I have a confession. \u00a0I advise people never to read the comments on newspaper websites. \u00a0But I do read them. \u00a0I can’t take my eyes off them. \u00a0They are a train wreck of logic and hate and contemptuous entitlement.<\/p>\n
Lately however, especially the comments on stories about First Nations, they seem entirely predictable. \u00a0In fact they seem almost too predictable. \u00a0Every article on the Globe and Mail <\/a>website for example contains hundreds of comments, a huge majority of which repeat some basic themes:<\/p>\n So let me address these in brief, one by one.<\/p>\n First Nations are accountable.<\/a><\/strong> In fact the Auditor-General of Canada said that First Nations are TOO accountable. \u00a0Too much is spent reporting<\/a> on funds and not enough time is spent actually using them. \u00a0But just because you can’t be bothered to look up the financial statements from publicly funded governments does not mean they are not accountable.<\/p>\n First Nations do not get a free ride. <\/strong> All governments receive tax dollars for services. \u00a0First Nations are no different. \u00a0And on top of that, First Nations are eligible for special programs and services because of the nature of the treaty relationship and the entrenchment of Aboriginal and treaty rights in the Constitution. \u00a0But this is not a free ride. \u00a0This is the result of agreements that asked First Nations to trade away rights to land FOREVER in exchange for some farm tools a few dollars, some new clothes, a reserve owned by the Queen and a school.<\/a> That isn’t exactly a free ride. \u00a0If someone invited you to a similar deal, would you take it?<\/p>\n Chiefs are not any more corrupt that anyone else.<\/strong> People are people . \u00a0When people commit crimes they go to jail and do the time for it. \u00a0Many, many, federal<\/a>, provincial<\/a> and municipal<\/a> politicians are criminally corrupt as well. \u00a0There is no greater number of Aboriginal politicians in jail for corruption. \u00a0Also, there is no federal or provincial government that is not in debt. \u00a0Having said that, in December 2011, only 12 out of 633 First Nations were in the equivalent of bankruptcy protection.<\/a> This means that, according to the federal government’s own policies, and based on overly onerous reporting requirements, \u00a098.2% of First Nations are run fine.<\/p>\n In Canada there is one law for all. \u00a0That law is the Constitution<\/a>.<\/strong> It protects treaty rights and Aboriginal rights. \u00a0It also protects free speech, privacy, freedom of assembly and so on. \u00a0It also allows for laws to be made that are different for different groups of people in order to ameliorate conditions that lead groups of people to have social disadvantages. \u00a0Anyone who argues that First Nations are not currently disadvantaged in Canadian society has simply not done the research.<\/a><\/p>\n Aboriginal people have merged with Canada. <\/strong>And the mechanism for doing so was treaties. \u00a0And where treaties don’t exist, outstanding issues of Aboriginal rights and title still exist and Canadians and First Nations are compelled to figure this question out. \u00a0The problem for assimilationists is that they don’t like the terms of this merger. \u00a0Well it’s too late for that. \u00a0When the ancestors of settlers arrived in this country they inherited the treaty benefits accorded to all Canadians, which allowed them to own land, start businesses, reap the resources, poison the waters, and profit profit profit. \u00a0Obviously settlers aren’t giving their benefits back, and clearly First Nations aren’t getting exclusive title over the land back. \u00a0We are merged. \u00a0And this is Canada. \u00a0And it benefits settlers enormously.<\/p>\n The comments I am seeing online have a strange hollow ring to them. \u00a0They parrot these objections ad infinitum and you see these lines everywhere. \u00a0No one is really thinking about what they are saying, just reacting. \u00a0Perhaps in some cases there are coordinated \u00a0communications \u00a0strategies to keep repeating these lines over and over until they seem true. \u00a0But they aren’t true. \u00a0You might have opinions, you might have a view of the world and how you want it to work, you might have an agenda, but it’s probably not what is really going on.<\/p>\n\n