While We Are At It Let's Talk About Relationships.....

...between band members and the band bureaucracy on many of the reserves

Keith Beardsley: First Nations make first step towards better future. Ottawa ignores them


A few days ago in Moncton, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo spoke about the need to repeal the Indian Act and abolish the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. In the national media there didn’t appear to be much disagreement with his position which is an understandable reaction when one considers the state of the First Nations relationship with Ottawa and the appalling living conditions on many reserves. Essentially Atleo took the first step and laid out his vision of the future. Atleo’s vision included abolishing the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and replacing it with two smaller entities, one that would support a government-to-government relationship and the other to provide services to First Nations communities.

The natural tendency of any bureaucracy when ideas such as Atleo’s are floated and end up earning major media coverage is to go into defence mode. It would be interesting to know how much time the department, the minister’s office and PMO spent working on defensive talk points and looking at what is wrong with Atleo’s suggestion as opposed to what are the benefits to both First Nations and the government of his suggestions. Read More »