It hurts people to think so -- and I truly regret if it hurts anyone for me to say so here -- but the Prime Minister’s apology for residential schools was, at best, insincere. That is the kindest word I can find.

More likely he was lying. Or, he didn’t understand the words he wrote. Or, worse yet, he meant them in a very specific way. But certainly, he was insincere.

You have to wonder if Stephen Harper isn’t actively trying to provoke serious conflict with First Nations.

There has been over 4 months of ongoing protest, hunger strikes, long distance marches by Indigenous youth, heated negotiations with First Nation leadership, vociferous opposition party criticism in Parliament, and widespread calls for action from non-Indigenous people across Canada. 

During that time, his personally chosen First Nation representative in the Senate was suspended from his position and charged with a criminal offence, his Minister for Aboriginal Affairs had to resign in disgrace, the replacement Minister has stumbled out of the blocks, and there has been no progress on any of the issues behind it all.

Change the conversation, support rabble.ca today.

There is a rather odd struggle going on around the future of the Idle No More (INM). It is mostly about who gets to define the movement.

The usual suspects in certain national media, the twitterverse and blogosphere have been saying since early December that INM will go away. They were unable to ignore it for about six weeks, so they attacked it. But now, we are to be assured once again of its imminent demise.