Green Party’s policies on Indigenous issues sound great, but what lies beneath?
Tanya Talaga Oct. 19, 2019
Elizabeth May’s long-standing opposition to the commercial seal hunt (though CBC reports her saying a few days ago that she isn’t against Inuit seal hunting). Any ban on the seal hunt harms Inuit. Full stop.
Two prominent Inuit women — performer and writer Tanya Tagaq and the director of Angry Inuk, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril — have taken May to task on social media. Arnaquq-Baril said, “Despite the situation being carefully explained to her, she sticks with her anti-seal hunt stance. Being against seal hunting is anti-Inuit and also makes it easier for development to encroach on communities living in poverty so it’s not even an eco-friendly stance.”
True to May’s word, the Greens would honour the ruling of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and set aside $2 billion to compensate children born after 2006 who were taken from their homes on reserves and unlawfully put into the child welfare system.
The Letdown
The Greens do suffer a bit from the overpromise virus that also plagues the NDP, including vows to fulfil all Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action along with the recommendations to come out of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) national inquiry.
Indigenous people have been promised and let down too many times.