Idle No More’s vague demands butting up against PM’s pragmatism
Manny Jules has spent a whole lifetime listening to complaints. He was a chief, his father was a chief and his grandfather was a First Nations band councillor for three decades.
He remembers his father saying back in 1968 that First Nations communities “have to be able to move at the speed of business,” including and especially when it comes to leasing reserve lands ripe for economic growth. Complaints about the onerous and convoluted leasing process — which, thanks to the Indian Act, can take years and cost thousands in lawyering — persisted throughout his own tenure as a chief and, nearly 40 years on, right up until today.
As recently as mid-December, Mr. Jules and several chiefs voiced their own disdain for the way the Indian Act governs land leasing, asking Parliament to get rid of certain provisions that add months, if not years, of delay.
The Harper government heeded those calls and streamlined the process, but instead of garnering praise or even getting by with apathy, Ottawa was met with uproar and threats.
More specifically, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was met with Idle No More, an Occupy-type movement that claims he only amended the Indian Act because of a malevolent agenda to sell off reserve lands, and a hunger strike launched by Theresa Spence, the Chief of the Attawapiskat band that became infamous last year over a housing crisis despite millions of dollars flowing into the community.
The movement has been criticized for lacking a concrete agenda and for failing to put forth tangible solutions, but NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Attawapiskat, defends the grassroots protest saying “it’s there and it’s tangible.”
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Idle No More’s vague demands butting up against PM’s pragmatism | Canadian Politics | Canada | News | National Post
