Photo by Jason Teakle, Brant News
Protesters outside Brant MP Phil McColeman's Brant constituency office during a December Idle No More rally.
During the past month, the voices of individuals across Canada aiming to protect the rights of First Nations peoples have grown louder. It’s all due to a movement called Idle No More.
Idle No More is a grassroots group that, according to its website, “calls on all people to join in a revolution which honours and fulfills indigenous sovereignty,” protects the land and water and stops attacks on the rights of First Nations peoples in Canada. Across the country, individuals associated with the Idle No More movement held demonstrations throughout December designed to shed light on First Nations treaty issues.
The new movement has clearly put some wind in the sails of Canadians who want to see more action from Ottawa when it comes to First Nations issues. But whether the momentum gained will be maintained is a question worth considering.
Idle No More has risen to prominence as Chief Theresa Spence of northern Ontario’s Attawapiskat First Nation continues a hunger strike that began on Dec. 11. Spence – who has undertaken her action while living in a teepee on Victoria Island in the Ottawa River – has said she is willing to die if the government does not show more respect for First Nations treaties. She has asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss her concerns, but so far the prime minister has yet to respond to the request.
A year ago, Spence declared a state of emergency in Attawapiskat due to the poor state of housing in the community, which has made headlines across Canada and beyond for its sub-standard living conditions.
As well as concern about the situation in Attawapiskat, Idle No More supporters have grown in number due to a general sense of frustration with what they see as a lack of consultation with First Nations peoples by the federal government. That issue of a perceived lack of consultation was raised during an Idle No More protest at Brant MP Phil McColeman’s constituency office in December. About 40 activists associated with the movement showed up at the MP’s Christmas open house.
“First Nations treaties are the last stand in the protection of the environment in Canada,” said Dakota Brant, a spokesperson for the local Idle No More group. “We need to educate (the federal government) that we feel underrepresented in consultation.”
The protest at McColeman’s office was not the first time local First Nations demonstrators have raised concerns about a perceived lack of federal consultation. For his part, McColeman said the federal government has consulted First Nations peoples on legislation in Parliament and that he is willing to meet with members of the group that demonstrated at his office to address their concerns.
But even if federal politicians meet with individuals raising concerns as part of Idle No More, the movement has a long way to go if it hopes to make real change.
Without a sustained effort by the group, it will be easy for the government to push aside the concerns of Idle No More supporters. If Idle No More fizzles in coming weeks, it may well be remembered as little more than a story that made headlines, but led to little more than that. (Remember the “occupy” movement?) The outcome of Spence’s hunger strike will surely have a big impact on where the movement goes from here.
Will the federal government address the concerns of Idle No More supporters? Will movement fade? Will it grow into a larger political movement? These are questions that will have a significant impact when it comes to setting the tone for the federal government’s relations with Canada’s First Nations peoples in 2013.
Its Ironic that the natives get tax free land and lots of it and dont do any thing with it. Persoanlly If I could Live on a reservation with a huge piece of property. Tax free. I would buy a few packets of seeds and start growing fruits and veggies, and then I would be selling it. But thats just me. No body ever prospered by sitting on there rear ends and collecting a cheque. Prosperity and wealth comes by working.
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You make a good point. Indians on reserves have huge advantages. Indians who live and work on Indian reserves do not have to pay property taxes to their band governments or taxes to the federal government (the big Crown) or to the provincial governments (the little Crowns).
If Indians were to start businesses on Indian reserves they could get grants, interest free or low cost loans from governments and could set up businesses at low cost because the busnesses would not have to pay property taxes, business taxes or taxes on goods and services for the businesses.
Because their Indian enployees would not have to pay income taxes, the businesses could pay slightly lower wages to employees and they would get net income equal to workers outside of reserves who pay income taxes.
With lower costs, the businesses on Indian reserves could sell products or services more cheaply to people outside of reserves and could outcompete their competitors outside of Indian reserves.
Eventually, the workers could pay a little tax or some fees from their wages to the band government to help provide and maintain, infrastructure, services and social programs for themselves on Indian reserves.
