One gold star for McGuinty
For returning Ipperwash “Provincial Park” to its First Nations owners. The land was seized for military use during WWII and never returned, as had been promised. The news report says that the actual turnover is still years away, even assuming that the government motion passes. Slow and tardy, but at least the government is moving to behave legally.
McGuinty’s government gets some credit for acting better than the Harris government, whose misguided stupidity led to the unnecessary death of Dudley George. The decision will cost Ontario’s Liberal Party some bigot votes. I hope there are fewer of those than I believe there are.
5 comments
Thanks for mentioning this. So much land.
Wildlife seems better off on native land than in parks.
Long overdo. I heard that the government also recently settled with (I believe) the Caldwell First Nation regarding a claim to Point Pelee.
I wasn’t aware of the Pelee settlement, Paul, but I’m glad to hear of it. Until now, I think B.C. has been doing most to settle some of these longstanding land claims. Maybe Ontario is finally ready to catch up.
The governmental processes returning the lands to the First Nation are slow, Bill, as you rightfully wrote. In contrast, those big corporations advertising on Sunday evening’s Vancouver Olympics acted promptly. Did you notice that many of those TV commercials aired have video and/or mention of the First Nation to sell their products?
In and odd way, I think that commercial exploitation is a kind of compliment, Ace…. our consumer culture’s way of being inclusive.
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