“Aboriginal Fatigue”

To prepare for his Canadian citizenship test, Stéphane Bazin from France read the federal study guide several times, memorizing facts about hockey players, prime ministers and historical figures.

Bazin learned far less, he said, about Indigenous Peoples and their history.

“The story in the guide is written by the winners,” said Bazin, 41, who wrote the test and became a citizen three years ago. “It’s a very settler-oriented narrative of the French and the British settling — it’s almost like they arrived in an empty country.”

1st People’s Beheaders!

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A constitutional lawyer has sent a letter to the B.C. government saying that its decision to close Joffre Lakes Park to the public for two stretches potentially violates both provincial law and the Canadian Charter.

The popular park near Pemberton will be closed from June 20 to 27 and Sept. 8 to 30 so that members of the Lil’wat Nation and N’Quatqua can exercise their traditional activities on the land.

The Reio family was supposed to be living the Canadian dream. After a lifetime of hard work, they had saved money to buy a small lot with a modest home on the shores of Lake Erie. It was where they planned to spend their retirement. The existing bungalow needed work, but the Reios were ready to build their dream. They planned a small renovation that would involve keeping the existing foundation but building a slightly larger home with a second story and two bedrooms for their adult children and, one day, maybe grandchildren. The work began in 2024, and that’s when the Reios’ nightmare began.

The forces of historical ignorance and vandalism have once again struck in Ontario. This time, the freshly spray-painted statue of Samuel de Champlain, inaugurated in Orillia in 1925 in honour of the 300th anniversary of his visit to the area in 1615 has been removed, even though most people apparently want it kept in place.

Canadians are more likely to reject the idea that historic injustices against Indigenous peoples are “mostly in the past,” according to a new Leger poll conducted for the Association of Canadian Studies.

“The survey is especially relevant to debates about reconciliation and suggests that many Canadians believe acknowledging past injustices should inform current policy responses,” Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of the Association, told National Post in an interview.

I don’t buy it.

Earlier this month, a B.C. court decided to cancel the official go-ahead to construct a gold mine in the north of the province because a few dozen Indigenous people weren’t, in its view, adequately consulted.

It didn’t matter that the project, Seabridge Gold’s Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) mine, had already undergone 15 years of planning and consultations.

There is an entrenched “indigenous industry” in Canada — not ordinary indigenous families, elders, workers, or children, but a professional ecosystem of federal departments, band political insiders, consultants, lawyers, lobbyists, academics, activists, non-profit administrators, media voices, and reconciliation contractors who are funded, directly or indirectly, by Ottawa’s never-ending management of First Nations poverty.

Parliament is being urged by the Senate to pass Bill S-2. As amended by the Senate, this bill would, among other things, end the so-called “second generation cut-off” rule. These were changes to the Indian Act introduced in 1985 to prevent the transfer of status to a person who has at least one grandparent and one parent who does not have status — the so-called “second generation cutoff.” If passed by Parliament, S-2 is projected to add approximately 300,000 new registrants to the Indian Act status list by 2066. These amendments are estimated to result in at least $1 billion in annual benefit expenditures, driven primarily by the Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program and post-secondary funding.

The First Nations of New Brunswick are currently fighting for title to the entire province, but that hasn’t stopped the local legislature from offering up its courts for their use.

Last week, the N.B. Liberals tabled Bill 50, “An Act Respecting the Enforcement of First Nations Laws and the Prosecution of Offences under First Nations Laws.” It would designate New Brunswick courts as the place to enforce First Nations bylaws.