Judging from the reactions to the end of Chief Theresa Spence’s nutrition action, a lot of people think the whole thing was a waste of time, if not a fraud.
The facts will bear out the first part of that interpretation. They also will carry you to speculate on the second part, if you’re so disposed.
After all, Chief Spence did not get a meeting attended by the prime minister, the Governor-General, the Assembly of First Nations chiefs and herself.
Nor — much to her chagrin — was the meeting that did take place “nation-to-nation.”
Finally, Chief Spence did not die on Victoria Island for her cause, as she said she was prepared to do. She did not die, therefore she was a bluff — or so the narrative might go.
But she did get some things.
She got a personal pounding from a vindictive government and an unsympathetic press. We now know how many chins Chief Spence has. We know the luxury vehicle she drives. We know that Chief Spence’s accounting skills would have made her a useful administrator for Adscam or the G8/G20 summits. And we know that, according to the polls, almost no one supports her.
The theorizing at Thursday’s press conference was as unflattering as much of the factual coverage.
Representatives of the opposition parties and First Nations were asked if fish broth wasn’t, in fact, the natural diet for people like Theresa Spence. The 13-point declaration signed by the AFN, the NDP and the Liberals was seen as a mere ruse — a convenient way of extracting an unreasonable and hopelessly compromised showboat from the corner into which she’d painted herself.
In a nutshell, the press reports, with notable exceptions, would have you believe that because she didn’t get what she wanted, because she is not popular, she didn’t get anything at all.
But the events of the “Aboriginal Spring”, of which Chief Spence temporarily became the symbol, also bear another interpretation.
For one thing, not much time is spent in this country discussing the lives of the Third Solitude in Canada. Not many Canadians have been to a native community, let alone the remote ones in places like northern Ontario or coastal Labrador. Twitter may trend over rumours of Gretzky running the Leafs, but eyes glaze over at the thought of what life might be like on an Indian reservation. Gradually, over 40 days of Theresa’s hunger strike, the idea sunk in that there were places without safe drinking water or schools. In Canada.
Then there is the Harper government. For a year after promising to hit the reset button on the Canada/First Nations relationship, the Tories sat on their hands. Having walked away from former prime minister Paul Martin’s Kelowna Accord, the PM has sustained the status quo with empty ceremony and audits.
Now he’s personally meeting with the AFN and promising to stop ragging the puck. The Privy Council is involved. To be sure, the government is not cycling up the mountain of native issues at dope-propelled-Lance-Armstrong speeds. But there is a hint in the air that time might be of the essence.
Pretty good, when you consider that aboriginals are not a top-of-mind issue with the Conservatives unless a pipeline is involved.
On the legal front, during Chief Spence’s fast — perhaps inspired by it — two bands, the Mikisew Cree and the Frog Lake First Nation, began legal action against the federal government over Bills C-38 and C-45. They believe the changes brought in by the omnibus legislation violate their right to be consulted before native lands are affected by development.
If successful, they may force the government to respect not only aboriginal rights but also the right of Parliament to hold meaningful debate on proposed legislation.
Assuming that Canadians are still interested in democracy, these legal actions taken around Chief Spence’s personal protest could turn out to be the most effective opposition to a government that is getting too authoritarian. Who has done more to confront that noxious trend in our public life than Canada’s First Nations?
Chief Spence has also engaged the government-in-waiting, by having both the NDP and the Liberals commit to the resolution of key native issues from treaty rights and land claims to education and infrastructure. And there is a time-frame: five years.
Not inconsequential. Depending on what the political future holds, that might be good enough to affect the life of a native child born today.
When Parliament re-opens on Monday, don’t be surprised if the lead questions asked of the Harper government focus on aboriginal issues. Again, no mean feat with war and the economy topping the agenda.
As for the drumbeat of polls that seem to confirm that most Canadians are against Chief Spence, they are true on the day they are taken. If social change only occurred when there was wide popular support for it, society would be frozen in time. There is always a pilot fish that changes the school’s direction and it is always alone.
Case in point on polling. After the Kent State shootings during Richard Nixon’s presidency, Gallup reported that most Americans blamed the unarmed protestors rather than the National Guard who killed four students and wounded nine others on the university campus.
Accordingly, Nixon passed the atrocity off by saying “when dissent leads to violence it invites tragedy.” Not long after that there were 100,000 people on the White House lawn shaking their fists. Popular support soon followed informed dissent and Nixon’s Vietnam policy, and his presidency, began to unravel.
Chief Spence also has changed native politics. On Thursday, Sean Atleo acknowledged the debt that the AFN owed to both Chief Spence and the Idle No More movement.
The AFN had grown comfortable in its old-boys relationship with the federal government and it was rudely reminded that its own people wanted more from their chiefs than photo ops and meetings with important people.
The people, including Chief Spence, pushed up from below against their complacent leadership and demanded more. There is the lake, but there is also the spring that feeds it; it was Chief Spence, in part, who forced Sean Atleo to appreciate the difference.
Chief Spence didn’t get what she wanted — but what about her people? Let’s review: the beginning of social consciousness in the Canadian public; the attention of an economy-fixated prime minister; the silhouette of a healing process; legal clarification on issues of national importance; grudging media attention; Opposition support for social justice on this tragic file; international attention and a renewal of aboriginal leadership.
For a woman who is supposed to have accomplished nothing, not a bad list, that.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Michael Harris
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