Changing Course

"If Canada's present policies and the historic indifference of Canadians toward the people of the First Nations and their aspirations continue without amendment, and if First Nations leaders continue to assert their right to unconditional sovereignty in Canada, then a confrontation between our two cultures is unavoidable."
"The critical questions for both societies in such circumstances are: what form would such a confrontation take, and how widespread would it become.?"
"The possibility that our two communities will stagger into a widespread civil conflict, whether armed or unarmed is worrisome."
"A small cohort of minimally trained 'warriors' could close these systems [national rail systems, transport of oil and gain, manufactured goods] in a matter of hours."
"All the danger is sitting out there. And getting it wrong is for the government to try to bully its way through this thing. Or for some of the aggressive chiefs to try to bully their way the other way, pushing each other back and forth. It's going to end up in a confrontation sometime."
 Doug Bland, author of Time Bomb

As the former chair of Defence Management Studies at Queen's University, Mr. Bland doubtless brings much experience and knowledge to the vital issue of Indigenous Peoples' rights and the government of the nation in which First Nations live. They live in Canada, but insist that they must be sovereign, governing themselves, and while so doing, the taxpayers of Canada through federal government departments set up for that specific purpose, must see its way clear to funding their sovereignty.

Which consists in good part, of First Nations living traditionally. In the sense of living between and among themselves, away from 'white' settlements. The preference is to live as their ancestors did, and the device by which they are entitled to do so, is on often-far-distant tribal areas. Where once hunting and trapping made First Nations partially self-sufficient in looking after their most immediate survival needs, few living on reserves do that any longer.

They have become dependent on government-provided housing, medical care, schools, and all the usual indices of modern living. Access to potable water, civic infrastructures such as policing and fire protection, evacuations in the case of natural disasters, for medical emergencies, and sometimes the necessity to fly food in to far-off, isolated communities are paid for by government funding. As are the salaries of the tribal councils on reserves.

All of which resent government interference in their affairs, such as having to account for the dispersal of funding for reserve affairs, including council salaries, housing repairs, and associated matters. Young people under the age of 24 represent 48.8 percent of the First Nations population. That immense demographic requires education of quality and opportunity to succeed and to advance into the future. The level of education quality is deemed inadequate to that purpose.

Yet when the government advanced a substantial increase in funding, although the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations after demanding changes to the bill, accepted it, his adversaries within the AFN would not, leading to Shawn Atleo's resignation. The problem was that he was perceived to be too accommodating to government interests, insufficiently hostile as is expected from a grand chief. Which could be construed as missing an opportunity for advancement.

Aboriginal Canadians insist vociferously that they must be allowed to live in the traditional way. Yet they do not and will not live in the traditional way; instead there is an prevailing anomie of boredom, anxiety, unemployment, poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction, social dysfunction, and child abandonment that prevails. When the original inhabitants of the continent welcomed the appearance of Europeans they were hardly an advanced civilization.

Cultivation of crops had not particularly advanced, there were no permanent dwellings to shelter from the environment, energies were devoted to hunting and warfare against competing tribes. There was slavery, and there was great privation. European civilization gradually enhanced their living standards while cursing them with the love of alcohol and the inability to withstand its deleterious health effects. They were disadvantaged and pushed out of their traditional territories.

Assimilation did not take place because tradition and pride in their ancestry compelled them to respect their past and reject the present offered them as a subject people when they would rather be an independent people. But none of their aspirations were achievable given the grind of history and they were deprived and enslaved to another type of tradition that made a mockery of what they yearned for. The kind of sovereignty belligerent chiefs feel entitled to has led to 'warriors', corruption, poverty and disadvantage.

It is past time for a new protocol to be embarked upon advantageous to a people of noble ancestry and deserving futures for their young. The current situation of ongoing hostilities will not produce that new future.