The very least Stephen Harper can do for Shawn Atleo is give the poor man a job in the PMO.What is he but the national chief of the Disassembly of First Nations? Atleo has earned a spot on the Harper Team for three reasons.
First, he destroyed the official unity of his organization. That is a big gift to the PM, a master of the Rovian game of divide-and-conquer politics. Thanks to Atleo, it will be much easier for Harper to pull the wings off the troublesome new pest that took over Ottawa last week: authentic native pride.
Second, it is just a matter of time before Atleo is ostracized by his own community for abandoning the wishes of his chiefs, and the Idle No More movement that has inspired them. Never again will Atleo be trusted with a mandate to negotiate anything, the possible exception being his severance package as national chief.
Finally, Atleo legitimized the federal government’s treatment of Chief Theresa Spence. He did that by breaking with the chiefs who supported her and agreeing to a meeting without Spence, key chiefs, and the Governor-General. And he made this accommodation after the government smeared Chief Spence with a strategic audit leak on Attawapiskat the day before the “big” meeting. The Harper government, with Atleo in tow, had its Marie-Antoinette moment on Friday: “Let them eat fish broth.”
Had there been a Cinderella moment at the meeting instead, things might have been different for the national chief. Had he been able to emerge from the Langevin Block with a single, important concession from a government that has ditched aboriginals like an old car, he could have made an argument for engagement with honour. Instead, he came out of the meeting the same way the prime minister did — in silence.
With good reason. There was nothing to say, unless you think process and more bureaucrats mean something. Nothing serious on the native to-do list got done. No repeal of destructive sections of the government’s omnibus legislation — the trigger for the Idle No More movement in the first place. No public inquiry on violence against aboriginal women, nothing solid on treaty rights, nothing solid on comprehensive land claims. Nothing solid on revenue sharing — not even the attendance of Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver at the meeting. Absences speak louder than words.
Atleo compounded his already desperate situation when he tried to put a positive spin on a meeting many of his own people see as an act of treachery. Minus the BS, here’s what Atleo actually got out of his trip to the Langevin Block: a promise to move a little faster and to secure talks with people more important than John Duncan — who, by the way, should resign after this humiliating outcome. Shawn Atleo was served warmed-up leftovers from last year’s meeting, nothing more.
For the rest of his official time, Atleo’s main job will be as an undeclared operative of the PMO presiding over a seriously diminished organization.
The first bump in the road he faces is actually a crater. He is going to have to deflate the Idle No More movement with the narrative that Harper Knows Best when it comes to dealing with changing the status quo for aboriginals. If he doesn’t, the old politics of deference-at-any-price will have him looking like a guy playing tennis in plus fours and a shirt and tie.
What if Martin Luther King had said, “I had a dream — let’s not march”? That’s where Shawn Atleo is now. His anthem of acquiescence has left him completely out of step with a new, educated and impatient younger First Nations generation.
They’ve had it with the runaround on their constitutional rights. They know that Bill C-45 is an existential issue for their community, a power grab by the Harper government, and they will not easily be led by a man who wouldn’t go to the wall to fight that.
And then there is the issue of piecing together the shattered Assembly of First Nations. Several key players, including Grand Chief Harvey Yesno of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, are on record as saying that Atleo’s fate would be decided on the basis of what he got out of the meeting.
Since he got nothing but the promise of more talks, the easiest way to restore the AFN may be to elect a new chief at the earliest opportunity. Failing that, the boycotting chiefs may decide to create their own organization comprised of those whose ancestors entered into historical treaties with the Crown.
The only way Shawn Atleo can recover with the boycotting chiefs is to somehow persuade them that an empty cup may some day be half-full. About the time of the first human colony on Mars.
In the end, all roads for Atleo lead to the same place — Chief Theresa Spence. More than ever, it will be Atleo’s mission to persuade her — and if not her, then his people — that it’s time to end the hunger strike. But how can he do it? There is no compelling argument he can make on the merits — after all, none of her conditions have been met, even after a session with the Governor-General.
Atleo already broke faith with Chief Spence by attending the meeting with the PM under Ottawa’s terms.
And why would Chief Spence agree to anything Shawn Atleo might say to her, when she knows that he is advocating further talks with a federal government that is apparently content to stand by and watch her starve to death?
There is only one short-term winner in this mess: the prime minister. If throwing the apple of discord were an Olympic event, Stephen Harper would be a lock for gold. He has divided the opposition — again.
He also has kicked the can down the road to hide the likely truth here: native lands have been bureaucratically and politically annexed, and will never be given back through negotiation no matter what some dude in a powdered wig agreed hundreds of years ago.
The events of last week proved that there will always be an aboriginal leader or two prepared to bring feathers to futile meetings no matter how bad the water is back home — or the prospects.
And then, of course, there is Stephen Harper’s ace in the hole: the law and order card. Having divided the AFN and co-opted its official leadership, having demonized Chief Spence in a vile fashion, the government will now begin the work of portraying any aboriginals who interfere with commerce as law-breaking extremists. Consider the words of Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley during the two-week blockade of the CN rail line by Idle No More:
“As every day goes by concern about tensions is rising because there is an economic impact.”
Standing between a white man and his money has always been dangerous work and usually ends in an encounter with the police. It will be child’s play for the government to turn the public against Idle No More demonstrators, as it pushes the issue further and further away from root causes and any notion of justice, and stokes public fear. It is a subject large parts of the media specialize in these days.
Fortunately, the spiritual leader of her people, Chief Theresa Spence, preaches a brand of native pride and principle that is expressly non-violent.
Heaven help us if her flame goes out for state reasons.
Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His eight books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. He is currently working on a book about the Harper majority government to be published in the autumn of 2014 by Penguin Canada.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics
Author: Michael Harris
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