• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home Canada

“Band by band”: Russell Diabo on efforts to ‘terminate’ Indigenous rights

by Abram Lutes
July 26, 2019
Reading Time: 4min read
“Band by band”: Russell Diabo on efforts to ‘terminate’ Indigenous rights

Russell Diabo speaks on Canadian law and termination policies in Fredericton on July 25, 2019. Photo by Abram Lutes.

Russell Diabo believes that current First Nation – government relations are guided by ongoing ‘termination’ policies against Indigenous peoples in Canada. Diabo, of the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake, explained the history of this process in his talk on July 25 at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

Diabo maintains that the intent of the 1969 White Paper proposal by the Pierre Trudeau government to dissolve all existing Indigenous laws, was to render Indigenous peoples nonexistent in Canadian law. He believes this effort continues through the ‘municipalization’ of First Nation bands and the co-optation of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). The AFN wound up its annual convention in Fredericton the day of Diabo’s talk, which was attended by Indigenous leaders and scholars from around the province.

Chief of the Wolastoq Grand Council, Spasaqsit Possessom (Ron Tremblay), welcomed Diabo and Chief Judy Wilson to the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Wolastoq nation.

Wilson,  who gave the introduction to Diabo, is elected chief of Neskonlith First Nation and treasurer for the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. Wilson described her nation’s struggle against the Trans Mountain pipeline. She reminded everyone that Indigenous peoples are the real title holders of the land the pipelines would be built on, and their consent is mandatory for resource development on that land. “I’m not confused about what my rights are.”

Chief Judy Wilson speaks on her nation’s struggle for recognition of their rights in Fredericton on July 25, 2019. Photo by Abram Lutes.

Diabo — policy analyst, activist, and writer — is well known on social media for his in-depth analysis of First Nation politics and his defense of lands and the environment.

Diabo was active in the Indigenous movement in High School, taking part in the American Indian Movement occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building. He witnessed first hand the violence governments are willing to use against Indigenous people asserting their rights and he  “went to find answers.” His comprehensive education in Indigenous studies and Indigenous policy development came from many schools in North America. He graduated from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario and did graduate work at Carleton University in Ottawa.

His current role is analyzing policy concerning Indigenous people. “My main task now is exposing Trudeau,” who made many promises to get elected, said Diabo. “After ten years of Harper, many poor people were excited at these promises.” Promises, he said, that never materialized.

Diabo said the federal Liberal party’s communications strategy is guided by tactics developed by consultants for the Trudeau Sr. government called ‘SWAT’ – strategic words and tactics. Trudeau Jr. used a similar approach during the 2015 federal Liberal election campaign. “The Liberals say things like nation-to-nation, but they mean things different from what our people mean by those terms.”

“The Trudeau government is trying to frame things in the media like they’re trying to help us, so when he attacks our rights and we stand up, the public thinks we’re ungrateful and isn’t on our side. That’s SWAT.”

Posters by the Wolastoq Grand Council. Photo by Abram Lutes.

Diabo describes the ‘modern treaty’ agreements, pacts settled under Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution, as a means of dividing Indigenous peoples through back-room deals and diminishing their status before the law, “They want to process bands from Indian Act treaties to ‘modern treaties’ over the next 10 years, that’s why they’re giving 10-year grants to bands. Eventually they’ll be folded into a fourth level of government, under the provinces and federal government.” This would effectively eliminate legal claims to nationhood under Canadian law.

“How do you extinguish an Indigenous nation?” asked Diabo rhetorically of the audience, “you do it band by band.”

Diabo believes the AFN needs to take an independent, active role in analyzing government policy, adding that “when these modern treaties came out, when the co-development plans came out, the AFN did nothing to analyze them.”

Because the legal burden of proof is on First Nations to prove their entitlement to rights, Diabo says First Nations need to start organizing now and stop allowing Indian Act chief-and-council governments to make backroom deals which slowly erode Indigenous rights. “If we want to survive as distinct, organized societies, we need a strategy. We need information.”

Diabo said ordinary Indigenous people need to have a role in the negotiations with the Canadian government. He thinks that Canada needs to fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as a starting point for genuine self-determination and to resist the effective termination of indigenous rights.

Abram Lutes is an environmental action reporter with the RAVEN project summer institute.

Tags: Abram LutesAssembly of First Nationsindigenous rightsRon TremblayRussell DiabosliderWolastoq
Share3551TweetSend

Related Posts

Powerful words of truth and wisdom from Wolastoq Grand Chief
Indigenous

Wolastoq Grand Council and farmers oppose mining prospecting bill

April 16, 2022

With a tide of anger rapidly rising against controversial legislation giving prospectors permission to go on any private land in...

Hands off the Wet’suwet’en: Fredericton rallies outside banks funding Coastal GasLink pipeline
Economy

Hands off the Wet’suwet’en: Fredericton rallies outside banks funding Coastal GasLink pipeline

November 27, 2021

Gatherings in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders have been taking place across Canada, including in Fredericton on Nov. 23 when...

In this battle with CUPE, it’s Higgs’ government that has the credibility problem
Labour

Thirty organizations support CUPE, condemn Higgs’ move to criminalize strike action

November 17, 2021

Thirty groups have signed an open letter to New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs condemning the use of the Emergency Measures...

How my disability led to a life of uncertainty in New Brunswick
*Opinion*

Abandon the outdated Household Income Policy: Open Letter to New Brunswick’s Minister of Social Development Bruce Fitch

November 8, 2021

On behalf of five organizations that represent people living with disabilities, people experiencing poverty, and tenants in the province of...

Load More

Recommended

Past time to stop platforming the Fraser Institute. Canada can afford public health care.

4 hours ago
Has the Sisson mine tanked?

Has the Sisson mine tanked?

9 hours ago
Irving’s appointment to head of Postmedia board not welcome news, says prof

Irving’s appointment to head of Postmedia board not welcome news, says prof

6 days ago
Wolastoqiyik women stop smallmouth bass poisoning in Miramichi Lake for now [updated]

Letter: Use of poison in Miramichi Lake and watershed a ‘tremendous waste of time and money’

7 days ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In