Critical Perspectives and Reflections

THE CONTEMPRARY COLONIAL PROJECT IN CANADA  Bill Lee June 12, 2018 In 1992 I published an article, on how colonization had been particularly focused and injurious to Indigenous communities2. At that time I believed that it was very important that we come to grips with the absolutely purposeful genocide and the effects of what Euro-Canadian policies and practice had done to the First People of this land. At this point in our history there is a sense, or more accurately it is better to call it a narrative, that in Canada today we are a nation of two peoples who are on the verge of, or at least are working seriously on, developing a path of reconciliation between the decedents of European settlers and Indigenous people. It is believed that our government and our two peoples we are working toward righting the wrongs and healing the wounds of the historical (first) colonialism. This view is founded on the belief that colonialism is a thing of the past. The evidence ho...

                                                                           Bill Lee                                                                       May 11, 2018 The writ has recently been dropped for the Ontario election of 2018. Soon we will be trudging to the polls (in June). A...

                                                                                         John Clark                                                                       May, 11, 2018 A short while ago, a Facebook friend ...

Is there hope For Canada's Relationship with Indigenous People? Author: Bill Lee, may 10. 2017 About a year ago around this time, I wrote a blog, in Critical Perspectives about what appeared to be, then, some legitimate glimmerings of hope that the Canadian state would act with a more fair minded and just political strategy in terms of addressing the colonial injustices (past and present) perpetrated against Indigenous people ( CANADA’S "TROUBLED" RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE , May 2, 2016). The Harper Con government had seemed to be intent on not only ignoring the colonial injustices but of rolling back any movement in a progressive direction. But during and after the 2015 election, the Libers under Justin Trudeau were making the right kind of noises and had actually done a few things, at least of symbolic import, appointments of Indigenous people to apparently powerful ministries, like Attorney General and the appointment of a seemingly solid ...

 Author: Bill Lee Toronto march in solidarity with Standing Rock, November 5, 2016 - Photo: Barbra Nahwegahbow There may be something going on in the Indigenous anti-Colonial social justice struggle. Indigenous friends and students and other social justice campaigners seem to think maybe. It seems to me there is and it involves not only the various actions we are seeing (we'll get to those in a minute) but a significant analysis, determination, sophistication and discipline with which they are being carried out.     Maybe it is just me, but are not more and more Indigenous people and their allies refusing to accept statements of good intentions from corporate and government leaders? Are there not a number of significant resistant actions going on these days? Of course the big news, though until recently rather under reported in the corporate media), is the resistance at Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the standing up against the ridiculous attempt by ...