I think you’re failing to give credit to the Conservatives. Their Aboriginal policy has certainly been evolving since the election.

Jan. 2006: We’re not going to implement the Kelowna Accord because we’re going to roll out our own Aboriginal policy and program soon. Be patient. (Update: no policy statement yet. No replacement for Kelowna.)

Mar. 2006: We’re ceasing work on a Land Claims Implementation policy because we’re going to start developing our own soon. Be patient. (Update: No implementation policy yet.)

June 2006: We refuse to meet with native leaders on their claims because we’re going to be developing a policy soon, and actually talking to them would be premature. Be patient. (Update: One year later, Prentice and Harper still refusing to meet.)

Oct. 2006: We’re not going to act on Justice Berger’s recommendations on Nunavut because we think they need to be studied. Be patient. (Update: NO action. Federal Government now being sued by Inuit for non-implementation of the Claim.

May 2007: We’ve fired, transferred or demoted everyone who actually knew anything about the Claims under negotiation, so we can’t possibly be expected to make any progress. But wait. Be patient.

I love the way most everybody deals with the report. But I ain’t surprised. Same’s always,mostly. Pick the easiest straw dog and knock it down. Or wait til it falls all by’s itself. Most everybody’s concentrating on one recommendation: settle land claims quick! But there are lots of other recommendations. Take one:

The education system actually needs to educate Canadians, and Aboriginal peoples.

That is the big one, in my opinion. It is repeated over and over in report and report, inquiry after inquiry, year after year.

“I would argue that most c/Conservatives I know (excluding my father, who makes Archie Bunker look liberal) would LOVE to see an end to the land claims nonsense.”

Since neither of us know what lies in the hearts of “most Conservatives”, I can’t really dispute this. I think you’re a honourable and good hearted person, and want to see justice done. I also think that only a tiny handful of Canadians have the tiniest clue what land claims and treaties are about, and I think our current government (and several of its precursors) exploit that ignorance in order to postpone coming to terms with a fundamental and growing injustice.

I think that most reasonable liberal Canadians would say something like this: ” First Nations have been badly treated by Canada, robbed of their land and their way of life, and so they deserve our support while they get back on their feet. ” I think most reasonable conservative Canadians would say: “Yes, but we’re encouraging a cycle of dependancy with all this federal assistance - isn’t it time they learned to fend for themselves? If that takes one more round of handouts, then fine…but let’s make sure this one works.”

Both attitudes miss the point, completely. Land Claims aren’t about guilt, or reparation. They’re rent that nation A is paying to nation B for the right to cross nation B’s land and airspace, to prospect and mine on nation B’s land. It’s not a “racial entitlement” - it’s a contract between nations.

That’s why so much activism focuses on blockades. Media and the government like to treat these as terrorist-like attempts to attack our economy, but the action of establishing a blockade is as clear a statement as one can make: we are supposed to have a deal here, buddy. This highway/railroad across our land proves that we’ve been living up to our side of the bargain…you haven’t.

Pretty much all senior legal and policy people at INAC, Justice and PCO understand this. It’s a big “aha” when you finally “get” what land claims are really about…not guilt, but a deal between nations, in return for which Canada gets quite a bit more than it gives. But many Canadian governments - the Chretien, Turner and Trudeau liberals, and certainly the current Conservatives - either ignore it, or deliberately seek to obfuscate the real nature of claims and treaty. The worst possible thing, from their perspective, would be a Canadian electorate that suddenly really understands the huge debt the govenrment has quietly been reneging on for decades - and not a debt of guilt, but a broken contract.

I am allowing two exceptions here, and I may be naive about them (Diss, you can give me shit here if you want). Mulroney’s Conservatives, for whatever reason, actually seemed to get it. And Paul Martin seemed to have a road to Damascus moment through the round table and subsequent Kelowna process. Whether he would have followed through, we’ll never know. But the current bunch is, quite simply, the worst lot I remember.