The Quebec nation debate is predictably irking some other nationa – specifically, the First Nations:
Canada’s indigenous peoples are feeling a bit snubbed by Parliament’s decision to recognize Quebecers as a “nation” within a united Canada and not them too.
Native Indian leaders say the vote in the House of Commons, which has helped reignite debate over the role of French-speaking Quebec within largely English-speaking Canada, ignored the peoples who lived in North America before European settlers arrived.
Either Stephen Harper completely didn’t think of this one, or he calculated that there weren’t enough votes among the First Nations communities for it to make a difference. In any case, this is just one more egg contributing to the giant omelette cooking on Harper’s face thanks to this issue that he should’ve refused to touch with a 10-foot pole.
The difference being that First Nations aren’t trying to get OUT of Canada; they want a bigger share of the action.
I can’t believe Harper sandbagged the ongoing treaty process! Who the hell was he trying to convince?
” HISTORY OF THE DUTY TO CONSULT
In 1888, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, England held in the St. Catherine’s Milling case that provinces could not use aboriginal title lands “as a source of revenue [until] the estate of the Crown is disencumbered of aboriginal title.” For more than a century, the province of British Columbia maintained that there was no aboriginal title in the province or that it had already been extinguished.”
http://www.fns.bc.ca/about/about.htm
The whole nation thing is ridiculous. Quebecers (read French Canadians) do have a unique culture, but so do various native peoples, and so do communities in various other places in Canada (Acadia, Newfoundland just to name a few). The Bloc Quebecois is racist and intolerant party who can think of nothing better than to play the nation card every chance they get. It is pitiful and unacceptable.