Racist letter served a different purpose [editorial]

Words matter and ideas matter, said Chief Douglas White III of the Snuneymuxw First Nation in B.C. on Vancouver Island. He was addressing a group of about 80 protesters that gathered outside of the Nanaimo Daily News Sept. 24.

“You be careful what you say.” White shared the teaching with the group, which came together to denounce the publishing of yet another offensive letter that disparages and denigrates Aboriginal people.

Yes, another. This is the second such letter in six months that has caused people to rise up. The first one in March was a punch to the stomach, said White. It was an ugly, hate-filled attack that the paper chose to unleash on its loyal subscribers and online readers, handing over its circulation to an unredeemable set of slurs and slanders.

You may remember it. It stated, among other smears, that First Nations “made almost no inventions,” and our “history is notable only for underachievement.”

The letter sparked outrage, and, on reflection and troubled by the backlash, the paper apologized. “While we would defend Mr. Olsen’s right to hold and express his opinion, the sentiments expressed were entirely his own and in no way reflect the views of the newspaper,” said publisher Hugh Nicholson. “The letter should not have run.”

Today the paper shields itself in the protection of free speech. No apology will follow, its editor has stated.

After the first letter, Snuneymuxw and right-minded people of Nanaimo sought to channel their outrage to create something good and positive from the situation. They accepted the Nanaimo Daily News’ apology on its face and set out to hold meetings of reconciliation, hosted by Vancouver Island University. In essence, the paper got a pass, with people willing to accept that sometimes others just make bad decisions.

Yet here we are again, with another letter. Though a higher-browed version of the first, it still recommends that First Peoples get over the abuses they have suffered at the hands of the colonizers. Yes, we were “treated terribly by those European nations” in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, but time has marched along. The playing field has begun to level.

After all, “Treaties were merely empty promises designed to overtly appease the indigenes while covertly exploiting them,” the letter reads. I guess we’re not supposed to insist those promises be honoured today, because the Europeans of yore had their fingers crossed behind their backs.

“Unfortunately, the First Nations in Canada have tenaciously clung to their tribal system.” That the newspaper doesn’t equate this statement as speaking in favour of the genocide of our peoples doesn’t surprise, because this is Canada, for goodness sakes. We don’t do that here.

We argue that this statement alone should have been enough to dismiss the letter as unworthy of publishing, but we believe the letter was just too convenient to toss.

We refuse to evolve, refuse to become equal Canadian citizens, and insist on perpetuating the perception that we remain under the heel of non-Aboriginals in order to make “outrageous demands for land and taxpayer money.”

This is the big clue folks on why the letter was published, we believe.

White said he needed to speak up against the letter, as it came on the heels of reconciliation week and the Truth and Reconciliation events held in Vancouver and across BC, including Nanaimo. Not to do so would dishonour the memory of residential school survivors.

Well, we’d like to draw another line for consideration.
Not only did BC host the TRC national gathering in September, they hosted a gaggle of representatives from the federal government who were compelled to visit the province to hear the concerns of First Nations leaders to the pipeline projects that Canada hopes to run over First Nations’ lands and the oil they want to ship through their waters on its way to foreign markets.
Follow the money. It’s an old journalism maxim about getting to the real bottom of just about anything.

How convenient that the writer be allowed to publicly chip away at First Nations claims to lands, chip away at the legitimacy of their leaders and their governance systems, chip away at the legally-held rights and title of First Nations at this exact time. It doesn’t matter that it was a little paper at the edge of the country that published the letter. How wonderful for Glacier Media Group, publishers of such titles as Canadian Oil Register, the Daily Oil Bulletin, the Heavy Oil & Oilsands Guidebook, the Oil & Gas Inquirer, Oilsands Review, Oilweek, Pipeline News North, the Oilfield Atlas, and the Nanaimo Daily News, that the letter could be carried on electronic wings to a mass audience that might be influenced by it.

The Nanaimo newspaper said it stands by its decision to print the letter. The editor shrugs it off as the job of a newspaper to allow free voice to those who would speak. But the letter was removed from the Web version after the social media outcry. No need for it now. It was well out in the world; its purpose having been served.

Windspeaker