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Jason Kenney's fossil-fuel based "reconciliaction"
135 Plays3 years ago
Molly Swain joins us as we dive into the details of Jason Kenney's fossil fuel based "reconciliaction" via the Indigenous Litigation Fund and the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation. Also child porn defender Tom Flanagan appeared on CBC Kids to argue against land back for some reason.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Progress Report
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey folks, Duncan Kinney here to remind you that the Progress Report is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network. A part of the network that I want to highlight is the latest from the Alberta Advantage, where they dig into the history of Canada's first Social Democratic Party and precursor to the NDP, the CCF, specifically after World War II.
00:00:17
Speaker
And while you're here, I do want to say I'm very excited about the upcoming episode we've got with Molly Swain. She's a tremendous guest and offers up some political analysis that you will literally not find on any other media platform. So if by the end of the pod you like what you've heard, I ask you to take a few minutes and become a monthly donor. We need monthly donors to exist and we are gearing up for a big campaign in December. So now is your time to get in early.
00:00:43
Speaker
There's a link in the show notes, or you can just go to theprogressreport.ca slash patrons and start donating five, 10, $15 a month, whatever you're comfortable with. We'd really appreciate it. And now onto the show.
00:01:07
Speaker
Friends
Who is Molly Swain?
00:01:08
Speaker
and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host, Duncan Kinney, recording today here in Amiskwachiwiskeigam, otherwise known as Edmonton, Alberta, here in Treaty Six territory on the banks of the Kasis-Kasaw Oneissipi, or the North Saskatchewan River. Joining us today is Molly Swain. Molly is a Métis PhD student at the Faculty of Native Studies at the U of A studying 20th century Métis political history. She's also the co-host of the fabulous Indigenous Feminist Science Fiction podcast, Métis in Space.
00:01:37
Speaker
and member of the indigenous-led anti-colonial prairie penal abolition group, Freelands Free Peoples. Molly, welcome to the pod. Hi, thanks for having me. Welcome back to, yeah, I guess last time you were on, we were talking police, defunding the police, police abolition and all that good stuff. SROs, yeah. Unfortunately still relevant, but.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yes, oh God. You
Indigenous Litigation Fund and Bill C-48
00:02:02
Speaker
are joining us today to discuss the latest and greatest developments here in settler indigenous relations here in this place currently called Alberta. Shall we get down to it? Yeah, let's dive in.
00:02:15
Speaker
So on November 15th, the government of Alberta announced that it would fund legal challenges mounted by the Fort Mackay and Willow Lake Métis Nations in order to challenge Bill C-48, essentially the ban on oil tankers north of Vancouver Island. So the money for this legal challenge, all $372,000 of it is coming from the Alberta government, specifically from the Alberta government's Indigenous Litigation Fund.
00:02:43
Speaker
Molly, before we get into the particulars of this bullshit lawsuit and the Indigenous Litigation Fund, what can you tell us about the Fort Mackay and Willow Lake Métis Nations?
00:02:54
Speaker
So what I know about them is essentially they're two of six groups that split from the MNA last year and formed a coalition called the Alberta Métis Federation.
Formation of Alberta Métis Federation
00:03:05
Speaker
My understanding again is that they didn't really think that they were getting a fair shake from the MNA and wanted more autonomy and more independence to sort of do what they wanted to do without that additional oversight.
00:03:15
Speaker
And what is the MNA just for folks who might not know? Yes, the Métis Nation of Alberta, which up until recently was the only recognized Métis organization in the province. So one of the sort of main guys, Ron Quintel, who spoke at the press conference the other day, actually ran for president of the MNA in the past and he was defeated. And so I think, you know, part of understanding the Alberta Métis Federation is understanding that
00:03:43
Speaker
He clearly wanted to take Métis politics in a different direction. And so now, with this new organization, he and those other community associations are able to do that.
00:03:54
Speaker
you know, Fort Mackay, Métis Community Association in particular, and Willow Lake as well now, have been recognized as the official representatives of Métis in the region, in their respective regions, both by the Alberta government and the Manitoba Métis Federation, which itself also recently split from the larger national organization of the Métis, the National Council. Interesting. So yeah, so I, when I saw that this announcement was coming, because the government sends out little like teasers, right?
00:04:22
Speaker
I flagged this to you and I was like, what the hell's going on here? And you did, you had no idea what the particulars would be, but you did nail who you, uh, who would be bringing the lawsuits forward, which are these two kind of like splinter or breakaway groups. I don't know how you want to frame them,
Resource Extraction Support and Recognition
00:04:36
Speaker
but based on what you're telling me, it sounds like these two groups are very predisposed towards kind of working with the Kenny government, working towards like a pro extractive politics, uh, type of outcomes. Right.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah, so from what I know, the Alberta Métis Federation was formed in large part to sort of pave the way for additional resource extraction projects.
00:05:00
Speaker
And of course the money and investments that come with that form AT in those communities. I know Fort Mackay in particular has a lot of money coming out of oil and gas extraction. So again, they're a very, very new group. They formed in 2020 and it's a really big deal that they're gaining this level of recognition this quickly.
