Native Government Folly

A long time ago, when I was a young lawyer, I blindly supported the entrenchment of a "bill" or "charter" of rights into Canada's constitution. I could not understand why certain public figures, such as Allan Blakeney, former NDP premier of Saskatchewan, opposed the idea. Now, almost 25 years and many court decisions later, his wisdom has become paintfully clear. Not only have we seen the rampant development of judicial activism, whereby the prejudices and predelictions of a few unelected and socially remote judges have usurped the law-making power of legislatures and parliament, but the abdication of that power by cowardly and ignorant politicians happily ignoring painfull decisions by leaving them to the courts. The cases are legion, from the most recent creation of the right to marriage to state-paid financial rewards, such as pension rights, for homosexuals, to creating and expanding entitlements of all sorts to native Indians.

Canada has become a society of interest groups claiming entitlement to one "right" or another, meaning one set of "benefits" or another, resulting in a "culture of entitlement". This means that interest groups' desires are constantly elevated to the lofty realm of "rights", yet no corresponding obligations or duties are ever associated with those rights. This is most evident in regard to native land claims and demands for sovereignty. Most of the settlements and agreements establishing payments of money or allocations of lands, and particularly those creating some form of native government, do not include any obligation on natives to husband and develop their resources and emerge into some form of financial independence. In the great Liberal vision we hapless, and unconsulted, taxpayers will remain forever bound to bear the burden of maintaining native bureaucracies and governments.

The Tlicho Land Claims and Self Government Act, about to be entrenched beyond hope of change into our Constitution, is the latest example of this vision. That Act, amazingly, fetters part of Canada's sovereign right to enter into international treaties that might affect the Tlicho natives. It also gives them the right to ignore the Charter of Rights by entrenching racist policies in the governance of the new region. The Tlicho Agremement is not a "full and final" settlement, nor is anything said about the natives' obligations to pay income tax and to pay for their own governance and services. All of this will be automatically entrenched in the Constitution.

Such a stupid agreement will only serve to encourage future claims of equal or greater benefit to other native groups and which will be more and more onerous for future taxpayers. This represents Canada's "Culture of Entitlement" gone wild. Who is to blame for this? Primarily the Liberals and their supporters, and, ultimately, the Canadian electorate, who either approve of such policies or are too ignorant and apathetic to oppose them.