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We all know the mainstream media was late to the game when it comes to the Idle No More movement, but contributors to rabble.ca’s discussion forum, babble, were talking about it long before it made headlines.

Last December, one of our longtime babble contributors created this thread. At the time, the movement was barely a blip on the somewhat faulty radar of the mainstream media, but, with ears to the ground, our contributors picked up on the unfolding story.

In the two months since the opening of the thread, more than 580 comments have been posted. That’s more commentary than any of the other current topics on babble can boast, which says a great deal about both the progressive support for Idle No More, and the lack thereof within the mainstream media. At the media feast, the mainstream was not only late to the meal, they’ve been seated at the kiddie table ever since.

Idle No More didn’t spring up from nowhere. It’s the result of 100+ years of the patient negotiation of Canada’s Indigenous peoples with a colonial power that has consistently refused to honour its agreements with them about land use and treaty rights. It’s a rejection of the condescending “gosh, we’re sorry but we’re going to continue to screw you” platitudes from the Harper government.

It’s not news. It’s not a headline. It’s not a monolithic response, nor is it as divisive a movement as the pundits would proclaim. It’s a long-awaited response to mounting injustice. 

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