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For example, we are currently being assaulted with what Naomi Klein calls an "extractivist" mind-set, where core Canadian values are being treated as "overburden" (the derogatory term used by extractors to describe the trees, earth, and ecosystems that are excavated and destroyed before the tar or minerals are exposed).
Additionally, our Republican-inspired governance rejects -- through Omnibus legislation -- constitutionally guaranteed rights of First Nations to prior consultation, consent, and accommodation for development projects that impact treaties and unceded territories.
As author Anthony James Hall explains, the government has a duty to recognize and affirm aboriginal and treaty rights, but instead it denies and negates these rights as stated in Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982.
Furthermore, explains Hall, the Harper government's "USAcentric" view of North American history ignores the Canadian reality of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which guarantees the Crown's protection of the Aboriginal and treaty rights of Britain's First Nations allies who, along with the British, successfully repelled American efforts to annex Canada during the War of 1812.
Core understandings of Canada's history and its juridical commitments are foundational elements upon which we can rely to combat falsified government narratives whose barely-hidden agenda is the termination of First Nation reserves and cultural protections in favour of corporate extractivism.
The censuring, muzzling, de-funding of Canada's knowledge base works as a cancer that undermines public safety, health and welfare, as well as our societal pluralism, self-determination, and sovereignty.
Out first step in combating this assault is continued awareness.
Appeared at Huffington Post
(Article changed on September 27, 2015 at 18:59)
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