[Indigsol] Znet: Colonialism and the Economic Crisis in Canada

[Greg Macdougall]

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21193
Colonialism and the Economic Crisis in Canada
									  	
		  		
		  			April 18, 2009
		  		
		  		By 
		  				  			Todd Gordon
		  					  					

 								


							
			
				
The Left in Canada
has been quick to point out the shortcomings of the Conservative
government's official response to the recession. Not surprisingly, the
response doesn't mark a departure from their knee-jerk pro-capital and
anti-worker reflexes. 
 
Critics
have rightly stressed the small size of the stimulus plan; that a
significant chunk of the supposed stimulus (50 percent) is actually tax
breaks, and thus not really stimulus; that the Tories failed to revamp
Employment Insurance rules beyond temporarily extending the length of
time a person can receive benefits to a mere 50 weeks, even though less
than 40 percent of the unemployed actually qualify for benefits and the
most a person can receive is a meagre 55 percent of their wages (capped
at $447/week); and that bailout spending, such as that in the auto
sector, is being used to roll back working-class living standards and
job security that had been built up over a half century of struggle.
 
These
are indeed serious problems with the way in which the Conservatives,
with the largely uncritical support of the Liberals, are addressing the
economic crisis: putting the needs of capital ahead of the social needs
of Canadians.
 
But
we have to be very careful on the Left about how we advance our
criticism of the government's strategy. As the recession deepens into
the worst global downturn since the Great Depression people will quite
rightly demand more from their government. Calls will be made for the
government to spend more and create good jobs for people. And
organizations of the Left will play a central role articulating those
demands and mobilizing people for the inevitable struggle that will be
necessary for the demands to become actual policy.
 
However,
the government's response to the recession has a sharply colonial
dynamic to it. And if we aren't cognizant of this dynamic we risk
reproducing it in our efforts to build an alternative way of dealing
with the crisis. The fight for a more socially just Canada will be an anti-colonial struggle in support of indigenous rights, or it won't be at all.
 
 
Exploiting Fear 
 
The
Conservative government's goal in this recession is clear: exploit the
scale of the crisis and the fear and uncertainty it's instilled in
people to intensify an agenda it and business leaders would otherwise
have to approach more modestly. The attack on autoworkers is a good
example of this; the expansion of capitalism into indigenous
territories is as well.
 
Indigenous
land and resources are central to Canadian capitalism, plain and
simple. Reports written by Indian Affairs and Northern Development,
Natural Resources Canada and various industry organizations make this
point plain enough. Most of the mines being explored or dug, oil
deposits being developed, pipelines being constructed and hydro-dams
imposed on the landscape are on or adjacent to - and thus impact -
indigenous territory. All these resources and other industrial
developments besides, furthermore, require infrastructural investments,
such as roadways or electricity grids, in order to be operationalized,
putting even more pressure on First Nation lands.
 
The
otherwise relentless growth of a capitalism steamrolling any obstacle
in its path to making profits has been kept in check in Canada,
to some degree, by the efforts of First Nations to defend their land.
In some instances they've directly stopped developments, while their
cumulative struggle over decades, along with environmental campaigning,
has led to an oversight system, however very imperfect, of
environmental assessments and consultations with indigenous
communities, which has slowed the pace of development down somewhat.
These oversights, derided by industry organizations and the Harper
Tories as nothing more than "red tape," have long been viewed by these
same critics as a barrier to corporate profitability. The economic
crisis has given the Tories and business leaders new ammunition to
mount a frontal assault on these policies, while stepping up and
expediting infrastructure funding that clearly impacts First Nations.
 
 
Cutting "Red Tape" 
 
Infrastructure
spending is obviously an important component of the Conservative
government's 2009 post-financial-meltdown budget. Canada
had already committed $33 billion over several years towards
infrastructure development in November 2007 with the Building Canada
fund. With the additional money earmarked in the new budget, they're
planning $18 billion of infrastructural spending in the next two years.

 
The
government's goal is to fast track new projects and those already
planned, arguing that this is necessary in order to keep the recession
from worsening. According to Infrastructure Canada, the government "has
an opportunity [i.e. peoples' well-grounded fear of recession] to modernize its federal reviews by cutting red tape and increasing federal-provincial cooperation" (emphasis
added). Things need to move quickly, in other words, and efficiency
(spending lots of money minus meaningful oversight) equals progress.  
 
As
part of the effort to expedite spending, the government plans on
"overhauling" - in the words of Environment Minister, Jim Prentice -
the Environmental Assessment Act. While full details of the government
plans haven't been released, a leaked government document reveals a
goal of cutting reviews by as much as 95 percent. Infrastructure Canada
says the government is planning a "dramatic reduction in the number of
federal assessments and regulatory reviews," adding, to assuage those
who might question the wisdom of such a move, that the cuts will be
done "without compromising environmental protection." 
 
