Mount Robson broods,
As the fog gains the hand,
And the shadows lay gently,
Upon the passengers.
Discounting the value,
Of familiarity and grappling,
With the deeds and works of the past,
A nation is remade.
The clink of glasses.
Cutlery chimes, soft voices,
Discuss the ghosts of Leicester,
As Saskatchewan rolls by.
Expedients applied.
Solemn and sacred oaths forgotten,
And thousand years of please and thank you’s,
Are undone in a fortnight.
By W.N. Branson 
One path to happiness is figuring out how the world works. Some Canadians are irritated that Catholics have their own school boards and Jonquiere road signs are in French. There is deep-rooted justification for this, upheld by the Supreme Court many, many times. Mention the fact and you’ll draw a last cry of exasperation – “Well I still don’t like it!” – and the first glimmer of awareness that for everything there is a reason.
So authors Greg Poelzer and Ken Coates of the University of Saskatchewan observe that First Nations have rights rooted in law, and the sooner Canadians recognize the fact the better off we will be. From Treaty Peoples To Treaty Nation is a careful, concise account of the “Indian problem” written primarily for non-Indigenous readers. Anybody is better for reading it.
Treaty Peoples is not a recitation of grievances. It seeks the light. “First Nations and Métis people in this country are facing serious, systematic and some would say intractable problems,” authors write. “Canadians hear about them often. But something vitally important is missing: there are profound reasons for optimism.”
The Territory of Nunavut was the world’s largest Indigenous land claim. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network is the world’s first broadcaster of its kind. Indigenous art is prized. Forty-eight percent of Indigenous people have post-secondary education.
And yet, when the authors wrote a 2012 Globe & Mail commentary detailing obvious problems with Canada’s treatment of First Nations and Métis “we were taken aback by the vitriolic comments posted online,” write Poelzer and Coates. “Get a job”, wrote Globe readers; “Stop whining”; “Clean up your act, then we’ll talk”; “If I was allowed to live tax-free…yeah, I would feel disadvantaged, uh-huh.”
Treaty Peoples explains how our world works. Indigenous rights are constitutional. The Supreme Court says so. “The learned justices are not making this stuff up!” authors explain.
Secondly, these rights have been breached by successive malicious and misguided governments. Indigenous people as late as 1959 could not vote. In 1927 they were banned from hiring their own lawyers to challenge the Crown. Treaty Peoples condenses the entire history of the Department of Indian Affairs into a single, eloquent paragraph.
“They were segregated from the rest of the Canadian population,” authors write. “This was not intended to be a permanent state of affairs, but rather a holding position until the educational and spiritual efforts of the state and its Christian partners could take full effect. Crucially, the Department of Indian Affairs was not an important government department. It attracted little national attention, save for occasional criticism for spending too much money.”
Treaty Peoples advocates self-government, a workable mechanism for quickly resolving land claims, student exchanges and “a thousand acts of good will,” “spontaneous, individual, creative, heartfelt.”
At the root of 200 years of conflict is an arresting fact. Indigenous people were not supposed to be here. “One of the strongest assumptions governing Aboriginal affairs in Canada and the United States and Australia was that Indigenous people would disappear,” authors write. “The logic seemed unassailable.”
Against all odds, they survived. Statistics Canada calculates within a generation they will number as many as 2.6 million people and comprise more than a fifth of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
They are here, they have rights, they are Canadians. Treaty Peoples is an honest attempt to explain the facts and perhaps point a way to happiness.
By Holly Doan
From Treaty Peoples To Treaty Nation, by Greg Poelzer and Ken S. Coates; University of British Columbia Press; 366 pages; ISBN 9780-7748-3087; $34.95
Attorney General Arif Virani’s department last night said it will not prosecute reporters who disclose federal secrets. The Department of Justice dismissed an internal memo that detailed circumstances in which reporters could face charges for publishing government documents without permission: ‘All hypothetical.’
Cabinet’s GST holiday will save the typical Canadian $4.51, the Senate national finance committee was told yesterday. Senators endorsed the measure while commenting it appeared pointless: “I think we all understand it is a political measure.”
Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault (Edmonton Centre) yesterday said it is “deeply harmful” when white people claim Indigenous ancestry. Boissonnault told the Commons Indigenous committee he is not Indigenous though he once called himself Strong Eagle Man: “How can anyone believe anything you say?”
Subsidies on VIA Rail’s transcontinental service now average more than $1,000 per passenger, a record, documents show. Management in a report to Parliament said The Canadian tourist train that runs between Vancouver and Toronto is so frequently late “the delays are at times unacceptable.”
A national agency acted unlawfully in straying from its mandate, a federal court has ruled. The decision came on a petition by a drug company that complained regulators breached the Patent Act in the name of consumer protection: ‘Ensure a firm and unwavering obedience to legality and the rule of law.’
MPs yesterday demanded names of who in the finance department approved the hiring of a Brazilian contractor to mismanage a pandemic relief program that cost taxpayers billions. “Covid is not an excuse for ignoring the rules,” Conservative MP Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West) told the Commons public accounts committee: “They are hiding something.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday said it had nothing to do with a botched war memorial unveiled by MPs in 2022. The monument to “heroic Canadian Armed Forces who paid the ultimate sacrifice” includes names of non-combatants and ex-military who died of old age or are still alive: “How is it possible?”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland last night said it was “really hard to decide” what to tax or not under a GST holiday bill. Members of the Senate national finance committee questioned the logic of taxing children’s ice skates and musical instruments but making video games and Pepsi tax free: “You are right, it was really hard to decide.”
Cabinet yesterday acknowledged stiff opposition to its proposal to regulate legal internet content. Attorney General Arif Virani said a censor bill will be split to focus on issues that “should be a priority for everybody.”
Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon yesterday said Canada Post management and workers were “highly disrespectful” of customers as a strike passed its 19th day. This week is traditionally the busiest of the year with Christmas mailings: “That is in my view, among other things, highly disrespectful.”
Canadians in federal focus groups are worried over the national debt, says in-house Privy Council research. Taxpayers rated annual deficits a symptom of poor economic management: “A greater focus needed to be placed on maintaining balanced budgets.”
Cabinet yesterday confirmed Donald Trump suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state if it is unable to enforce border security and balance trade with America. Trump “was teasing us,” said one cabinet member who attended a banquet last Saturday at Trump’s Florida estate: “The President was teasing us.”
Parts of Canada’s Muslim and Arab communities are responsible for “a crisis of Jew hatred in this country,” says an executive with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. The blunt testimony opened hearings on anti-Semitism by the Senate human rights committee: “There is a crisis of Jew hatred in this country.”
