Left wing fundamentalist ideology is oppressing the very groups they claim to champion. Their rhetoric is anathema to the needs of those they claim to represent. The ideologues on the left are the ones who need to take responsibility for the poor outcomes for the Aboriginal Peoples.
Their anti-capitalism, anti-globalization and anti-colonialism magniloquence does nothing on the ground but make life more difficult for those they claim they wish to assist. The time has come to put the blame squarely where it belongs regarding the lack of progress for the Aboriginals in Canada: the betrayal by the Left.
As reported by Andrew Coyne, Mi’kmaw activist, Pam Palmater, professor at Ryerson, sees the way forward by returning to “our traditional ways of governing, learning, trading, sustaining and relating.” Great. But she works in the largest city in Canada, and never has to check her trap lines or fear for her children’s future.
This call to the past as a pathway to the future is centuries old. It dates back to the development of Socialism at the time of the Industrial Revolution in Europe that led to unprecedented change including a great upheaval in the population, a migration from rural to urban. The response from the left was to play on fear of the future, demonize modernity and embrace Romanticism; a return to nature, an idyllic pastoral past that never existed, away from science, and re-engage with innocence. Rousseau’s natural man.
Today, this same old story, and the exploitation of fear, has been recycled, tarted up with a new shade of lipstick and reused. The Left pastes their environmental agenda, an agenda that is more concerned about the planet than the people inhabiting it, to the feelings the First Nations have for the land. They encourage their refusal of accessing the abundant natural resources for the benefit of all-especially their children. Instead the Left encourages the old mantra: tradition. It reminds me of the movie The Fiddler on the Roof where the lesson learned was tradition can be transported to a new place and thrive.
For the left wing ideologues using the Aboriginals as allies in their environmentalism while living well in the cities, giving their children every opportunity to succeed is a win-win for them. In the name of environmentalism, the left wing agenda does nothing on the ground but make life more difficult for those they purport to assist. The lack of consensus amongst the Native Peoples will keep them from finding any solutions and will prevent economic prosperity. They will remain victims of “the others”- the colonizers, the capitaisits.That fits in with the agenda on the left.
And today, the left never misses an opportunity to second the language of the Holocaust to attract attention to their causes. Palmater’s proclamations are an example of the hyperbolic language of the left that has a one-size fits all answer to everything. She said of the government’s agenda that it is nothing less than “genocide” and the complete elimination “socially, culturally, legally, physically.” The left uses the word genocide ever so casually. Palmater, following lock-step with many of her compatriots finds no shame in comparing the actions of Canadians (or fill in the black) with the actions of the Nazis. This language distracts and enrages rather than engage.
By encouraging nostalgia for some ephemeral past, the left patronizes and infantilizes the very people they say they are defending while promoting their eternal and infinite victimization. Enormous transfers of money have been made over the decades to no avail. Substantial amounts of money go to very small communities where there is a lack of trained professionals to enact the modifications needed. There exists minimal infrastructure- from homes to schools, hospitals and water, sewage and electricity, as well as the basics of political and judiciary institutions.While Canadians are paying to give our First Nations a leg up into modernity, the Romantic attitude, the calling card of the left, stands in the way of hope and change.
In response to criticism there is a constant deflection away from personal responsibility-whether it is from Chief Spence, or Daniel Wilson, former senior director with the Assembly of First Nations or Palmater. It is easier to pass the blame than shine a light on one’s own dark shadows. And why should they accept blame? Politicians from the left, including Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau, validate the behaviours when they pay homage; the mountain going to Mohamed.
If the Aboriginal Peoples do not break away from the left, they are doomed to remain trapped in the past; forever waiting for Godot.
