Rae offering amendment to Indian Act bill

Federal Liberal Leader Bob Rae is planning a counterattack on a Conservative MP's surprise bill seeking to end the federal Indian Act.

In Regina Friday, Rae said he'll introduce a motion in the House of Commons on Monday to put in place a process for replacing the controversial act.

"I think there's a lot of agreement in the country - including among the aboriginal leadership - that the current Indian Act is a relic of our colonial past. It was originally introduced in 1876 and some of the language is very paternalistic and, frankly, completely out of date.

"The other thing that needs to happen is the process to replace it. I think we need to talk this through before we go forward."

Behind the motion to replace the act is Rob Clarke, the Conservative MP for the northern Saskatchewan riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River, who said he's hungered to replace it since he was assigned to enforce its provisions as a young RCMP member in the early 1990s.

"It's one of the most archaic things, the most systematic discriminations out there. It's the template for South African apartheid; that's what they used it for. I just want to get rid of it," he said in an interview this week.

While agreeing on the need to replace it, Rae said it will be interesting to see how much support Clarke get from other Conservative MPs.

"We don't have enough really accountable self-governments and we don't have enough really accountable, transparent relationships between governments. ... there's the relationship we need to establish. Things need to get worked through and the only way to do it is to create the tables that allow these things to be negotiated and replaced."

Rae would like to see a series of agreements between First Nations and aboriginal people, and the federal government.

Controversy has already flared up around Clarke's idea. Some First Nations leaders were critical of the lack of consultation on a bill affecting their communities. Others wondered why Clarke was pushing forward on this.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised national chiefs earlier this year there would be no unilateral changes.

"The question is, 'What do you replace it with?'" Rae said. "You can't have no structure; you have to have the rule of law. A new rule of law has to be established and the only way to get to that, effectively, is through a process of consultation and discussion."

Original Article
Source: leader post
Author: Will Chabun