Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
I work with First Nations on behalf of major Canadian and American oil and gas lines. I suppose I am a consultant. I have conducted hundreds, maybe thousands, of intensive interviews with a whole range of individuals, from Chiefs to average joes.
There are several issues that I am probably uniquely able to personally understand in regards to First Nations, and their current plight in this country.
a) carefully-constructed ideological identity related to the rise of land claims in both the US and Canada, this identity has repeatedly been proven to have nothing to do with historical identity;
b) impregnable tribal leadership that benefits from a constant stream of public and private goods that they control absolutely;
c) poorly advanced or developed civil society - ie. no independent fiscal bodies to investigate how band funds are spent, no real free elections;
d) an ideological Supreme Court and governments too cowardly to act;
e) people like me, consultants and lawyers who benefit, and create the stream of revenue that maintains aboriginals in the cycle of poverty;
f) the collapse of the family - many reasons for this, and residential schools are only a small part of it. Certainly, many of the problems that I deal with as a tertiary element of my work are not at all traceable to residential schools.
For what it is worth, I think the TRC, like all public commissions, was hijacked by special interests to the extent that very little of what we read and see in this report is quantifiable or historically verified. Certainly, there are large traces of truth, but lots of this stuff is misdirection.
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Excellent post. This has been my experience as well in my limited business interaction with First Nations.
Remembering and reflecting on the commission findings are absolutely the right thing to do. This includes education and proper keeping of historic records for future generations. Calling for immediate and decisive actions to address the findings of the commission is ill-advised and ill-conceived. Unfortunately, those sharing the OP's views forget the very sad reality of the Canadian aboriginal governance. Loud intellectual public shaming and guilt has only one intended consequence - lawsuits resulting in retributions, compensations, fines and judgements. But the payouts will come from the pockets of those who didn't commit any offenses (taxpayers) and will only enrich the aboriginal power families in each band, while our own Government would have little to no influence on the cashflow distribution (it would be their money to handle and manage).
Canadian history is full of shameful examples of racial discrimination, corruption, abuse, harassment and other sins that are unacceptable by modern standards of our society. They all need to be acknowledged and recorded. But stop there and limit further action to a public apology.