Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
I do not accept white guilt as a valid argument. Whatever our ancestors many generations back did to their ancestors many generations back, we did not take anything from them.
Today, they are just handouts. Treaty mandated, but only handouts. And the problem with handouts is that once people (of any culture) come to expect them, it is very hard to convince them to give them up. See also: Canadian welfare equalization system.
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What anyone thinks about their "handouts" is more or less irrelevant since their rights have been constitutionally affirmed in Canada numerous times. Any movement forward is going to have to work within the framework of current law.
The Reserve system in Canada is indeed broken, I don't think anyone's questioning that the First Nations and the Canadian population at large are not being served by the current arrangement. However, legal considerations (and I'd argue ethical as well) mean they cannot just be unilaterally abolished and First Nations peoples removed from any special status. Legal and constitutional obligations don't simply disappear over time and solutions must respect that. It isn't white guilt that requires this, it's Canadian law and the government respecting treaties that it signed (or in the case of BC, negotiating treaties with Nations that never ceded their right to the land).