Human rights for Native people?

Page 9

In his ninth and last Canadian Human Rights Commission report, Max

Yalden has found that Canada is progressively moving forward in almost

all areas except gay/lesbian rights and, of course, Native rights

(though it certainly makes one concerned about the status of Native

gays and lesbians). In fact, he goes out of his way to say that little

has changed for Canada's Native people since he took over his position

nine years ago.

When I was growing up on the Curve Lake Reserve in central Ontario, we

didn't worry about terms like "human rights" or "commissions". Those

were just amorphous terms used by people who lived and worked in the

outside world which was another planet for all practical purposes. We

occasionally watched the news for a larger view of the universe, but, by

and large, my existence didn't extend beyond the reserve boundary.

Back then Native people were an oddity, relegated to the world of the

cast of The Beachcombers, the occasional powwow and maybe a western or

two. Back then we had very few human rights to consider, because other

than bureaucratically, we didn't really exist for the majority of

Canadians.

Consider it has only been a decade or two since many of us had to get

written permission from the Indian agent to leave the confines of the

reserve. In fact, there's's a rumor that South Africa once sent a

delegation over to study Canada's reserve system to help set up their

own apartheid system. But like I said, its just a rumor.

When I first moved to the city I remember my aunt telling me that if,

for any reason, I was stopped by the police, to immediately toss my

status card away. "Eat it, do anything, but don;'t let them know you

are Indian." The fact that I have bluish-green eyes and fair hair did

little to allay her apprehensions. There was a look of dark suspicion

in her eyes of all things non-Native and authoritarian.

Several years later, I met and dated a beautiful Native woman who had

been part of what was called "the scoop up". This was a tragic time

when Native kids had been forcibly taken away by the system and farmed

out for adoption. She was trying to find out why she had been taken and

rediscover her family and culture. And we can't forget the people who

were forcibly sent to residential schools and had their heritage ripped

away from them. Not a proud time in Canadian history.

Now as we creep into the last half of the '90s, we tend to think that

Canadian society has developed beyond all this and hopefully become

better. Things like this can't happen anymore, supposedly. Human

rights, once amorphous are now part of every Native organization's

lexicon as well as Max Yalden's commission. Things have changed.

But then I think about events at Oka, the Quebec referendum, and its

so-called 'ethnic vote". My mind remembers the opposition to the

Nisga's's land claim in British Columbia, and the incredible rates of

violence and poverty I have seen still haunting Native communities all

across this country.

Though we as a nation have come far, I have to agree with the Canadian

Human Rights Commission. The more things change, the more they stay the

same. Or better, yet, maybe ignorance is bliss.