Reconciliation or Capitulation

This item may be a bit controversial, but I don’t apologize for writing it.

The protester’s sign seemed to say it all, “Shut Down Canada”.  The indigenous peoples and their supporters have done a pretty good job of that already.  Railways have stopped running, workers have been laid off, and the specter of shortages of food, propane and other goods looms large.  The reason, as we all know is to support a group of hereditary chiefs who are blocking an approved gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.  The fact that the majority of the band members support the building of the pipeline including all of the elected band council doesn’t seem to matter to all of the protesters across the country.  The fact that this band and almost all of the other first nation bands along the length of the pipeline have signed agreements that would provide work and money with the pipeline builder doesn’t matter. 

 

Under the Indian Act, each band must elect a band council who are responsible for making decisions about the band, and who are supposed to be the negotiators for any dealings with governments.  Hereditary chiefs are figureheads who represent the band traditions.  But a lot of the protesters have declared the elected chiefs illegitimate citing them as being a colonial usurpation of band traditions. 

 

The question therefore is, with two groups who say they represent the band interests but are diametrically opposite in their views, who is the government supposed to listen and talk to about this and other situations?  In fact, who are other indigenous bands supposed to support?  The answer for both native bands and their non-native supporters seems to be the hereditary chiefs.  This has become as close to anarchy as I ever want to see this country come.

Protesters like to call it a reconciliation issue.  But I never heard the word capitulation by the rest of Canada mentioned in the Reconciliation Report. 

“If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind.”
  - John Stuart Mill

I think the above quote sums things up rather well.  Yes, we must listen to others, indigenous groups included.  But both sides must try to understand the differences that are keeping them apart.  If these were all non-natives who were staging these protests, you can bet that many would have been arrested and charged with criminal offences which would be fully aired in courts.

Some of us question what the indigenous people really want.  They talk of self-government but along what lines?  Is each band supposed to govern itself, or is there to be a single indigenous government totally separate from the Canadian Government?  Do they want unceded land given back to them? That would include most of the city of Ottawa for one thing.  On the other hand, that might not be a bad thing.  Maybe the Algonquin tribe could sort out the ill-plagued light rail system.

This whole situation reminds me of 2006 and a small town called Caledonia, Ontario situated a few kilometers from Hamilton where I grew up.  There the local Mohawk band occupied a new subdivision in the town claiming it was disputed land, although no land claim had ever been submitted for the area in question.  Despite the protesters resorting to blockades, intimidation and violence, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) did virtually nothing.  They did not remove the barricades, they did not react to intimidation, even of their own officers, nor did they stop violence and theft taking place right in front of them.  Those very few protesters that were actually charged and found guilty got time served sentences and $50 fines*. This is the same OPP who is supposed to be doing something about the rail blockage near Belleville, Ontario that has stopped all rail traffic in eastern Canada.  I guess times haven’t changed.

*See Christie Blatchford’s book “Helpless” for the details of this incident.