Prentice
also announced, at a Calgary business luncheon in mid-March, the
Tories' plan to simply waive environmental reviews for favoured public
projects for the next two years. The waivers will be made regardless of
the size of the project.  
 
How
fewer reviews or weakened (or "modernized", as they like to suggest)
environmental policy won't compromise the environment and those
indigenous communities that rely on it for cultural and material
sustenance is a mystery. Tory wizardry, perhaps. After all, this is the
government that can apparently turn water into wine: making a Free
Trade Agreement with Colombia about improving human rights in the
troubled Andean nation, helping the poor by cutting taxes, or
supporting immigrants' rights by concentrating arbitrary power in the
hands of the Minister of Immigration.
 
Ottawa
claims that it can rely on provincial assessments, but the provinces
have different criteria and standards than their federal counterpart.
As critics point out, provincial standards in environmental reviews are
themselves not necessarily that reliable. In B.C., for instance,
indigenous groups have long criticized the provincial government's
assessment process as biased in favour of business interests. Moreover,
the Ontario Liberal government announced in 2008 in its Open for Business: Guide to Reduce the Burden,
that it's cutting regulations in every ministry by 25 percent. Like the
federal Tories, the Ontario Liberals describe the rollback as
"modernization." At a time when the condition of our environment is
rapidly deteriorating and indigenous land claims continue to grow,
reviews should be strengthened not weakened. 
 
Environment
Canada's response to a scientific study it commissioned on protecting
the endangered woodland-caribou - an important part of the livelihood
of many indigenous communities - makes crystal clear the government's
priorities. Released in early April of this year, the study, conducted
by leading woodland-caribou scientists, recommends tightly controlling
development in approximately half of Canada's northern boreal forest.
But Environment Canada suggests the science in the study is inadequate,
and doesn't offer sufficient information on how much development can be
pursued without undermining the sustainability of caribou herds.
Instead of acting on the report, it says it will study the issue
further until the end of 2010. Much of the woodland-caribou's habitat
is sought after by logging, mining and oil and gas companies. Thus even
when a serious scientific study is undertaken, Environment Canada
simply ignores conclusions that don't fit with the agenda of the
resource industry.   
 
 
Infrastructure Spending: More Money, More Colonialism
 
A
cursory glance at some of the government's recent infrastructure
spending plans - some made before the crisis but likely to expedited as
a result of it - offers us a clear picture of how stimulus spending
will be implicated in the expansion of the domestic Canadian colonial
project. 
 
Infrastructure
Canada and the B.C. government, for instance, are committing over $115
million to the expansion of a number of sections of Highway 97 in B.C..
Both levels of government and the Northwest Corridor Corporation, which
includes among its members municipal and provincial governments and
private companies, tout the expansion as crucial to the economic
development of the region. The expansion is aimed at making the 97 a
key part of the corridor linking up NAFTA trade flow through Manitoba
with B.C.'s Pacific ports (which are also slated to receive federal
funds). Making the 97 a major industrial transit way is also expected
to spur further developments in the mining and oil and gas industries
in the province, cited as key to the latter's economic future by both
levels of government and the Northwest Corridor Corporation. Two major
pipelines, the Northern Gateway and the Pacific Trails, are in fact
being planned for B.C., both of which will cross unceded indigenous
land. 
 
A
number of indigenous communities are located along or near the various
highway 97 expansion points and in areas resource corporations are
hoping to develop with help from infrastructural enhancements. While
some First Nations are supportive of oil and gas and mineral
development, hoping for a piece of the pie, others are less enamoured
by it. In a 2004 press release, the Treaty 8 First Nations, located in
northern B.C., declared that "oil and gas development as currently
practiced has an unacceptable adverse impact on wildlife, and on the
exercise of traditional hunting and fishing rights through
environmental degradation." They also noted "the failure of the
government to require cumulative impact assessments in advance of oil
and gas development," which "infringes on our Treaty and Aboriginal
Rights." The Blueberry River First Nation, a Treaty 8 member, launched
a lawsuit in 2003 against the B.C. government and Calgary-based
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., demanding redress for gas-related
illnesses suffered by community members and a halt to all development
activities within 10 kilometres of its reserve.
 
In
another example of the colonial character of infrastructure spending,
Infrastructure Canada and Quebec are committing funds to the expansion
of Highway 30. But in order to undertake the project Quebec plans to
appropriate mainly agricultural land on unceded Mohawk territory along
Montreal's South Shore. The plan evoked a strong response from the
Kahnawake community, including a threat to blockade the Mercier Bridge,
invoking memories of the Oka Revolt when Mohawk Warriors shut the
bridge (which runs through Mohawk territory) down after the Suretée du
Québec attacked a blockade in nearby Kanehsatake. In the face of
potential unrest surrounding Highway 30, the province promised to work
with the federal government to provide new crown land as compensation
for the appropriation.
 
