Aboriginal Rights Backlog

Yesterday I watched the National Congress of Aboriginal People held to commemorate the Treaty of Paris 1763. It was the exact day of the signing according to the Governor General of Canada. This meeting was co-chaired by the presidents of the First Nations and the Inuit. I was captured for the hour by the eloquence of the speakers who spoke factually  and without acrimony about the great injustice done to their people over the 250 years of British and later Canada rule.The Speakers,all three emphasized the safeguards given to the many nations of aboriginal and Inuit peoples who had written in the act on their behalf what could and should have been.

The treaty guaranteed the rights of all nations to be given domain over their land and the rights of their people  safeguards that in the future any changes would be settled by treaties acceptable to both parties. Future laws and acts in 1835 and 1982 said basically the same thing but we all know that our first people were and are marginalized by their unfair and discriminatory treatment by successive governments.

I have a strong and true admiration for first nations and specially Inuit. My life has been enriched by my association with these people and I am saddened when I hear uniformed and ignorant people continuing to hold the drunken native as the description of our native peoples.

There is more information available now and there has been many treaties signed by Canada and separate nations. These have been giant steps in solving legislative problems but it does not rectify much  when our federal and provincial governing bodies continue to low ball their grants and responsibilities for basic things like clean drinking water, washrooms, health care and education.

Discrimination from our law enforcement agencies and courts fill our jails for alcohol related crimes instead of treating the problem of unemployment, education related opportunities and a fair standing in our society. I have seen first hand the manner in which the female aboriginal population has and is marginilized.

I will just say that I would love to see Canadians reach out and just try to imagine how it feels to be a first nations person in our white society.  All we have to do is look at the USA thirty five years ago and see how the African American was treated and felt in that white society.

On this Thanksgiving weekend give some thought to our nearly two million First Nations People  and how we view their possible contribution to Canada if they are really given an opportunity to be equal and fairly treated as First Canadians.