The Native’s Discontent – A Simmering Pot
Dr.
Bikram Lamba
The tragedy
of Ipperwash is still fresh and we are rocked by the recent standoff
witnessed in Caledonia that shows that the simmering pot is near the
bursting point. To protect the fabric of this multihued nation, it is
imperative to take action to heal the sores. This stand off resulted when Six
Nations natives occupied a subdivision development about 30 kilometres
south of Hamilton since Feb. 28. Natives claim a 40-hectare property, for
which developer Henco Industries has the legal land certificate, was
wrongfully taken from them in the 18th century.
This flash point is the latest in the series.
Just last year the then Prime Minister "an unprecedented step forward" and promised a lavish $5.1 billion for a five-year program that would be directed to housing, education, clean water, health services and economic development. Long before he got to be prime minister, Martin had identified native issues as one of his prime concerns. The Kelowna agreement looked as though his talk of priorities would be more than hollow political promises. "Aboriginal Canadians have no desire for more rhetoric," Martin said. "They have needs and those needs demand attention. It's as simple as that."
In
politics, however, nothing is as simple as that. Aboriginal Canadians have
had needs for decades – no, for centuries – and the best those needs
have ever produced is yet more rhetoric. So why should things change?
Sound
and Fury
There was a lot of talk, but no concrete action. The problems of native people figured nowhere among the Conservative party's five election priorities. Nor had native issues been a particular preoccupation with the Conservative leadership over the years. For native leaders, the attitude of the Conservatives during the election campaign was hardly comforting. Stephen Harper acknowledged "we all believe that the economic and social situation for many aboriginal Canadians is a blight upon us as an advanced and progressive nation." But Harper was painfully obvious in avoiding any commitment on Kelowna.
Monte
Solberg, one of Harper's most senior colleagues in Parliament was more
explicit than his leader. The Liberals had written the Kelowna agreement,
he said "on the back of a napkin on the eve of an election. We're not
going to honour that." When you remember that the Liberals had then
been in power for 12 years, it was not entirely unjustified.
The surprise of the budget was that the $1.05 billion promised for native issues by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was in total comparable to the $5.1 billion five-year commitment by the Liberals in the Kelowna agreement. However, Flaherty made no commitment on future spending. More significantly, Flaherty committed $300 million of the budget allocation to go to the provinces to address the problem of off-reserve native housing. The Kelowna agreement had promised a similar amount for housing, but of the $1 billion over five years, only $150 million would go to off-reserve housing. For the Minister reserve housing is apparently not a priority concern.
Harsh
Critic
The difference is that one of Stephen Harper's closest advisers, Tom Flanagan, is a declared opponent of Canada's system of native reserves. He is harsh in his criticism of native leaders, whom he has called in the past wasteful and destructive, and he describes the reserve system as "anomalous and dysfunctional." Continuing to finance reserve governments and to pour money into the reserves is just feeding the problem. His preference would be that natives leave the reserves and get on with their lives.
In
the days before the budget speech Rod Bruinooge, parliamentary secretary
to Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, had promised that the budget
would spell out the new government's aboriginal policy. That policy, he
said, would be based on "accountability and taking
responsibility." Accountability and taking responsibility have long
been the watchwords of critics of the native leadership in the country
and, more especially, of critics of the system of native rule on reserves
across the country. Proposals to increase accountability were proposed
while Jean Chretien was prime minister but were dropped after Paul Martin
succeeded Chretien
.
The conclusion must be that Canadians will not immediately see what Harper and his colleagues are planning for Canada's native peoples. Aside from the bare bones of how the budget money was to be allocated, there was not much to be learned about such plans from Flaherty. The finance minister said only "people from many nations have built a good life in this country and contributed to its strength. But our First Nations, the first people to live here, face special challenges. We must support our Canadian Aboriginal communities in addressing their particular needs."
Possibly, Stephen Harper and his adviser Tom Flanagan are committed to quite radical changes in the relationship of the federal government to Canada's native people. But the scope of those changes will not be clear for some time – perhaps not until after the next election. Failure to implement Kelowna Accord will increase frustrations within aboriginal communities, lead to disputes and conflict, First Nations chiefs say.
