Like father, hopefully, not like son

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/09/2018 (2601 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Justin Trudeau is a son of a prime minister, but says he takes after his mother.

As he told Maclean’s magazine in 2012: “I’m definitely proud that I’m more like my mom in many ways.”

Many cite Margaret Trudeau’s compassion, sensitivity, and interests in the disenfranchised as prime influences on Canada’s current prime minister. The evidence is in Justin Trudeau’s gender equity in the federal cabinet and the record number of apologies for Canadian atrocities.

He has apologized to Indigenous communities several times, including for residential schools in Newfoundland and the unjust hanging of six First Nations chiefs in 1864.

But when it comes to policies and practices on Indigenous issues – where change actually comes from – Trudeau looks a lot like his father, Pierre, who was head of government from 1968-79 and 1980-84.

As prime ministers, both Trudeaus inherited dysfunctional and violent policies administering Indigenous affairs. Both inherited legacies of the Indian Act that created and ensured stifling poverty, trauma, and a hierarchal power dynamic between Indigenous peoples and the state. And both tried to do something about it.

Pierre’s solution was to fully and completely assimilate Indigenous peoples into Canada, completing what the Indian Act and residential schools had started. He introduced the 1969 White Paper, which sought to repeal the Indian Act, dissolve the department of Indian Affairs, eliminate Indian status, and erase reserves and treaties.

Pierre’s dream was sameness for all, and at all costs. As he said when arguing for the White Paper: “It’s inconceivable… for one section of the society to have a treaty with the other section of the society. We must be all equal under the law and we must not sign treaties among ourselves… I don’t think that we should encourage Indians to feel these treaties should last forever within Canada… They should become Canadians as all other Canadians.”

The elder Trudeau became deeply irritated with Indigenous land claims and nationhood by modern Indigenous peoples. He famously said to Indigenous leaders: “If you no longer speak your language and no longer practice your culture, then you have no right to demand Aboriginal rights from us, because you are assimilated with the ruling power.”

He preferred the notion nations could erase the sovereignty and claims of other nations by “conquering” them, and Canada should proceed from there: “I don’t know any part of the world where history isn’t constantly rewritten by migrations and immigrants and fights between countries changing frontiers, and I don’t think you can expect North America or the whole of the Western Hemisphere to settle things differently than they have been settled everywhere else, hopefully, peacefully here.”

Due to a co-ordinated resistance, Pierre not only retreated from the White Paper but was later forced by Indigenous activists and lawyers to include Aboriginal and treaty rights in the 1982 Constitution.

This all sounds pretty extreme, and in the past, right?

Upon election as prime minister in 2015, Justin Trudeau appeared to disagree with his dad.

He directed departments to recognize the “inherent jurisdiction and legal orders of Indigenous nations” as the “starting point of discussions” with First Nations, and he promised a “nation to nation” relationship. He also vowed to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and all 94 calls to action put forth by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

A lot has happened since.

Since taking office, Trudeau has implemented wide, sweeping changes to Indigenous lives, with virtually no consultations. He split Indigenous Affairs into two departments (creating more bureaucracy then ever), focused discussions primarily with the Assembly of First Nations (which is not a government but a lobby group), and created the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls without participation of Indigenous families.

Resentment over these moves have obscured some good policies, such as the national day to recognize residential school survivors and Indigenous language-rights legislation.

The real big-ticket item of his Indigenous agenda, however, is the new legislative framework for Indigenous rights.

Bureaucrats are on a cross-country trek, meeting with Indigenous communities, with plans to release a draft by November. This legislation, which seeks to define Indigenous rights and help replace the draconian Indian Act, has been criticized as “limiting” rights, turning First Nations into virtual municipalities, and not being anything close to creating a “nation to nation” relationship.

Insert echoes of “They should become Canadians as all other Canadians” here.

Indigenous peoples have resisted Canada’s economic plans to buy and impose the Trans Mountain oil pipeline across their territories. Activists have been arrested, while Trudeau promises on Twitter to build the pipeline at all costs. Chiefs who do sign on to the project (often to deal with poverty created by the Indian Act), face the wrath of their citizens.

The result is more division then ever, adding up to a lot of atrophy — especially for those who expected changes in Canada’s most important issue.

In what was intended to be a brave, new agenda in dealing with an old, complex problem, Justin Trudeau’s agenda is turning into his father’s.

Hopefully, more lawyers and legislators — as they did in the 1982 Constitution — can continue to speak bravely to power and join with activists to produce, and even force, change. The recent court decision halting the Trans Mountain development is a sign of this.

Meanwhile, the prime minister’s relationships with Indigenous peoples continue to perplex.

Last week, he met with 20 First Nations chiefs in Saskatchewan, many of whom drove for hours to see him. In a video uploaded to YouTube, the prime minister is seen berating chiefs.

“There shouldn’t have been every single person speaking for eight minutes in this meeting,” Trudeau said, claiming to be on a tight schedule. “That is not the spirit of reconciliation, of the nation-to-nation relationship we are supposed to have… I am really, really upset about this.”

So are we, Justin. We have seen this before.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca