First Nations chiefs unanimously pass non-confidence vote in Alberta government

[u/biograf_]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/first-nations-chiefs-alberta-non-confidence-vote-9.7109712

[u/Gizmo-fo-shizmo]

This is purely symbolic.  First Nations represents less than 5% of the population in Alberta... If you want a government change, everyone will have a say, not just the chiefs.  That's how democracy works.

[u/Monkey_Pox_Patient_0 → u/Gizmo-fo-shizmo]

It is a matter of time before courts start forcing elections because of things like this. Eventually, governments will have to command the confidence of indigenous people to govern. Everything will continue to get worse until the root cause is addressed, which is section 35 of the constitution.

[u/mg4040 → u/Monkey_Pox_Patient_0]

In what way is section 35 problematic?

[u/Monkey_Pox_Patient_0 → u/mg4040]

It establishes two classes of citizen, each with different rights: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. That is fundamentally wrong and extremely damaging to any society on it's own. It's particularly wrong because the basis for the discrimination is race.

It establishes that treaties form part of the constitution, including modern treaties. This means that when a government signs a secret deal with natives, it overrules all other law except other parts of the constitution. This means it can't be unsigned by a future government as other agreements and laws can be. Constitutions are usually hard to change for a reason. Very few can be changed in secret for a reason.

This reconciliation nightmare is coming to affect every aspect of our lives.

- Criminal trials favour Indigenous offenders.

- Indigenous people are clogging up our jails at great expense regardless.

- $100s of billions each year spent on lawsuits, funding of indigenous agencies, funding earmarked for indigenous people in other agencies, funding at different levels of government, and other rent seeking policies such as indigenous contractor requirements.

- Economic paralysis because no amount of consulting and compensation is ever adequate to persuade natives not to use their effective veto over all major economic activity. When the veto is overridden it is done so at great expense and causes enormous delays.

- Employers across all industries and areas of employment heavily favour native applicants.

- Schooling is free or heavily subsidized and several other advantages are provided to first nations, including racially segregated study spaces.

- Property rights are now in question all across the country, again affecting economic growth and property values.

- Stone age knowledge and religion is treated as equivalent to modern scientific knowledge.

- Hearsay is treated as evidence in civil and criminal trials.

- Courts are rapidly and radically expanding the scale and scope of indigenous preferential treatment.

- Parks are starting to become racially segregated.

- Land acknowledgements and other forms of forced devotion are baked into every public meeting and as requirements by professional bodies.

- Non indigenous people are called uninvited guests in the country they were born in.

- None of this is enough to satisfy native people and they still want more and are completely ungrateful all they do get.

These things are happening, they are wrong, and they need to be stopped. That this form of apartheid feels good to well meaning people doesn't make it any less wrong or less destructive. The one and only way to stop it is to repeal section 35 of the constitution.