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

[mattm-b at resist.ca]

Colonialism and the Economic Crisis in Canada

By Todd Gordon; April 18, 2009 - Znet
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21193

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 [1], 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 [be] 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.

[1] Note From MW: The Harper neo-cons are not one's to let mere science
stand in the way of their right wing ideology. Another example is
Vancouver's Safe Injection Site, the only one of its kind in North
America, which the Tories have been trying to shut down despite a plethora
of studies strongly suggesting that it both saves lives and lowers the
transmission rates of both Hep C and HIV-AIDS. Bottom line? The Harper
Bush clones no more care about the lives of poor and marginalized
communities than they do those of working people & the Indigenous, or an
ever-precarious environment.]

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.