Dear Editor,
The lawsuit brought by Pikangikum against Robert Nault (Decision in Nault, Pikangikum case could take months, June 23), strikes me as sound leadership by a First Nation for all Canadians who want accountability.
It also illuminates Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) as the weird quasi-feudal entity that it continues to be.
The minister of Indian Affairs is in a unique position compared to all other federal ministers.
Decisions made by this minister can have direct, immediate and often unmitigated effects on communities right at the ground level without the benefit of the kinds of checks and balances non-Native communities (with their well developed civic structures) can bring to bear.
But ministers continue to be shuffled in and out of INAC as though it was jut like any other ministry, which it is not.
Communities are directly exposed to the personality defects of ministers as they try to steer their political careers through INAC on their way to “better” positions in cabinet.
Nault was clearly second rate material from the beginning, not politically astute enough to identify the Governance Act as a non-starter, and simply wasting most of his tenure as minister and untold millions trying to push it through.
We now learn that he allowed a peevish personality to affect decisions directly impacting Pikangikum and who knows how many other communities.
(Ed. Note: Nault has denied this claim made by Pikangikum during a trial in June. A decision on this case has not been made.)
Naturally there is nothing new in any of this. The mean spirited interpretation of the Indian Act and treaty rights has undermined Anishinabeg for 14 or so decades.
But we need all Canadians to recognize the leadership and courage shown by Pikangikum in seeking accountability through the courts, simply because this kind of action advances the interests of all Canadians.
No one in Canada needs more failed communities and no one in Canada needs federal ministers unable to hold their personalities in check.
Thomas Zimmerman
Thunder Bay
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
I grew up...
I’m happy to see the ongoing support and assistance in our northern remote communities to help our people cope with so many lifelong and generational issues...