Häuptlinge der First Nations im ganzen Land werden von Pipeline-Ankündigungen „überrumpelt“.

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I’ve commented on a similar article about this already but I’ll repeat it: this reaction isn’t reasonable.

>Chiefs in three provinces told CBC Indigenous there was no consultation at all before the plans were unveiled.

Well yeah, because there are no plans. Ford and Smith have announced the concept of a plan. Indigenous communities have the right to extensive and meaningful consultations; they don’t have the right to force the government through full consultations before they so much as hypothesize an idea. It would obviously make any project impossible.

>“Before projects start heading into more than just announcements, nations need to be engaged. Nations need to be able to make informed decisions,“ he said.

Well, luckily that’s what’s happening. This is the sort of behaviour that poisons public opinion on indigenous consultations. And look, I realize that Doug Ford and Danielle Smith aren’t paragons of meaningful consultations. I expect the actual consultations to run roughshod over… anyone they feel like. That will be a far more legitimate issue when the time comes, but also a wholly separate one from that raised here, which is a specific group of indigenous chiefs demanding that any and every hint of a government plan must go through consultations before the idea can even be whispered publicly.

In short, they’re being silly and in doing so putting a target on their community’s back. I don’t think the behaviour of the individuals in this article reflects the mindset of indigenous Canadians in general – it would be ridiculous and racist to claim that – but there are people who hold ridiculous and racist opinions who will use this as ammunition. It’s not fair for it to be unidirectional but that’s the state of the world at the moment.