00:05:21
Speaker
And the reason that is happening is definitely because they align very neatly with the UCP's goals. And of course, the goals of unmitigated extraction, I think, especially in, you know, previously, I guess, quote unquote untapped lands or, you know, just removing, you know, any barriers to particularly oil. Any of the scant barriers that exist to protect people and planet and land. And so I think it's also really important to note that, you know, provincial recognition, like we know that most Indigenous
00:05:51
Speaker
crown relations happened with the federal government, but for the Métis, provincial recognition for the longest time was sort of the only recognition that we ever got. It's really only been since the 1980s that we've even been recognized as an indigenous people by the federal government. So the province and the provincial organizations sort of that are related to it, like continue to wield really significant influence within, you know, these Métis organizations.
Criticism of Kenney's Alignment with Unaccountable Organizations
00:06:21
Speaker
Interesting, and so the Métis Nation of Alberta was not especially pleased with this development, right? Indeed, no. Like, I've got a press release in front of me here that it's like, I'll just read off it real fast. So like, today, Premier Kenny is standing with a handful of unaccountable, undemocratic, and illegitimate organizations to challenge federal legislation that is designed to ensure we are consulted on projects that protect our Métis rights and way of life, said MNA President Audrey Poitras.
00:06:49
Speaker
As the democratically elected representatives of Métis citizens in Alberta, we want to make it clear that if these issues are brought before the courts, the M&A will be there to underscore how these individuals and organizations do not represent Alberta Métis. The courts will scrutinize the credibility of these claims. It is unfortunate that the premier of this province has not.
00:07:08
Speaker
This is a bad decision by the premier and represents a clear misuse of public money added President Potras. These organizations are not elected or accountable to anyone and are made up of non Métis individuals. These organizations do not speak for the Métis nation, the Métis people, or Métis communities in Alberta.
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think, you know, one of the really interesting dynamics that's happening in Métis politics right now is, you know, while the government is really making a big show of how it's aligning itself, you know, with Willow Lake and Fort Mackay and all this recognition and reconciliation and this and that, they're very silent on the fact that both the Métis Nation of Alberta and the Métis Settlements General Council are simultaneously suing the provincial government because of a lack of consultation on energy projects and the unilateral
00:07:56
Speaker
changing of governance structures on the settlement, which is something that the settlements in particular fought for many, many decades to have control over. So, you know, it's all very, I guess, like rosy and friendly and handshaking and hugs and stuff with Fort Mackay and Willow Lake, but on the other side, you know, these other Métis organizations who have been around much longer are sort of being undercut in very significant ways.
Kenney's Indigenous Litigation Fund and AOIC
00:08:25
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. I mean, I do not know the kind of underlying politics there and I'm very grateful you can shine a light on this. Uh, let's get into the indigenous litigation fund because this is, uh, you know, one of the lynch pins of Jason Kenny's, you know, reconcily action. Uh, you know, a bullshit rhetoric that he talks, that he talked about.
00:08:45
Speaker
which to be fair he has kind of backed away from as he has been engulfed in other scandals and bullshit. But this Indigenous Litigation Fund was $10 million that was set aside by the province to essentially fund First Nations and Indigenous groups that would fight the battles of the resource industry and the Alberta government's kind of political battles for it in court.
00:09:05
Speaker
Um, and so this is, I believe the second time this is, this fund has been used. Um, but like this, this is classic divide and conquer politics, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, youth defenders, youth, youth land defenders last year sort of officially declared that reconciliation is dead.
00:09:31
Speaker
Uh, and I think they absolutely know what's up. They called it. Um, I think, you know, anybody who sort of was taking a critical look at sort of what was going on with reconciliation and the TRC knew that we had sort of a very limited window where any of this would actually be taken seriously by the settler government. And I think, you know, this is, it's almost a satire. Um, this litigation fund and the way that the provincial government is talking about, right? Like we know.
00:09:56
Speaker
settler colonialism is able to shift, you know, move the goalposts to accommodate and recoup changing dynamics within the settler population and within sort of settler indigenous relationships. And I think this is one that's sort of laughably transparent, especially when you look at sort of the history of Métis politics in Alberta, where the government has like very publicly both actively created divisions among Métis people and then sort of capitalized on them right from
00:10:22
Speaker
the late 1930s, early 1940s onwards, right? This has been sort of their, one of their big maneuvers, right? Divide and conquer.
00:10:32
Speaker
And ultimately, like, colonial governments overall have worked for 150 years and more to dispossess and impoverish indigenous peoples. And then, you know, surprise, surprise, they have all of these solutions that just so happen to slot nicely into the colonial extraction project. And it also just so happens, who could have thought, you know, it amps up tensions among indigenous groups and indigenous peoples, both within and outside of the province, right?
00:10:55
Speaker
It's particularly crass that this announcement comes at the same time as these massive floods and mudslides in BC, RCMP being deployed to quell indigenous resistance in Watsuitin territories. It's awful. And it's important to note that these community associations, they're not walking into this cluelessly. It's not like they're being manipulated and they have no idea what they're getting into.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's definitely a case of them having similar goals and actively taking this up as a tactic, right? But it's also, again, it's just so obvious that it's not about reconciliation. It's not really about improving the living conditions of Indigenous people for the UCP, right? It's really about removing a barrier to Alberta oil production and transportation. And we know that with Alberta oil production and transportation, just as with every other settler resource extraction project,
00:11:48
Speaker
the primary people that benefit are not indigenous people, it's settlers. So ultimately the UCP is just using these community organizations as a wedge to get this legislation overturned, which I mean, should be clear to anybody who's been paying attention.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, in no other way is this kind of more clear that this fund is simply a way for Kenny to further his own political goals and rhetoric than like literally the rhetoric that is used in their press releases. It's like the Indigenous Litigation Fund is yet another component of our fightback strategy to stand up against the foreign-funded special interests, land-locking Alberta, and energy. Indigenous people who favor energy development are often left out of the conversation. And this fund will help defend their rights to be consulted on major projects and ensure their voices are heard too, said Kenny.
