Can you think of any Prime Minister, President or World Leader that would withhold food, water, or health care as a bullying tactic to force its citizens into compliance with a new government law, policy or scheme? Can you ever imagine this happening in Canada? I don't think most of us could.
Yet, this is exactly what is happening with Harper's implementation of the illegal C-27. Minister Valcourt has threatened to cut off funds for food, water and health care if First Nations do not get in line and abide by this new legislation - despite the fact that it was imposed without legal consultation and is now being legally challenged. How many First Nations children will have to die for Harper to sit down and work this out with First Nations?
Bill C-27 (formerly C-575) First Nation Financial Transparency Act (FNFTA) is the classic deflection tactic by Harper’s Conservatives to distract Canadians from the extreme poverty in many First Nations and Canada’s role in maintaining those conditions. The solution to chronic underfunding of essential human services like water, food, and housing lay not in more legislation, but in addressing the problem: the underfunding. Presenting accountability legislation as the solution implies that First Nations are the cause of their own poverty – a racist stereotype Harper’s Cons use quite frequently to divide community members from their leaders and Canadians from First Nations.
This racist
stereotype is recycled again and again when Harper is pressed to account for
the fourth world conditions in some First Nations. The response always seem to
be: “Well, we gave them x million dollars, where did all the money go”? What
Harper never tells Canadians is that in giving First Nations x million dollars,
that he has given them half of what is needed to provide the specific program
or service. Without all the facts, this propaganda serves to distance Canadians
from First Nations.
In
the last couple of years, Harper has been hit hard in the media about Canada’s
persistent failure to address the basic needs of First Nations. The following
high-profile poverty-related crises in First Nations meant that Harper needed
some instant damage control and distraction – which he got with C-27:
-
Cindy Blackstock’s discrimination case for inequitable child and family service
funding to First Nations kids in care;
- Auditor General’s numerous findings related to inequitable funding in housing, water and education;
- RCMP’s report about over-representation of murdered and missing Indigenous women; and
- United Nation’s finding that Canada’s human rights violations leads to “abysmal” poverty in First Nations despite Canada’s enormous wealth;
The
Cons also use third parties, like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, to advance
their racist propaganda and deflect from the real issues. How many times have
we heard the phrase “millionaire chiefs” or “exhorbitant salaries”? Yet there
has never been a millionaire Chief in the history of Indian Act Chiefs. Canada
has failed to show where any Chief ever received a million dollar salary from
federal funding.
But
let’s pretend all 633 Chiefs in Canada got million dollar salaries (which they
do not). That would mean $633 million dollars a year in salary to Chiefs. The
annual budget for First Nation programs and services is approximately $10
billion. It would be pretty hard to
argue that 6% of the budget going to give all Chiefs a million dollar salary would
be the actual cause of First Nation poverty.
We
simply can’t have this conversation around accountability without the facts.
The facts are this: the average Canadian salary is $46,000/year. The average
elected First Nation leaders’ salary is $36,000/year. Yet, there are numerous
municipal librarians making $100,000 a year to manage books, while First Nation
leaders must manage human lives.
But
why are we even talking about salaries when we should be talking about funding
First Nation food, water and housing? That’s because of C-27 FNFTA and all the media
hype around an alleged lack of transparency in First Nations. There are
critical problems with this legislation which make it both unconstitutional and
illegal: (1) it was done without legal consultation, accommodation and consent
of First Nations and (2) it’s a direct interference with inherent First Nation
jurisdiction; and (3) it violates their
internationally-protected First Nation right to be self-determining.
FNFTA
states that its purpose is to “enhance the financial accountability and
transparency of First Nations” – which presumes, of course, that this is
lacking. The Act itself provides that:
-
financial statements must be audited yearly;
- it
must include a schedule of salaries and expenses of Chiefs and Councillors;
-
Canada can publish the information on the Internet; and
-
Copies of the audits must be provided by First Nations to their band members.
These
may seem like harmless provisions, except when you realize that First Nations
already have to submit audited financial statements every year, or their
funding can be cut off. First Nations band members have always had the right to
obtain copies of their First Nation audits – either directly from the First
Nation or from Indian Affairs.
What’s
not obvious in this Act or its associated rhetoric, is that First Nations are
the most accountable governments on the entire planet! The Auditor General has
made very disturbing findings about the level to which First Nations must
report on their federal funding – a “burdensome” 60,000 reports a year! That’s
over 95+ reports per First Nation every year or one report every 3 days. The Auditor
General even found that many of these reports are not even read by federal
bureaucrats. So what’s the problem?
