EDITORIAL: Words to the wise on reconciliation

In a recent article in The Atlantic, Canadian-American journalist and commentator David Frum puts forward a searing assessment of this country’s policies of reconciliation with its Indigenous people.

Land acknowledgments, he says, have become a “socially required ritual” that has mostly been deemed harmless.

“In the past few months, Canadians have learned that these well-meaning pronouncements are not, in fact, harmless. Far from it. Canadian courts are reinterpreting these rote confessions of historical guilt as legally enforceable admissions of wrongful possession.”

He points to a B.C. ruling last year that puts in question private property ownership of large tracts of land.

“In August, a British Columbia court ruled that the titles to public land access across 800 acres south of downtown Vancouver must be subordinated to new ‘Aboriginal title,’ belonging to a group of about 5,500 Indigenous Canadians.”

The judge in question claimed this decision doesn’t apply to private land. Nevertheless, Frum, who has a Harvard law degree, says, “the logic of this ruling has proved so muddled that it has called into question not only the private titles of some 150 landowners in the region but also the ownership of almost every piece of private land in British Columbia – and possibly all of Canada.”

He doesn’t sweep past abuse under the rug: “The Canadian national conscience is rightly troubled by the serious social problems afflicting Indigenous Canada.” Despite the vast amounts of money invested by the federal government, conditions are getting worse.

“The federal Indigenous budget nearly tripled over the 10 years of the Justin Trudeau government, exceeding $32 billion a year – almost what Canada spent on national defence in the past fiscal year,” he reports.

A recent B.C. court decision that the province must consult with Indigenous groups before new land development or mining projects can start will only hurt this country.

“Just when Canada most urgently needs to jump-start the country’s economic growth, the country’s courts are inventing new obstacles to development,” Frum says.

He questions the goal of reconciliation: “Reconciliation implies some kind of mutuality, but the Canadian version is strictly one-way.”

He makes good points. When will we be reconciled? What will it look like? Give us a firm target so we can move forward together, as a unified nation.