• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Saturday, January 23, 2021
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
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
4 min 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

Social justice organizations and CUPE denounce Minister’s letter to the Energy and Utilities Board supporting Irving Oil’s fuel price hike
*Opinion*

Social justice organizations and CUPE denounce Minister’s letter to the Energy and Utilities Board supporting Irving Oil’s fuel price hike

January 21, 2021

Social justice organizations and CUPE New Brunswick are reacting to news that Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland...

“Our people will still step up”: Panel reviews treaty rights in light of attacks on Mi’kmaw fishers
Indigenous

“Our people will still step up”: Panel reviews treaty rights in light of attacks on Mi’kmaw fishers

November 23, 2020

Mi'kmaw and Wolastoqiyik scholars say that treaty rights must be respected as Mi'kmaw fishers in Nova Scotia face hostility and...

No satisfaction: Chief Tremblay calls emergency Wabanaki Confederacy meeting
*Opinion*

No satisfaction: Chief Tremblay calls emergency Wabanaki Confederacy meeting

November 17, 2020

The Wabanaki Confederacy meeting will be held online, through the videoconference platform Zoom, on the afternoons of Saturday, Nov. 21...

Wolastoqey and Fredericton allies rally in solidarity with Mi’kmaw lobster fishers
Canada

Wolastoqey and Fredericton allies rally in solidarity with Mi’kmaw lobster fishers

October 22, 2020

Today, close to 200 people gathered over the noon hour at the New Brunswick Legislature in Fredericton to support the...

Load More

Recommended

Changes to Fredericton transit leave many with limited bus access

6 years ago
Province blind to cancer ‘hotspots;’ can’t see the elephant in the living room

Province blind to cancer ‘hotspots;’ can’t see the elephant in the living room

6 years ago
No business case for new nuclear reactors in New Brunswick

No business case for new nuclear reactors in New Brunswick

4 months ago
The Rush of the Tide

Why grassroots activism is required to change climate policy

10 months 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.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

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

Log In