Racist native policies continue…
BC Premier Gordon Campbell has unveiled legislation to give the aboriginal people of BC title to the land. And the “native industry”, as I like to call it, thinks it is a good thing.
Which is why it is bad. Treating the aboriginal people of Canada differently just because their ancestors were here before the French and English (and Arab, and Chinese) came to this continent is a racist policy. It is unfair to those of us who were born here but are of a different genetic makeup.
I also think that the policy of treating the aboriginal peoples as collectives, instead of individuals, is the primary reason why more aboriginals live in poverty than other Canadians, and why more aboriginals are incarcerated than other Canadians. Because we never asked them to be responsible for anything.
The fact is that when the peoples of Europe (and eventually Asia and Africa) came to the Americas, they provided the know-how, culture and technology to drag the aboriginal peoples out of the stone age (or copper age for those in part of central and south America).
Trying to make me feel guilty for the plight of the aboriginals is pointless. If those of European descent are to pay the aboriginals for the poor treatment of their predecessors with title to land (which is a completely alien concept to the ancestors of the aboriginal peoples), are we also going to try the Inuit for the genocide of the Dorset culture they displaced and destroyed? And what of the environmental devastation brought to the Americas by the “aboriginal peoples” arrival from Asia more than 13,000 years ago – they helped drive the mega-fauna of the western hemisphere to extinction – and even if they weren’t directly responsible, they clearly didn’t try to prevent it.
The whole “First Nations” lie should be shown for what it is – all Canadians should be treated equally, and given the same opportunities to succeed or fail – and not on the dime of the hard-working taxpayers.
Regardless of your perspective of history or your views on the causes of First Nation poverty, it remains a fact that our Courts have recognized the Treaty and Aboriginal Rights.
The foundation of Canada is Aboriginal Law, French Civil Code, and British Common Law, in that order.
Those blinded by their obedience to only British Common Law don’t understand or respect their own country.
Perhaps a citizenship test is in order, to sort out the real Canadians from those pining for Britain. There are ships leaving every day!
The courts recognize the treaties because they were agreed to by the Crown. But in BC there were no treaties. And the recognition of other aboriginal rights has largely been a creation of the multi-cult left over the last 40 years.
And to granny – I don’t know where you were educated, but Aboriginal Law is a foreign concept in the modern sense. The aboriginal peoples didn’t have “law” in the modern sense – and I have problems with “oral histories” of questionable veracity being placed on equal footing with the rational foundation of both Civil Code and Common Law.
I don’t pine for Britain – but I think that it is fairly clear that the Common Law system has been far more successful and beneficial to human society than any other.
Aboriginal rights go right back to the legal foundations of our country and the Royal Proclamation of 1763. As described in the Canadian Encyclopedia web-site:
“It established the constitutional framework for the negotiation of Indian treaties with the aboriginal inhabitants of large sections of Canada. As such, it has been labelled an “Indian Magna Carta” or an “Indian Bill of Rights.
The document is referred to in s25 of the CONSTITUTION ACT, 1982. This provision details that there is nothing in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms to diminish the rights and freedoms that are recognized as those of aboriginal peoples by the Royal Proclamation.”
Maybe you disagree with the Constitution – lots of people do – but it is the law of the land.
JC