Juno News - July 05, 2021


Are we witnessing a national unity moment？


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

197.35733

Word Count

702

Sentence Count

29

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Whenever there's a national conversation renewed about First Nations people in Canada and the
00:00:10.260 hardships that they faced over the years, well, we should hope that that conversation takes us
00:00:14.440 in a positive direction. One of the outcomes of that conversation is that we see more success,
00:00:19.080 more prosperity for First Nations people, and that those unfortunate negative headlines and
00:00:23.920 stories that we read about that are often the spark for these conversations, well, that we see
00:00:28.220 fewer and fewer of them, that we trend towards good things as opposed to bad things. We see fewer
00:00:33.680 of those bad stories. So we should all, as a nation, hope that that is the outcome of this conversation
00:00:39.780 that's going on right now. However, there can always be a negative direction that things head in,
00:00:45.460 in terms of more division and more, I guess, more of an us-versus-them mentality that can sort of
00:00:51.420 settle in in the minds of, well, anyone on any sort of side or perspective of this conversation.
00:00:56.660 One sort of positive direction that happened about a year and a half ago, you'll remember
00:01:01.200 there were the blockades that happened just before the pandemic hit in Canada, early 2020,
00:01:06.560 lots of rail lines being blockaded, and an us-versus-them conversation initially materialized.
00:01:12.500 But then there was a lot more nuance, and people realized, well, hold on a second,
00:01:16.220 we've actually got band councils that are saying, we want these pipelines developed in Western Canada.
00:01:21.600 We want to see this. We want to share the spoils. We want jobs. We want stability for our families.
00:01:26.700 And a lot of the people who were actually doing the activism weren't even First Nations people
00:01:30.780 themselves. Yes, we had these hereditary chiefs who were saying they were against the pipeline,
00:01:34.560 but a lot of the people who were doing the various activism, for instance, there's this group
00:01:38.460 Extinction Rebellion. They're like really extreme environmental activists, and they've been
00:01:42.720 arrested and so forth. Well, those individuals, they were not First Nations people. They were just
00:01:47.560 kind of appropriating the issue for their own benefit, their own gain. And a lot of people saw
00:01:52.760 through all of this, and there's this really sort of positive direction the conversation headed in
00:01:57.560 where people who are not First Nations and maybe aren't traditional advocates for them, they looked
00:02:01.840 at all this and said, well, hold on, what's going on here? We have these opportunists who are trying
00:02:06.480 to seize on this story for their own gain, for their own agenda. And meanwhile, we have First Nations
00:02:11.040 people who, like, they're just regular folks like everyone else who want good things for their
00:02:15.840 communities, for their families. They want jobs, they want success, they want, you know, more income
00:02:20.720 in their bank accounts so they can provide for all the things everybody in Canada wants for themselves
00:02:24.860 and their families. And I think a lot of people, I saw a lot of people say, yeah, let's rally behind
00:02:30.520 these people. We're not buying this us versus them thing. Or if there is an us versus them, it's the
00:02:35.700 little guy, it's the regular folks against these elites, these sort of, like, niche academic
00:02:41.040 activists and so forth. Forget about them. We all have to rally together. And right now in Canada,
00:02:46.640 we're seeing statues torn down of not just historical figures, but the current reigning
00:02:50.840 monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. And we see all this, I go, oh, man, like that can send us in the wrong
00:02:57.380 divisive direction right now. That's going to really send in us versus them that we don't want. And I
00:03:02.500 just hope we can find some opportunities now, moving forward, to get back to that glimmer that
00:03:09.220 I think we saw, I think was materializing a year and a half ago, where everyday Canadians were really
00:03:14.840 feeling that they were allied with everyday First Nations people and that there was unity there and
00:03:19.780 that we were all beginning to root for each other's success. I really hope that this sort of divisive
00:03:25.400 moment right now can actually conclude in not further division, but further unity and people really
00:03:30.860 coming together and having each other's backs.