Despite its flaws, Robin Sears' recent article in Policy magazine, "The AFN and the PM: Retiring the Missionaries," provides keen insight into several aspects of the relationship between the Harper government, the federal bureaucracy, and the Assembly of First Nations.

As fascinating for what it gets wrong as what it gets right, those interested in Indigenous policy benefit from Mr. Sears' astute observations on several points, but are misled by the unstated and mistaken assumption underlying his argument.

 At the outset, he rightly notes that the ongoing failure of Canada’s Indigenous policy is the result of the continuing pursuit of a doomed approach. 

Following is the text of a speech I delivered to Carleton University's Institute of Political Economy on April 11, 2013.

My sincere thanks to Elder Skanks for his wise words of welcome. 

Thank you to Teresa Healy and the Institute of Political Economy for the invitation to be here, and to all of you for coming.

And my thanks to the Algonquin people for allowing us to meet here on their unceded territory.

I was asked if I could speak about solidarity between labour and Indigenous peoples.

Some of you may find this a more political and less academic speech than you are normally accustomed to hearing at a university, but solidarity is fundamentally a political act.

The Government of Canada is trumpeting $626 million in new investment for Indigenous peoples in yesterday's budget.  Let's just say that's a slight exaggeration.

Here's a closer look at the four "investment" areas.

“Supporting First Nations fishing enterprises”

Surprisingly, the largest single-year investment in the 2013 budget for a program aimed at Indigenous people at $33 million.  Like much of what was “announced” yesterday however, it is an extension of an existing program, not new investment. 

I might have let this slide, preferring not to kick a person when they’re down, but calls for sympathy for John Duncan beg retort.

It strains credibility that Duncan resigned as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development because he wrote an inappropriate letter to a judge.  Several Conservative Ministers have been caught inappropriately using their Cabinet title in correspondence to officials, were even found to have broken rules by the Ethics Commissioner, but none have had to resign.