Indians have a lot of advatages and opportunities on Indian reserves. They should seize them.
I have a feeling, however, many Indians on Indian reserves already know it and are doing it and yet still want more money from the Crown and the rest of us.
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Indians in the Idle No More movement claim sovereignty. They want the Canadian federal government to honour the treaties the Indians have with the Crown, which Indians say were made nation-to-nation, and they want the Canadian federal government to respect their treaty rights.
Many Indian bands on Vancouver Island, in mainland British Columbia and in other parts of Canada have not yet made treaties with the Crown. So what are their treaty rights?
Nation-to-nation treaties, let’s look at that. The Ojibwa in general could be considered a nation of Indians but the Crown made the 1850 Robinson Huron Treaty with certain groups of bands of Ojibwa. Then the Crown made the 1850 Superior Treaty with other different groups of bands of Ojibwa. Later, the Crown made other treaties with even different groups of bands of Ojibwa. The Crown did the same thing with the Cree. The Crown did not make treaties nation-to-nation with Indians.
Where the Crown did make treaties with Indian bands, they held back or reserved land for the Indian bands and ceded land outside of the reserves to the Crown and, according to the treaties, the Indians gave up “all right and title” to the land they ceded to the Crown. To obtain the land, the Crown paid the Indians lump sums of money and/or goods and promised small annuities to the bands and to individual Indians.
The Crown also allowed the Indians to hunt and fish in the areas the Indians had ceded to the Crown until the Crown leased or sold the land to third parties and the Indians promised not to hinder development on land they had ceded to the Crown.
In the 1701 Nanfan Treaty, the Five (later Six) Nations Iroquois said “wee having subjected ourselves and lands on this side of Cadarachqui lake wholy to the Crown of England” basically admitting they were subjects of the Crown. In the 1763 Royal Proclamation, King George III of Britain reserved “Sovereignty. Protection and Dominion“ over Indian Territory in North America and Indian bands agreed according to the Treaty of Fort Niagara in 1764, and, in many of the numbered treaties across Canada, the Indians agreed they would “conduct and behave themselves as good and loyal subjects of His Majesty the King” and “obey and abide by the law”. That would mean they cannot claim sovereignty.
In some but not all treaties the Crown promised a school and/or a teacher on each reserve. In one, perhaps two, treaties the Crown promised the Indian agent would keep a medicine bag to treat the Indians.
Continued below
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Continued from above
The Crown did not promise in any treaty with Indians to pay for and pay to maintain infrastructure like roads, bridges, houses, treatment plants, community centres, Indian healing centres, old age homes, bingo halls, playgrounds, hockey rinks, band offices and band equipment, etc. or to pay for services like policing or fire protection or to pay for social programs on Indian reserves.
Nevertheless, the Canadian federal government (the big Crown) now sends about $11 billion from taxpayers each year to Indian reserves to pay for and pay to maintain infrastructure like roads, bridges, houses, treatment plants, community centres, Indian healing centres, old age homes, bingo halls, playgrounds, hockey rinks, band offices and band equipment, etc. and to pay for services like policing and fire protection and to pay for social programs for Indians on reserves the Crown did not promise in treaties for Indians on reserves.
In addition, the provincial governments (the little Crowns) are sending millions of dollars each year to fund projects on Indian reserves even though Section 91 Part 24 of the Canadian Constitution says the Canadian federal government is responsible for “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians”.
Furthermore, companies that are developing land outside of Indian reserves are now paying money directly to Indian reserves even though those same companies pay taxes to the Crown and it is already sending some of that tax money from those companies to Indian reserves.
Do we ever hear a thank you from Indians for all of that? No, we just hear demands for more money.
Maybe it’s time for the federal government to say it will abide strictly by the treaties, to say it will stop paying more than is required in the treaties and to say it will stop paying for infrastructure, services and social programs on Indian reserves the Crown did not promise in treaties to pay for on Indian reserves.
If the Indians really want the Crown to abide by the treaties, maybe the Crown should abide by the treaties.
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Maybe Indians should also abide by the treaties they made with the Crown.
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