Our First Nations challenges must be solved soon. True, the Europeans migration to the new world brought problems for those already here. Also true, much of today's Canadian population are not descendents of either original inhabitants or European settlers, and as such, are reluctant to make large sacrifices to correct wrongs they neither suffered or committed. The current demographic mosaic of Canada is rapidly moving away from the previous Red-White pair to a world-wide blend. We will soon, or already have, reached the point where First Nations' concerns will mean nothing to the general population as they dismiss the whole issue as a matter of history: Events, agreements, promises, and deceit occurring long before they reached our shores.
I don't like going back on my word, whether that word was given by me in person or by me through my King, elected representatives, or appointed bureaucrats. If we made promises to First Nations people, honor them.
As well, let's not destroy these people by maintaining their dependency, nor elevate them to 'Super Citizen' status through special race-based considerations too. The goal should be to enable them to thrive, maintain their culture, history, religions, traditions, art, music, and heritage, just like all other Canadians are encouraged to do.
Cheers, PW. |
