Stephen Harper, Canadian PM violates rights of Canadian Indians by not removing Indian Act, racist relic of 1876 and not removing reserves.

 Hupacasath First Nation Reserve

How easy it is for these  white leaders of the rich West to cover up the garbage in their own yards, and point at  imagined dirt in other peoples yards.  That is a way to cover up their own malpractices.

Mike Blanchfield of the Globe and Mail reported that  “Harper rebukes Sri Lanka over jurist’s dismissal “.    That is referring the Stephen Harper the Prime Minister of Canada. Next time he may do that if Sri Lanka sacks a Hospital cleaner as well, because what Stephen Harper seeks is to be heard as a Prime Minister amoung the rest of the Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth  who is interested in fighting against injustice the world over.  He wants  to make a name in the world and leave it for posterity, not ending as an unknown Canadian Trapper.  

Stephan Harper  is no better than the uninformed  President  Barak Obama’s spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, who had said : "From our perspective, this impeachment raises serious questions about the separation of powers in Sri Lanka, which is a fundamental tenet of a healthy democracy."  Uninformed,  because she makes statements without knowing what she is talking about. 

Has Victoria Nuland read the Constitution of Sri Lanka and understood that the Judiciary cannot interfere in to the Legislature; that is a well known fact except that in Sri Lanka the Supreme Court misinterpreted the Constitution and forced the Court of Appeal to give a false judgment to override the power of the Legislature.

Another one like Victoria  Nuland is Siobhain McDonagh Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, South London who is an ardent supporter of Eelamist separatist ideology.  She was hysterical in a UK Parliamentary debate and said she has not stepped outside UK but she has become a specialist of the atrocities committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. 

In that  UK Parliamentary debate when  she was asked why she does not go to Sri Lanka and see for herself what Sri Lanka is like and  how the Government treats the Tamils having launched considerable number of development projects, she said that she is Constituency Centred and that she need not go to Sri Lanka, because her  Tamil supporters provide her with all the necessary information, and she watched the UK Channel 4 films.  When she was told that the informants may be biased against Sri Lanka , she replied that she believes  her constituents.  Be it,  Stephen Harper, Victoria Nuland or Siobhain McDonagh, they are all the same. They don’t see, they hear, and then they talk.

Who is this Stephan Harper  ? Is he that gloriously just and fair to rake up problems in far away Sri Lanka to accuse her, just because he has about  two hundred thousand Tamil expatriates with lot of blood money collected by them  for the failed  establishment of a Tamil Eelam through terrorism in Sri Lanka  residing in Canada as expatriates providing  a considerable vote banks in several Canadian  Electorates ?

However  Stephen Harper is not without political smears though he tries to make himself heard  rebuking Sri Lanka for the impeachment of a Chief Justice perfectly in accordance  with the relevant Articles of its Constitution. 

If he has any doubts, he only has to ask his Embassy in Sri Lanka to send him a copy of the Speech to the Parliament made on the occasion of the Impeachment by Dr. G.L.Pieries the Minister of External Affairs and a brilliant Professor in Constitutional Law in Sri Lanka.

Mike Blanchfield the reporter says, “  Canada appeared to be one step closer to boycotting this year’s Commonwealth leaders’ summit Monday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper bluntly called on the Sri Lankan government to reinstate the country’s fired chief justice.

“Mr. Harper has threatened to ignore the 54-country summit that Sri Lanka hosts later this year because he has serious concerns about Colombo’s commitment to human rights and democracy since the country’s long civil war ended in 2009.

“The report adds: “Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae called on Mr. Harper and Mr. Baird to press for an emergency meeting of the Commonwealth’s ministerial action group. “It is simply unacceptable that we wait to address this dire situation until the next scheduled meeting, as Prime Minister Harper and Minister Baird would prefer,” said Mr. Rae, who was an adviser to the Sri Lankan peace process from 1999 to 2006.

“Canada has been leading an international effort to press the Sri Lankan government to seriously examine allegations of summary executions, kidnappings and other atrocities by government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels.”

