Let’s be idle no more

By Mike Robinson Winnipeg Free Press January 13 2012 

VANCOUVER — As someone who has worked closely with First Nations, Métis and Inuit for over 40 years, it is dispiriting to see the current media and public reaction to Chief Theresa Spence’s fast and the Idle No More movement.

Once again we are headed down the predictable road of dreadful audit results, broad misspending allegations, and economic determinism of all things worth doing. Absolutely, I have worked with aboriginal groups who misspent money, favoured one clan over another and pursued ridiculous economic development projects over fearful cliffs; but I’ve also worked with communities, political and economic development organizations that fared well and better. So lesson No. 1 is let’s all stop generalizing from some instances to all aboriginal people.

Lesson No. 2: Let’s try and bring some historic perspective to the issues at hand. The patronizing, colonizing and paternalizing actions of the various levels of government, corporations and religious organizations since contact have created predictable outcomes. They are not unique to Canada.

For five summers, I worked in western Siberia with the Russian Sami, and they have faced the same crap, with the same results. Their response: “Look, we have lived through the 70 bad years of Communism; at least give us 70 years to recover what we lost.”

Lesson No. 3: Let’s try and view the current state of affairs through what I think of as “Scottish intellectual eyes.” The first Scots who emigrated to Canada were products of an interdisciplinary educational heritage. They utilized an interdisciplinary perspective in pioneering the fur trade that enabled them to paddle their own canoes, learn Cree, marry into aboriginal society, initiate trade routes and keep the books of account. They also mastered dealing with their English and French bosses and grand seigneurs who barely made it out of Toronto and Montreal for vacations, let alone work.

A Scot would never critique an entire society from only an economic perspective. Nor should we today. Instead, we should ask why so many remote and isolated aboriginal communities are surrounded by remote and isolated mines, well sites, power-generation systems, pipelines, seaports and refineries that at best offer token employment. We hear way too much of “economic-benefits agreements” and way too little of equity participation, mentoring First Nations’ citizens as board members and real beneficial ownership. Economic tokenism doesn’t work, especially when it involves resources being extracted by outsiders from treaty lands or tribal homelands.

We should also ask why we are afraid of celebrating indigenous cultures that struggle to keep their languages alive, that maintain traditional environmental knowledge, that have never placed a species at risk, let alone extinction, that champion the harvest of country food and that question conspicuous consumption. Why does the critique of Idle No More rely so heavily on requiring First Nations to relinquish reserves in favour of urban life? Why is the implicit assumption always that First Nations have to buckle under, to “get real,” to give up, to assimilate, to embrace modernity (however that is defined this week) and finally to become like the colonizers who came uninvited, in large measure because they had exhausted the resources of their own homelands?

Lesson No. 4: Let’s go forward together as Canadians and have the Idle No More constructive argument about our common future framed on fact and premised on a willingness to treat each other as citizens. Let us start with the knowledge that top-down paternalism didn’t work. Let us admit that top-down federal welfare policies do not create sustainable local economies. Let us admit that treaty-based resource ownership is better than “economic-benefits agreements” with external owners of resources. Let us try to create publicly traded corporations that have aboriginal resource owners sitting as board members with other investors.

Lesson No. 5: Let us finally admit that the free-market system is not perfect and that it must make room for the sustainable-development paradigm. If the market is allowed to continue to operate as if growth is a given, as if climate change is not a reality, as if resources are infinite, we are collectively doomed. There is no second Earth. We cannot escape to the terra incognita this time around. Our only hope is to embrace the environmental wisdom of those few who still live close to the land, as we all did for several million years before the advent of sedentary agriculture in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys a mere 14,000 years ago.

In this cause let us be Idle No More.

Mike Robinson has lived half his life in Alberta and half in B.C. In Calgary, he worked for eight years in the oilpatch, 14 in academia and eight as a cultural CEO.

Reported by David Kirton CKOM  Jan 11, 2013 

 It looks very much like Chiefs have already lost one of the big issues they had wanted to talk to the Prime minster about.

They had wanted the government to reconsider any parts of the omnibus budget bills that affected Treaty Rights.

But Aboriginal Affairs Minster John Duncan just told reporters – that’s not going to happen.

“We’re quite comfortable that we have met our constitutional obligations with those bills and we believe there is every reason to proceed,” said Duncan.

Les Whittington, Joanna Smith and Bruce Campion-Smith Toronto Star January 11 2012  

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government promised a new focus on First Nations grievances after aboriginal leaders voiced their demands in a day of pleas, protests, warnings and high-level meetings around Parliament Hill.

After four hours of talks Friday, First Nations leaders came out of the meeting with a pledge from Harper for talks on treaty relationships and comprehensive claims.

Harper also promised to put an “enhanced oversight” on aboriginal issues in his office and the Privy Council Office, the powerful bureaucratic wing of the PMO. That could mean a more active role for the government’s top offices in resolving troublesome issues on the file.

And Harper and Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo will meet again in the coming weeks to put “some precision” on the issues agreed on Friday.

Atleo, who came under sharp criticism from other chiefs for even meeting with Harper, voiced some optimism after the session wrapped up.

“We have achieved some movement today,” Atleo said in a statement. “The Prime Minister listened respectfully to the Chiefs and responded to all they brought forward and for the first time, provided a clear mandate for high-level talks on treaty implementation. Prime Minister Harper also committed to high-level discussions on comprehensive claims.”

The meeting took place against a backdrop of rising tensions within the First Nations community, giving rise to the Idle No More movement, which has blocked highways and rail lines in recent weeks to press for action on their priorities.

