Der Oberste Rechnungsprüfer wirft Indigenous Services Canada vor, es versäumt zu haben, wesentliche Programme zu verbessern

What would your community look like if it was undemocratically controlled by people who saw your people as „them“?

Canada’s „Indian Act“ creates a 3-level, stand-alone governance system with democracy only going up to the „mayor“ level. Top two levels are held by unelected-by-the-people-they-govern Canadian hirelings and appointees. They do not have to listen to First Nation „voters“ to keep their jobs.

If you believe in the boons of a democracy – as a check and balance on bad decision-making, insistency on transparency, voter buy-in into system, voter-priorities lead decision-makers – then the system has be enacted at all decision-making levels as much as possible. Former ISC Minister Marc Miller said he regularly made decisions that should have been made by someone elected by First Nations.

Canadians weaponized the phrase, „No taxation, without representation“, which enflamed the American Revolution, but in Canada it meant that Canadians could undemocratically control the top two levels of the Indian Act governance system because the Indians didn’t pay tax. But the Canadian elites preferred the control to the cash. which is why many First Nations who work and live on-rez are not taxed. It is not a boon given out of the goodness of the Canadian heart – as most Canadians believe – it is an economic sanction against these communities that prevents them from raising funds for First Nations‘ goals and culture. The Canadians who created the Indian Act wanted to assimilate First Nations, not have them use local tax dollars to support their First Nation cultural goals and languages.

It’s always funny when Canadians get riled up and then vote in a Conservative (large „C“) that they think is going to make change. But then that politician goes to Ottawa, does some learning, and figures out the Indian Act system was designed by Canadians for Canadians, and they entirely control it, undemocratically, at the top two decision-making levels. And the Canadian voters always wonder why they maintain the status quo.

Again, what would your community look like if it was undemocratically controlled by people who saw your people as a „them“? The answer: probably like a reserve.