The divide between First Nations and others in the country won’t be mended any time soon.
Or so suggest some of the protests surrounding Canada’s 150th-anniversary.
It will require time but, mostly, it will require more patience that either side has so far demonstrated.
It will also require a lot more understanding than many are now choosing to exercise.
Sadly, there are days when we seem to taking big steps backwards.
Consider the killing a year ago of 23-year-old Red Pheasant resident Colten Boushie in the Biggar-area yard of farmer Gerald Stanley.
As the exact details work their way through the court system, one strongly suspects neither side in this tragedy will emerge unscathed.
But what is without question is the horrific online reaction by a minority who turned whatever legitimate argument they might have had about trespassing and fear in rural areas into an issue of racism.
So racist were some of the online remarks when Premier Brad Wall rightly waded into the fray to appeal for calm, reason and respect.
That this is an issue of race for some tells us much about how far we still have to go.
More understanding is clearly in order and that most always begins with education.
Fortunately, that is happening in our school system. Already, there are indications that the next generation is gaining that needed deeper understanding of our history.
This generation understands that the signing of the major treaties (one through seven) came between 1871 and 1877 shortly after confederation in 1867. This was done largely to accommodate settlers from Europe and coming of the CPR.
As such, present-day treaty territories were actually established before Saskatchewan joined Confederation in 1905.
Because this is now being taught as part of grade school curriculum, younger Canadians had a better grasp of the four-day Canada Day “re-occupation” protest that included indigenous people setting up a teepee on Parliament Hill.
Of course, many were angered by the protestors--about 15 to 20 of which were taken into custody and ordered to keep away from Parliament Hill for six months--for what was seen as intrusion on Canada’s special birthday celebration.
Certainly, the First Nations protestors do need a better way to communicate their grievances.
For example, a relatively innocuous question from a talented, veteran CBC reporter asking a spokesperson at the protestors’ press conference to compared Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s handling of indigenous issues with that of his predecessor Stephen Harper deteriorated into a scolding over using the right tone of voice and implying the media is racist.
We all need to be educated, but educated in a respectful way. Somehow, City of Saskatoon billboards talking about “white male privilege” doesn’t seem to be a great place to start that dialogue.
Similarly, the language of the protestors, and some other First Nations, who choose to brand today’s non-indigenous people with terms like “settlers” is as derogatory as the use of “aboriginal.”
If the greater understanding that we are trying to achieve is that we are all Treaty people, it begins with better understanding from both sides that all such terms are inappropriate.
It will take a while.
Consider the Canada Day encounter in Halifax between First Nations people honouring missing and murdered indigenous women and a group of men who identified themselves as part of an alternative right organization.
That all five young men were active in the Canadian military, forcing senior naval officers to apologize and suspend them, was even more problematic.
It always seems like we are taking steps backwards.
But maybe a few steps back will give us a chance to learn.
We have a ways to go before we arrive at where we need to be.
