Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, January 06, 2012

First Nations, Indian Act high on government agenda for 2012

In a government that has been racing through its agenda and its campaign promises at lightening speed, reforming the living conditions of Canada’s First Nations stands out as one of the few initiatives not yet underway.

However, many Conservative insiders believe that is about to change.

While the economy will be the government’s overarching priority as it heads into 2012, some of those closest to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration predict overhauling Canada’s Indian Act will be one of the next big things the government tackles.

“This is a file that cries out for some fundamental rethinking and fixing,” said one longtime Conservative strategist who traded anonymity for candour. “It’s brutally complicated for a whole host of reasons.”

He said part of the problem is the wide range of situations among Canada’s hundreds of aboriginal communities  — from bright young leaders who say their communities are doing well economically and don’t need the Indian Act anymore to those “who will defend to their dying breath the sanctity of the Indian Act and the federal fiduciary responsibility and want first world conditions on reserves that have absolutely and utterly no economic viability.”

Among the sensitive subjects the government may tackle is whether private property should be allowed on reserves, he predicted.

In a year-end interview with CTV, Harper downplayed expectations for what will be achieved when he sits down with First Nations leaders later this month, but said the system governing First Nations has to change.

“I think everybody thinks the Indian Act needs changing…The big challenge is, what do you replace it with?”

“We want to see aboriginal communities that are healthy and self-governing, and I think in the long term the only way any community really moves forward is if it has a significant degree of control over its own future, and not just the community but individuals have control over their own futures.”

Tim Powers, a longtime Conservative and vice-president at Summa Strategies, also expects the government to move on the First Nations front as Harper takes advantage of a majority to leave a legacy.

“We’ve seen some already on accountability, but I think we’ll see more related to education, economic development and investment,” Powers said. “I think the prime minister, like many of the First Nations leaders, also sees opportunity there for First Nations people in terms of some of the labour shortages that we’re going to encounter, which would impact our productivity.”

“So I wouldn’t be surprised to see some ambitious things on the aboriginal front to add to what has already been done.”

Powers expects a lot of the government’s focus in the coming year will be on the economy, on implementing its strategic and operating review and developing Canada as an energy superpower.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Monte Solberg is calling for sweeping changes to the Indian Act. He wants the government to attack the bureaucracy that supports cultures of “victimhood.”

“The Indian Act has aided in destroying more lives than any other single piece of Canadian legislation,” Solberg wrote in a column earlier this week. “Lately, Attawapiskat joins Davis Inlet and scores of others as another in a long line of Indian Act tragedies.”

“Justice and basic human decency demand that it be dismantled before another generation grows up on its truly perverse watch. Many aboriginal leaders with high-paying jobs at stake will oppose it, but 130 years of evidence is in and the Indian Act stands convicted.”

As it heads into 2012, the government has been closely following the road map that it laid out in its campaign platform in May and its throne speech in June. While only a handful of bills made it all the way through to the legislative process before Parliament rose for its Christmas break, among them were bills to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s monopoly, to add seats to the House of Commons to reflect population growth in Ontario and the West, as well as bill governing mega trials, tenure for military justices and an agreement with the Eeyou Cree.

Still, Government House leader Peter Van Loan will have his work cut out for him when Parliament returns Jan. 30.

The government’s omnibus crime bill made it through the House of Commons and is now waiting for Senate committee hearings. However, it will have to return to the House of Commons after the Senate is finished with it to incorporate amendments the government rejected at committee then tried belatedly to introduce at third reading.

Despite a statement by Harper touting its abolition as one of his government’s accomplishments in 2011, the bill to scrap the long-gun registry is still before the House of Commons. Quebec is trying to shoot down the provisions that would destroy all the data gathered over the years and has announced plans to take the federal government to court, which could complicate life for the Harper government.

The rest of the order paper reads like the government’s throne speech – legislation on human smuggling, senate reform, changes to the copyright act, a bill amending the protection of private information, improving interprovincial trade, improving military justice, a bill governing political loans, bills to implement free trade agreements with Jordan and Panama, legislation on citizens arrests, pooled pension plans, financial literacy and the financial accountability of first nations.

In fact, almost everything the Conservative government outlined in its speech from the throne has either been done, or is in the works.

The government’s strategic and operating review to cut government spending, and by extension the deficit, is well underway. Ministers have made their presentations to the cabinet subcommittee chaired by Treasury Board President Tony Clement and the results of the exercise will be made public in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s budget.

Later this month, the government is to make public the report by the Red Tape Reduction Commission, chaired by Small Business Minister Maxime Bernier, which examined government bureaucracy. Sources say the recommendations for short-term measures may be modest, but the longer-term measures will be more substantial.

Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama have already announced a perimeter security agreement. However, the government’s trade initiatives won’t stop there. In its throne speech, the government promised a free trade deal with the European Union in 2012 and a free-trade agreement with India by 2013.

Free-trade agreements with Jordan and Panama are currently before the House, and in its throne speech the government said it was negotiating with 50 different countries.

One Conservative strategist also expects to see the government move on decreasing interprovincial trade barriers.

“This stuff is just dead weight regulation.”

He will also be watching the upcoming spectrum auction and whether it is accompanied by a shift in the way the government regards foreign ownership.

The government has completed consultations into the Digital Economy Strategy it promised in the throne speech. What that strategy will look like will likely be known later this year.

However, Canadians may have to wait a while for some of the measures the Conservatives outlined during the election, but only plan to deliver once the budget is balanced. This includes as a family tax cut to allow limited income splitting between spouses, doubling children’s fitness tax credit to $1,000, adding an adult fitness tax credit and increasing contribution limits for tax free savings account limits.

Original Article
Source: iPolitico  

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