Some People Are "Special"

 And how!:

Access To Information records show the transport department arranged a “healing circle” for employees after some questioned whether 215 children were buried at an Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. Comments were “uninformed, wrong and hurtful,” the deputy minister wrote in a staff memo: “I had people come to see me in tears.”

 

 

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I can only wonder why:

Employees at the Department of Natural Resources remain unclear about Indigenous reconciliation despite years of programming, says an internal report. The department was the first to give an entire division an Indigenous name to promote “cultural teachings, sharing circles and Indigenous recruitment programs.” 

 

Performative taxpayer-money wasting is STILL performative taxpayer-money wasting no matter what you call it.

If you want to get everyone's attention, why not abolish the Indian Act, the restrictive race-based policy that has only produced an entrenched robber-baron chief class and little else? 

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You see - it's alright when they do it:

The federal government says it is committed to respecting indigenous rights and title while continuing to fight a $5-billion court claim that seeks ownership and compensation for Parliament Hill and other federal landmarks in the National Capital Region.

A briefing note prepared for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty reveals Ottawa remains in court opposing a title claim launched by the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, despite stating the government is committed to recognizing Aboriginal rights and title.

"The Government of Canada is committed to maintaining legal clarity and stability in land ownership while respecting Aboriginal rights and title," the Jan. 21 departmental briefing note states.

The federal government has contested the lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court since 2016.

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Across the province, more and more First Nations governments are making claims to vast swatches of land. Some of the most consequential claims are those of the Tahltan Nation, which has identified 95,933 square kilometres of land as its own territory. That’s about 11 per cent of the entire province. The consequences will be much greater than mere land transfers.

B.C. is negotiating what it calls a “comprehensive reconciliation agreement” or “foundation agreement” with the Tahltan and other groups, which is structured around recognition of Aboriginal title. The deal is slated to give enhanced control over boundaries and the local economy to the Tahltan, while still providing government cheques to the group.

The province has already begun delegating authority to the Tahltan through new agreements under Section 7 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA). These agreements give the Tahltan new authority over the proposed Eskay Creek Mine Revitalization project and the existing mine, which has been in operation since the 1970s. Under the new scheme, these projects cannot go ahead without Tahltan consent. In effect, the provincial government, accountable to all British Columbians, has become a desk clerk that issues paperwork, for which it does not possess the final sign-off. …

The primary defect in sovereignty-association by administrative agreement is that it keeps authority and accountability separated. An Indigenous government is accountable only to its own citizens, while the provincial government is accountable to every British Columbian. If the province gives a numerically small, membership-based government decisive territorial power over projects, land or resources affecting non-members, and the wider provincial tax base continues to provide services within the territory in question, then provincial ministers will bear the political blame for all of it. This is how democratic responsibility becomes muddied.