From Leonard Peltier to Wab Kinew: how the hang-around-the-forts have commandeered the Indigenous narrative

One of Canada’s pre-eminent public intellectuals, a small pond to be sure, wrote a book about eight years ago positing that Indigenous Canadians, often colloquially referred to as “Indians,” were poised to make a great comeback. And here we are today, with a provincial government led by an official, card-carrying, Canadian Indian. Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba. The ten Canadian Preems have been meeting in Halifax to build a common front against PM Fluffy’s non-stop incursions into areas of provincial jurisdiction, like health care and education, among others. So the CBC headline Manitoba Premier urges Trudeau to move up NATO spending caught my attention. Whoa! What’s this? Isn’t Wab straying into Justin’s lane? After all, national defence is strictly a federal file. What gives? What gives is that the Preems are in a sweat because they’re afraid of a Trump presidency. Trump has made some serious anti-NATO noises, and in order to not alienate Trump, and thereby impair their provincial economies, we should ramp up our NATO contributions pronto. Really? The Farm Manager and I were enjoying the late afternoon sun out on the stoop, and got into a lengthy debate about the state of our education system. I spent 25 years teaching in that system, and the FM still works there as an ed assistant with “challenged” kids. She gripes non-stop that the system no longer serves the needs of those students. Twenty-five years ago there were serious supports for kids. That’s no longer something we can afford. Just one example; the waiting list for one-on-one support for autistic kids is so long, most of them will age out of the system before they get any. But Wab Kinew, who should know a thing or two about kids needing more support, thinks we should bust a nut to hit NATO’s 2% of GDP spending targets. And the Trudeau-Blair brain trust is pushing hard in that direction, at least in their PR. Just during the NATO summit, we heard about 12 new submarines and 90 icebreakers! Really? Between that and our commitment to 88 F-35s and a new surface combatant fleet, we’re looking at perhaps $500 billions in spending! And this while we can’t provide support for autistic kids? While we can’t solve our housing crisis? While millions of Canadian don’t have a family doctor? While food banks and tent cities are ever-growing? C’mon, Wab… you can do better! But maybe it’s not that simple. Maybe there’s a price to pay to sit at the master’s table. The “comeback” might require you to leave your principles at the door. Which brings me to another CBC headline, the one announcing the Assembly of First Nations stepping away from their support for Leonard Peltier. Peltier has been locked up for 50 years after Fluffy’s father, the much celebrated champion of human rights, succumbed to US pressure to extradite him on a very dubious charge that he murdered two FBI agents. In making this decision, the AFN sides with the FBI against the substantial documentation from Peltier defenders. Check out this CBC Fifth Estate episode from 1987. So much for “The Comeback.”

The pretentious twattery of John Ralston Saul

Walls, Bridges, Homes is a series of essays written in response to the emerging global appetite for a progressive narrative around inclusion and immigration. The series frames the thematic focus of 6 Degrees Citizen Space, a forum presented by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.

So reads the intro to a full page opinion piece by John Ralston Saul in last Saturday's Globe and Mail. The forum in question is open to the public - for a price! Yes, dear citizen, you too can witness important thinkers of "progressive" thoughts reaffirm one another's greatness! The great Ai Wei Wei will be on hand, together with a goodly slice of the Canadian literary establishment. At a mere $65 to $175 per ticket, it's a bargain, at least for the kind of people who like to name drop; "I was at a conference last week, and asked _______________ (fill in the name of your choosing, although it's obvious that the big draw here is Ai Wei Wei) to clarify their theory of ____________."

Of course, once you've paid for your ticket you're no longer involved as a citizen, but as a consumer.

So JRS (Saul has a ways to go before his initials get the same instant recognition as the initials BHL, but I'm doing my best to help raise his profile) and his wife start an "Institute," they have fund-raising forums, and the Globe and Mail donates tens of thousands in free advertising by way of a "series of essays..."

