The Critical Compass Podcast - Independence Offers Indigenous Albertans an Incredible Opportunity

00:00:00.000 This idea that Canada is a colonial society, this idea that we are a fundamentally racist society,

00:00:08.900 the importation of critical race theory, which is, as you know, is an American concept that

00:00:14.200 really is specific to the African-American experience there. The liberals wanted to

00:00:20.460 import that to Canada and they've succeeded and they've done it through propaganda and frankly

00:00:25.660 lying. Uh, a lot of the stuff that is said about Indian residential schools in terms of it being

00:00:31.300 a genocide is blatant lies. And the problem is always, uh, in Canada, it seems these days is,

00:00:38.280 you know, how do we live not by lies? You know, how do we become a truthful, because part of being

00:00:43.320 a good society is we have to have a truthful society. And it's very, very difficult with

00:00:47.520 the media and government and all of our institutions propagating, constantly propagating

00:00:53.300 these myths these lies about canada that aren't true and about our people um even about our own

00:00:59.220 people you know the the dirtiest thing and i talk about this in my speech the dirtiest most awful

00:01:04.380 thing that is done through this this whole uh lie this ideology of critical race theory is it paints

00:01:12.380 the indian as a victim when i say indian i mean you know indigenous people the first nations people

00:01:18.220 of canada uh that is a that is a terrible enslaving thing to do um because it removes agency first of

00:01:28.000 all and it removes responsibility for our own lives and our own people and i can tell you most

00:01:34.140 of the people i know who are first nations people uh that they don't see themselves as victims they

00:01:39.340 don't want to be seen as victims uh you know they they don't want that label whatsoever

00:01:44.660 but um i think the challenge now because of this division the sort of indian white division has

00:01:50.340 been there uh for so long the challenge is you know how do we bridge that and i think the the

00:01:56.340 first step to doing that is we stop lying to each other about our history because the real history

00:02:01.620 of north america uh and which is the whole basis for thanksgiving you know the the holiday that we

00:02:08.180 celebrate is uh really is a is cooperation primarily that's been the history of indian

00:02:15.540 content or indian white contact has been has been cooperation and and collaboration that the european

00:02:23.460 peoples could not have survived here without the assistance and cooperation of the indigenous

00:02:28.580 peoples of north america and by the same token uh the the net contribution of european contact

00:02:36.580 to indigenous peoples it's astronomical like we're talking about in canada indigenous peoples

00:02:42.660 of canada prior to white conduct didn't even have the wheel we're talking about people who were five

00:02:48.100 and ten thousand years behind you know in terms of civilization and and so what i try to tell

00:02:55.060 people is is look we got to stop lying to each other about the history of this country and we

00:03:01.460 got to get back to telling real stories and the real story of canada and of alberta for that

00:03:05.540 matter is cooperation you know the indian people are not other they're not separate they're human

00:03:11.940 beings uh they they live in families they live in communities they want safe streets and good

00:03:17.220 health care and and all of that they want the same things that other albertans want and uh you know

00:03:22.820 i think um it's the people who are trying to divide and set us against each other that's the

00:03:29.140 real problem but i think to answer your question we've got to stop we're going to start by just

00:03:33.940 you know, do what Jordan Peterson says in his book, 12 rules for life, you know, tell the truth,

00:03:38.840 or at least don't lie. Uh, you know, that's such an important point that you bring up and, and it's,

00:03:44.540 and it's something that, um, you know, we've had Bruce party on this show and, uh, and of course,

00:03:49.800 yeah. And, and one of his fundamental contentions is that he, he fears that, that an independent

00:03:59.160 in Alberta, sort of like you said earlier, would repeat some of the same issues that

00:04:05.480 plague Canada as a whole right now.

00:04:07.380 And one of those issues that he sees is the, um, the continued, uh, enshrinement of these

00:04:15.060 othering laws, um, where that set the indigenous apart from the, from the white man, if you

00:04:21.000 will.

00:04:21.620 Yeah.

00:04:21.820 Um, do you have a firm opinion on that either way?

00:04:25.860 Like when let's, let's put ourselves in, you know, let's say that we have a, we have a successful referendum for independence in October.

00:04:32.900 We're working out the terms of, of the peaceful divorce as it were.

00:04:36.640 Yeah.

00:04:37.320 Yeah.

00:04:37.640 And what do you, what would you ideally like to see happen?

00:04:41.360 Would you like to see the, the treaties essentially switch administration from a, from a federal to a provincial?

00:04:47.900 Would you like to see them abolished entirely?