Indeed, the high stakes of Friday’s meeting was driven home by several thousand people who gathered for a boisterous demonstration across the street in front of the parliament buildings.

In a statement, Harper’s office said the “government remains committed to ongoing dialogue on aboriginal issues and to taking achievable steps that will provide better outcomes in First Nations communities.”

“Everyone came to this meeting knowing we’re not going to solve everything in one go. The key is to have our commitment to work with each other,” said an official present at the meeting.

He described the tone as “very civil, very productive.”

But “that’s not to say any punches were pulled . . . it was a very frank discussion and there was a sense of urgency to it,” the official said.

However, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan told reporters the Conservative government will not give in to demands to reconsider the parts of the omnibus budget implementation bills C-38 and C-45 the Assembly of First Nations argued contravene their treaty and inherent rights. The legislation streamlines regulations governing environmental protection, a shift that aboriginals see as an attack on their land and livelihoods, and was an impetus for the grassroots and growing Idle No More movement.

“We are quite comfortable that we have met our constitutional obligations with those bills and we believe there is every reason to proceed,” Duncan said.

Duncan said the government realizes that giving native bands access to resource royalties is part of any discussion about improving economic conditions for First Nations. But any changes will have to be discussed with the provinces, which have jurisdiction over resources, he noted.

There were sharp divides among First Nations leaders whether Atleo should even attend the meeting with Harper. Instead, they wanted the prime minister and Gov. Gen. David Johnston to meet on their terms.

Championing that position was Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, who has been on a hunger strike to force that meeting. However, in a surprise move, she left her wooden enclosure on Victoria Island, where she has spent the past month avoiding solid foods, to join other chiefs for meeting with Johnston at Rideau Hall Friday evening.

Spence had refused to participate in the Harper meeting if Johnston did not attend.

“It’s nation-to-nation with the chiefs, to have this meeting with the prime minister and the Governor General,” explained Spence, who is continuing to survive on broth and tea.

Spence joined a group of her fellow chiefs at a downtown Ottawa hotel before heading to Rideau Hall for the evening meeting described by officials as “ceremonial.” Looking frail and tired, she walked gingerly with the help of several handlers.

At one point, she stood briefly in a room full of chiefs, wearing a headdress, to be feted by a group of aboriginal drummers. Her health, however, is seriously diminished, said spokesman Danny Metatawabin, who admitted surprise at her appearance at the hotel, The Canadian Press reported.

“She’s tired, she’s weak. She’s weakening. Got cramps in her stomach. We’re all praying for her,” Metatawabin said. “The body’s stressed right now because of all the commotion of today.”

In his comments to the chiefs at Rideau Hall, Johnston expressed a “special welcome” to Spence and voiced worries about her health along with the health of two others also on a hunger strike.

“My deepest wish is for the well-being of all Canadians, and for dialogue to always take place in a safe and healthy manner,” Johnston said, according to a text of his remarks.

Johnston conceded, “There remains much hard work to be done.

“I am confident that by working together in a spirit of respect, we can create the conditions in which aboriginal and non-aboriginal people can thrive equally, according to their hopes and dreams,” he said.

Later, a group of chiefs, including Spence, said they walked out of the Rideau Hall meeting, feeling snubbed and complaining that traditional symbols like the wampum belt had been disrespected.

“Before the closing ceremonies we had to walk out . . . because somehow it felt like a show, a picture opportunity,” Metatawabin told several hundred supporters later at an Ottawa hotel.

“What’s happening here is not done yet. It’s not over yet,” Metatawabin said. “Sadly, the hunger strike continues. I didn’t feel that honour. I didn’t feel that privilege.”

With some angry chiefs threatening widespread disruption of roads and rail traffic, the federal government’s efforts to respond to the growing aboriginal protest movement has taken on added urgency.

The question is whether Friday’s outcome would be enough to head off an outpouring of civil disobedience by Idle No More supporters.

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak from Manitoba, who boycotted the meeting, warned that aboriginals are in a position to bring the Canadian economy to its knees.

“There is a great power that’s emerging once again. The warrior spirit of our people is once again across the land — it’s very strong,” Nepinak said.

Nepinak told CBC-TV aboriginals are peace-loving but, unless their demands are addressed, “at some point the energy and power of our young people will start to spill over the political boundaries we’ve tried to create.”

The Idle No More movement has staged blockades of highways and rail lines in recent weeks and plans to step up its protests with a day of national action on Jan. 16.

In a possible preview Friday, natives blocked the Canadian National rail line between Halifax and Truro in Nova Scotia. And demonstrations by natives and non-native sympathizers were held in Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary and other cities. Idle No More protesters even showed up outside the Canadian High Commission in London, England.

Duncan spoke with uncommonly plain language when asked the big question that many Canadians — and the First Nations establishment — will no doubt be mulling over the weekend: does he have confidence the outcome of the meeting will head off disruptive protests?

“I have no idea what it will do,” Duncan said.

The meeting with Harper exposed sharp divisions among aboriginal leaders. Like Spence, Ontario and Manitoba chiefs refused to attend because they say it’s pointless without the Governor General as a representative of the Crown that signed treaties with natives here in the 18th century.

But about 20 leaders from British Columbia, Nova Scotia and other provinces attended, including Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come of Quebec and Atleo, the AFN leader. In doing so, Atleo defied strong pressure from some chiefs not to meet with the prime minister and natives said his leadership of the AFN may be challenged as a result.

Besides Harper and Duncan, the government contingent included Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Treasury Board Minister Tony Clement.