Hmm... are the people writing this ad copy also being paid for it by the Globe? No wonder they don't make money on ads anymore. The old model, wherein advertisers pay the paper, has been completely turned upside down!

Anyway, lets have a look at JRS's essay, The bridges we must build, right here at home.

The first quarter or so is an incoherent ramble about how some white Europeans invented racism, "the Westphalian model," and spread it all over the world. It's part of "our imperial inheritance," and "we took it up with enthusiasm."

Sorry, John; "we," meaning white settlers in North America, didn't take it up, enthusiastically or otherwise. We brought it with us. The colonial project was always about the dispossession of the indigenous population. There was no golden age when settler and native lived in egalitarian harmony. True, there are many examples of various First Nations having alliances of convenience with various settler groups (British, French, Spanish, Dutch) in the many wars that wracked the continent from the late fifteenth century forward, but the over-arching theme was always one of destroying the natives and stealing their land.

Saul then segues into a discussion of the "migrant crisis" that struck Europe in 2015. Apparently this crisis is due primarily to the lack of a sufficient bureaucracy within the EU to handle this population in-flow in an orderly manner. Yup, all those refugees from Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan and Libya would have caused nary a ripple if the EU nations had proper policies and sufficient bureaucrats. There is no hint that there might be some connection between US/NATO foreign policy in those countries and the migrant crisis.

This is of course complete bullshit. The vast majority of actual refugees are fleeing the death and destruction visited on their countries by ourselves and our allies. Suggesting otherwise is beyond dishonest; it is propaganda for a blinkered and profoundly racist world-view that seeks to shift responsibility for our crimes against humanity to unfortunate policy failures and faceless bureaucrats.

Saul wraps things up with a patronising tribute to the great comeback Canada's Indians are making. Sure, we can celebrate, if we are so inclined, the inclusion of Indian writers in the canon of the Canlit establishment, but what's that worth to a teenager in Attawapiskat?

JRS concludes with this, addressed to First Nations; "...one of the first things you do is show respect by saying thank you. That is how bridges begin to be built."

In other words, we stole your land, we destroyed your culture, we're still killing your kids, but we are deeply grateful to you.

Please appreciate our heartfelt respect.

Canada's pending Indian uprising

It's just a matter of time.

And when it unfolds, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Harperite turds who have been running the machinery of oppression for almost ten years will be wholly discombobulated.

What? After everything we've done for them? The lazy ingrates just never get enough, do they?

There will be much "war on terror" rhetoric unleashed.

Canadian Indians who rise up in peaceful resistance against the last five hundred years of oppression and exploitation will be immediately tarred as terrorists, and the full weight of the state will come down on their necks.

Did you know that a Native Canadian is ten times more likely to go to prison than a non-native Canadian? That disturbing tidbit comes from the government of Canada. But they see this alarming stat as being an "outcome gap," rather than evidence of systemic racism.

I remember riding a Greyhound into Kenora one Saturday evening back in the '70's. My fellow passengers were looking out the windows and remarking on the fact that "there's a lot of dogs out tonight."

I didn't get it at the time, but I got it later. The "dogs" were the folks from the White Dog reserve. I shared a loaf of bread and a six-pack with one of the dogs that evening. He was an older guy, but other than that, he was just like me; hungry and thirsty.

There's a lot to be said for and about those folks from the White Dog reserve, especially with respect to mercury poisoning, a medical phenomenon in which they served as guinea pigs of a sort, as if their prior burden of dispossession, the residential school legacy, and a generalized state-sponsored genocide were not enough.

But this is not about that, and I hope to get to that another time. What I want to focus on here is a couple of new books that peek into the future of relations between us white colonists and the descendant's of the folks whose land our ancestors stole.

Every Canadian should read John Ralston Saul's new book, The Comeback.

And when you're done that, read Time Bomb, by Doug Bland.

When you're done reading come back here and we'll discuss them.