00:12:31
Speaker
in 2020. Again, there's nothing in there about what is actually going to benefit Indigenous people. It's like, what's going to benefit me and the stuff that I want to do? Yeah, absolutely. It is just the truth that there are Indigenous people who favor energy development, who favor these resource extraction projects, but again, it comes within this constructed and enforced history of scarcity.
00:12:58
Speaker
Right? You know, if we were living how we lived prior to colonization, would we be so eager to be stripping our lands in this way? I doubt it. Right.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, and the only other time this indigenous litigation fund has been used when $187,000 grant was set aside for the Woodland Cree First Nation, who are northwest of Purse Peace River, in order to intervene in support of the Alberta government's constitutional challenge of Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act. Kenny has called this the No More Pipelines Act. It's a relatively anodyne piece of legislation introduced by the Trudeau Liberals that slightly improves the environmental assessment process.
00:13:37
Speaker
But again, the funny thing about the Indigenous Litigation Fund and the stuff that we're in the next topic of conversation is that they haven't really done very much. Groups do not seem to be leaping out of their shoes to take part in these politically constructed things that help Jason Kenney, so that's at least a little heartening.
00:14:01
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, you know, again, it's just, it's so, it's so obvious and it's so clearly just an extension of the tactics that are already being used to try to, yeah, force, force
Scandal and Resignation at AOIC
00:14:11
Speaker
indigenous people to assimilate into these particular economic models. Yeah. And that same press release where Kenny is talking about the litigation fund as part of the fight back strategy. Kenny also says that the litigation fund, along with the creation of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation is part of the government's vision to help shape a better future for indigenous people in Alberta.
00:14:31
Speaker
And that is our very smooth segue into the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation. So this was a crown corpse set up by Kenny, again, very early on in his mandate, essentially loan money at low cost or to provide these loan guarantees to First Nations looking to develop energy, and in this case, energy. And the only projects that they've approved are oil and gas projects. Kenny called it a game changer in his kind of rhetoric around it. And it's absolutely a linchpin of his kind of like reconciliation strategy.
00:15:02
Speaker
But as it goes, with all things Jason Kenney these days, all is not well at the AOIC, which we recently reported on. We had an exclusive that we broke earlier this week.
00:15:15
Speaker
where there's really no other way to put it, but the AOIC tried to bury the fact that their CEO stepped down. Their CEO, who'd only been there for 14 months, was the founding CEO, a person named Alicia Dubois. They released a press release, not on their website, not through the government developer at a news alert service, but through like a PR firm, through a PR wire called Globe Newswire.
00:15:41
Speaker
at 4 p.m. on a Friday, sandwiched between a Remembrance Day and a Saturday. Amazing. And to be fair to them, it is works because whether it was because they released it at that time or because we were the group who broke the story and the mainstream media simply just hates following us, no one has reported that the CEO of this other lynchpin of Jason Kennedy's reconciliation strategy has stepped down with no explanation 14 months after beginning.
00:16:06
Speaker
Um, also, I mean, I, again, there is nothing, there is no reporting to say that, that, uh, these two are connected in any way, but they are simply facts of the matter of what's going on at the AOIC right now is that the, uh, a director of the AOIC, a man named Strader Crowfoot, who is also the CEO of Indian oil and gas Canada is at the heart of a $25 million class action lawsuit launched by indigenous women alleging sexual harassment and racism.
00:16:36
Speaker
And like, I don't know, we're not getting into details here, but content warning, some like gross sexual harassment stuff is coming up. In the statement of claim, Letitia Wells, one of the lead plaintiffs and a former worker at Indian Oil and Gas Canada, alleges that she was denied promotions because she resisted sexual advancements from her CEO and boss, Strader Crowfoot. As of this recording and as of when I published that story, Strader Crowfoot is still a director at AOIC.
00:17:02
Speaker
And there's all sorts of other abuse and toxic workplace shit that can be found in that statement of claim as well. And that was our story, our exclusive on what's going on at the AOIC. And I don't know, why do you think this got so little attention? What's your reaction to this story? One, and then two, why did you think it got so little reaction?
00:17:26
Speaker
Well, I mean, I'm glad that these women are able to take this to a class action lawsuit level firstly.
