By H. Grant Timms

Though the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report dominated the news the week of its release, typical of today’s 24 hour (or less) cycle, the talk it generated has all but ceased in the major media, and certainly in government circles – though the Prime Minister briefly mentioned the report during his brief interview with the Pope following the G7 conference.

The report’s 94 recommendations have, apparently, been taken under consideration by the federal government. What this means is that nothing at all will be done – including consideration — until after the next election…at the soonest. All the parties will be too busy over the next few months with their campaigns, but perhaps we will hear something about the Commission’s work, and other aboriginal issues, on the campaign trail.

I am far from an expert on aboriginal issues; I would say that I am, like most Canadians, ill-informed. Yet even were I better informed I would not presume to suggest to First Nations peoples what they should do regarding any issue. Unfortunately, too many among the non-aboriginal population are not so deferential. In fact, one could say that there are many in the broader public who hold strong (if uninformed) opinions about what the First Nations should do. For the most part, the solutions offered involve assimilation in one form or another. If the government would simply stop the ‘handouts’, sooner or later the First Nations will have to abandon reserves, get jobs and pay taxes just like everyone else.

Such opinion, it its basic form, has changed little over the last century or more. It was this sort of opinion that lent public support for schemes like the residential school system.

And were we to scratch off the politically correct language employed by significant numbers of the government party, one could expect to find underneath many of same sentiments.

The government’s attitude and approach was very clearly summed up in a single image of the Minister of Indian Affairs, and in a single statement by the Minister of Social Development. A picture and a caption…

The presser for the release of the T&RC report was attended by a who’s who of political officials – including Bernard Dalacourt, Minister of Indian Affairs, and the opposition leader Thomas Mulcair. During the conference, Justice Sinclair called for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women — a problem, indeed a crisis that has been with us for more than 20 years. A thorough investigation is needed, because the issue involves a complex of social problems which are beyond the RCMP’s mandate. The room rose almost as one in applause — almost, because the Minister remained in his seat. Various media ran a picture worth 10,000 words, showing Mr. Mulcair standing and applauding while glancing sideways with a look that expressed both disapproval and slight bemusement directed at a clearly uncomfortable Mr. Dalacourt, who remained seated and stared into his lap.

Defenders of the government have suggested that the press conference was one of those ‘gotcha’ moments, a piece of political staging for the express purpose of embarrassing the Minister – and the Prime Minister. However, the government, anticipating the release of the T&RC report, could have got out front on the issue and suggested an inquiry on its own. Doing so would undoubtedly created good will, and would have generated optimism that the Commission’s recommendations would be acted upon. Costs cannot be a concern as several millions have been, and are being spent to investigate the over-padded expense accounts of a few over-padded senators. Disappeared and murdered persons is surely an issue of higher priority.

The picture of the Minister symbolises the government’s approach; when called to stand up for aboriginal peoples it remains in its seat; when asked for assistance it stares into its lap.

This picture does not require a caption, but one was provided by Candace Bergen, Minister of Social Development. Concurrent with the release of the Commission’s report, an item appeared in several major media on the progress made by government’s First Nations Market Housing Fund. This $300 million program, launched in 2008/9, was to have built 25,000 homes by 2018. The reports indicated that the program had succeeded, so far, in constructing only 99 houses. Commenting on the low figure, the Board of Trustees noted that there had been problems. Obviously. The Trustees said things are improving. Obviously improvement is needed. If the same rate of construction continues, the goal of 25,000 units will take over 1400 years to achieve. Doubtless some of the units will need replacing by then.

But the ‘caption’, or what commanded my attention, was the response of Minister Bergen to opposition questions in parliament regarding the inefficacy of the program. She said, “We want to see First Nations individuals to be able to have the pride, the security, and the financial stability that comes from owning their own homes.”

Many objections were raised to the program when it was announced, and any number of valid criticisms could be cited here. Indeed, cultural differences aside, one might point out to the minister that in these days of precarious employment and the inflated values of real estate, going into debt to purchase a home provides neither security nor financial stability — whether on a reserve or off.

Yet it was the Minister’s words that were striking. One can hardly imagine a better reflection of Anglo-American bourgeois individualist values: an ideology of individual property ownership, an ideology that makes the market the arbiter of value, and an ideology where everything and every person is a commodity. And she wants First Nations Peoples to have these values too. She clearly believes these values will be a boon to them. She was, in effect, defending yet another assimilationist policy based on an ideology of property that was even more destructive than the Residential School System. For it was the confrontation between First Peoples and this ideology that led to the destruction of the First Nations on this continent.

That such a statement could be uttered on the heels of the Commissions report into the effects of the assimilationist policy that was behind the Residential School system, effects that Justice Sinclair called cultural genocide, simply boggles the mind. One can only hope that when a re-configured Parliament returns in the fall that it is peopled with individuals who are not only prepared to act on the Truth And Reconciliation Commissions’ recommendations, but are able to appreciate the cultural and historical issues that are involved.