Indigenous issues no longer stuck on back burner

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/08/2021 (1523 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba follows a standard formula for federal elections: other than the affluent suburbs, Winnipeg votes mostly Liberal while everywhere else — besides the north — goes Conservative.

With support for provincial Conservatives waning, anger at Justin Trudeau for calling an election during a pandemic, and the rise of the provincial NDP, there are strong indications that predictable Manitoba seats are up for grabs.

The appearance of Trudeau and O’Toole in the city Friday is evidence.

Why would both visit on the same day NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh toured unmarked graves at a former residential school in Saskatchewan?

It shows a major theme is emerging: Indigenous issues.

For the most part, Indigenous issues have been ignored or taken a backseat to mandatory vaccinations, Afghanistan and Haiti.

Promises on how to reduce poverty on First Nations, recognize Indigenous and treaty rights, and implement recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls inquiry were expected to be at the forefront of this campaign, especially considering the recent discoveries of unmarked graves at residential schools and toppling of statues that honour colonial-era icons.

On Friday, for the first time, it was.

Trudeau’s appearance in Winnipeg was pretty standard. He touted his provincial $10/day child-care agreement, expansion to sick leave benefits for federally regulated workers, and money for school ventilation upgrades.

In other words, campaign announcements Canadians have already heard or will forget.

Trudeau did, however, meet with Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee, and Assembly of First Nations Manitoba regional chief Cindy Woodhouse. He even posed for a Twitter selfie with them. They are some of the most pro-Liberal Indigenous leaders in the country. Dumas and Settee have both had Liberals running their election campaigns and Woodhouse has run federal Liberal campaigns and sat on the Liberal’s Aboriginal Peoples Commission.

Trudeau used his Winnipeg stop to attempt to be the face of Indigenous issues — even though this campaign is about his failed promise to fix boil-water advisories, address rampant First Nations poverty, and taking Indigenous children to court instead of paying them compensation.

Trudeau has had victories too, but the Liberal announcement of $321 million to search for burial sites at residential schools moments before this election campaign is proof enough that he wants to stop Singh from being the leader most equipped to deal with reconciliation.

O’Toole, meanwhile, has (somewhat surprisingly) made Indigenous issues a major part of his Conservative party platform. In its “Secure the Future” plan, Indigenous peoples appear dozens of times and there are six pages dedicated to policies for Indigenous communities.

Some are impressive and respond to grassroots community needs, such as the promise to support “land-based treatment programs developed and managed by Indigenous communities as part of a plan to enhance the delivery of culturally appropriate addictions treatment.”

Most are standard, pro-resource and corporate partnership, pick-up-the-bootstraps-and-work-harder Conservative rhetoric that ignores systemic racism and offers little to deal with the real issues, such as replacing the Indian Act but, like I said, it’s the most extensive platform from a right-of-centre party in Canadian history.

Still, O’Toole has not put Indigenous issues at the forefront of his campaign. In Winnipeg, though, he was forced to.

In town to talk about jobs and investment, O’Toole had to answer questions about his party’s promises that appear to target Indigenous activists. The party vows to amend the Criminal Code to allow for the arrest of demonstrators who “shut down critical infrastructure, threaten access to vital supplies, or endanger lives.”

When asked, O’Toole responded by saying Indigenous peoples would be better served economically if they stopped protesting.

Um, no, Indigenous peoples would be better served if their right to lands and resources were respected — just like it states in the Conservative platform which promises to “recognize Indigenous and treaty rights and to work together with Indigenous peoples as nation-to-nation partners to resolve long-standing challenges.”

The fact is, the way Canada deals with the “long-standing challenges” between Canadians and Indigenous communities is through conflict.

From Oka to Wet’suwet’en, Canada doesn’t negotiate, consult, or proceed appropriately or legally so Indigenous communities often have little to no choice but to do the very actions O’Toole seeks to criminalize.

Throwing more people in jail — and repeating inane policies passed by Alberta’s Jason Kenney and proposed by Manitoba’s Conservative government — is going to lead to more conflict, division — not reconciliation.

Why do you think Indigenous communities put their bodies on the line to protect land from pipelines and mines?

Here’s a hint: it has to do with “land-based treatment programs.”

Still, this week Winnipeg instigated a new step in the federal campaign and a conversation on Indigenous issues that’s sure to continue.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca