Idle no more
Has anyone been paying attention to the Idle No More ampaign that's been going on? As I understand it, Canada's First Nations members are protesting C-45, a massive omnibus bill called the Jobs and Growth Act. What's receiving the most attention is the Navigable Waters Protection Act, which the bill's opponents say would weaken environmental ( Read more... )
One of the trickiest problems WRT solving aboriginal poverty is education. The basic conflict is that the only way to get an education is to go off-reserve. (And while there are native-run community colleges available, they have not historically met the same academic standards, or been accorded the same respect, as the other colleges. [This is not for entirely poor reason: several funding scandals, lots of serious questions about the quality of faculty, etc. but it remains a significant obstacle.])
And even once you're educated (university, college or otherwise), there's very little incentive to go back. There's almost no demand for knowledge workers (of any kind) on-reserve, especially if you aren't plugged into the nepotistic system by which hideously unqualified relatives of important community figures are given plum (and extremely well-paying, even by off-reserve standards) jobs. High school dropouts earning 100k a year to serve as the band's accountant, nurses in charge of water safety, that sort of thing.
So, in short, young people are presented with a choice:
- Buy in. Stay on the reserve, live in slum conditions, have poor vocational and occupational prospects, and try to deal with a heavily corrupt system of government.
- Leave. Go away, get educated, live in the city, abandon your culture and traditions--but live in the "real world", with drinkable water, economic opportunities, and--in general--a higher quality of life. (In addition to the loss of culture and connection to one's community and family, this can also jeopardize your ability to retain your aboriginal status with the government, which in turn can limit your ability to claim the [copious] benefits associated with holding that title.)
You may recognize this as the classic dilemma faced by virtually everyone growing up in a small town (stay here, take over dad's garage and be a mechanic the rest of my life; or go to college and move away and hardly visit ever again. That sort of thing.), but with the stakes heightened considerably. And this is doubly true when you factor in all the usual nonsense that people have to put up with just for being aboriginal: even if you break away and move to the city, you're still going to bump up against racism and prejudice and all the discrimination this implies.
To cut a long story short, there was already a simmering (and more-or-less nationwide) youth protest movement, which was critical of both the government (for allowing the situation to persist) and of the aboriginal establishment (which they view as causing many of these problems through corruption and nepotism).
There's been a lot of criticism (and I must admit that I believe the hypothesis) that one of the main reasons Idle No More has taken off as it has is because it allowed native leaders to bypass this earlier problem and refocus the attention of the entire community (as well as observers from outside) on the federal government. The issues in play (omnibus legislation, a meeting with the Prime Minister) are both easier to articulate and easier to solve than these lingering problems, and this approach has the added bonus of enabling leaders to sweep aside the corruption to which you've alluded.
As to the merits of their environmental concerns, that's not my field. But the politics of this entire situation are fascinating.
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