Ending the Indian Act was proposed decades ago by Trudeau Senior in the famous White Paper, and this idea was panned by indigenous groups.
The Indian Act needs to go away in general terms, but it will be part of the more complex task of creating real First Nations governance in this country.
"The Indian Act needs to go away in general terms"
So we're saying the same thing and you're arguing a moot nuance against yours? Ok...
(That may not have been what you were suggesting, but I'll point out nonetheless that this 'solution' has already been rejected by First Nations)
The more complex thing that needs to happen is that elements of the Indian Act need to be removed while also retaining the rights that the Indian Act grants First Nations.
(As an aside: A good book about the deep flaws and contradictions of the Indian Act is https://www.ictinc.ca/books/21-things-you-may-not-know-about...)
The simple and brief assertion that the Indian Act needs to be removed, given the history of such statements, and where they come from (ie. white paper), is begging to being misunderstood in the worst way.
Edit: Look, I'm sorry for being so aggressive on this point, and I hear what you're saying. You're not wrong. I am not a Trudeau, I'm not from that era, and I disagree with a lot of how we've approached these conversation, with a blunt assertion such as I made. I say remove the indian act because I've talked with dozens and dozens of Natives who have always started from that position. I've read Bob, I don't totally believe his reality reflects that of the majority of Natives, but I don't know. I take my queues from the positions of those directly impacted, and my conversations have brought me to the belief that the indian act has done more harm than good. I'll even go as far as to admit that "removing" it might simply be symbolic, but that symbolism, similar to the issues with Ryerson, or Mcdonald, or the street named "Colonization Road" that is currently a very hotly contested renaming issue in Fort Frances, Ontario, if these are the wishes of those that we displaced, they should be seriously considered in genuine consultation and partnership, something the Trudeau Sr government clearly did not undertake.
I have no doubt that indigenous persons you've talked to have expressed that the Indian Act needs to be removed and I expect they're speaking to the awful and discriminatory reasons I've mentioned.
The big problem is that there's another group of people that will similarly express that the Indian Act needs to be repealed, and that group contains racists and people that don't care at all about First Nations rights.
They express a desire to end the Indian Act so that the indigenous persons in this country will lose all rights, will be assimilated, and the Canadian government will then no longer need to spend any more money and time on this issue. While the white paper was from decades ago, the colonial assimilationist sentiment behind it has lingered around.
So the statement that the Indian Act needs to be repealed while generally true in a very high level sense, can be an inflammatory statement depending on the context.
The Indian Act is a truly messed up document with all these clauses that ultimately remove status from people. I'd be incredibly happy if they removed it, provided it was replaced with something designed by Indigenous people for Indigenous people.
I'm from Saskatchewan where an almost unbelievable number of people believe Indigenous people pay no taxes. That's not true at all but that sure fuels a lot of racism. Under the Indian Act, a person with status does not pay federal income tax on any money they earn on reserve. Some reserves have almost no opportunity so it ends up being a hollow benefit. I figure we have to either teach non-Indigenous people how the Indian Act really works, replace it entirely, build strong economies on reserves or extend the tax free status to any employment in Canada.
I love the idea of integrating Indigenous culture and health practices into our system and making them available for everyone. The First Nations University of Canada is a start. Sadly, if you watch the press conference in an hour, the Chief of the Cowessess First Nation (Cadmus Delorme) graduated from FNUniv, was heavily involved in their students association, hosted Prince Charles and Camilla when they were here a decade ago and then worked in Student Recruitment. It is a wonderful place...
I'd also like to see a more interesting path for Indigenous kids who are being released from the criminal justice system. In my city, when kids are released, one of the biggest programs teaches them how to be short order cooks and dishwashers. That's fine, but it ignores that some of these kids are absolutely brilliant and can do so much more. We could have art based programs, tech based programs, teach them OSCP or any of a wide variety of possibilities. But it's pretty hard on a kid to go from making $1,000 a day selling drugs to $12 an hour slanging french fries. I think if our system acknowledged their talent and potential the world would only get a little better.