Aboriginal
leaders are warning the Conservative government that it has taken a
significant political risk in its decision not to commit to the
$5.1-billion Kelowna agreement in last week's budget, a move they say has
strained relations with aboriginal communities and is likely to result in
further unrest and conflicts over land rights.
Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said
in an interview with The Hill Times that the Conservative
government lost a significant opportunity when it "summarily
trashed" a commitment of the previous government to spend $5.1
billion.
The agreement, reached in Kelowna, B.C. last fall between then prime
minister Paul Martin and provincial and aboriginal leaders, would have
allocated $5.1-billion in an attempt to end Canada's aboriginal poverty
within a decade. The deal would have encouraged aboriginal Canadians to
privately build and own their own homes through training programs, trained
aboriginal teachers, merged aboriginal schooling with provincial school
boards and addressed other First Nations community issues such as high
rates of infant mortality and youth suicide.
A New Approach
The new budget has new priorities. These are:
· Education Women, children and families
· Water and housing
· Addressing the legacy of residential schools
· Off-reserve aboriginal housing
· Affordable housing in the territories
The budget promises
$450-million over two years for programs on education, children, families,
water and housing. The Conservatives also say they will spend $600-million
for affordable housing in the territories and for off-reserve housing,
both contingent on a $2-billion surplus in 2005-2006.
Unhappy
First Nations
But Mr. Phillip said that fulfilling the Kelowna agreement would have
begun a long process of rebuilding relations between First Nations
communities and the federal Crown, and now that the deal has been
cancelled, aboriginal peoples will seek economic power and rights through
land disputes. Significant population increases and fast deteriorating
conditions in aboriginal communities, including inadequate water, housing
and other basic infrastructure, will result in protests and land claim
conflicts, he said.
"Quite frankly, I think that over the long-term it will play out and
manifest itself in a very similar fashion to what's going on in
Caledonia," Mr. Phillip said of the recent Ontario land-claim dispute
that resulted in protests, roadblocks and increased tension between the
First Nations community and its neighbors.
Phil Fontaine, National Chief
of the Assembly of First Nations, said that that land claim disputes are
issues of accessing land and resources, which represent an opportunity to
revitalize a First Nations economy. He said there are more than 11,000
outstanding land claims nationally, and more than 300 have been validated.
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein have
expressed disappointment over the government's failure to commit funding
for the Kelowna plan, and Mr. Fontaine pointed to a recent public opinion
poll by Environics, which showed that 62 per cent of Canadians want to see
the government involved in the improvement of aboriginal living
conditions.
Aboriginal leaders say that in the 2006 election, Indian Affairs Minister
Jim Prentice (Calgary Centre-North, Alta.) said he wanted to "put
wheels on" the Kelowna Agreement, a deal that First Nations chiefs
say took 18 months to put together. However, as early as February, Mr.
Prentice would not commit to implementing the Kelowna Accord.
Angus Toulouse, Fort William
regional Chief from the Chiefs of Ontario, pointed out that the
Conservative government's housing funding is a re-announcement of money
promised last year when the New Democrats and governing Liberals brokered
a deal to spend more money on social items such as housing and education.
It is nothing new.
Mr. Toulouse said that the failure to implement the Kelowna Agreement has
sent the wrong message to aboriginal peoples, and will increase
frustrations. He has cautioned the people that there is possibility of
more land rights conflicts that are likely to result.
There is a strong feeling that as Aboriginal peoples do not make up a
significant voting block in the country with voter turnout among Métis,
Inuit and First Nations at about 40 per cent, lower than the national
average, they are not taken seriously.
As a result” The focus of many of our communities will most
likely shift to conflict and other direct measures to make the federal
Conservatives accountable for their lack of action," said Chief
Stewart Paul.
And look at the simmering pot. A botched police raid that escalated a continuing land dispute in Caledonia, and flood crisis on Kashechewan, a remote northern Ontario reserve that has repeatedly made grim headlines. The tiny First Nation on the James Bay coast has been evacuated three times in the last two years because of flooding and, last fall, polluted drinking water. There is a need to look at the situation today. Tomorrow it may be too late. We are concerned with Africa, and that’s good. But can we ignore our own backyard. Not any longer. Let’s wake up, before it is too late.
Dr. Bikram Lamba is a
political and management strategist, and can be contacted at torconsult@rogers.com.
