In an op-ed published in The Globe and Mail, Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga described the “undercurrent of quiet racism” permeating Canadian public spaces. She argued the, “I know what is best for you” attitude towards reconciliation is only hindering progress towards meaningful Crown-Indigenous relationships.
You can see evidence of this in the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau was both widely criticized and praised for demanding “the blockades must come down now.”
Trudeau’s forceful tone was welcomed by Conservatives across the country, who have focused their energy towards painting those involved in the ongoing blockades as radical environmentalists.
The focus on environmentalism should not be understated. The crisis began when the RCMP enforced a court order against a Wet’suwet’en blockade in northern British Columbia, which was preventing the construction of the $6.6 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation have opposed this project for nearly a decade, though some within the nation approve of an alternate location for the pipeline instead, in order to access potential economic benefits for their communities.
My concern is that the analysis of the crisis has become too narrow. Instead of talking about reconciliation as a process that is inherently tied to the founding of our settler-colonial state, many mainstream media outlets have hyper-focused on the pipeline.
This falsely leads many Canadians to believe these blockades suddenly appeared without prior, less disruptive attempts to resolve the issue. I’ve even been told by some that these blockades are led by “social justice warriors,” still bitter about Trudeau’s decision to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
We need to step back and recognize this issue represents so much more than one pipeline. The violent separation of Indigenous peoples from their traditional lands and culture is crucial to both the birth and continued growth of the settler-colonial state in Canada.
Indigenous peoples on reserves have been told to wait patiently for years just to gain access to clean drinking water. The number of Indigenous people, particularly young men, in the prison system continue to be highly disproportionate.
These cases reflect the, “I know what is best for you” attitude Talaga described. When the prime minister discusses the waning patience of Canadians, he misrepresents the fundamental concept of freedom of peaceful assembly his own father wrote in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We cannot simultaneously encourage people to protest peacefully and follow the rule of law, while also aggressively telling them their peaceful protest has gone on too long.
Trudeau’s words are dangerous to the mission of comprehensive reconciliation in this country. Those who speak using racialized stereotypes and hold themselves with superiority over Indigenous peoples are likely partially motivated by a lack of education.
We need to remove the pipeline from the centre of these discussions. The lack of education in this country cannot be solved with narrow discussions between the Liberals and Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders, which continue to be preoccupied with this pipeline.
We need to take a lens that includes all of the forms of violence faced by Indigenous peoples every day when assessing how to move forward in this crisis. The lack of education about Canada’s history and the lack of inclusion of Indigenous voices in government are part of this.
But, they are not all-encompassing of the countless forms of violence faced by these communities every day.
File photo.
