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submitted 1 week ago by theacharnian@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[-] wampus@lemmy.ca -3 points 1 week ago

It's interesting that the article frames this as an issue that could topple the NDP, and that the NDP is basically backing out to appease a minority group at the potential expense of the majority's interests. Ie. It's a bigger risk to the NDP governments survival, to appease a minority groups demands, than to work for the majority's interests. Pretty sure that's not how democracies are meant to work. Leaving this issue as is, risks them losing public support; but they can't convince their FN ministers to consider the broader public, as the FN ministers are primarily just there to represent FN interests, not the communities they were elected in it seems. Many FN often have "destroy Canada from within" type vibes...

Like the story highlights that the NDP backed off because they couldn't get the support from one of their members, who happens to be the wife of a First Nation chief. I guess demanding laws/legislation that benefit you personally / your race at the expense of others, and at the expense of the citizens in your riding, is what our politicians are about these days. Like she stands to personally profit / benefit from blocking the proposed alteration -- in most other normal circumstances, this'd be tantamount to corruption. Stories about politician personal interests taking control of government actions/holding government hostage to their agendas, should have a negative context in any democratic news story in my view. Instead we phrase it as something to be lauded. Like imagine if we had heard that someone was blocking something like eco protection laws, and that the change that was being blocked would remove a bunch of privileges from their husband/wife's business/career. Like, idk, Donald Trump taking actions to benefit his family. Not a good news story, even if he tries to expand it and say "It benefits other rich white people too!". But we're treating this like it's a morally appropriate stance for this particular MLA.

Shit, my strata has stricter conflict of interest laws than our government. This lady should be bowing out of the vote entirely as she can't realistically make an unbiased call, if her husband/family directly profits/benefits from her actions as an MLA. If she/they want to have nation to nation relations, they shouldn't be in a position to dictate "our" nations actions from inside. Imagine if non-FN could join FN to dismantle FN benefits from inside the FN leadership structure.

[-] villasv@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Like the story highlights that the NDP backed off because they couldn’t get the support from one of their members, who happens to be the wife of a First Nation chief

That’s not really true though.

Joan Phillip is not just “a wife of a First Nations Chief”; that’s kind of insulting. She’s First Nation and a long time activist at that, not just someone’s wife.

She’s voting the way she was elected to vote. It’s absolutely how democracies are supposed to work.

And she was not the only on the NDP caucus opposing the bill; though since it’s a slim majority it only takes one to say “I will nay” to put the bill at risk. It’s Eby who would put the government at risk by making a risky bill a confidence vote, not Joan. She doesn’t decide what is a confidence vote, she just votes.

It’s interesting that the article frames this as an issue that could topple the NDP, and that the NDP is basically backing out to appease a minority group at the potential expense of the majority’s interests.

Same could be said for trying to undo DRIPA in the first place. Risk a confidence vote to go backwards on a landmark reconciliation legislation that will affect generations just to appease a few landowners who eat rightwing fearmongering propaganda.

[-] wampus@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

She wasn't necessarily elected to specifically promote FN interests at the legislature by her non-FN constituents. BC's swing to the NDP was largely a reactionary vote against the overt corruption of people like Christy Clark and her "Liberal" party, what with things like Rich Coleman being shown evidence of massive foreign money laundering, and responding to that evidence by firing the messenger/investigators. Voters in BC were, and are still, basically being given the choice of NDP, or openly corrupt conservative shills, so we tend to elect the NDP. If voters get told / shown that someone is explicitly voting for their own demographics benefit, that should realistically trigger them getting booted by voters -- but we basically have no alternatives in BC at present. Even the current conservative party, is basically totally run by the old "Liberal in name, conservative in allegiance" people. Even with that said, the province will almost definitely swing Conservative next time around (unless they massively screw up their leadership race), because of the unpopularity of Eby's party as a result of their handling of these very sorts of issues (and the NDPs messed up budgets).

Her long standing ties as a FN activist / leader, just lends more credence to the "Maybe we should view this as 'foreign interference' if its meant to be nation to nation, and she's the leader of a different nation with different objectives and goals than that of BC/Canada". You can't have 'reconciliation' if both sides are represented by FN and working exclusively for FN's benefit. Sorta like the MMIWG report facing backlash, because it was authored largely by FN government workers, who only interviewed FN people, and trusted them without looking for evidence to support the claims, nor did they spend any time determining whether the violence towards FN women was coming from FN communities (ie. FN men abusing FN women). It's a totally fair criticism of that report to say it was one-sided, and likely biased heavily in favour of FN interests.

