Indigenous Suffering is the Point

The Expanding Processes of the Aboriginal Industry

The following opinion piece written by prolific blogger and editorial writer James Pew was first published on November 29, 2022.

It is an outstanding piece of sound reasoning that carefully dissects the lock-step correlation between indigenous adversity and the nonstop cries of reparations by those benefiting from this suffering, namely members of what has traditionally been called the Indian Industry.

As Pew correctly states:

Indigenous politics in Canada involves a long drawn-out expensive processes designed not only to extract taxpayer dollars but also to block oversight and control narratives. Because of this, over the last several decades an expansion of a vast infrastructure of dependence has rendered the nation incapable of dealing honestly and fairly with Indigenous Canadians.

This essay is required reading for anyone wanting to understand the consequences of current policies and practices directed toward indigenous Canadians.

Though I don’t offer it as criticism, this outstanding piece omits a needed explanation of the causes of these policies and practices, namely the unwillingness of various orders of government, especially the federal government, to acknowledge that indigenous adversity is rooted in the special constitutional and other treatment of aboriginals in Canadian society that has prevented them from achieving full and equal citizenship.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien, knew all this in 1969 when they tabled a White Paper (formally called the Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy) calling for the ending the special legal relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state including repealing the Indian Act. This white paper was never acted on due to strong opposition from Aboriginal leaders across the country; instead it sparked a new era of Indigenous political lobbying in Canada.