Canada under Stephen Harper  is loosing its respect. He already participated in the NATO bombardment of Libya, and may we know what it gained from that massacre and what has happened  to Libya and its people after the NATO victory over Gaddafi?

In the light of all this coming from Stephen Harper and his  Canadian Government, let us see whether there  are no  skeletons in  Stephen Harper the Canadian Prime Minister’s cabinet which he is hiding from public view, for which  we in Sri Lanka may one day say about Canada:

“Sri Lanka continues to have serious concerns about the human rights situation, the need for reconciliation, and the democratic deficit in Canada, and that “We will continue to raise these concerns forcefully, without equivocation both directly with the government of Canada and through resolutions at both the United Nations and the Commonwealth.”

Well Canada is not without  its own denial of human rights and discrimination against  minority ethnic groups. Worse than about  what he rebukes  Sri Lanka .

The original aborigine population of Canada is said to have diminished by about, 82 per cent after introduction  of various diseases into their midst from which they had died.   
According to Canadian census of  2006,  the aborigine Indian  population is  found to be around 1,172,790.  Does the Stephen Harper’s Government looks after these original Canadians as well as “ we look after the Tamil population in Sri Lanka ?”

There is a report by Michael Den Tandt to Post Media,  posted not later than 6 January, 2013 on “Indian Act, racist relic of 1876, should be abolished – and so should reserves” , which is very interesting to read, to understand whether Stephen Harper  acts, as he  talks so loud  about violation of human rights in Sri Lanka. 

The report  shows to what extent the Canadian Indi           an aborigine population  has been neglected and in what condition they live. Apparently Stephen Harper while  accusing Sri Lanka for violation of Human rights is himself and his Government are  violating the human rights of its aborigine Canadian Indians.

This is how Michael Den Tandt’s report begins: “ When will Canadians, led by the country’s one million Aboriginal People, face the inescapable? Reserves are incubators of misery. The entire moribund, ramshackle edifice supported by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development needs to be demolished. It is rotten at its core. “

It is about the Indian Act of 1876, that is being asked to be removed as it is a very racist relic of the past still haunting Canadian Aborigines.

“…..conditions on reserves have worsened. In its 2011 status report, the office of the Auditor-General chronicles, in customarily neutral tones, a horror show of civil neglect. 

On reserves, the high school graduation rate is 41 per cent, compared with a national average near 80 per cent. There’s a worsening housing shortage and huge numbers of the houses that do exist are mould-ridden. Children on reserves are eight times likelier than the national average to be in the care of child and family services.

This is not the upshot of one audit, mind you, but many. There were seven, between 2002 and 2008, chronicling the same problems.”

And  it continues, “…….deal decisively and fairly with the backlog of outstanding land claims, numbering at more than 700 – estimated cost, anywhere from $6-billion to $15-billion, at the upper margin. That would require a major effort on the part of the government: It would need to make the case for Canadians collectively taking a one-time only write-down, for the sake of – yes it sounds quaint, doesn’t it, in 2013 – a just society.

At the end of this report there are comments by readers, which shows how grave the situation of the Canadian Indians is.

Of these Will Anderson says "Reserves are incubators of misery. The entire moribund, ramshackle edifice supported by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development needs to be demolished. It is rotten at its core."

I could not have said it better myself. Prime Minister Stephen Harper should take the blinders off and face reality. It is time for every Canadian citizen to be treated fairly and equally! First Nations should have the same opportunities to creating their own wealth and happiness as every other Canadian. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

( http://www.canada.com/Indian+racist+relic+1876+should+abolished+should+reserves/7781657/story.html)

If Stephen Harper were to continues his campaign to boycott the CHOGM to be held in Sri Lanka.  The Government of Sri Lanka should move a resolution at the next UN Human Rights Council in Geneva against the Government of Canada for the denial of  basic rights of the Aboriginal Indian  Population in Canada, demanding the immediate removal of the Indian Act of 1876 and bring the Canadian Aborigine population in par with the rest of the Canadian population, removing the reservations to treat every Canadian as equals.