Online slurs cloud debate on crucial aboriginal issues
Idle No More sparks polarizing comments on social media sites
OTTAWA – Can Canadians have an adult conversation about aboriginal issues?
Since Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence began a hunger strike more than two weeks ago in Ottawa, in an attempt to get the attention of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been flooded with polarizing commentary over the Idle No More protests now taking place nationwide in her name.
One Facebook commenter called the chief a “dumb Indian” and suggested that irrationality was a genetic trait among aboriginals. The person later apologized for the comment after it was posted and criticized on a Montreal-based blog.
That blog singles out other epithets that run the gamut of aboriginal stereotypes; for example, one man suggested police throw cases of whisky at native Canadians to quell their growing protest movement. Other web entries and tweets are profanitylaced.
At the other end of the spectrum, columnists or analysts who have criticized the Idle No More movement have been dubbed “racist” by their online detractors. Comment sections of some news sites have been shut down because of abusive remarks.
“Some people are very defensive and start seeing racism when, in fact, what they’re actually seeing is healthy criticism,” said Melissa Mollen Dupuis, who co-founded Idle No More’s Quebec branch. “But what you have to realize is that a lot of these people have been put down their whole lives. They’ve been discriminated against for being aboriginal, they’ve been beaten over the head with it again and again. So, naturally, they’re sensitive.”
Mollen Dupuis believes, nonetheless, that there’s hope for Canadians to engage in a meaningful dialogue about the future of aboriginal people.
Coming from a small Innu village on the northeast coast of the St. Lawrence River, Mollen Dupuis said she was scarred by racism when she left her reserve. But her fears turned into optimism when her college hosted an aboriginal awareness week when she was a teenager.
“My sister and I thought, ‘Oh no, people are going to say Indians don’t pay taxes, they’re a waste of our money,’ but we were wrong,” Mollen Dupuis said. “Non-native people would come into contact with our culture, they would learn about us and their opinions changed. It totally transformed the way I looked at things.”
University of Ottawa professor Michael Behiels says he isn’t surprised to see the discourse get ugly.
“For years aboriginals have been out of sight, out of mind for most Canadians,” Behiels said. “We’ve lived in isolation from native people, but now there’s no avoiding these issues anymore. And sadly we’re seeing a lot of ignorant and sometimes racist (rhetoric) across the country.”
Meanwhile, one of the two aboriginal MPs in the Conservative cabinet called on Chief Spence to abandon her fast. Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq joined other federal officials in asking Spence to accept a meeting with Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan and end the hunger campaign.
“I would encourage her to stop and meet with Minister Duncan and that’s the best way to address her issues,” Aglukkaq said Friday.
Spence rejected Aglukkaq’s recommendation because she believes Duncan isn’t the one who should be speaking on a nation-to-nation basis.
“When our ancestors made treaties with the British Crown to allow the Queen’s subjects to live in our territories, it was for as long as the sun shines, the waters flow and the grass grows,” Spence said in a statement. “The Crown’s only legal access to our lands is contingent upon the fulfilment of the promises made in the negotiations of treaty.”