The right to be cold

It’s not every day at the staid Law Society of Upper Canada @LawSocietyLSUC that you see the lighting of the kudlik, the traditional #Inuit lamp made of soapstone and typically powered with whale oil or blubber.

In Inuit tradition, the kudlik provided light for the tent or igloo and heat for cooking.

Last evening at the Law Society, it opened a presentation on the right to be cold by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier.

Watt-Cloutier, who was born in Northern Quebec, is among other things a former international chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council representing Inuit from Canada, Greenland, Alaska and Russia.

As an Inuit activist (and author of a recent memoir), Watt-Cloutier has drawn attention to the impact of climate change on the North and its peoples. Climate change, she told the Law Society, is not only an environmental story but a human rights one also.

Many people in the south know more about the polar bear than the Inuit and their attention is often focused on “protecting the furry animal,” she told the audience of lawyers, law students and members of the public.

The right to be cold is key to the ability of the Inuit to maintain a way of life. “We are the people of the ice. We don’t just survive it. We thrive in it. We love where we live. It’s home and there’s a warmth there that connects us to each other.”

The skills learned on the ice are key to building character, she explained – dealing with stressful situations, developing judgment and wisdom and controlling the impulse to act precipitously.

There has been much attention on the high suicide rate in the north, Watt-Cloutier noted, but issues tend to be considered in silos, without their interconnectedness being drawn out.

To some extent, she suggested, suicide is an impulsive act, and the skills learned as a hunter can help someone deal with that the destructive urge to act impulsively.

Ultimately, all of humanity has a stake in the fate of the Inuit. Nobody is more on the frontlines of climate change than the Inuit hunter, she said. “The hunters are the sentinels for our planet.”

Withdraw invite to Pope until Church pays reconciliation tab

Pope Francis is considering an invitation “from the First Nations” to visit Canada, according to media reports.

That invite should be withdrawn until the Church stops trying to skip out on $25 million it owes residential school survivors.

The money was contained in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which, among other things, established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The reconciliation process was an alternative to the avalanche of lawsuits filed by survivors.

The thinking was that healing would more likely come through apology and education than through litigation. The $25 million in question (separate and apart from money already paid by the Church under the settlement agreement) was “part of the Church’s process of reconciliation with survivors,” as the Globe and Mail wrote this week, quoting Jim Prentice, a justice minister for the Harper Conservatives, who inked the deal.

The Church entities were to implement a “best efforts” fundraising campaign to raise the cash. But they only came up with $3.7 million of the total after a half-hearted effort that skipped individual parishioners in favour of already cash-strapped Catholic dioceses.

Now, after a federal lawyer inadvertently suggested in legal communications that they wouldn’t have to pay the remainder, the Church says no more money will be forthcoming.

This is a serious setback in an already difficult healing process.

For survivors, no amount of money can undo the harm that was done to them as vulnerable children forcibly removed from their families and all that they knew. But the Church's brazen attempt to evade its moral obligations rips the scab off the wound. It’s a painful reminder that there is still a distance to go in the reconciliation process.

There are those who say the federal government should come up with the money the church refuses to pay. One of them is Phil Fontaine, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations who first drew national attention to the residential schools issue.

Former chief Fontaine deserves much credit for having the courage to talk about his own abusive residential school experience and creating the public pressure that forced Canada to deal with this tragic part of its history.

Certainly, the survivors are entitled to the funds. But having the feds pick up the tab would be a last resort. If the Catholic Church does not make good on its financial obligation, its role in the reconciliation exercise will be forever tarnished. For its own credibility and integrity, the Church ought to come up with the money.

In the circumstances, this is no time for a papal visit for it would only add insult to the latest injury.

Native Currents: Episode 117

On this week's show, on the 140th anniversary of the introduction of the racist Indian Act, a suicide crisis in Attawapiskat and an emergency debate in the House of Commons, and what could be a game-changer from the Supreme Court of Canada, confirmation that Metis and non-status Indians are entitled to constitutional protection.

Indigenous interests take precedence over party membership

This is Glenn Wheeler, reaching out to you, our followers, regarding my membership in the Liberal Party of Canada and Ontario.

The following are my personal comments and do not necessarily reflect those of my co-host Steven Vanloffeld.

I have decided to resign my membership in the federal and provincial Liberal parties.

I do so not because of dissatisfaction with the actions of either Liberal government. I believe (as, I think, do most Indigenous people in Canada) that we now have the most supportive federal government in generations, perhaps ever. The government of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has also been an ally.

However, I have come to realize that my role as co-host of Native Currents makes Liberal Party membership awkward. Our objective with the podcast and our related activities is to take a critical look at the biggest issues of the day in Indian Country.

The interests of our peoples comes first. I am concerned that party membership might create the impression that I would play off our peoples’ interests with party interests.

I would not.

Moreover, if I concluded that it was in the best interest of our peoples to support another political party, I would.

Going forward, I will choose who to support – candidate and party -- on an ad hoc basis.

Rest assured that on Native Currents, I will call it as I see it, without any obligation to a political party.

Native Currents: Episode 116

On this week's show we look at the need for Elder services among the prison inmate population; the invitation to the Pope to visit First Nations and formally apologize for Residential School abuses; the push on attracting tourism dollars to First Nation communities; and the controversy over the Cleveland "Caucasians" t-shirt.

Native Currents: Episode 115

On this week's show, the tragic death of nine in Pikangikum First Nation house fire tragedy points to holes in much-hyped federal budget. Politicians of all stripes ignore need for more expansive urban Indigenous policy. And Indigenous icon Buffy Ste. Marie wins big at Junos.