In the late 1970s, the then government of PM Trudeau had authorized a commission to investigate the consequences of building a proposed pipeline into parts of northern Canada. Before going ahead with the pipeline, Trudeau had ordered an ‘independent’ commission to report on what effects, if any, would occur on the residents who lived there. The commission was chaired by Judge Thomas Berger (who now lives in Vancouver, i think; UBC has some award/scholarship named after him). Anyways, Judge Berger travelled everywhere - literally, almost everywhere - in northern Canada to speak with the “ordinary” people to find out how their lives would be affected if the pipeline were to be built. In 1976, a CBC reporter, Martin O’Malley, published a book titled, “The past and future land”, in which he gives excerpts from the people who testified at the inquiry to Judge Berger. There’s one part from “The past and future land” that i’ll copy and paste here - it’s pretty interesting:
~ ~ ~
Chief Harry Deneron, the new chief, noticed a sign on the door of the Hudson’s Bay store that said, “Do not drink from the river.” It was put there by the local nurse, along with instructions to boil any water for ten minutes before drinking.
“Well, it’s okay for us to – like a doctor can tell us this because we’re humans,” Chief Deneron told Judge Berger, who had come to Fort Liard for two days. “Most of us will probably know what they’re talking about, but what we can’t get at is, how can we get the message across to the animals that are depending on this water, the fish and that?”
It is a good question, one that confounds those white people who like to put a priority on things, with humans and their things definitely at the top and all the rest, the beasts and fishes, definitely lower down. The whole of the Northwest Territories, they say, could fit easily into Toronto’s CNE Stadium, and it’s true if by “whole” you mean only the humans. For sure you won’t get the land in, not the land that is one-third of Canada. And you won’t get all the trees in, or the animals, not the herds of caribou that thunder by in numbers exceeding one hundred thousand. But just the humans, yes. It is like measuring a Caesar salad by counting the croutons.
~ ~ ~
i didn’t write that, that’s an excerpt from Martin O’Malley’s book, “The past and future land”. i dunno if anyone will else will find that striking, but i did because we have such a different perspective towards nature, towards resources, than First Nations people.
If you look at the history of European settlers in Canada, you have to marvel at how we decimated their lives. When you now think of Aboriginals, we tend to think of glue-sniffing adolescents, high rates of suicide, alcoholic bums. There’s a homeless shelter in my city’s downtown where, every morning, without fail, you see a group of Aboriginal men lined up for the free breakfast… some of them are clearly drunk, some are getting high on glue-sniffing while they are waiting in line. It’s a really, really depressing sight..
Is this Canada’s genocide, the one we are too embarassed to talk about?
i have to admit to myself - i love this country, there are high tides in the Maritimes and rocky mountains for skiing in the west, when it’s +5 in Vancouver it can be -50 in Iqaluit, thousands of different groups, so many different languages, so much about this country i love. But what about our history, what about the “original” owners of this land ? While we can say much about our “multiculturalism”, it’s amazing that while doors are opening for Indians/Pakistanis/Arabs/Phillipinos, Africans, etc etc., simultaneously - we see constant obstacles for the native people. At what price was Canada formed?