As for the fear mongering / concerns, I won't get into that too much. But I will say that some of the points that get raised do have some basis/merit to them. The disadvantages seen by the majority, vs the benefits/perks of the FN minority at this point, are pretty significant -- it's one of the painfully obvious reasons we see pretendians so frequently. Our media often phrases it like "Why would people do this?!", though the answers simple. Like in the case of the Gill sisters back east, who went from business owning entrepreneurs / law students, to being wage slave cashiers, as a result of their FN fraud being exposed: there are huge amounts of racially-based funds/programs/perks provided to that demographic segment. The lopsided treatment of racial groups is likely also why they're the only Canada-born demographic that has a population that's increasing, while every other demographic is decreasing (barring immigration). Like if we wanted "equity", we should defund child supports for FN until they're as screwed as everyone else (which'd be a dumb approach overall) -- or we should increase child supports for everyone but FN until those other groups are at parity for local population increases (which'd be trying to achieve equal outcomes for different races who show aggregate disparities, which is how we've justified other equity initiatives historically). But equity, like reconciliation, only seems to flow one way.

[-] villasv@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That's a lot of words just to say that you resent representative democracy when the representative elected is defending interests of a group you don't belong; which is the norm in representative democracies.

I guess I have to break the news that the goal of reconciliation is not to achieve "parity for local population increase". What a weird angle, great-replacement-theory adjacent stuff.

But the ‘foreign interference’ concept is new to me, so it gets the cake for the weirdest shit I've read recently. Got too much free time in your hands...

[-] wampus@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Quite the stretch. Saying that our representatives should be representing the whole constituency, not just a minority groups interests, is the proper position in a democracy you twit. Look at the states right now, and how the republican's are only representing the republican interests, while literally attacking democrats in places like Minnesota. THAT is what that sort of position leads to. This lady is elected to represent HER ENTIRE constituency, INCLUDING the non FN -- just like a non FN person who is elected to the legislation is elected to represent their FN constituents. The color of a representatives skin, and their ethnic background, should absolutely not be allowed to dictate their decisions. If they are permitted to act just in their own race's interests, and it's commonly accepted that doing so is 'ok', than the majority race would just always elect the majority race, and totally fuck minorities everywhere.

I didn't say reconciliation is about parity, but commented on equity and parity. Reading is difficult sometimes -- the first paragraph touched on democratic representation, the second on reconciliation, and the third on equity/parity. Canada's DEI is based on exactly what I said -- hell, the ability to provide benefit to specific racial groups is based on Canada having a "equality of outcomes" approach (ie. "Equality of aggregate end results"), rather than "equality of opportunity" where things are basically funded as a flat rate irrespective of any racial or demographic based considerations (which was more common in the US). So our government allows you to do something like setup a Grant/Bursary that can only be awarded to "First Nations" people, because they view it as a disadvantaged group that needs assistance -- and to be clear, those racially targeted perks are not part of reconciliation, you can do the same for women, or black people, asians, south americans, whoever. You can generally "positively discriminate" in favour of any minority that's deemed to be at a 'disadvantage'. We're not "reconciling" with recent black immigrants when they are given easier access to education and employment, nor are we doing so when the same is done for FN. Like the reason the MMIWG didn't talk about FN Men at all, was because they were making a case for all their laundry list of investments and policy changes to try and help a demographic group that could be framed easily in a disadvantaged context. It may get pushed under the same reconciliation banner at times, but if a similar report was issued about a different minority in a similarly extreme disadvantaged state, the government would basically be forced to take action based on our Charter's principles.

Reconciliation is separate, and mostly focuses on self-governance / authority over a region. Yes, it's another area where there's a lack of representation for the majority's interests, but no, it's not specifically about parity. It's mostly about sorting out the division of powers between the Canadian government and the First Nations band, with an eye to make that division fair/harmonious. It's a "nation to nation" discussion, not an "individual needs and benefits programs to help disadvantaged groups" discussion. And again, because it IS a Nation to Nation discussion, it is inappropriate for her to pretend to be acting as an MLA when she's putting her other Nation's interests first. She is clearly in a conflict of Interest here by most definitions of the term. She should be abstaining on the vote entirely.

[-] villasv@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago

Wow, an elected official defending First Nations interests really grinds your gears huh. Take care.

[-] wampus@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

I'll openly criticize any democratic leader who is putting the interests of the few ahead of the interests of the many / all -- and any democratic leader who is only helping out "their" people, at the expense of everyone else. For example, I've openly expressed criticism of Harjit Saijan before, because of his clear prejudice when it came to directing Canadian special forces to assist non-Canadian Sikhs, and only targeting that demographic for additional assistance, during Canada's pull out from Kandahar. CSIS even called it out. Then the Liberals held a press conference declaring it racist to think of Harjit's actions as racist, because we wouldn't think him racist if he wasn't also a Sikh. Like no Shit Trudeau, but by that reasoning White supremacists aren't racists if they're white people -- it's an utterly batshit take.

And your approach to this conversation is just asinine. Basically in response to me pointing our things like her clear conflict of interest -- like it's practically a case book example of a conflict of interest, "My husband and I are also leaders on the other side of the negotiating table!", and the code of ethics she SUPPOSEDLY follows as an MLA -- you turn around and essentially imply I'm a racist because I'm not supporting her bullshit / the FN narrative.

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this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
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