 |
| Photo taken from HuffingtonPost Canada |
In Canada, the natives are
restless. In the likely case you haven’t heard, last Monday, thousands of
people, mostly of First Nations descent, protested in more than a dozen major
cities throughout Canada. The so-called Idle
No More protests were aimed against changes in laws that would, in the
protesters’ view, fundamentally affect their way of life. The Idle No More
protests did not make the big international news services, and what’s more, it
hardly made the mainstream Canadian news.
So what?
On the face of it, this is
nothing out of the ordinary: citizens use their democratic rights to protest,
and people protest all the time. Yet if we look at the bigger picture of
what’s happening in Canada, a spontaneous and widespread protest of First
Nations people becomes more interesting. We’re talking oil, land, and water here,
with First Nations right in the middle.
With the massive exploitation of
the tar sands taking off in
Alberta, Canada has been transforming into a major oil producing nation, thereby
also transforming relations between the First Nations, who live on top of the tar
sands, and the federal government. Canada’s government, led by the Conservative Stephen Harper, is
introducing a package of measures which includes changes to laws that will
expedite access to tar sands, and transport of oil and gas through Canada. The
laws will facilitate enormous expansion of the tar sands oil production and hugely
impact on the lives of First Nations.
In this light, First nations
protests throughout Canada, aiming to stop precisely that which lies at the
heart of the Conservative governments’ policies, deserve more attention they have been receiving. Add to that the fact that Monday's protests were organized by
Idle No More, an organization which did not even exist a few weeks ago, an
indication of the frustrations of many people, whether they are First Nations
or not.
So what exactly has been going
on?
Alberta’s Bonanza: Tar Sands
Many non-Canadians will have only
vague notions of the so-called tar sands (or oil sands) that have been
discovered, and which are now being exploited, in Canada’s province of Alberta.
The reserves are huge, and the amount of money that can be made –potentially-
in an otherwise economically unproductive region is enormous. The Economist wrote that the
reserves are worth 15.7 trillion dollars (!), astronomical amounts by any
standards.
 |
| Taken from Wikipedia |
Extracting the oil from the tar
sands is cumbersome and rather messy. I won’t bother you with the
details (but check here and here),
but getting the oil out often means stripping the land of trees and top soil,
and even if this is not done, the other methods are also messy and energy
intensive. The environmental
impact, regardless of the specific method used to get oil out of the sand,
is huge.
When the oil has been extracted, it
needs to be transported through pipelines, which are uniformly unpopular, and
which invariably run over First Nations land. A prime example is the protest
against a proposed pipeline running from Alberta to Kitimat, on the British
Columbian coast, the
Enbridge pipeline. Protests against tar sands development and construction of pipelines abound, and not just from First Nations.
Bill C-45
With the amounts of money
involved, it is hard to imagine that Canada’s First Nations, which account for
less than four per cent of the population, and their supporters, can stop the
development of the tar sands. On the contrary, Canada’s government has been
taking steps to fundamentally alter its relationship with the First Nations,
which would make it much easier to gain access to land and navigable rivers, in
other words, to get to the tar sands and then move the oil to America. The First Nations, which had hitherto been on the mental and geographical margins of Canada, have now been catapulted centre stage, where they are getting in the way of economic development that the government so desires. Hence, Harper's steps to change the government's relationship with the First Nations are likely to be followed by more changes.
Bill C-45 is a so-called omnibus
bill or budget implementation bill, in which over 40 pieces of legislation are amended. Think of changes in labour laws, and pay raises for judges. Some
changes directly impact on the First Nations, such as changes to the navigable
waters protection act, which would remove
government oversight from many lakes and rivers in Canada. This would
benefit the construction of the Enbridge pipeline, and also make it possible to
mine
for oil in and around rivers.
Understandably, First Nations in
general don’t appreciate these proposals and the fact that they were not
consulted doesn't help either. For months, chiefs have derided the government’s
unilateralism, which basically sidelined the First Nations. First Nations National Chief, Shawn Atleo, put it like this: “Those changes, as within the Fisheries Act Revisions and the Navigation Protection Act, potentially compromise key aspects of the Crown - First Nation relationship and may serve to further create uncertainty.” In short, many First Nations (and non-First
Nations) see the bill as a direct attack on the status and way of life of the
First Nations.
The Chiefs’ protests had no
influence on the government. They were quite literally ignored and turned away.
When on December 4th a group consisting of dozens (!) of First
Nations chiefs tried to get into the House of Commons in Ottawa, in order to
note their protest against the Bill C-45, they were refused entry. Or, as the
Globe and Mail put it, they tried to “storm
Parliament Hill”. Check these videos out for yourself:
There was no violence, and no
arrests were made. Globe and Mail’s framing of the chiefs as “storming”
Parliament Hill was grossly inappropriate. The chiefs’ protests and being
turned away at Parliament Hill were featured widely on tv throughout Canada,
angering many. It perhaps served to galvanize people into action, and boosted
appeal to organizations such as Idle No More.
Idle No More: Grassroots Protest
On a grassroots level, things
were already abrew before the chiefs were turned away. Several protest actions had already taken place in the past
months. See for example the First
Nations Strategic Bulletin, a widely circulated bulletin, in which Russel
Diabo explains in detail why the Bill should not be passed. Leo Baskatawang,
for example, in his March4Justice,
walked great distances through Canada, dragging a copy of the Indian Act behind
him (he went through twelve copies in total), trying to raise awareness.
Modern social media such as
twitter and Facebook play a crucial role in organizing protest. Never more so
than for Idle No More. According to their own website, worried by the upcoming
vote (a “legislative attack”), four women decided it was time to act. They
started organizing information meetings, which then spread like prairie fire,
resulting in Monday’s protests in all over Canada.
Idle No More marches were held in major
cities throughout Canada. In a few hours time, the #Idlenomore hashtag
became trending topic in Canada. The thousands of protesters, were mostly of
First Nations descent. Many banners carried slogans that mentioned Canadian
Prime Minister Harper in less than complimentary ways. However the protests
were entirely peaceful.
What makes Idle No More special,
apart from its extraordinary success, is its grassroots nature. The origins of
the initiative do not lie with established powers-that-be in First Nationsland,
although once the train got going, Chiefs and larger organizations jumped on
board. What’s more, it was the snub to the leadership that undoubtedly contributed
to the willingness to participate in Idle No More marches.
The Idle No More marches were a
resounding success, although the Bill C-45 passed through parliament. The development of the tar sands will not go uncontested. Harper beware. We
can expect more actions from the increasingly restless natives.
Written Tuesday, December 11, 15:00 Ottawa time (EST)
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie plaatsen