Hey, Mine!

It has been said many many time in the the last few months that the land dispute and subsequent protest in Caledonia, Ontario resembles the 1995 clash at Ipperwash. That may be the case but it is not just Ipperwash and not just Ontario but many others. The problem of this is the absurd amount of land claims and disputes better different levels of the Canadian government and the Native Nations. As the Nations press forward with their claims, the government has by and large ignored them. If press, the government, no matter it is federal or provincial, can only say that it would cost too much to settle these claims. This is extremely worrying since the government is in fact admitting wrong in the matter and refuse to redress it. If the government does not think it is wrong, there would be no compensation, i.e. financial consequence. Take Caledonia for example. The land the Six Nations settled on is either given out right to them by the British or being held in trust for them by the British and then Canadian government. In either case, the government(s) has no right to sell the land with the objection of the Six Nations. And if there were breach of trust, the sales would have to be void and compensations be paid. Even in the case of holding for trust, if the government sold the land against the interest of the Six Nations, the government must bear all consequences, legally and financially. No wonder the government has always claimed that it is too expansive to deal with the matter. The reason it has gotten so expansive is time. If all these were fix a hundred years ago, we would not have this problem. One day the bill has to be paid, and it will only cost more the longer we wait. We have all been taught from childhood that ignoring a problem does not make it go away. Oh, I forgot, Prime Ministers and Premiers are there for only a few years each. Ignoring things do go away for them. But then, where are we all going to go?