Indigenous issues will be impossible to ignore in coming federal leaders debate

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/09/2021 (1516 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s more than half way through the five-week federal election campaign and nearly every single media outlet is asking the same question: why aren’t issues involving Indigenous communities on centre stage?

The Globe and Mail recently ran an op-ed asking the question.

The Washington Post did virtually the same thing.

Rare is a national CBC TV or radio show I am on where I am not asked why federal leaders aren’t talking about “Indigenous issues,” reconciliation, or Indigenous whatever.

It’s true those in Toronto, Montreal, or other “major” Canadian urban centres don’t see Indigenous issues as central to this campaign. This is unsurprising: most in Canada’s big cities barely care about issues impacting Indigenous communities unless it impacts their oil, gas or some other cost of living.

This is supposed to be where the “national media” steps in, making “national” issues a topic worthy of conversation for federal leaders.

It’s true parties and party leaders are the ones making promises and presenting ideas, but it’s the media’s job to ask questions.

All reporters, editors, and columnists make choices to highlight issues and draw federal leaders into conversations.

The main problem is that most “national” reporters are the same people living in those urban centres — you know, those same people who barely think about Indigenous communities.

Another issue is that media is driven by viewership and readership numbers, so running a front page or lead story on some federal party’s policy on Indigenous issues won’t gain as many eyeballs as a sexual harassment scandal, the carbon tax, or Trudeau wearing blackface.

So surprise, surprise: federal leaders campaigning for votes in Canada’s major cities where much of Canada’s national media reside don’t think about or ask many questions about Indigenous peoples.

That’s sarcasm, by the way.

The question should instead be who is making the issues impacting Indigenous peoples central to this federal campaign while demanding federal leaders present ideas and promises.

The answer, unapologetically, isn’t Canada’s “national media” — but those on the prairies.

Here, federal candidates and their leaders cannot campaign through without addressing some question involving their response to Indigenous activism, some pressing emergency involving a First Nation, and the increasing discoveries of Canada’s past and present violence against Indigenous communities.

Here, reporters are still asking federal politicians about the issues surrounding Canada’s ongoing attempts to locate the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territories — a conflict that resulted in a national resistance and the introduction of “public infrastructure protection” bills by right-wing, provincial premiers across the prairies (now adopted word-for-word in the federal Conservative party platform).

Here, nearly every day front pages and news outlets ask federal candidates about COVID-19 outbreaks on First Nations, countless conflicts between Indigenous peoples and police, and the uncovering of nearly 1,500 (mostly unmarked) graves of children who perished at residential schools throughout the country.

When Erin O’Toole and Justin Trudeau made pit-stops in the province on Aug. 20, both were peppered with questions on findings at residential schools and Brian Pallister’s resignation due to comments he made surrounding Indigenous peoples and Canada’s history.

Trudeau’s most favourable Indigenous audience is likely in Manitoba, where he met and took selfies with two Manitoba grand chiefs and the AFN Manitoba regional chief. That’s newsworthy.

Jagmeet Singh spent several days in Winnipeg this campaign, even appearing with those same grand chiefs and making several announcements. That’s newsworthy too.

The NDP has the most progressive policy platform when it comes to Indigenous communities (promising things such as sovereignty, settling land claims, and recognizing rights) but these don’t register much attention because they have little chance of forming government.

Ditto could be said for the Greens and the Bloc.

As for the two other “major parties,” they have made promises impacting Indigenous communities worth covering but “national media” doesn’t seem to give these attention.

Trudeau has made so many promises it’s far easier to list his failures than successes. On Aug. 30 he announced billions of new investments into new housing and mental health programs — an announcement that barely registered a blip the next day in comparison to protesters blocking his rallies.

Erin O’Toole’s Conservative platform is the most aggressive on Indigenous issues for the party in history, with more than a dozen pages making promises that would directly impact Indigenous communities. There’s even a promise for “on the land learning” when it comes to addictions.

One wonders why his promise to resurrect the cancelled Northern Gateway pipeline for what he calls “economic reconciliation” with Indigenous communities would get more attention.

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Indigenous issues will be impossible for anyone in Canada to ignore this Thursday, Sept. 9 as, for the first time in history, a national Indigenous news outlet will have significant involvement in a federal leaders debate as APTN will be one of the broadcast hosts.

Their head office, of course, is in Winnipeg — not Toronto or Montreal.

Surprise, surprise.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Niigaan Sinclair
Columnist

Niigaan Sinclair is Anishinaabe and is a columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press.

   Read full biography