“Not that long ago, it was a common belief that people from aboriginal communities would, over time, merge with the general population. As employment skills were acquired, people would leave reserves and compete for jobs and other benefits with other Canadians.

“That was certainly the belief of the men who wrote the ‘Indian Act’. Reserves, and the demeaning classification of aboriginal people as wards, were to come to a natural end when aboriginal people became a part of the modern community. “That kind of thinking is now considered passé — almost quaint. It is now widely believed {at least in our universities} that aboriginal people should remain separate from the general population in self-governing tribal ‘nations’, where they are subject to a separate set of rights and benefits determined at birth by the race of their parents. These tribal ‘nations’ are envisioned as having their own economies. The Indian Act, or something similar, would forever treat aboriginal people differently from other Canadians.  Continue reading ‘Aboriginals Must Join Canadian Mosaic’ →