Conservatives offer nothing but colonialist bulldozing
The federal election buzz is now all about the likelihood of a minority government being voted in on Monday.
Will it be the Conservatives in control, propped up by the Bloc Québécois?
Or will we see the Liberals in power once again, this time backed up by the New Democratic Party?
From where I sit, the only poll that matters is election day. The polls now dominating the news cycle are nothing more than entertainment. That’s why I prefer to get election predictions from the satirical Indigenous news website Walking Eagle News. One of its latest stories puts the odds of a Liberal majority at 31.8 per cent, almost in a dead heat with a Conservative majority at 32.4 per cent. But the odds that Indigenous people will be blamed if Andrew Scheer becomes prime minister? That’s 100 per cent!
This is something a lot of folks in Indian Country talk about: the fear factor. In other words, the idea — or threat — that if Métis, First Nations and Inuit don’t support Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as they did in 2015 when the Liberals over-promised in a number of areas, we’ll be sending the Conservatives straight to power. That is simply not true, especially considering Indigenous people make up less than five per cent of the population.
But what if we do wake up Tuesday to a prime minister Andrew Scheer? Let’s take a peek inside the Conservative platform, “Andrew Scheer’s Plan For You To Get Ahead.”
With the Conservatives, it is quite simple to me: They are all about the money and bulldozing over Indigenous rights in order to keep Bay St. happy.
The only “Indigenous issue” worth serious policy action concerns oil, gas and resource extraction, and on that front the Conservatives go big — such as creating a national energy corridor, which will move oil and natural gas out of Alberta and Saskatchewan, thus providing “economic opportunities” for Indigenous communities in British Columbia.
They claim the corridor would “minimize environmental impacts, lower the cost of environmental assessments without sacrificing quality, increase certainty for investors and get critical projects built.” How will they do that? The Conservatives’ answer is to appoint a “blue ribbon task force” to get the job done by actively engaging all provincial, territorial and municipal governments along with “Indigenous leaders.”
No other detail is mentioned, including how they will deal with treaty rights along the way. Incidentally, treaties are laws of the land, mostly adhered to by the highest courts in the country.
I did not see any mention of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People in the platform. Last June, Conservative senators blocked a private member’s bill on UNDRIP by New Democratic MP Roméo Saganash just before it was to become law; the bill called for Canada’s laws to be aligned with the UN declaration.
In this election campaign, during the English-language debate, Scheer would not throw his support behind UNDRIP, saying it causes a “great deal of uncertainty.”
On pipelines, the Conservatives would repeal Bill C-69, the environmental assessment legislation dubbed the “No More Pipelines Act” by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and they would build the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
And, citing a need to improve oil exports to international markets, a Scheer government would end the oil tanker ban on the north coast of British Columbia because the Conservatives say Trudeau “arbitrarily banned the export of Canadian oil from B.C.’s coast against the expressed wishes of local communities and Indigenous groups.”
I don’t know where the Conservatives get their news from. That bill was supported by Coastal First Nations, comprising First Nations on B.C.’s north and central coasts, as well as by Haida Gwaii and environmentalists who rightly point out a spill would be disastrous.
Where does one start with this? If the Tories can’t support the concept of “free, prior and informed consent” in UNDRIP, then why the heck would anyone believe they would actually adhere to treaty rights or be fair partners at the table when energy projects are being discussed?
To my mind, the Conservatives are offering nothing but the furthering of colonization practices, especially when they back it up with this election promise: appointing a “Minister for Consulting Indigenous Rights Holders.” Just what we need: another minister to make sure First Nations, Métis and Inuit fall in line. Consultation does not equal consent. A minister specifically appointed to consultation sounds to me like an attempt to bulldoze land and treaty rights.
The icing on the pipeline cake is that in order to promote “mutually beneficial conversations between Indigenous communities and resource project proponents,” a Conservative government would provide $10 million a year to the organizations that foster collaboration.
If I understand this one, that $10 million a year will go to oil, gas and resource extraction companies who look like they are engaged in proper talks with Indigenous people. Would Indigenous communities also get this money? And who gets to decide what “mutually beneficial conversations” are? My aunt Bernice?
There truly is no mystery here. With the Conservatives, what you see is what you get. Resource development to keep the economy running and ensuring you get ahead at the expense of others is all they have ever been about. Small government that doesn’t interfere with big business.
Forget sovereignty, self-government, land rights, safe and secure housing, clean water and working sewage, or laws to make sure First Nations kids get exactly what they deserve — the same rights as every other child.
Vote Conservative and you vote for the party of Sir John A. Macdonald. Need I say more?