00:17:33
Speaker
you know, I would be surprised if the class action wasn't at least one of the mitigating factors for why Du Bois stepping down. You know, the reason that it's not getting taken up, I think, you know, for me, it goes back to sort of the general reaction in sort of settlerdom to violence against Indigenous women, which is they mostly don't care, it's not news. And, you know, it's not a big deal, right? And I think that combined with the fact that this is one of Jason Kenney's babies,
00:18:02
Speaker
Uh, means that, you know, it's, it's gotta all seem shiny and sparkly and everything's chugging along just fine and, you know, no worries, right? So, you know, it's, it's a bummer that this isn't getting more attention, but I'm not very surprised.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah. And it is wild. I mean, Jason Kenney did his house. This was a linchpin of his like, you know, election rhetoric. He's like, it's in a lot of press release. He loves talking about the AOIC and it's like, oh yeah, it's like your CEO left for no reason or no reason given. I mean, she very clearly has a reason for leaving, but.
00:18:36
Speaker
No reason that was disclosed to the public. And to be frank, I have heard a lot more about stuff going on at the AOIC that I am simply unable to report on because people either won't go on the record or for good reasons, or it's just second and third hand stuff. And I don't believe this is the only shoe to drop when it comes to this organization. And so watch out for this space. That's hilarious.
Critique of Reconciliation Strategies
00:19:03
Speaker
You know, if you're listening and you know anything about the AOIC and you can even off the record talk to me, I do want to talk to you. But let's talk a bit about the AOIC because it is very clear that this is a tandem project. When you combine the AOIC
00:19:21
Speaker
you know, with the Indigenous Litigation Fund, we see a very kind of like clear strategy, right? Of like, how do I insert pro extractive, you know, pro oil and gas politics into, you know, where can we find these Indigenous partners that will validate us, right?
00:19:43
Speaker
And, you know, I don't know what the question is here, but it's like, how do you see the AOIC and the Indigenous Litigation Fund kind of working together to kind of further Kenny and the oil and gas industry's goals?
00:20:01
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, so I think we're seeing sort of a two pronged strategy here, which is, you know, I think not going to surprise anybody. The first one, of course, is the general sort of meddling, the defunding, the lack of consultation of, you know, indigenous services, indigenous organizations, indigenous, you know, I guess, like consultation projects for extraction projects that already exist or
00:20:26
Speaker
Kenny wants to push through or whatever it is, it ties in, I think, the broader strategy of defunding public services, defunding safe consumption sites, shutting those down. So that's the one side, right? So settler colonialism creates scarcity, as I've mentioned, right? And Kenny has really, really ramped that up in major ways, defunding healthcare, defunding education, et cetera. Things that indigenous people in particular need access to if we're going to have
00:20:56
Speaker
you know, options economically options in terms of employment.
00:20:59
Speaker
et cetera, right? So instead, he's providing Indigenous communities, Indigenous groups with a very, very narrow set of options that he and the government have pretty, you know, strong control over, whatever, you know, sort of the official line might be. And then he's sort of, you know, he's able to trot out people who, you know, whether they're enthusiastically in favour of this, or if they're just doing it, because that's the option that they have presented to them, he's able to bring these
00:21:28
Speaker
groups, these folks out and say, look at what a great reconciler I am, pat on the back for me, go rah rah Alberta, you know, even the Indians love oil, etc. Right. And so, you know, this is, you know, it is it is really classic, if you look at the history of settler colonials, and particularly in this country, right, like, every everything from basically the Natural Resource Extraction Act in 1928 on it's just been this essentially non stop, how do we open
00:21:56
Speaker
more lands for resources, how do we, you know, get past any sort of indigenous resistance to these extraction projects. And Kenny's, you know, this is the tactic that he's taking up in this particular instance, right with these two organizations or these two funds.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah, it really is. I think there's
Historical Context of Enfranchisement
00:22:19
Speaker
a passage from Jason Kenney from the kind of when the AOIC was launched that I think is worth highlighting. Because one, I think it shows Jason Kenney's habit of using kind of big fancy words that he definitely only half knows the meaning of, but also in this case, it's kind of incredibly appropriate.
00:22:39
Speaker
And here's the quote. It's from the first board meeting that the AOIC had.
00:22:45
Speaker
It says, from Jason Kenny, quote, this will be a game changer for indigenous communities seeking to be owners of resource projects. It will also help all Albertans to get resource projects done. With the board now in place, the AOIC can now fulfill its mandate to enfranchise indigenous communities in Alberta to lift their people from poverty to prosperity by becoming partners in the energy projects that have created so much wealth for our province. So the word that I want to highlight there is enfranchise.
00:23:13
Speaker
And again, I don't know if Kenny is using this word on purpose or not, but I still think it's worth talking about. And it is a bit of a teachable moment because I don't know, I'm long out of high school. I can only remember vague things, whether I was taught about residential schools or not, but I sure as shit wasn't taught about enfranchisement in high school. And Molly, why don't you lay out for us like what the hell enfranchisement was?
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, so the history of the term legally is enfranchisement was basically an Indian Act mechanism where people with Indian status could voluntarily or involuntarily lose that status and become quote unquote enfranchised into indigenous or Canadian citizenship, right? So you no longer indigenous, you are legally Canadian.
00:23:58
Speaker
So methods of enfranchisement included you would lose your status if you went to university, you would lose your status if you joined the army, you'd lose the status if you voted in federal elections. And the most common one by a landslide was you would automatically lose your status if you were a status Indian woman who married a man without Indian status.
