Refusing to Be Silent

Dear Sue,

It is with great empathy that I read your article and my deepest support goes out to you,
your family, and your community...in fact to the broader Aboriginal community of what is
known as Canada. As a mother, Aboriginal community leader, and a proud descendent of
the First People I can share with you the questions that you ponder.

My family has endured terrible economic and emotional hardship during the recent years as
we attempt to gain recognition for our community's inherent Aboriginal rights against the
insidious machinations known as Canada's Aboriginal policies, designed specifically to
minimize or completely erode the actual legal rights and contracts held by the Aboriginal
people. As the elected leader, and descendent of the traditional hereditary leaders of the
Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation, rightful political and economic centre of the Algonquin
Nation, I have been discriminated against, through the application of Canada's
Comprehensive Claim Policy and the Indian Act to the point of financial ruin and
homelessness, while those with less legitimate claims benefit, prosper, and negotiate away
our broadest Aboriginal rights under the pretence of the "Algonquins of Ontario" Land Claim
Negotiations currently underway.

This situation, the Algonquin Land Claim, is a blatant contemporary example of the many
issues you, your husband, and community have been attempting to draw attention to for
years. Let me affirm for you that the issues you address, although distinct to your particular
situation, are consistent with the concerns and realities faced by thousands of persons of
Aboriginal descent throughout Canada, and that the sources of such social and personal
mayhem trace their way back to Canada's severely flawed and devious Aboriginal policy and
practices.

Few Canadians realize the severity of layers of complex injustices woven into Canada's
official relationship with the Original People of the Land. It has been my contention, as a
result of direct experience with the Algonquin situation that the people, all people, have not
been adequately or objectively educated or informed about the actual Aboriginal situation in
Canada and the strange parodies imposed on the people in the name of reconciliation,
Treaty, negotiations, consultation or de-colonization. The process is fraudulent,
manipulative, intimidating and fraught with corruption...as it is designed to be...because
the Canada that many call home has been built on a false foundation.
I find myself and my family physically coming full circle...homeless within our own
territory....."stragglers" and "squatters" again as we were administratively referred to when
the Canadian government needed to eliminate the Kichesipirini so that they could gain
control of our great river, currently known as the Ottawa, and exploit the vast natural forest
resources of the Algonquin Nation. By eliminating the political centre and dispersing the
people to Indian Act or mission reserves any collective resistance or legal obligation could
be avoided....temporarily. More than 150 years later, within a process hyped to bring
compensation and reconciliation, the Kichesipirini are still being denied rightful recognition.
Will the oppression of Aboriginal people continue....from without as well as within? That is
really a question individuals will have to decide and act upon.

Like your community the Algonquins have had boarders imposed, traditional governance
interfered with, families separated and sabotaged. For centuries the Algonquin people, all
Aboriginal people, have endured the policies, disruptions and humiliations imposed on us,
adapting or just existing in whatever means were available.....but the time has come that
the truth must be told. Canada has not acted honourably. Canada has not upheld the
honour of the Crown as it promised. Canada has perverted the legal and moral obligations
owed the Original titleholders of the land and the time for genuine reconciliation has come.
But we cannot reconcile those differences alone. We are equally dependent on all other
Canadians to participate in the process. Thanks to people such as your husband the difficult
facts and the ugly realities are gradually making their way into the homes and
conversations of the Canadian people. Refusing to be silent is a valuable gift being given.
Thank you.

Canada cannot hide or afford the corruption any longer. Bureaucrats, native and non-native
alike, and businessmen, native and non-native, have illegitimately profited for far too long.
The false information, the scapegoating, the criminalization of resisters has gone on for too
long and average Canadians are beginning to get suspicious that they have been
manipulated and used as pawns in an agenda that they did not give informed consent to.
Thank goodness for us all that there are individuals as brave as Shawn Brant, Dudley
George, Leonard Peletier, Anthony Hall, David Clarke, ......countless others, that have
attempted to draw attention to the terrible injustices regarding the Original People of Turtle
Island....Sadly, the persons of Aboriginal descent, trying to fulfill their obligations to
ancestors, communities and descendents, are forced to pay an inflated price for rights and
human dignities others can glibly take for granted. This is a social rights movement. It is a
social rights movement that is far more threatening than any previous because human
rights, social rights, racial rights, civil rights are not only at stake here....but the very
foundations of political entities positioned atop mountains of legal complicity...and the very
title to the land and resources itself. How extremely brave those individuals must be that
attempt to challenge such powerhouses!!!!!!

They will in due time be recognized as heroes and rightfully honoured. Explain that Sue to
your young children, and take comfort in the difficult hours. This is only the beginning.
But beware of false prophets; leaders and resistance movements just as corrupt as what we
are trying to escape. Many abound initiating class action suits, organizing new age
traditional governments, resurrecting myth and legend. Demand facts, legitimacy,
truthfulness and historical integrity. Rely on the assistance and expertise of those willing to
provide....and rely on the wisdom and patience of our ancestors. What is right is worth
doing right.

It is my hope, and the hope of my community, that a genuine path can be forged that will
honour the legal and moral commitments of the past, preserve the resources of today, and
provide for the needs of the future....sanely and responsibly. Although diverse, and also
vulnerable to conflicts and divisions amongst us, the Aboriginal people, as tribal people,
contrary to industrialized societies, for the most part shared a common awareness of their
inherent dependence on this natural world bestowed us. If we can nurture and expand on
that great intuition and again exercise responsibility and integrity in that area, in our role as
stewards, we can move in confidence. If we can act as advocates for sustainability and
justice our time should come sooner.

While many, in ignorance, continue to criminalize those that are attempting to initiate
positive social change, and address the injustices of the past it is often difficult to discern
the legitimate from the facsimile. Hopefully situations such as what you find yourself in will
draw attention to the issues....for the benefit of many.

So I hope to offer you and your family encouragement. Please know that many are
watching, and many are learning. And thank goodness for all of those that refuse to be
silent!!!!!! It is the beginning of our real education.

Be proud.
Migwetch
Paula LaPierre
Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation