Independence Offers Indigenous Albertans an Incredible Opportunity ｜ Leighton Grey
Episode Stats
Words per minute
160.0026
Harmful content
Hate speech
9
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, we are joined by First Nations activist and author, Bruce Parry. We discuss the current state of relations between First Nations people and the white settler-colonialist establishment in Canada, the role of Indigenous peoples, and the need for Indigenous people to stop being lied to each other about their history.
Transcript
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
0.84
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
0.97
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
00:04:07.380
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
00:04:21.820
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.
00:04:37.640
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?
00:04:51.200
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
1.00
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
0.85
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
1.00
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
0.99
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
0.99
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.
00:08:43.640
They're the barking dogs, but they're not really the voice of Indigenous peoples.
1.00
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.
0.60