Lately, many Canadians have been implying and somewhat naively, that Indians are too quick to “use the Race Card” in their dealings with Canada’s police and Law Courts; nothing could be further from the truth. The real truth is; Canada has designed the Indian Reserve System along racist lines which in turn has resulted in Indian children being “born racist”. Right out of the gate, as some people say, when an Indian child grows up on the Reserve, he or she is treated totally different from all other Canadians when the Indian Child is given a 10 digit Indian Status Card which the child will carry with them for the rest of his or her natural life. The average ordinary Canadian child cannot apply for a Social Insurance Number until they reach the age of 18.
The word “Indian” is the legal definition of Canadian born Aboriginal people who are not, Metis or Inuit. The Indian may be a Status Indian or a Non-Status Indian depending on his or her station in life under the Indian Act of Canada.
Canada is the name of the former British Colony which occupies that part of the North American Continent lying to the north of the Lower Great lakes and north the 49th Parrallel which acts as the border between much of Canada and the United States of America. In the Pacific Northwest the Yukon Territory acts as the Boundary between Canada and the State of Alaska.
Canadians are primarily any persons who are not Indian, Metis or Inuit. If this were not so, the government of Canada would treat Indians, Metis and Inuit just as equally and fairly as they do the millions of other Canadian people. Canada, (the country) claims to be the # 1 upholder of Human Rights in the entire world and yet allows Indian people to scrimp and scrounge for a meager living on many Indian Reserves in the northern regions of the country, while most Canadians and new Immigrants are allowed to live lavish lives unhindered by the Canadian Government. Indian people in Canada are required by Canadian Law to carry an “their Indian Status card” to identify themselves whenever they (Indians) buy things or leave the country. The Status card must be produced at hospitals, restaurants, gas stations, and a host of other institutions. Unlike a Canadian Birth Certificate, the Status Card must be updated and replaced every five years or the Indian will lose the few rights which Card allows him or her to have.
Most Status Canadian Indians in general are treated as second class people by almost, if not all, of Canada’s many civil, federal and provincial institutions including Police Services, the Canadian Armed Forces, Law Courts, Penal Institutions, Municipal governments, Educational Facilities etc. Naturally the institutions will deny that they treat Indians different than other Canadians, but those of us who have lived and worked among the whites know that we have and continue to be treated differently most of the time. If any of the readers of this essay do not believe this to be so, the author would like to suggest that you go way up into the north country and try to live (just like the Indians do) and see for yourselves what life without government aid is like.
The Late and Great, Chief George Manuel of the Neskonlith Reserve in British Columbia described Indian life on a reserve as the Fourth World. Manuel said that the modern countries are the first world, the less productive countries are the second world, and the poor nations are the third world and thus the Native Indians who live within the bounds of the Canadian Indian Reserve System are members of the Fourth World and at the lowest point on the scales of life in Canada.
Looking at this problem of “racism”, there have been High Ranking Canadian politicians such as the late Pierre Trudeau; Jean Chretien along with British Columbia Supreme Court Justice, Allen McEachern who made no effort to hide their disdain and disgust of Native Indian people in this so-called country where Human Rights are supposedly held in high regard. In March of 1991, Chief Justice Allen McEachern ruled against the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Land Rights Case by saying that the two Native Nations had lost all their land rights when the Territory of British Columbia joined the Confederation of Canada in the 1800’s. McEachern went on to say that it was his belief (McEachern) that the Plaintiffs (Gitxsan, Wet’ suwet’en) Ancestors may not have even been human beings since those ancestors had no written language; no horses and no concept of the wheel; slavery and starvation was not uncommon; war with their neighbours was common and Aboriginal life was at best, nasty; brutish and short. Now that is “Racism” and those words had been spoken by a Chief Justice of one of Canada’s Provincial Supreme Courts. So, yes some of us may be and probably are racists’, but the words written above were spoken by a Provincial Court Judge who obviously held his high position and himself as a model of a Superior and Racist; Human Being.