00:04:50.080 Would you like to see them rewritten?

00:04:51.200 like what in your ideal world what happens with the existing agreements that we have with with

00:04:56.160 the indigenous bands right now well uh firstly i agree with bruce that it would be a horrific mistake

00:05:02.400 to to bring one of the worst things that the canadian government ever did uh which is to

00:05:09.440 segregate and create essentially a canadian form of apartheid that's what we have in this country

00:05:14.560 um now this gets sold to indians as some sort of entitlement you know as some sort of special

00:05:21.520 status but if you gentlemen go to most first nations communities in this country it looks like

00:05:28.200 the third world so uh on every metric in terms of education health care longevity strength of

00:05:36.020 families number of alcoholism drug abuse a number of of prostitution child trafficking

00:05:43.180 our prison populations indigenous peoples are losing on every single metric at the very very

00:05:50.360 bottom so this special status of indians is not working out very well for them is it

00:05:56.400 there seems to be a more subtle agenda in fact that might be the real genocide that's facing

00:06:04.400 indian people i happen to think so and so coming back to your point about bruce party who i respect

00:06:09.280 very much. He's quite right. What an opportunity a renovated Alberta presents. We have this clean

00:06:19.640 slate. We have the ability to refashion a society, to take the best parts of Canada,

00:06:28.180 the best parts of the way Alberta is right now. And we have the opportunity also to delete the

00:06:34.280 parts that we don't like that aren't working very well. And, you know, Alberta is a great example

00:06:40.020 of what I'm talking about, because if you compare the treatment of the Métis peoples of Alberta,

00:06:47.100 okay, versus how First Nations people are treated by Canada, wow, there's a quantum difference

00:06:53.960 there. The Métis peoples of Alberta and Manitoba is another fine example. You know, they're

00:07:01.420 actually exercising uh true self-governance in a cooperative fashion now i'm not saying that

00:07:08.060 everything is shangri-la in metis communities but it's a much better model to work with

00:07:13.160 i think we have to we have to renovate this you know a lot of people don't understand

00:07:17.960 what's going on in first nations communities um these are these are centers for uh for crime

00:07:25.020 uh for drug production drug trafficking human trafficking and money laundering there's a reason

00:07:33.340 why it's considered racist uh why the auditor general can't audit the way money is spent

00:07:40.140 on an Indian reserve uh it's because Indian reserves have been used for money laundering

00:07:45.780 by the federal government for a very very long time I can tell you that on personal experience

00:07:50.820 because my first law job was in the federal government of of was for the federal department

00:07:56.260 of justice when john kretchen was a newly minted prime minister and it was going on then i could

00:08:02.100 tell you stories uh you would you you would not believe um we have to get rid of this uh reserve

00:08:08.660 system altogether uh but it has to be done in consultation with indigenous peoples but it's

00:08:13.780 important for people who are listening to this uh or watching this to understand that

00:08:18.660 But the people who are out front, for example, the chief of Sturgeon Lake, who's suing the

00:08:26.960 government of Alberta because we're going to have a referendum, those people don't accurately

00:08:31.680 represent the feelings and the sentiments of Indigenous peoples in Alberta.

00:08:36.360 These people are paid.

00:08:37.700 They're paid well by NGOs.

00:08:41.220 And so they're the spokespeople.

00:08:42.740 They're the people we hear.

00:08:43.640 They're the barking dogs, but they're not really the voice of Indigenous peoples.

00:08:47.960 but unfortunately they do a pretty good job of giving the false impression to non-indigenous

00:08:53.640 people what indigenous people are already thinking but when you go to communities and you actually

00:08:58.320 talk to first nations peoples uh it becomes clear to you very very quickly that they're just like

00:09:04.840 you and me they just want all they want all the same things everybody else wants and um you know

00:09:09.880 this sort of historical cultural identity uh is something that the importance of it is very much

00:09:15.760 inflated uh it doesn't put food on your table uh it doesn't give you a decent job it doesn't give

00:09:21.200 you a decent education it doesn't really do much to take care of your health these are all things

00:09:26.640 that all everybody in alberta and i believe most people in canada want they're being denied to the

00:09:32.000 indian in this country and have been for a long time but not by the racist white population it's

00:09:37.440 not whitey that's doing it it's that government in ottawa that's been doing it since long before 1867.

00:09:45.760 Transcription by CastingWords

The Critical Compass Podcast - March 20, 2026

Independence Offers Indigenous Albertans an Incredible Opportunity ｜ Leighton Grey

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