Trudeau’s exit means little for us

The author of this editorial penned an op-ed for the Toronto Star many years ago along with Onawa K. Jacobs when Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister.

Although there was a lot of cautious hope, almost nothing came to fruition concerning the advancement of our rights, land and culture, not to mention sovereignty and profit-sharing or back rent, so to speak, and now, nothing further will come as he announced he’s stepping down.

We knew, because he’s a politician, that speaking through a forked tongue, out of both sides of his mouth, was normal, but we figured he’d at least give better guidance to end up at something that looks like true reconciliation, and not just pay the same lip service we’re used to from past leaders.

Sure, we hated Stephen Harper’s right-wing policies and his outright ignorance and arrogance towards our communities (remember the failed First Nations Education Act?), but we were sort of duped into thinking the left, which is supposed to be more progressive and open to fixing past injustice, was better.

They aren’t, at least not by much.

When the best we can hope for in a foreign political system that dictates far too much of our lives is someone who won’t shit on us as much as the last guy, it’s a pretty sad state for our proud nation.

The question is, who will step up?

And we don’t mean by fighting the system from within and running for federal or provincial office. There are a few of those already and not much is really changing. Or at least not quickly enough.

We mean by actually standing up and drawing a line in the sand, as proud Onkwehón:we nations.

We need more truth with this reconciliation salad we’ve been served, and a whole lot less promises.

There was plenty of Trudeau hate (you’ve seen the bumper stickers, the online chatter, and surely you know all about the convoy and the truckers in Ottawa), but they hated him because they disagreed with his ideology. Not because they sided with us and our issues.

We are fighting on many fronts here and the toughest one is fighting through the outright ignorance and racism that exists in this country.

Will Pierre Poilievre fill the void and claim the top spot in this country? We really hope not. There’s ignorant and then there’s Poilievre. He certainly won’t help our cause.

Our only hope for now is another Liberal government, minority probably, with someone who actually cares about changing this colonial reality we live in and making our communities better. Do they exist? We haven’t seen them yet.

The closest we can get is maybe someone like NDP MP Charlie Angus or former Ontario premier Bob Rae, current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, who seem to have learned from a lifetime of politics and use proper terms and respectful dialogue in their own way of protecting Indigenous rights, when speaking to blowhards about our issues.

What we don’t want is another lame duck who does nothing to advance our future goals, who leaves us in a lurch and refuses to hurry up the process of providing clean drinking water, land back, resource extraction, reparations, real reconciliation, and an equal seat at the table.

We’ve had enough of that, and we know how the story ends, with a promising beginning, an unsatisfying middle, and an end that leaves us wanting something more tangible, something real. Something we surely deserve.

So far, Liberal or Conservative means the same thing to us because it’s all a bunch of BS, as they stall; waiting for people to build on our lands, waiting for our residential school survivors to pass on, and waiting for us to give up and call it a day, assimilating into a society that has already taken too much from us.

That will never happen.

Steve Bonspiel

The Eastern Door