Ask the Indians About That

I was having a talk with an English friend the other night, and the issue of the queen came up. He said to me that he was surprised that Canada kept the queen because a country that is the best model of human rights in the world has this symbol of imperialism everywhere. While I think he is not totally wrong, I pointed out that Canada is not the centre of human rights and equality even with the queen gone. The reason, the Indians.

No let's just start with the obvious. Relations with the native people more or less started with us showing up at their house and telling them that we live their now. There was no justification for this but we had guns and smallpox and they didn't. Anyway we settled well and entered in to trading partnerships with them and things were okay. Then, around 1800, we decided we wanted the whole continent and that was that. In the U.S it was a full scale invasion and genocide. In Canada we were a bit more civil, herding them on to plots of land, signing agreements with regard to that land, then quietly forgetting about many of those obligations and leaving them to their own devices..... Except when we thought, "hey, Indians can't raise children well, lets put those children in the care of a bunch of pedophiles!" which we did, for around fifty years. This slightly abridged history leaves the Indians a forgotten group living in third world conditions in the middle of nowhere.

Now go to the 1960's when a few native groups are unhappy with this arrangement and start to complain, demanding that the federal government honour the treaties it signed.
By the way here is how it works. In a nutshell the Federal government allocated land to the natives which is their land, agreed to by treaty and law. Over the years the government has then purchased some of this land in exchange for services which have not since been rendered in many cases. The thing is, many of these demands are for crazy things like education, running water and heating in winter, something no white community has gone without since WWI. From the 1960's until today their demands have been met with mixed success.\

Now all of this I can deal with (as a middle class white guy) up to a certain point. Imperialism was the norm in 1800 and it's unreasonable to expect better behaviour from people at that time, but what about today? I think the reason that Canada is NOT an example of human rights is NOT the fact that this happened, but the fact that so many Canadians see the Indians as the problem (they shouldn't have dressed that way when Columbus showed up). I mean look at this awesome house we have, quit ruining it.

If Canadians were demanding, in force, something be done now it would be different. Like "fuck Afghanistan, we have people living like that in Manitoba!"..... but where are the charity drives, where is the urgent action? It is nowhere to be found.

This is because the attitude so many have is so outrageous.

-Well in the U.S and Australia they commmitted genocide, did you know that there is not a full blooded Tasmanian aboriginee left? True, Canada did not commit a genocide, but not committing genocide against a group does not constitute doing them a favour.

-They don't pay taxes on and that they own. Well, they got that in an agreement they negotiated. Shame on other Canadians for being such poor negotiators and voting like a bunch of apathetic idiots.

-Other groups assimilate, why can't they? Because they are not like any other group. Everyone else in Canada is there by choice, it's their responsibility to learn and adapt. The Indians are a completely different class of people who had Canada imposed upon them at gunpoint, at the expense of their culture and identity.

-They signed these reservation treaties, they can live with them. True but they were signed under duress. I mean the British/Canadian government were essentially Vito Corleone showing up and making them an offer they couldn't refuse. Despite that, they are not trying to get out of those treaties, they are just trying to balance them and have them honoured. Could you imagine if the Canadian government signed a treaty with Afghanistan and then said "uhh, actually no, we won't honour that." It would be front page news and there would be protests and court proceedings until the end of time. With the Indians? nope.

-They are drunks (seriously). Well if someone broke in to my home, stole all my stuff, sent my children off to get ass fucked by a priest and then told me to sit down and shut up and the police backed them, I would probably want a drink too.


Basically, the attitude by far too many is that, despite everything we know and understand to be right and wrong, the Indians are still the problem. That is akin to seeing women in Afghanistan as the problem instead of the Taliban. I'm not saying that all Canadians do, but I think the majority do lean that way and certainly the prime minister does.