00:24:16
Speaker
So this policy actually had extremely wide ranging and just intensely negative impacts. So women who lost their status via marriage would also lose their right to live on reserve lands, access banned resources, et cetera. And you couldn't regain status if you divorced either. So there was a really real danger of becoming trapped in abusive marriages or being forced to live in extreme poverty. Women died from this policy.
00:24:44
Speaker
So enfranchisement persisted all the way in various forms up until 1985, and it actually took a human rights tribunal UN case to get Canada to remove the Indian Act article that would make women lose their Indian status upon marriage. So this term, the idea of enfranchisement is one that's still very, very loaded, I think, for Indigenous people, and particularly First Nations.
00:25:11
Speaker
And enfranchisement was always an explicitly a similar Tory policy in the Indian act, right? It was about, you know, taking the Indian out of the man. Right. And so it was right alongside residential schools was enfranchisement. Right. Once they were adults, that's what was next. Right.
00:25:28
Speaker
100%. Yeah. So Kenny may or may not know or like care also about the history of enfranchisement, but I'm pretty certain that members of his staff do at least some of them. And it's in my mind, probably not a coincidence that the term appears here in his speech to the board. I think, especially in the context of indigenous economic opportunities, right? So settlers in general can be very hostile towards indigenous economic thriving.
00:25:53
Speaker
And there have been tons of different mechanisms and tactics over the years by which both individuals and governments have really worked to torpedo indigenous economic success. So part of me almost wonders if Kenny's use of the term and franchisement here is almost like
00:26:07
Speaker
aimed at sort of honky racists who might do some research into this and who see indigenous success as a threat to their own success.
Jason Kenney's Indigenous Policies
00:26:14
Speaker
So by tying the idea of economic success to assimilation, which even if the honkies won't admit it, they know that assimilation is a form of genocide, to me is a fairly vulgar sort of wink, wink, nudge, nudge by the UCP. Not that the UCP is ever subtle about this, but to me, it's very much like Kenny sort of admitting to
00:26:35
Speaker
people, even if he's not admitting to himself that, you know, this is ultimately sort of a path to assimilation for him. Whether, you know, whether or not Indigenous peoples who take up, you know, these opportunities are looking to assimilate or, you know, are inevitably going to assimilate, right? Like, they may or may not, right? Indigenous people and communities have been resisting assimilation for, you know, well over 100 years. But Kenny, I think, certainly ultimately sees it in that way. And so does the UCP.
00:27:05
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, enfranchisement was government of Canada policy until 1985. Like I was born in 1983. It was literally in my lifetime. And I didn't learn about it in high school. I learned about it in a book called, uh, why I hate Canadians.
00:27:22
Speaker
about the policy of enfranchisement. And yeah, it was wild to me as a teen just like, oh yeah, if this person wanted to be like, if you wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or a soldier, you essentially had to give up who you were, promise to never be an Indian again, and then you could become Canadian. And it was funny because from my understanding, the policy was a huge failure, except in the case of indigenous women, like the most, you were right, the most common way enfranchisement used was when women
00:27:51
Speaker
married, non status people. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, you know, what I think one of the things too, is that, you know, the policy may have ended in 1985, but the negative impacts continue to be felt to this day, like it was particularly around Section 12.1 B, which was the the marriage clause. You know, it's it's had, you know, devastating impacts and continues to for in communities and for women in particular.
00:28:18
Speaker
And so, yeah, I who knows what's in the heart of hearts of Jason Kenney. I mean, he has used, again, these like 10 cent words that I think he only half knows the meaning of. I mean, he's he likes to read. I don't think he likes to read about indigenous history. Like he's his his bag is like deep in the weeds on like religious bullshit.
00:28:39
Speaker
But I wouldn't put it past him that he would know and know what he was referencing here. But it's also sometimes he just, he's like, what is it? He used the word like Christian patrimony once to describe something. And people like, what the fuck are you talking about? Or are, are, are jellied dominion or whatever? Like he has this history of using these, these 10 cent words to make himself seem smart. But
00:28:58
Speaker
Anyways, let's take a little bit of a rundown what the AOIC has actually done so far since forming, just to kind of familiarize ourselves with its work and the kind of projects that they do.
00:29:12
Speaker
So there was a $40 million loan guarantee to eight indigenous communities to buy 15% of the Northern Courier pipeline, which is a kind of like a little mini pipeline, which runs from Suncor's Fort Hill mine to its base plant.
AOIC's Role in Oil and Gas Projects
00:29:26
Speaker
There was a $27 million loan guarantee to Frog Lake First Nation to support the continued ownership of a co-generation facility at a SAGD oil sands operation owned by Strathcona Resource Limited.
00:29:37
Speaker
There was a loan guarantee for an undisclosed amount to six different First Nations in order for them to purchase an equity stake in a $1.5 billion, 900 megawatt natural gas electricity generation project near Edson, Alberta. And just a bit of a sign on this project, because I've done a bit of research on it in some other contexts. It is an absolute dog of a project. There is no way we should be building 900 megawatt natural gas projects in 2023, I think is when it's supposed to come online.