While
the province's offer appeased the Kahnawake Band Council (Band Councils
are the colonially-imposed leaderships officially recognized by the
federal and provincial governments), which quickly called off protests,
not all community members are happy with it. The Mohawk Traditional
Council has opposed the appropriation, asserting that the province has
no right to take their land, which is used by the community for hunting
and planting. Local farmers, who also face displacement because of the
project, have opposed the expansion as well. 
 
This
past January Ottawa also offered financial assistance to the
controversial Mackenzie Valley pipeline project. The offer was
announced by none other than Jim Prentice (apparently funding pipelines
is a matter for the minister responsible for protecting the
environment) during a meeting with oil company executives. The amount
of the offer hasn't been disclosed, but one industry observer estimated
it could potentially be as high as $2 billion. 
 
The
Mackenzie Valley Pipeline is the largest infrastructural project in
Canadian history, with a cost estimated at $16.2 billion and rising.
Some indigenous communities have come on board in the desperate hope
that it will provide First Nations with meaningful financial benefits
without long-term destruction of the surrounding environment. But it
continues to face opposition from indigenous activists and communities
not sold on the benefits of a pipeline to their cultures and
traditional territories. 
 
A
dream of government and the oil and gas industries going back decades,
the pipeline is expected to spur significant growth in oil and gas and
mineral exploration along its route, all of which will inevitably
impact First Nation lands in and beyond the Mackenzie Valley delta. As
Prentice observed when he announced funding for the pipeline, "it opens
up a whole region of the country." The comment is both racist and
telling of the goals of government and industry. It suggests the
Mackenzie Valley and the lands adjacent to it are some sort of frontier
that have been closed off to people, when in fact indigenous
communities have been living there, and interacting with the
surrounding environment, for thousands of years. It's only "opening up"
the region to large-scale resource development by corporations.
 
The
project has been slowed down by an environmental review and indigenous
opposition. But with the recession worsening and the government
throwing potentially billions of dollars into the pipeline, the push is
on to cut the indigenous "red tape" and get the project going. True to
form, Prentice followed up the funding announcement two months later
with an attack on the project's review panel in a speech to the Calgary
Chamber of Commerce. 
 
And
to be absolutely clear, spending commitments for First Nations made in
the budget don't make up for the government's continued colonial
assault. At $1.4 billion, the Tory spending promise (and just a promise
at this point) is just over one-fifth of what was promised by the
Liberal government in the 2005 Kelowna Accord, which itself was not a
firm commitment on the spending and still wouldn't have gone far enough
to improve living conditions in indigenous communities let alone repay
these communities for all the wealth that has been made off of them
over the last 150 years through the stealing of resources, the forced
labour of children in residential schools or the corrupt practices of
Indian Affairs. The Tories quickly scrapped the Kelowna Accord after
their election in 2006, and now three years later they present a
spending plan that doesn't come remotely close to dealing with the
poverty, housing shortage and health needs in First Nation communities.    
 
 
Which Side Are We On?
 
The
Left needs to respond to the economic crisis and the Tory recession
plan carefully and responsibly. Simply calling for more stimulus
spending and job creation, without consideration of the impact this may
have on indigenous communities, isn't good enough. Indigenous demands
for self-determination and protection of their cultures and lands must
be central to how the Left organizes in this crisis and to what it
envisions for a more socially just Canada. We have to be prepared to
take leadership from indigenous activists not in the pocket of
government and corporations, while making the arguments with
non-indigenous people desiring change that the development of a
meaningful anti-recession strategy can't come at the expense of First
Nations.
 
In
times of economic crisis racism and xenophobia tend to rise, and
governments and business leaders are certainly not above playing these
things up and exploiting them to advance their agendas. We've already
seen large-scale immigration raids at workplaces in the Greater Toronto
Area this April. Anti-indigenous racism is quite strong in Canada in
the best of economic times, and as economic instability grows it could
intensify. The Left has to be strident in its anti-racism, and must
make its fight against the government's and business's reactionary
response to the recession an anti-colonial one. Only then will we be on
the right path to a more socially just future. 
 
 
 
Todd Gordon is the author of Cops, Crime and Capitalism: The Law-and-Order Agenda in Canada. He's currently writing a book on Canadian imperialism. His articles have appeared on Rabble, ZNet, The Bullet and in New Socialist
magazine. He is an assistant professor of Canadian Studies at the
University of Toronto, and can be reached at ts.gordon at utoronto.ca


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