China's occupation of Tibet and its weak record on human rights have caused a public relations nightmare for the country as it prepares to host this summer's Olympics, which were supposed to provide a stage for Chinese leaders to boast about the great leap forward the people's republic has made in economic and social development.
Unfortunately for Canada, the protesters' success in attracting sympathy and attention hasn't gone unnoticed by this country's aboriginal leaders, who see a perfect opportunity to garner international attention for their issues at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
The Olympic flame is supposed to be carried for 100 days across Canada before its ceremonial arrival in Vancouver, but it's likely to run into a few pails of water along the way.
"If you think China looks bad now, just wait and see what happens to Canada's image in 2010," Terry Nelson, chief of Roseau River First Nation, said in an interview.
Nelson said aboriginal leaders, led by chiefs in British Columbia who are angry about a variety of unresolved land and resource issues, have already started talking about how they can use the Canadian Games to advance their causes and draw attention to their plight.
"The threat is real, the capability is real," he said, predicting there could be "lots of impact" across Canada.
Stewart Phillip, grand chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said he anticipated a series of protests over the next two years that will reach their peak during the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
"Our poverty is getting worse and worse and nothing is happening," Phillip said. "All we get is phoney statements from the government."
Nelson and other aboriginals are also appealing to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a controversial leader who advocates democratic socialism and anti-imperialism, for help in advancing their demands.
Nelson visited the embassy in Ottawa on Tuesday to meet officials there. He said they promised to forward the request to Chavez's office, although it wouldn't guarantee a response.
Venezuela was one of 143 countries that signed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last year, which was opposed by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
These developments are occurring at a time when Canada's native peoples are becoming increasingly militant and angry at the perceived indifference of Canadian society to their plight.
Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, for example, a former general in the Canadian Forces who served in Rwanda during the genocide there, said this week in Ottawa during hearings on native issues that growing aboriginal unrest may constitute "an internal security risk."
Dallaire said he was particularly concerned about young aboriginals who "see themselves more and more disenfranchised." If they ever formed an effective coalition, the general warned, they could "bring this country to a standstill."
Former prime minister Paul Martin, who has made aboriginal issues a personal priority, is also concerned about the degree of "hopelessness" that permeates First Nations.
Like Dallaire, Martin has also warned that if a series of protests break out this summer, the government will have only itself to blame.
Nelson, however, says he does not anticipate any major disruptions this year, unless young natives acting on their own throw up blockades in spontaneous outbursts.
It shouldn't come as any surprise, either. Many aboriginals are living in Third World conditions on remote reserves, without adequate housing, water, health care or education. Most are unemployed and the social problems on many reserves constitute a horror story that even Hollywood would have a hard time believing. They are disproportionately represented in jails and on the welfare rolls and in the homeless shelters and drunk tanks, but these are facts that middle-class Canada has heard over and over again. To the point, in fact, that they have long since failed to shock or inspire.
At the same time, several government departments are pumping at least $1 billion a year, every year, into Manitoba alone to support aboriginals. Canadians naturally wonder why so little progress is being made and if it is worth dropping more cash on what seems like a failed system.
For their part, aboriginal leaders have little faith that conditions will improve. "If they only offered us hope, that would be enough," Nelson says. "That would give us something."
There is no moral equivalency between China's human rights abuses and Canada's inability to make peace with its First Nations, but for aboriginals, the difference is a matter of degree, not substance.
dave.obrien@freepress.mb.ca
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