Enacting
FNFTA seems more like an exercise in smearing First Nation leaders, than
addressing any real glaring omission in accountability. And, with the Harper
government, there is always a hidden gem. While he is turning community members
against their leaders and distracting Canadians from the real issue of
underfunding, here is what Harper is REALLY
doing in this Act:
- reporting
of any salary, income or expenses of Chiefs and Councillors made in the PERSONAL capacity;
- First
Nations must make their audits accessible to the PUBLIC on the Internet for at least 10 years;
-
refusal by a First Nation to comply with any of these provisions means Canada
can CUT FUNDING.
So
let’s look at each of these provisions more closely.
Personal
Income:
Imagine
if any political leaders in Canada had to report their personal wealth in
addition to the salary of their public office. Prime Minister Harper is the 6th
highest paid political leader in the world with a salary of approximately
$300k/year. Harper not only makes 7 times what the average Canadian makes, but
makes far more than other world leaders with much larger populations and
economies.
But let’s forget about his salary for a minute. What is Prime Ministers and federal politicians had to publicly disclose their PERSONAL wealth? Then we are no longer talking about over-paid Prime Ministers, we are talking about million dollar Prime Ministers. Stephen Harper’s personal wealth has been estimated at $5M. Former Prime Minister Paul Martin is in the hundreds of millions. Why the double standard? Why did so many federal MPs refuse to disclose their own expenses? I agree there is an issue of accountability in Canada, but it’s with the federal government, and not First Nations.
Public
Access:
The
other issue is about accountability and to whom? This act makes First Nations
accountable to the Minister first, the Canadian public second, and lastly to
their band members. This Act does nothing to improve accountability of leaders
generally to their membership. In fact, band members will not get any
information that they were not entitled to previously. What is new is that the
Canadian public has a NEW right to access that information. One has to wonder
why that is the case. Canadians don’t participate in First Nation governments,
they don’t vote for the leaders, and they certainly don’t pay for their
programs and services – despite that persistent myth.
There
is no reason for Canadians to have access to this information – especially any
information related to First Nation PERSONAL financial information. Some
lawyers have even argued that this Act creates not only a double and higher standard
on First Nations than on Canadian politicians; but also violates their legal privacy
rights. There is simply no need for this piece of the legislation.
Cutting
Funding:
Here
is the real issue. Harper’s bully government has been meticulous in designing
heavy-handed, paternalistic legislation with extreme-force compliance
mechanisms built in and FNFTA is no exception. If First Nation do not or cannot
comply, they can have all of their funding cut. We are not talking about funding
for Ottawa-type expenditures like summer tulips, Canada Day fireworks, or
international trips – we are talking essential human services like food, water,
heat and housing. As temperatures reach -40 degrees in the north right now, this
could be disastrous.
Many Idle
No More grassroots citizens, Indigenous lawyers, academics, activists and
leaders have come out against this legislation – not because any of us are
against the general principle of open, accountable and transparent governments,
but because Canada has no right to interfere in the governance of our Nations
for any reason. We have never surrendered our sovereignty or right to govern
ourselves. In 1997, Canada even recognized as a matter of policy, that our
right to be self-governing is constitutionally protected.
I
know there have been some bad individual leaders during our time. I know that some individual communities
struggle with internal leadership issues. But that’s not all our communities.
I
also know that we have all suffered many generations of colonization,
inter-generational trauma from residential schools, and the impossible choices
forced upon our leaders in managing extreme poverty.
We
have so many problems because of the systemic racism, assimilatory government
policies, chronic underfunding, failure to implement our treaty and Aboriginal rights;
lack of access and control over our lands and resources; and federally-imposed
laws which tell us how to govern.
One
bad leader does not justify calling in the colonizer to further control our
communities. Our Nations thrived here since time immemorial and our Nations
will continue for many more millennia. We can survive and heal from
colonization, just as we can get past any one bad leader. We simply can’t let
Harper’s racist propaganda divide us. He wants community members to invite him in
to control their communities – but once he’s in, it will be difficult, if not
impossible, to get him back out.
Say
no to FNFTA and stand with those First Nations who are resisting its illegal
imposition on our communities.
#rise
#idlenomore #warriorup #sovereignty #No2FNFTA
