Manitobans can vote for reconciliation

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2023 (742 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs passed a resolution calling for the resignation of Premier Heather Stefanson, one week ago at its 35th annual assembly.

“In response to the premier’s stated position and continued refusal to support a search of the Brady Landfill and Prairie Green Landfill for Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris, Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) and Tanya Nepinak,” the news release said, “the motion urging the premier’s immediate resignation was passed … unanimously.”

Let me repeat: unanimously.

Individual chiefs regularly call for premiers to resign over some issue. Grand chiefs who represent smaller, regional organizations do it fairly often, too. Very rarely does a large group of chiefs agree on anything — never mind unanimously demanding that a premier resign.

It’s a contentious time for reconciliation. This country is witnessing an unprecedented and escalating war between Indigenous governments and provinces over rights, resources and land.

In New Brunswick, Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey and Acadian communities have called for the removal of Premier Blaine Higgs after his government cancelled a long-standing tax-sharing agreement, rejected Indigenous territorial acknowledgments and threatened not to include Indigenous languages in the province’s Languages Act.

In Quebec, Premier François Legault has refused to endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, denied systemic racism against Indigenous people and rejected federal Bill C-92, the law calling for Indigenous communities to take control and supervision of Indigenous children in child welfare systems.

In Ontario, Doug Ford is also resistant to passing UNDRIP, has ignored and denied treaty and Indigenous rights when it comes to the Ring of Fire mining project and is trying to develop the Greenbelt without consulting First Nations.

Saskatchewan and Alberta have passed laws that privilege provincial jurisdiction over First Nations land and resources and ignore treaty and Indigenous rights.

In Manitoba, Stefanson’s PC government has done some of the above. She has even expressed interest in a “Manitoba First Act” like Alberta and Saskatchewan.

She is just like her counterparts — only they aren’t facing unanimous calls for their resignation by the chiefs in their province.

It’s worth pausing and considering why this recent rancour between provincial governments and Indigenous governments — with Manitoba perhaps being the most rancorous — has escalated.

Not since constitutional talks in the 1980s — in which First Nations, Métis and Inuit leaders warred with premiers (particularly in Alberta and Saskatchewan) over issues of jurisdiction — has such a conflict been so divisive.

Conflict between provinces and Indigenous nations, of course, is based in the reality that Canada’s Constitution gives provinces jurisdiction over education, health, property, natural resources, justice, child welfare and infrastructure — arguably the most impactful and violent systems when it comes to Indigenous lives, livelihoods and even the possibility of Indigenous futures.

Add in the post-pandemic sagging economy and high inflation and you get provinces and Indigenous communities fighting more than ever over resources and rights.

This is not an old fight, but an escalating one that threatens to derail the fragile state of reconciliation.

I say fragile because, on the federal side, and while suffering some stumbles, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals continue to be (somewhat) strongly committed to investing in Indigenous communities and adopting Indigenous rights but — other than British Columbia — the same cannot be said for most other provinces.

At the provincial level, reconciliation demands premiers and their governments bring forth changes that involve sharing power, resources and jurisdiction with Indigenous governments.

For political change to happen, the reasoning by any politician is pretty simple: if changes are politically feasible, premiers do it; if it isn’t, they won’t.

Premiers who represent those with the most to gain by ignoring, denying and trampling on Indigenous rights and governments probably won’t find it politically feasible to support change in another direction.

And that’s what may be happening in much of Canada.

Free Press colleague Dan Lett joined me on Eric Grenier’s podcast The Writ to discuss this fall’s Manitoba election. He said something I hadn’t thought about when it comes to the issue of the landfill search in Manitoba and the PC government.

“It’s becoming clear now that Heather Stefanson’s rejection to search the landfill for the remains of Indigenous women is a deliberate strategy,” Lett said. “In the outer areas of Winnipeg and the rural areas there is blowback … a reconciliation fatigue that the premier is stoking for support in the election.”

Lett’s point is a sobering one for those invested in reconciliation. But it also may identify a tipping point — with change on the other side.

If Manitobans are invested in reconciliation and standing with a fairly unanimous group of Indigenous people, the fall election may be that chance.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca