32 Comments
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Kate Wand's avatar

Brilliant.

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Debbity's avatar

Very well said, Mr. Pardy! About time someone said it out loud. If we stopped treating them like babies that need looking after, they would be looking after themselves just like the rest of us are.

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Jeff Kean's avatar

Love the simplicity of your argument, Bruce. As you say, the Republic of Alberta should immediately rescind these silly treaties. To hell with "the Crown". A new Alberta should and must represent a complete break from the British system of slavery. We are not peasants anymore. Private property, or "fee simple", as you have cogently argued in your beautiful essay, simply presents the case that Aboriginal people are citizens like the rest of us. No more Apartheid in the free Republic of Alberta which, by the way, should adopt the principles of the American republic, while insisting upon its own sovereignty.

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Gene Balfour's avatar

Agreed. I would be happy to live in such an Alberta and leave Ontario and Canada to those who are determined to destroy it. My only conditions would be that the size, cost and scope of authority held by government entities would be a small fraction of what exists today.

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Leighton B. U. Grey KC's avatar

I generally agree with Bruce, and do so here. My ancestors signed a Treaty with Canada. We would be much better off today if we had been granted fee simple ownership of lands. The reserve system is an historical embarrassment & and blight upon our nation.

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C Woody's avatar

Great article Bruce. This totally makes sense. One look at any reserve in Canada is enough to make you understand that the current system is not working and has never worked. Rich Chiefs and poor Indians.. truer words were never spoken. This tenet applies to society as a whole,the aboriginal dilemma is just a microcosm of that.

Yet I fear that the entire independence movement has been hijacked by too many differing opinions and groups that are only muddying the waters of the original idea, whether it is intentional or not remains to be seen, though it is more and more obvious every day that the sabotage is intentional. The original concept of the referendum was a vote for independence from Ottawa and that system of governance and control. This means if the consensus is to leave the current system, an entirely new system would need to be established.. which would mean a clean break from the old one, including a deletion of the treaty system of the Indigenous people. The new system has to represent the population equally with land rights and personal freedoms. The old system needs to be abolished in its entirety.. including the political class that currently is controlled opposition for the Ottawa regime. Premier Smith is testament to this fact. During her campaign and early in her tenure, looked like a beacon of hope for Alberta in the fight against the Ottawa machine, she has done a few things although nothing of any consequence. The APP idea has gone silent, AHS is still in control, vaccination is still being pushed by her government and she has fallen into line with the net zero narrative. The list goes on. She drafts up a list of demands for Carney and gives him a “timeline” to respond, he does so by sitting her in the corner during the first minister’s meeting and she caves in to some minor rewriting of bill C-69. A new territory does not need a leader who shows the provinces displeasure with Ottawa decisions by writing yet another “sternly worded”letter. The current politicians should have no input or comment as to how a future territory would be built. The system in its entirety has to be razed to the ground if succession is to succeed.. I am doubtful that will ever happen.

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Peter of Canada's avatar

When I become King, I would have you write the constitution. Great read. Thanks for sharing. I was beginning to think I was alone in my thinking; yet there you are, around every corner.

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david's avatar

bravo! i like the way you think. i believe this was either done or debated in chile years ago. property rights for indigenous people. pride of ownership instead of welfare. of course the patronizing response would be the childlike natives would get drunk and sell their land cheap.

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Keith's avatar

This seems like a very good idea to me. Of course First Nations people should make this decision. I believe everyone but the chiefs would benefit.

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JBen's avatar

Excellent points Mr Pardy and I totally agree with you 👏👏👏.

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Playground of the Senses's avatar

Such forward thinking! All Canadians can benefit if we support new ideas

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Richard Bone's avatar

The silliness I have heard first hand is along the lines of “The white man and his government are keeping us down…” Ok, move into a non-Reservation town and get on with it.

Of course there will be anger and argument from all involved, but I see a lot of validity in your essay.

Holding the boot on your own throat is not oppression.

I went to school with, and have lived alongside many indigenous people. Just like us “white kids”, there were model students, and there were the riff-raff. This continues with not adulthood where some grow out of entitlement attitudes, and some don’t.

I just don’t understand what I can only describe as chosen victimhood.

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FinallyInCrypto's avatar

You are absolutely right about this. For this reason alone, Alberta’s independence project should be redrawn from the ground up to get this right.

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Julius Ruechel's avatar

Well said!

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Eric Lowther's avatar

Race based policies are wrong from the beginning. This kind of reverse discrimination and the lack of equality has made them weaker, not stronger. We owe it to them to let them enjoy the benefits of personal ownership in the property rights. Good going Bruce you’re saying what people need to hear even if they I’ve been brainwashed into a bogus guilt trip of false premises.

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Kittykat's avatar

.UNDRIP established in Canada and Australia and pushed around the globe comes from the UN which seeks to establish a globalized socialism via gradualism. Just like IMF props up and feeds petty tyrants around the globe with little of the resources going to the rest of the population and no chance for self determination. .Yet the leaders will sign on to anything because they are addicted to the money.

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