I'd also love if they expanded Gladue factors in criminal justice sentencing, as well as started using more traditional Indigenous forms of restorative justice. Sentencing circles for example are not 'going easy' on crime. They're hard on crime but in a way that's distinctly Indigenous and that fits in with their entire culture, religion and belief system.
On a more personal level, I wish that everyone in Canada was as open about referring to colonialists as their forefathers as you are. Right away, just that small bit of personal responsibility could change the tone of dialogue.
And finally, honestly friend, your reparations idea will be unpopular, but you are 100% correct. It's necessary...
I’m first generation Canadian. Is it fair that I should pay for the sins of your great grandfathers when mine weren’t even in the country? Canada accepts 300k immigrants per year. Since the closure of the residential schools, (very roughly speaking) 9m people have entered the country so it’s not a small number we’re talking about here.
There’s also the added issue that not everyone supported the residential schools. What if my ancestors protested the system? Should I still pay reparations?
I agree the quality of life on the reserves is a real problem that needs to be fixed but pushing the blame on the children of the settlers (or not even their children!) is not a good solution.
One outcome of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report (published 2015) was a proposal made for a change to the oath of citizenship to clarify this responsibility[1]. That change has now been made. It was used for the first time on June 22[2]. Hopefully this will help new Canadians to better understand what becoming a Canadian means.
There is no intention here to assign guilt. There is simply an understanding that as Canadians we have a responsibility to the indigenous peoples of the land that we now inhabit.
[0] https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/co...
[1] https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/ne...
[2] https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/ne...
How do you actually pay reparations for taking someone’s land?
That said, I'm not sure how useful the point is. I've very rarely heard a native person say they would like that. I have heard that proposed, usually drunken and angry over beer. When I was a kid my dad had the Chief of Couchiching First Nation over for dinner. In my 17 year old wisdom, I eagerly explained how sad it is that natives don't want to go live in Toronto. He said, natives would love to be in Toronto, if Toronto was a little more like a reserve. I think they have unfortunately long accepted they've been colonized, the treaties were not honored, and their culture was destroyed. Meaningful reparation at this point is unlikely to be about land or money, it's about Canada accepting it cannot be Canada without real change to re-incorporate the culturual growth that was strangled.
My version of that story was when the Chief of the Peter Ballantyne First Nation came to visit us. I spent the first couple years of my life on the PBFN. I was about your age and had the same questions about how great it would be if they moved to my city. he explained that on reserve, he can just be a man. He can be good, he can be bad, he can make mistakes and he can have successes. In a city, it doesn't matter what he does, he's just 'a fucking Indian.' If he makes a mistake, he's a 'dirty fucking Indian'. If he has success, he's a 'fucking Indian sucking at the teet'.
I also remember him cracking a joke. "Do they know this isn't India?" :)
I've never heard a proposal to give back the land unless people have been sipping. And I say silly stuff too when I sip so who can judge. The most radical idea I've heard outside of those settings is to treat current lands as sovereign nations that have an equal standing with the rest of the nation. The goal seems to be peaceful and respectful coexistence.
I think we can all (or at least should all) be able to get behind that. Wouldn't peaceful coexistence be a pretty amazing way to live??
This isn’t as radical as you may think. It’s been a stated goal for a long time. I’m always surprised how the actual meaning of these words don’t seem to make any impact on Canadians. Perhaps phrased another way, such as, “When I have an Ojibway passport…” might catch people’s’ attention.
Weirdly, in the Canada of today, that’s considered extremely radical. But it’s also considered radical to think First Nations should have clean drinking water.
If you’re interested in one heck of a read, learn about a Cree Chief named Big Bear. He quite literally saw into the future - I think his words make him one of the few genuine political visionaries of his era in Canada.
If you’re or anyone else is interested, I have a bunch of books. My email address is in my profile - some of these books are hard to find and I’m privileged enough to be able to afford them. I’d be happy as anything to mail them out to anyone interested, provided you give them wings and give them away to someone else. :)
The Canadian Crown made solemn promises in the form of treaties. Either Canada stands by a promise, or it doesn't. We are all bound. If you don't feel you should be held to a Canadian promise, you might reconsider your conception of being Canadian.
But they did cash their inheritance checks.
