I honestly don’t understand what all the resistance against these concessions are. Sure, in dollar terms it’s sizable, but reparations don’t need to be in dollar terms: they can be given through economic concessions that stimulate the economy as a whole.
For example, First Nations land within cities can be given zoning concessions to simultaneously address the Canadian housing crisis and drive profit to First Nations. First Nations businesses can be given greater tax concessions for R&D. The Canadian government can use its liabilities as a blank cheque to invest in anything, so long as First Nations people are the ones who profit from it.
Because when the average person hears “the government owes x Billion Dollars” the assumption is “they will be handing over X billion in cash”. It’s like the Ukraine military support - people hear “3 billion USD in military aid for Ukraine” and think the US is handing over 3 billion dollars, not handing over about 3 billion worth of old soon-to-be-retired equipment.
Which makes conversations about government debt really fun. It’s just a lack of understanding.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Canadian government likely owes Indigenous people almost $76 billion for currently filed land claims and lawsuits, recent official reporting says — a sum that’s nearly seven times greater today than when Justin Trudeau became prime minister.
In 2015, Ottawa counted $11 billion in “contingent liabilities,” which are potential legal obligations recorded only in cases where the probability of future payment is considered “likely,” according to the 2023 public accounts of Canada.
Looking at the numbers, Idlout points to the persistent poverty, overlapping social crises and acute infrastructure deficit Indigenous people continue to grapple with.
Contingent liabilities are recorded when lawyers assess a claim and conclude the Crown is at least 70 per cent likely to lose in court and it has a dollar value on it, Giroux told CBC Indigenous.
First Nations child advocate Cindy Blackstock said the government will continue stacking up legal bills and be held liable for ever-greater sums of cash if it chooses to deny, stall and fight.
“When a credible report comes forward and it shows that there’s an injustice, their first reaction should be to fix the problem, instead of fighting the victims,” said Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.
The original article contains 757 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Could we please be more actively looking for ways to give people back a bit of what was stolen?
It’s just… the Canadian indigenous communities I live near are not doing well from the outside looking in. There’s a lot of poverty and addiction. We’ve caused generations of untold cultural, psychological, physical damage. Death and destruction. I hardly even understand all of it.
I don’t know what we need to do to fix it, recognizing what’s owed is probably an important step. But I’d like to see more action.
Abolish the monarchy while we’re at it.