Canada’s Indian chiefs have escalated the dispute over Attawapiskat’s housing crisis by seeking to shame Canada in front of the nations of the world.
Chiefs asked the UN to appoint a "special rapporteur" to examine whether the Harper government is dealing with the crisis in a way that meets its obligations under Canadian and international treaties concerning First Nations people
Their declaration also calls on the federal and provincial governments to respond to communities in dire need.
The next step, presumably, is for the UN to raise its hands in horror and deem Canada an “apartheid” regime. It could impose sanctions on dirty tar sands, tainted seal meat, blood diamonds and clear-cut lumber. Perhaps a UN protectorate could also be established to control Canada’s renegade mining companies and address Canada’s disappointing performance on climate change.
Other people may have a different view, but I am thoroughly fed up with this never-ending bash Canada routine from First Nations and their friends in the social justice brigade.
In the past few years, First Nations groups have worn a path to New York, taking grievance upon grievance to the international body. They should stop doing it. It is bad citizenship that borders on treason. It damages all Canadians by painting the country as a thuggish colonial throwback.
Further, these overwrought pleas for the world’s pity are bad business. In its effort to put the squeeze on the federal government, Attawapiskat has made itself look pitiful and incompetent. That may be great for fundraising, but it's hardly a selling point for a company in need of a keen workforce. The community compounded the damage by launching an over-the-top attack on the De Beers diamond mine near the reserve, raising even more questions about the wisdom of investing large sums of money in this part of the world.
Then there's the democracy thing.
Canadian citizens do not deserve to be denigrated as irrelevant squatters, who have no right to their own lands, who should sit silently by, like good children, while First Nation governments conduct their “nation to nation” negotiations with the monarch’s representatives.
We are not in the 1700s, when Rupert’s Land was run by British fur traders and King George III could spout proclamations that would bind a people forever. Today's Canadians are not "settlers." They have a right to make decisions about their country, its lands and its resources, no matter what the UN -- or some dead English monarch -- thinks about it.
The approach chosen by First Nation chiefs is deeply insulting to Canadians. It’s part of a stale, old mindset that hobbles Canada and restrains its people from moving forward as an independent and prosperous nation.
Bad politics; bad business; bad choice.
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