Canada's Indian Policy is a Process of Deception

Excerpt from the Author, Page 9,10:

"When I think about the reasons Indigenous people live in Third World conditions in a First World country and wrestle with how best to explain what I have come to know to the average Canadian, I draw on first-hand knowledge of the history of Indian status registration and entitlement provisions within the Indian Act, as well as Indigenous women's attempts to eliminate sex discrimination resulting from the act. My own section 15 charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in the Indian Act was recently heard in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. I also draw on first-hand knowledge from the current Algonquin land claims and self-government process and the many Indigenous attempts to have our jurisdiction respected. Many Canadians don't understand the difference between a treaty process and the land claims process... (9).

...An Indigenous understanding of Canada's constitutional beginnings is based on a federal treaty order in which Indigenous nations retained jurisdiction of their land and resources (as opposed to the latter-day provincial order). This Indigenous understanding of Canada's Constitution was recorded in the three wampum belts that were exchanged during the 1764 Treaty of Niagara. Many Canadians don't know that the foundations of Canada rest on a treaty process or that the treaty process was supposed to be about mutual benefit and the sharing of land and resources between Indigenous people and settlers. Further, many Canadians have never had a chance to learn about how the treaty process has changed or - more accurately - slithered over time. Others, who know a little more, might wonder if the modern day treaty process has actually improved. After all, Aboriginal rights are enshrined in section 35 of the patriated Constitution." (10). 

About the Author: "LYNN GEHL, PhD, is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She has undertaken a section 15 charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in the Indian Act and is a critic of the Ontario Algonquin land claims and self-government process. Her latest book is The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process." (11).