00:30:05
Speaker
it's not going to run for 10 more than 10 years until it gets shut down in my mind. But anyways, what do all of these projects have in common Molly? Well, essentially it is, I don't want to say forcing because obviously indigenous communities are taking this up actively themselves, but it's, um, investing indigenous communities in settler extraction projects. And by investing, I mean, not just in money,
00:30:30
Speaker
but also stability, security, fighting off precarity. It means that now more Indigenous communities have more of a stake in
00:30:41
Speaker
the oil and natural gas industry than previous, right? To me, it's a very similar tactic to, for example, having Alberta teacher salaries invested in pipelines, or not salaries, pensions invested in pipelines, and having the RCMP pensions invested in oil and gas infrastructure, right? This basically means that there is an extra impetus for these communities to be defending this industry, even while, you know,
00:31:08
Speaker
you know, massive floods, massive fires, landslides, you know, just, it's just a mess out there, right?
00:31:16
Speaker
But the UCP is just plugging along and making it so that everybody is just more firmly enmeshed in the oil and gas industry. Right. And again, it's because they created the conditions of scarcity and have provided this as one of a very narrow set of like faux solutions through very like carefully orchestrated political and economic means. And that ultimately do fall in line with assimilation, with capitalism, with extraction.
00:31:43
Speaker
Uh, and there just are very few other options out there for communities. Hmm. It is wild to see like, this is what, you know, the settler state has become. I mean, Jason, you have to almost give Jason credit, Kenny credit for like, for, for this fiendishly evil plan. Yeah.
Political and Industry Goals vs. Indigenous Prosperity
00:32:04
Speaker
I mean, well, that's the thing, right? It's like.
00:32:06
Speaker
It's it's kind of incredible because it's not like he's pretending that he's that's not what he's doing really either like you look at these press releases and it's almost like they're they're laughing behind their hands and you can kind of see it happening right it's it's not he's not trying to convince anybody because his his elect you know his electoral base is going to vote for him
00:32:27
Speaker
you know, whatever sort of flowery language he uses around, you know, his relationship with indigenous people because they know he's anti indigenous, right? Like they know that this is about the oil and gas industry. It's not about improving, you know, the life ways of indigenous people or the wellbeing of indigenous people.
00:32:41
Speaker
And it's like, you know, and he's not trying to convince people who aren't in his electoral base, because at this point, who is going to vote for Jason Kenney, who is not already voting for him, right? So, you know, it's, it's kind of amazing. What's amazing to me is that he's able to, I guess, like ramrod this through so obviously.
00:32:58
Speaker
And as you sort of mentioned, there's not been much media coverage of this at all. There hasn't been much in the way of organizing around this. It's just sort of happening. Critical voices have been nowhere to be found in the media around this fossil fuel-based reconciliation that Kenny is propagating.
00:33:18
Speaker
trotting out for all of us to see. I mean, what do you think the end result of, what do you think Jaycee Kenny's honestly achieved with the AOIC and the Indigenous Litigation Fund? Not reconciliation, whatever that's supposed to mean, right? I think that
00:33:37
Speaker
While some Indigenous groups are taking advantage of these sort of funding opportunities, it's really obvious to anybody who's been paying attention that the UCP is not a pro-Indigenous party, not a pro-Indigenous government, that they're not interested in Indigenous people who aren't actively raw-rawing extraction industries.
00:33:58
Speaker
And they're primarily working with Indigenous groups in order to advance through an agenda, right? So, you know, that's to say that mostly they're just more or less like every other settler government, only more crass about it, probably. Right?
00:34:11
Speaker
It's, I don't know, what are they achieving? I don't know, more forest fires in the future, tornadoes ripping through the province. It's heading to work. I think if the NDP win in 2023, I don't think they remove or get rid of these institutions. I would be surprised if they would. So would I. I mean, this fits in with their rhetoric as well, right? Absolutely. At least under the UCP, we can get some BC wine.
00:34:40
Speaker
Uh, exactly. Uh, so I have no good segue into this segment, but, um, we have to talk about it. I saw this on Twitter and I was like, Oh, fuck Jesus Christ. Do people not know about this? So Molly, I regret to inform you that Tom Flanagan is still alive and still.
00:35:02
Speaker
for some reason,
Controversy with Tom Flanagan on CBC Kids
00:35:03
Speaker
appearing on CBC Kids, making, at least in clip form, the case against giving the land back to indigenous people. This actually happened, I'd shit you not. The headline for the CBC Kids piece was, should land be given back to indigenous people? Why or why not? We asked, you answer.
00:35:27
Speaker
And the video embedded in this piece featured a child like doing a little video hit and Tom Flanagan is featured. I think whether it was a clip of him or not, or whether it was an interview, I'm not clear since the video has been pulled from the internet, thankfully, but he is described as a researcher with the Fraser Institute.
00:35:45
Speaker
And that is both a hilarious description and also, you know how I know cancel culture doesn't exist? It's because a conservative political science professor like Tom Flanagan can make remarks in public defending child porn and then eight years later be on CBC Kids.
00:36:06
Speaker
Molly, Tom Flanagan is one of Canada's kind of most cartoonishly racist and evil people. But for the young people out there, the Zoomers who might not know who Tom Flanagan is, can you tell me what your least favorite memory or bit of knowledge you have about this individual is?
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so I couldn't pick just one thing. There's so many, he's had a long career, uh, that he's made out of, you know, defending the colonial status quo. So he's very public, uh, about his, you know, opinions on a lot of this and has written and spoken about how colonialism is both justified and inevitable. Uh, how indigenous and good, absolutely how indigenous people should be assimilated because we're too uncivilized to govern ourselves.
