6 Comments

Any government based on race and/or ethnic origin is a bad idea and opens up a whole can of worms, as the writer describes. This is a move away from democracy, which is one person, one vote, towards government based on identity politics, where only one racial group has the deciding power. There's been no referendum, for example, on Haida Gwaii, no consultation with the 55 per cent non-Haida, before the recent move to grant this racial group sovereignty over provincial crown lands.

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The founder of this feast is not the affable Ebeneezer Scrooge, but papa Trudeau, who in 1971 declared in the House of Commons that the policies of multiculturism would be implemented in the laws of Canada. Sure enough, by 1988 Canada welcomed the Multicultural Act which guaranteed to preserve and enhance diversity. Its almost laughable and certainly ironic that the indigenous community, who was to be one of the Act's benefactors has now become autonomous and presumably exempt from its previsions.

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Thanks Peter for a very articulate and informative article. Perhaps this is just another pot hole along Canada's road of inclusivity and diversity leading to the utopian state of Shambala (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlWrMpV1vy0) where national identity is subservient to minority rights and multiculturism and balkanization is the ultimate objective.

“You wanna know the secret to being a true Canadian, eh? It’s all about the toque and the double-double.” “Take off, eh? You hoser!” Bob and Doug McKenzie SCTV

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Unreal.

Our SCOC is rotten. And our "constitution" is swiss cheese with Quebec, ... and now the first nations mob driving trucks through the holes.

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The air of superiority of some people is more and more creating a stench of decay.

I know and have known several First Nations members, two of them have completely withdrawn from any form of media and are now living out of reach but they were the kindest people I could hope to meet.

That they are still regarded and treated as second-class people is absolutely beyond me.

If anything, there is much we could learn from Indiginous peoples, wherever they are, when it come to preserving the land, Nature and her delicate eco system.

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How is it that you think that First Nations people are "treated as second-class people" when they are winning Supreme Court cases? Have you ever won a Supreme Court case or even appeared at that Court level?

So what do you think of the Supreme Court decision? Would the decision benefit or harm the "two of them" who have withdrawn from media and from whom we could learn about nature? Or are these questions "absolutely beyond" you too?

And, of course, there is an "air of superiority" around here. Peter Best represented the cases of First Nations folks in his area of Canada and provided them other legal services. And Kemosabe was a First Nations counsellor to the Lone Ranger! You can't be more superior than that --- the Lone Ranger for heaven's sake!

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