If Pierre Poilievre wants to become the prime minister, then he still needs to educate himself about First Nation Peoples, says a former Chief.
The rebuke by Judy Wilson, a former Kukpi7 (Chief) from unceded Secwepemcúl’ecw territory, of Poilievre’s first in-person speech to the Assembly of First Nations was par for the course as he pitched his firebrand “common-sense” conservatism.
“This is my first meeting in person, but I hope it is the first of many,” Poilievre said to a room of over 300 First Nation leaders, positioning himself as prime minister-in-waiting.
The speech did not veer from Poilievres's slogan-ready promises to axe the tax, build homes, stop crime, and fix the budget, but instead reframed them with a First Nation lens — addressing the Chiefs of Ontario’s judicial review of carbon pricing, First Nation policing, and the housing crisis on First Nations.
Poilievre also appealed to conservatism’s first principles, which he argues are shared with First Nations: the values of faith and spirituality, family, tradition, entrepreneurship and land.
“It may surprise some of you to learn that the values and institutions of your precolonial history… are shared by Conservatives,” he said.
Much of the speech centred on Poilievre’s vision for small government: removing barriers to development in the form of what he calls “gatekeepers,” and placing economic reconciliation at the forefront of his Indigenous policy.
Giving a specific example, Poilievre spoke to his flagship policy that would give First Nations the ability to tax industries operating on their traditional territory. The program would be optional, and companies would be granted a 50 per cent refundable tax credit to make it economically viable for industry.
Following Poilievre’s address, Wilson slammed Poilievre for not acknowledging Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the United Nations on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and inherent title rights for nations on unceded territory without treaties. Wilson also rebuked the opposition leader for failing to speak about the climate crisis.
“How can we dismiss the climate crisis? We have heat domes people are dying from, we have wildfires; you have to address the climate crisis,” she added.
Wilson also derided Poilievre for failing to acknowledge residential school survivors, whose experiences led to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Gabriel Maracle, a political science professor at Carleton University and an enrolled member of Tyendinaga, believes Poilievre will continue to use the language of reconciliation in some capacity.
For example, Poilievre noted that “social support requires economic reconciliation.”
That made sense in Maracle’s understanding of the Conservative Party’s approach to reconciliation.
“From a conservative government’s perspective, ensuring economic development is foundational to protecting and supporting Indigenous people's rights,” Maracle wrote in an email.
Maracle does not think the legislation enshrining the United Nations declaration in federal law will be repealed, but he does see a scenario in which implementation could be dragged out and insufficient.
“All inherent rights are framed [by the Conservative Party] as existing under the auspices of the Constitution, rather than rights that have existed on these lands before Canada was even a country,” Maracle said about recent conservative policy rhetoric, including those found in the Conservative party’s policy declaration document.
For example, Indigenous Peoples are described as “Indigenous Canadians” in the policy document, which frames Indigenous Peoples as a subset of a larger Canadian state.
The language directly contradicts the United Nations declaration, which raises the question of what free, prior, and informed consent will look like when nations oppose, rather than support, resource development.
“I believe in Section 35 consultation rights,” Poilievre said in his speech, specifying that he sees consultation as a right that cuts two ways. “I believe those rights require our government consult with people who want those projects to go ahead, as well as those that don’t want them to go ahead.”
Matteo Cimellaro / Canada’s National Observer / Local Journalism Initiative
Comments
Firebrand Conservative neoliberal values are the exact opposite if Aboriginal values.
Individual responsibility not conmunity, divide and conquer polarization. No such thing as comprise and communication while that is a basic reality with first nations. And with with budgets, one can be assured the cuts PP proposed with heavily affect first nations.
Poilievre promises unlimited resource extraction with lax environmental laws.
Dangled the "you'll get filthy rich under me" carrot.
Vote for him and help the Reform Party speed up the already dizzying pace of the collapse of the planet.
But think of the money you'll make doing it.
Which of course they won't--under Conservatives, the people who get rich from extraction are the people who were already rich before. The promise of riches under right wing hyperextractivism is more like Lucy's football than like a genuine offer of crumbs from the table.
"educate himself" she says. Yeah, that's a non-starter--right wingers don't do the "e" word. When your approach is to make shit up and declare that to be reality, you're not that interested in learning actual things--they just get in the way. Witness Pierre Poilievre, making up a fake history of First Nations where they're a bunch of Conservatives and trying to get them to swallow it.
This offers a rare overview of what "common sense" conservatism currently is according to Poilievre. The focus on the seminal importance of the economy is expected, and has validity, but what's new is that in the list of "values," "faith and spirituality" comes FIRST.
That hegemony of religion also underpins the American "Christian Nationalism" that is currently threatening their democracy via the MAGA GOP, so after silent but avid decades of effort it's FINALLY being openly acknowledged in the media along with its horrifying and bold blueprint, the 900-page long "Project 2025." With "divine law" FINALLY ascendant and close to winning real power in the upcoming U.S. election, "trumping" the old, secular rule of law, thereby "saving America," not to mention turfing the old, international rules-based world order has never been so close. Look where Harper is now with the "International Democratic Union," displaying yet again the conservative penchant for saying the exact opposite of what is true.
So all the branches of the insane right wing there, here and everywhere now emboldened, even the EU, paying lip service to old standards is weakening. With theocracy actually superseding democracy, trifles labelled by universities as "the Humanities," like history, sociology (remember Harper the accountant openly disdaining "practising sociology) or even more surprisingly, science, PARTICULARLY the science of climate change, whatever is unique to Indigenous peoples like the residential school debacle, or missing and murdered women isn't worth mentioning any more than land acknowledgements have been in the opinion of conservatives.
Although admittedly token and often insincere, excessively precious, and even affected, when repeated enough such acknowledgements can also foster acceptance, good will, and a genuine shift in attitudes that's required for genuine "reconciliation." In other words, they're considerate, kind, and like the LGBTQ plus acronym, show generosity and the typical left-wing openness to expanding the definition of what it means to be human.
The Lincoln Project launched a dystopian ad based on Project 2025. Very depressing. The Handmaid's Tale comes true if the Project is enacted by a Trump government. It would make Margaret Atwood a true prophet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0HOQdD2wCc
Radio carbon dating on ancient Indigenous village hearths on the West Coast brought up some very illuminating results.
Continuous habitation of the eastern Fraser River Valley and the Fraser Canyon dates back 6,000 to 9,000 years. The Indigenous presence on BC mid-coast islands goes back 14,000 years, immediately following the melting ice packs at he end of the last Ice Age. An average of 100 centuries of diverse cultural development have occurred up to the 19th and 20th centuries when that culture clashed with imported and often violent and greedy European values.
The Conservative Values Poilievre is pushing look like a cheap, momentary TV beer ad by comparison to history.
I see no comment here or on other media on the fact that many attendees stood and turned their backs to Poilievre in silent protest. Indigenous people are not easily fooled by Conservative rhetoric. They know Poilievre well from his previous years in Stephen Harper's government.
Thank you, thank you. You've made my nausea from reading this article go away. I'm so glad to hear this.
Is that right? Interestingly, and depressingly, all I saw was a guy at the mike expressing macho repudiation of Trudeau, a sort of warrior challenge, so the wildly irresponsible, ever more complicit media's jumping on the bandwagon to join the pile-on of the lame duck incumbent in a race that hasn't even been called yet.
Surprisingly, even CBC doesn't get it.