Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unabomber
Doesn't Quebec have different standards apllied to them from the government? Is that racism? That would go the same with anyone who lives in NWT or Yukon, they receive a northern living allowance that the rest of Canada does not recieve, that's racism?
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Quebec is a province, not an ethnicity, so the analogy is not exact. You can move to Quebec and become a Quebecer if you like, whereas last I checked, I can't move to the reserve and become a treaty Native. Nevertheless, Quebec should get no different treatment than any other province, but the problem there is not Quebec, it is the other provinces not acting like Quebec, and allowing the federal government to encroach upon their powers.
As far as the northern living allowance goes, that is a measure designed to make living and working in the North more attractive, no different than any other special tax zone set up by a government to encourage the economy in an area. Again, I can move up there any time and get the allowance, so the analogy fails.
Although Quebec might be a good example for an alternative way to end the reserve system - create an 11th province, give it a big chunk of northern Alberta/Saskatchewan (with plenty of resources to get an economy going), then trade the reserve lands on something like a 2/1 ratio for Crown lands in this new province, and give the people the chance to move there over time, with the old reserves again reverting to the government in a 99 year time frame. Just as Quebec has a distinct civil legal system, this province could be based on laws created by the First Nations. Just like any other province, anyone could move there, and anyone could move out, so over time they would integrate at least as well as Quebecers have (insert sarcastic joke here....).