Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Is there enough political capital available to disband or change the Indian Act to
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Pretty much no. Change? Sure, slowly. Repeal? I don't see it happening anytime at all soon.
There's always been an appetite to repeal it. From Trudeau to Trudeau, I'm not sure if there's been many prime ministers who didn't try to get rid of it and certainly all tried to change it. But they are always met with backlash from Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. There's just no consensus, there can't be. There's Status and non-status, there's chiefs and councils, hereditary leaders and regular members, there's have bands and have-not bands, there's just so many different opinions that trying to appease one means pissing off four others.
Pierre Trudeau had his 1969 white paper that would have repealed the Indian Act (and more). It was lead by Chretien as Minister of Indian Affairs at the time. Ultimately due to the heavy backlash, it did not succeed and baby Trudeau's Liberal Party would apologize for it in 2014.
Harper wanted it gone. Bill C-428, the Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act, in 2012 would have...well replaced the Indian Act but that didn't go as plan.
Trudeau pledged to end it too a couple years ago and appointed Dr. Carolyn Bennett as Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister to move beyond the Indian Act. But last year she
backed off, and instead we got Bill S-3.
Paul Martin had the Kelowna Accord which is probably ultimately something that will have to happen to gain support, but Harper's government saw it more as just throwing money at a problem and didn't follow through with it when he took office.
But despite a lot of the huge grand plans falling through, we do keep inching forward. Framework agreements will be key I think. That gives a lot of autonomy and independence back to the bands without disrupting the system so much that it causes backlash.
Otherwise repealing the whole thing and replacing it with something that's 'better' isn't something that can happen in one term of government. It's a hardsell knowing you'll have to work on this from the getgo of your government and all could be for naught if you aren't reelected. And in doing so you're working on a bomb that could explode at any given time. If you're not careful you could be accused of racism or colonialism, etc., guaranteed to have dozens of court challenges, and maybe even opening up a constitutional crisis. So pretty much I think you need to Theseus Ship it and replace a section here and there until you get to a point where it 'works.'