00:36:49
Speaker
how Métis aren't actually indigenous and don't deserve Aboriginal rights, like, et cetera, et cetera, you know, that's decades of this, right? He's a sort of expert witness in a lot of court cases against indigenous people, all of this stuff. But in relation to this particular story, it's a really fucked up intersection between his virulent anti-indigenous racism and, yeah, those statements that he made publicly defending child porn.
00:37:13
Speaker
Flanagan says it's fine to look at child porn because it's, quote, just pictures. Child porn, according to Tom Flanagan, is a victimless crime. It's just unbelievable. And, you know, at the time there were some sort of minor consequences, right? He was, I think he was dropped from his advisor role for
00:37:34
Speaker
What was it? The consumer government. Yeah. Daniel Smith. Oh yeah. Yeah. Wild Rose stuff at that time. Yeah. And then I think he was dropped from CBC. Yeah. Who picked him back up, which is right away. Oh yeah. Didn't take long. Yeah. But yeah, to have him featured on a CBC kids piece in particular, that includes also, also fucked up a public vote on whether to return indigenous land is truly beyond the pale for me. Just absolutely out there.
00:38:03
Speaker
Should black people not be slaves anymore? We put it to a popular fault. Like, come on. Yeah, it's just bonkers. And, you know, I do want to be clear, right? It's not this young journalist, this child who, you know, put this together and is doing this reporting. It's not their fault. And I really hope they're not on the receiving end of the backlash on this. Like, I don't think they can be expected to really know what the context or who Tom Flanagan is or whatever. But I do think the adults who OK this, who approve this, did not do their due diligence or are just actively
00:38:33
Speaker
extremely fucked in the head, basically. Yeah. The people at CBC kids fucked up. Uh, my favorite, least favorite Tom Flanagan memory is that, um, like 27 years ago, we published a book called first nations second thoughts, which is crazy. Uh,
00:38:50
Speaker
that is somehow on its third edition, but in a section dealing with the Samson Cree Nation, Flanagan wrote that, quote, band members, especially young people, use their share of oil and gas royalties to buy high-powered trucks, too many drive them too fast, too often under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. It's the worst kind of stereotype, a true one.
00:39:10
Speaker
And Tom Flanagan was called as an expert witness by Canada in a federal case involving the Samson Green Nation, actually.
00:39:20
Speaker
and Flanagan faced a vigorous cross-examination, whereby he admitted that the passage that I just read did not reflect a good academic research methodology necessarily. But more importantly, there is a passage in this Windspeaker write-up of this cross-examination that should really just invalidate his whole fucking career, and it really is just a testament to how
00:39:44
Speaker
fucked up and broken and racist kind of academia is. But the lawyer for the Samson Cree Nation got Flanagan to admit in court, like there's, I can go get a transcript of this probably, that he has never done research on reserve and that he has never spent any time working directly with native people. He also admitted this PhD fucking loser, that he has never taken a single course on Canadian history or Canadian Aboriginal history in his entire life.
00:40:15
Speaker
This is your expert witness. It's amazing. It's amazing who the crown will produce as expert. Actually, it's just amazing across the board who people will consider expert witnesses sometimes, but yeah, it's, you know, I think from what I remember, he, uh, a lot of that book was taken, his research was reading like the Calgary Herald and then just like sort of reproducing and like building an analysis out of, you know, yeah, like newspapers, like post media newspapers.
00:40:45
Speaker
Oh man. So thankfully the next day, CBC Kids did take it down saying, thanks to all who shared concerns after speaking with internal and external stakeholders, we have taken down both pieces. We recognize that our approach to complex Indigenous topics can be better informed to ensure that we are part of the reconciliation process, not working against it. We commit to continue to work with stakeholders to grow and learn and ultimately do better as a new service for kids.
00:41:10
Speaker
Oh, that's good. Yeah. I actually was looking for a statement or something this morning and I couldn't find one. So I'm glad they did release one, but I wish they had put it out there. Yeah. The union of BC Indian chiefs did put out a statement saying what the fuck essentially and calling for it to be taken down.
00:41:26
Speaker
But just to go back a bit to Tom Flanagan, because I cannot bring this up without talking about him, like this motherfucker was actively rehabilitated by the powers that be in our kind of Canadian media infrastructure. Um, like he released the book, like he was like the proto, like I got canceled guy and then wrote a book and like didn't demonstrate any contrition, just talked about how bad it was to be canceled. And then he was magically rehabilitated.
00:41:52
Speaker
Again, his comments were about defending child porn. Wendy fucking Mesley, the CBC lady who recently retired, who had to retire because she couldn't help herself from saying the N word over and over again at the office.
00:42:05
Speaker
Um, sat down for like an interview with Tom Flanagan, like a two camera, well lit interview on like, he wrote this book and it was like, Oh, was it so hard for you to be canceled? Wasn't it? And he was like, it was Wendy. I could see it.
00:42:23
Speaker
I have it open in a tab right now. I could only watch the first 45 seconds before I was like, Jesus fucking Christ, the ghoulish media people in this country. Well, I mean, Tom Flanagan's done a lot like he has done a lot for, you know, the Canadian government and conservative media. Like I'm not surprised that they, you know, we're going to sink that kind of, you know, those resources into him to bring him back. But, you know, I think with the CBC kids thing, they clearly overstepped on that one and probably set him back a little bit.
