Well, this whole idea does not surprise me at all. Over the last 3 decades, there has been an emerging attempt from politicians to "add Indian and mix" to various institutions throughout our country. This one is just one of many by our elected representatives. Some others have been:
Barry Stuart J of the Yukon Bench, idea to bring a concept of a sentencing circle to northern communities that as part of their culture, never use the motifs of circles in government. As a result an idea that was originally meant to address sentencing disparity amongst First Nations *in the north* for crimes of a *non-violent* nature has been quickly co-opted by other jurisdictions as the mechanisms to address disproportionate representation of First Nation in federal pens. We all know how that's gone over in the courts.
Then there was the bright idea to institute all First Nation rolls of jurors following the Donald Marshall Inquiry. I recall one FN inmate vehemently opposed to the idea and putting it simply, that he'd rather take his chances with 12 white people than 12 Indian grandmothers. Knowing full well the gradmothers of his FN would in all likelihood leave him out for wolf fodder.
Then there was the Kingston business man who wanted to reenact the whole Mohawk/Loyalists/1812 thing down by the waterfront at Fort Henry by starting it off with Mohawk "warriors" shooting flaming arrows over the ramparts of the fort.
Then there was the Birkenstock brigade that wanted to introduce an eagle feather to the Supreme Court of Canada as an alternative to using a bible or using an affirmation. This idea actually got far enough that a committee had been formed. It was shot down when they couldn't answer the questions of, which First Nation are you going to use for the acquisition of the said feather? (in some FN one does not simply bend over and pick up a feather off the ground, there is a whole ceremony for that other FN believe that only certain people should have possession of a feather while others believe it is very important to know exactly which bird and how the feather was obtained. What will you do when a witness (now please note here that in the SCC there is very little direct testimony from a witness - if at all) that isn't from the particular FN and wants a feather from their own FN? And lastly, who will be the keeper of the said feather? Who and why someone has a feather is quite important to FNs, so using a generic "feather" would not necessarily bind someone to an oath by using it. So that idea got shelved.
Then there was the whole CSC thing about section 81 of the CCRA. Some talk was shuttled back and forth about what it actually meant for fed prisoners and their communities. It got as far as a symposium in Prince Albert in 1994.
Then there is the total mess of the Indian Land Claim commission that for all it's necessity has only guaranteed jobs for the staff for the next 30 years as they plow through the current land claims. But the chair is an Indian so it must be a good thing.
We'll skip over the Healing Foundation and the mess there.
Then there was the bright idea to turn DIAND into a super ministry and staff it with 50% FN persons. The problem at the time was there weren't enough FN public servants in the mix to apply for the *internal* postings. So there was an emergence of my great-great-great-great grandmother was a Cherokee princess type of public servant that managed to keep their job.
Then there was the National Film Board's attempt to "Indian" up the place. It started the Aboriginal Film Section. Filmmakers like Bruce MacDonald seemed to have managed to tap into that pot of money quite nicely as the criteria is limited to having one or two FN technical crew and one or two FN actors to constitute an Aboriginal film.
Then there is Health Canada's blueprint for a sunsetting organization. Medical Services Branch was supposed to shut up shop and have completed health transfer over to all FN by.....1999. They are a little behind in the schedule. Seems the bean counters forgot to add into the envelope of funding the *ongoing and sustainable amounts* so FN are saying no thanks to that proverbial white elephant.
Back in early 1993, the then Commissioner of CSC, John Edwards ordered up a study on whether there should be racial segregation(especially black and First Nation inmates) in the pens. His orginal thought was to prevent the issues of gangs and racial tensions. Those at CSC quickly pointed out to Edwards that this study coming from any other commissioner might be able to be got away with but with Edwards requesting it was going to be a hot potato and potential media nightmare. Edwards, was a former civil servant in Nigeria and South Africa - pre-Mandela. That study is sitting on some shelf somewhere in the bowels of NHQ collecting dust.
Still with CSC, back in the early 90s, some bright spark decided that all FN inmates needed to be rehabilitated was to get in touch with their inner Indianess. So self appointed elders were put on contract to deliver "programs". It was quite lucrative to get one of those contracts because all you had to do was photocopy some pages from the WhiteBearcrappinginthewood's new age touchy feely book on real-honest-to-goodness-Indian ceremonies and hand them out to the inmates and tell them to walk the red road. Six weeks later, hand them all a fancy-schmancy certificate and tell them they are all warriors.
Then there was the brilliant government idea to re-initiate aboriginal language training after spending a century trying to quash anyone from speaking it. But, someone decided that by 2050, there would be only three linguistic groups surviving (this is just a remake of the 1920 museum period's prediction that by 1960 all FN would be gone or assimilated) so oodles of money got thrown into Cree, Inuit and Haudausonee. Then in a innocuous little survey done by a school board in Kingston Ontario, it came to light that what was originally thought to have a number of maybe 30 FN kids in the area interested in learning a language, turned out to have over 1600 kids and their parents who were First Nation. This started a reexamination of off reserve stats. The feds in true form, handed that language envelope to the province's boards of education to sort out.
Are you starting to see a pattern?
Coderre's idea will last as long as the NAVA has to shoot him down. This is not about votes, or attempts to embarrass the current government - this is just another case of an attempt to add Indian and mix...
