is aware to some degree of Iran's human rights abuses against its own people, and if that isn't the sign of a demented intelligence, what is?

That Iran arms and finances terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas is another irrelevance; the West names them terrorists, they are freedom fighters, like aboriginals.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's electrifying statement that: "anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the way for world justice and freedom" must be inspiring to Mr. Nelson's sense of justice.

There is a pattern here; having failed in his bid to be elected grand chief of Canada's First Nations, a post Shawn Atleo was able to hang on to, he is building upon his first initiative previously, to forge a relationship with another regime that had been unjustly sidelined and sanctioned by a vengeful, human-rights-abusing West, when he accepted an invitation to meet with the government of Saddam Hussein.

"Despite having reached out to Nelson before, sharing facts and examples of the egregious human rights record of the Iranian regime, it is deeply disappointing and disconcerting that he consciously chooses to turn a blind eye.  Thousands of families, like my own, fled Iran to escape abuse, torture, imprisonment and even death sentences.  His visit is a real insult to Iranians, Canadians and the entire international community."
Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Iranian-Canadian human-rights activist