A great deal of gnashing and wailing has occured over the Harpocrites abandonment of the Kelowna Accord.
Stageleft does a well thought out presentation on the Conservatives anti-aboriginal agenda.
Unfortunately what gets overlooked is who speaks for aboriginal peoples. There is no real self government amongst aboriginal peoples in Canada.
The self appointed family compact of leaders in the aboriginal community, those recognized by the Department of Indian Affairs and by Provincial and Federal governments, continue to claim they speak for the people. Ha.
As anyone knows there is no democracy in native communities they are colonial governments appointed and recognized by the Colonial Department of Indian Affairs.
If any political party wanted to seriously address aboriginal self government they would first abolish this colonial hangover, and assure that all aboriginal peoples, including those disenfranchised by department policies such as native women, and those whose families are not in power now, had their democratic and economic rights assured. Then we could hand over the $9 billion the department controls to the people who really need it.
The Kelowna accord was not worth the paper it was written on. Contrary to Stagelefts assertions, the bottom line is it was too little too late, Paul Martins swan song. It was a political ploy by the Liberals to stay in power until this spring. And it failed. Sure blame the Conservatives for their right wing agenda, but don't forget to blame the Liberals who had 13 years to settle this matter.
If the Kelowna accord meant anything then the Caledonia protest laid lie to that.And it laid lie to the phony government appointed leadership in the aboriginal community in Canada.
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"Contrary to Stagelefts assertions, the bottom line is it was too little too late, Paul Martins swan song."
ReplyDeleteI fear you misrepresent my position. Kelowna WAS too little, too late. It was also the best framework proposed to date (can you identify a better one)? Not ideal...not even very good..but a better beginning than we've seen in a couple of decades.
Harper didn't ditch Kelowna because he cares about the democratization of Aboriginal communities, or because he had concerns about the effectiveness of Kelowna in addressing Aboriginal needs. He ditched because he could, because it was expensive, and because his unstated goal is assimilation.
Viewed on its own merits, Kelowna wasn't great. Viewed in light of the current Conservative agenda, it comes off somewhat better.
Fair Comment, but I did read you saying that this was a long long long process and had mutual input from all parties.
ReplyDeleteHowever while you may be correct about the Tories plan of assimilation you overlook the fact the Liberals began the process under Trudeau when he appointed Chretien as Indian Affairs minister, and it continued to this day, complete with foot dragging by the Liberals over the residential school payments.
Neither party, being of the old Anglo school want to give up the last vestiges of colonial power over the indigenous, inuit or Metis peoples. As the history of the West shows.