> The Canadian Crown made solemn promises in the form of treaties. Either Canada stands by a promise
What about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Acadians
My Dad was in the RCMP. I was born on reserve and spent a large part of my youth on and around reserve. My Dad did some bad things and his uniform is certainly not absolved of guilt. A lot of my privilege came because of his job. It's quite sad to know how much I've benefited from white privilege and this entire awful system.
I will happily pay for what happened. My privilege is as obvious as oxygen and I have gained tremendous advantages as the result of an awful system. I will happily pay, never stop paying and advocate until I'm blue in the face. Worst case scenario, we might change some minds. Best case scenario, we might change some worlds.
Thank you friend - you're a wonderful person and I genuinely appreciate this support and fellowship. I just saw a press conference where they announced 751 possible graves in Cowessess. That's 751 missing Kookums and Mooshums...:(
I really needed to read your words.
> I will happily pay for what happened. My privilege is as obvious as oxygen and I have gained tremendous advantages as the result of an awful system. I will happily pay, never stop paying and advocate until I'm blue in the face. Worst case scenario, we might change some minds. Best case scenario, we might change some worlds.
Are you willing to give-up your father's inheritance?
Thanks, but no thanks.
> People don't die on reserves because they're lazy drunks(as is often portrayed), they die because they don't trust the Canadian health care system
Interesting take. When a white person doesn't trust "official healthcare", they are bigots/antiwaxers/idiots/you name it. But if they belong to FN, it turns out to be a noble thing. All of a sudden, "we've been doing it for hundreds of years" trumps science.
Also, opposing nationalized education curriculums for everyone else means you're an evolution denier, hate minority children, and probably still think we should teach math with numbers.
> Integration of aboriginal culture into the Canadian education system.
No thank you. I prefer the education to be secular. At this point, we have many more people from other cultures. So many cultures that integrating all of them into the education system becomes contradictory. The issues that natives have with the education system have nothing to do with the content. In fact, having "aboriginal first" education on reservations might seem like a feel-good idea that everyone wants but actually sets them up for failure by presenting a huge barrier to entry when going to normal universities. The exact "whitewashing" barrier you are talking about.
> Including traditional aboriginal health practises into the health care system [...] they die because they don't trust the Canadian health care system.
Sure, as long as the treatment being offered has at least an iota of scientific evidence of efficacy.
> Adding Ojibway as an official language (either federally, or mandate the provinces provide services in the predominant native language of that territory).
Just sounds ridiculous when Ojibway is not even the most spoken aboriginal language. Less than 1% of the population is a has an aboriginal language as a mother tongue. Making any of these languages as an official language is just an extremely costly virtue signal that doesn't actually help anyone.
> Guaranteed seats in the Canadian parliament.
Guaranteeing seats, for any group of people, is always a bad idea and should not even be entertained. Look at the demographics [1]. 5% by population but have something closer to 6% of federal districts where they have the plurality of the vote. Seems like the system is working.
> and in my likely unpopular opinion, a reexamination of reparation.
Funnily enough, that's the only thing I agree with you. Finding a way forward via their input and not excluding them by chatting on an online forum.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_in_Canada#U...
But even the reparations argument in my opinion is ridiculous given how much is already given in tax and other social benefits and the gross mishandling over and over of funds by chiefs.
Integration of aboriginal culture into the Canadian education system. Not just offering an aboriginal studies class, but truly taking the native perspective into the education system. Most native people I've talked with don't take advantage of their free educational affordances because they don't want to continue to be whitewashed/don't feel comfortable in institutions that don't understand their culture/are understandably extremely scared of "education" in Canada given the residential school system.
Including traditional aboriginal health practises into the health care system, both mandating and expanding the services that are covered by our national insurance, but allowing a medicine man to charge OHIP for their time performing service. People don't die on reserves because they're lazy drunks(as is often portrayed), they die because they don't trust the Canadian health care system.
Adding Ojibway as an official language (either federally, or mandate the provinces provide services in the predominant native language of that territory).
Guaranteed seats in the Canadian parliament.
All of that on top of continuing the repreve on on taxation, and in my likely unpopular opinion, a reexamination of reparation.
What will it accomplish? It will only serve to minimally undo the damage that was inflicted upon these people by colonialists, my forefathers.