What an extraordinary day!! Or at least it could be. Hundreds and hundreds of leaders from Canada’s First Nations are in Ottawa. They are there to meet the Governor General, the Prime Minister and almost half of the Cabinet. What an opportunity to meet and to start a process that will for once and for all resolve the multitude of issues that face the 600 plus First Nations. My excitement and I am sure the enthusiasm and optimism of many of those leaders is more than somewhat tainted by the fact that Stephen Harper is leaving half way through to go to a meeting in Europe to talk about Europe’s ongoing financial crisis. Pity.
While one might want to suggest that he is leaving behind some ministers and the Governor General, it is well recognized that the former have little or no power to make decisions without their leader’s permission and the latter has little if any real power in the day-to-day operation of the Canadian Government. So a bunch of folks are going to make brief speeches. Some of them will talk about how much they have already done (and to be fair acknowledging the odd mistakes here and there), the wonderful potential in the future and that how we all have to work together. Someone is sure to say that in the future things will be so much better. All that has to happen is people just need to stop complaining, stop living in the past and get on with it.
The other group will talk about the past, the failed promises, their visions of what could be and why those visions are critical to all Canadians. I don’t see a lot of common ground there. Which is really too bad as there are so many issues that can and should be fixed. Much of my understanding of what the issues are have evolved from conversations with drivers from various First Nations as I travelled across Canada.
I can remember heading towards Sault St. Marie passing by some scrub bush land. My driver said “see that land there along the road? We have been arguing with the Canadian Government for the last twenty years for that land to be given back to us.” I couldn’t see why anyone would want the land. There were no trees and it looked too barren to grow food. As one Canadian author said (I can’t remember who) “Thank heavens someone want to look after the land, we certainly haven’t!” We really need to settle the land claims today. It is unconscionable that we allow the government to drag its negotiating feet for decades over land that we have already promised is theirs.
On another occasion somewhere around Hope BC I was given a drive by an ex-band council member. He was a progressive, enthusiastic Canadian. He knew there were changes that his community needed to make and he was frustrated that Band Councils were limited in their powers. One of his prime complaints was that there had to be elections for Band Council every two years. In his words “as soon as you got elected you needed to start thinking about the next election”. When we have elections every two years we complain. For good reason. It is hard to get anything done when the membership of the leading group changes so often. To make tough decisions you need some longer term stability. Maybe it is time that we let those communities decide how they elect their leaders. Maybe it is time that we stop telling people what is the best way. After the last 10 or so years in Canadian politics I am not too sure if we have the right to tell anyone what the best way is.
I remember getting a drive somewhere between Whistler and Lillooet. While he was reluctant to use the term, he was clearly an elder not only in age but in wisdom. He acknowledged that some of the problems that his community had were of their own making, but they needed the opportunity and the freedom to be allowed to solve their own problems in their own way. Actually on that one trip I met three elders all of whom guided me and talked about their ways. I listen to them talk about air-drying salmon in a traditional fishing camp in BC or berry picking in Northern Ontario and I listened to them as they talked about the changes they had seen. They had so much to teach me. Their generosity not only in terms of the drive but also in terms of themselves was refreshing and inspiring. If only our government would listen to them.
I remember spending hours and hours talking to a man while I camped in a place called the Walbran Forest, which is not that far from Duncan. It is an old growth forest and camping there was quite magical. But it was made even more magical by the presence of this man whose life had been destroyed by residential schools but who by his own hard work had made himself get past it, to arrive at the point that he could forgive. He was ready to lead his community to a new understanding, a new relationship with both the outside world and the people who had destroyed his childhood. He too wasn’t asking for anything new. He just wanted the land to be respected and the old treaties to be honoured.
I wrote 90% of the above this morning…. Then I read the reports of who said what. I am saddened that so much of what I said turned out to be true. We are a better people than this. We must fix what our grandparents have done.
