The Great Indigenous Impasse
How are Aboriginals going to get political clout?
I’ve been struggling mightily with something critically important. Do you believe that Canadians will ever elect an Indigenous person as prime minister?
I didn’t think so. But you see my dilemma, right? If that is indeed the case, and I certainly believe it to be so, then how do Indigenous Peoples hope to get their multitude of key issues acted upon?
Here’s an important set of questions for all Canadians to ask themselves: Can Indigenous Peoples ensure that their issues are taken seriously by working from outside government circles? Or, could their energies be more effectively utilized by seeking major change by boring away from the inside?
For instance, will it come from a push by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN)? How about the social movement, Idle No More? Perhaps from the excellent investigative reports of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN)? I have my doubts.
Put another way, what political leverage do Indigenous communities have to get their demands on the federal or provincial radar screen? Because it seems obvious to me that they are not going to magically appear on the Trudeau government’s list of policy priorities on their own.
What about Indigenous protests, teach-ins and occupations of ministerial offices? Will those tactics get the attention of politicians in Canada?
How about disrupting traffic, blocking roads and impeding commerce in various places across Canada? Will Canadians wake up and take note when their economic well-being is affected? Maybe. But it could also work against Indigenous interests.
Is it possible that the much-talkedabout federal Liberal-ndp “vote-byvote” informal arrangement could move the Indigenous needle? It sounds promising. But the historical record says otherwise.
What about electing more Indigenous MPS to Parliament? We did see the number jump to 12 (from 10 in 2019) in the September federal election. Still, that gives Indigenous Peoples only 3.5 per cent of the total number of seats in Canada’s Parliament. Not much political weight there, I’m afraid.
Besides, is Parliament really a welcoming place for Canada’s First Peoples? Let’s take the case of former MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq from Nunavut, who did not feel safe in the House of Commons and thus did not reoffer in September.
She couldn’t get past the feeling that she really didn’t belong on Parliament Hill.
“It’s a very uneasy place,” she told the Globe and Mail. “It’s a place where they make laws that result in Indigenous death and result in turmoil for a lot of our communities. I feel that.”
Moreover, even when Indigenous people do get a seat at the cabinet table, like former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-raybould, their voice is often minimized, or worse, even dismissed. As her new book, 'Indian' in the Cabinet, makes clear, she had very little political influence in Trudeau’s cabinet room.
What struck me the most was her crucial admission that Indigenous issues such as criminal justice reform and reconciliation were not seen by the governing Liberals as politically important. As she explained: “They do not drive people to the polls, are not often sources of partisan advantage, and frankly are rarely politically expedient. They are also hard to sell, hard to explain and hard to understand. So why do them?”
If that is the prevailing view of governments across Canada, and I have no reason to think otherwise, it creates a major brake on advancing a truly transformational Indigenous agenda. If an Indigenous person in cabinet can’t do it, then who?
It does make sense that the media, both legacy and digital, could play an important role here. But will they? It feels like the painful tragedy of unmarked graves of residential school children is already starting to fade somewhat from public view. I hope that I’m wrong about that.
More to the point, media outlets of all kinds need to dedicate more financial resources to reporting on Indigenous issues and challenges. And it would be a terrific idea to start hiring more Indigenous journalists so Canadians can see and hear their important perspectives and voices.
If the calls for transformational change from Indigenous communities are broadcast and heard in a sustained fashion, there is a greater likelihood that non-indigenous Canadians could then be counted on to champion those calls for change and to become trusted allies of Indigenous Peoples. The simple reality is that they have the voting power and numbers in Canada to demand real change.
But are they prepared to do so? I’m not sure. I certainly hope so.
What I am sure about is that without significant support and backing from non-indigenous Canadians to work with our Indigenous partners to pressure governments and political leaders to act, the same old, same old is likely to remain. To be sure, Indigenous Peoples on their own just don’t have the political pull to drive fundamental change in Canada.