00:42:51
Speaker
I wouldn't be surprised if he rears his head again. Yeah, exactly. And for our last segment, I think we cannot go and have a podcast about kind of settler indigenous relations without talking about what is going on in Wet'suwet'en territory, up in what is currently called Northwestern BC, the Canadian state and the RCMP are doing what they do best.
Wet'suwet'en Land and Coastal GasLink Resistance
00:43:16
Speaker
And that is when indigenous people assert sovereignty over their land,
00:43:20
Speaker
they send in heavily armed troops in order to get what they want. In this case, TC Energy is trying to build the coastal gas link pipeline to the heavily subsidized LNG project that is being built on the Northwest Coast in BC. And the Wetsuit and people who live there and live there forever are saying, no, quite clearly, you can't do this. And I don't have a ton of insight here to be on kind of just like informing you that this is happening. You should keep track of what is going on and
00:43:51
Speaker
I'm obviously standing in solidarity with the land defenders that are out there and keeping track of what's going on out there. And if anything happens, if there's any solidarity actions that are happening in our neck of the woods, I will be there. But what do you have to tell the world or our audience about what's going on in Wet'suwet'en right now, Molly?
00:44:07
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm not sure if it's been talked about on this podcast before, but I do want to say that there has been some mainstream media talking about how, you know, the majority of the chiefs are in favor of the pipeline and it's only a couple of hereditary chiefs that aren't for it, as though the hereditary chiefs are not as legitimate as the Indian Act, like the band chiefs. And what we're hearing from people in that territory, and actually what has been enshrined in law at this point and recognized in law, is that
00:44:36
Speaker
banned chiefs only have jurisdiction over the reserve, whereas the hereditary chiefs have jurisdiction over the traditional territory. So I think it's really important that we're acknowledging and recognizing that the Witsuitin people are in full rightness within their own legal regimes to be saying no to this because the pipeline does not go through the reserve. That is not where the resistance is happening. It's happening on their traditional territories.
00:45:04
Speaker
And so that's who we need to be talking to and listening to when it comes to this particular resistance. This is a 100% legitimate indigenous resistance. And that particular media frame is absolutely like misleading. The other thing that I find, oh, sorry, go for it.
00:45:24
Speaker
Well, the Witsuiten people are fully within their jurisdiction to say no, even under Canadian law, under previous Supreme Court decisions. It's Canada that is breaking the law here, not the Witsuiten people. Absolutely.
00:45:35
Speaker
Yeah. And so, you know, this is obviously it's a continuation of what's been going on in Watsooten territory for many years. You know, we saw particularly dramatic violence by the RCMP last year. Yeah. 2020. But one of the things that I think is particularly horrific about this for several reasons is that this is happening at the same time as BC is undergoing the worst natural, like series of natural disasters in Canadian history. Right.
00:46:03
Speaker
And I think that says a couple of things. The first is that the government is totally willing to capitalize on absolutely horrific disasters in order to push forward its settler agenda, no matter the cost. And I think that for Indigenous peoples, we need to be ready for this, right? We need to be ready because, you know, we know these disasters are not going away anytime soon.
00:46:23
Speaker
Um, and we need to be ready for the fact that this, you know, they're going to take advantage of this. And I think it's also really interesting, um, and something for settlers to think about as well, that, you know, rather than deploying the RCMP to assist anybody in BC, while all of this horrible shit is going on, they are deploying the RCMP to go beat up some indigenous people and arrest them and put them in the hospital, which has been happening. And so what does that say about how much your government cares about you settlers?
00:46:52
Speaker
Right? Like we're not the only ones who are suffering from this. And I think that, you know, this is a particular instance that demonstrates that the government is really no one's friend except for industry. Hmm. Very, very true. Well, that's an excellent way to close it out. Uh, Molly, uh, how can people follow along with the work you're doing and the projects you're working on?
Conclusion and Call for Support
00:47:17
Speaker
If you have any things to plug, you can plug your pluggables right now.
00:47:21
Speaker
Uh, sure. Yeah. Um, I, uh, am way too much on Twitter, uh, at Otapensu, which is spelled O T I P E M S I W. Uh, you can follow the podcast. We will release another episode at some point at, uh, Métis underscore in underscore space. And, um, I don't know. I, I just, you know, I want to encourage people, uh, to donate not to the red cross. I'm sure the red cross is going to wade into this BC
00:47:51
Speaker
awfulness at some point. Don't donate to the Red Cross, donate to people on the ground, donate to indigenous resistance movements and groups, and support solidarity actions and indigenous youth land and water defense wherever you are.
00:48:05
Speaker
Exactly. Well, thanks to Molly Swain for being an incredible guest. Thanks for having me. Thank you to Jim Story. Wow, it's great having you back. Thank you to Jim Story for editing these pieces. As always, thanks to Cosmic Famic Communist for our theme.
00:48:21
Speaker
the Chiptune Internationale. Also, if you have any notes, thoughts, or comments, I'm very easy to get a hold of. You can reach me on Twitter at Duncan Kinney, and you can reach me by email at DuncanKatprogressalberta.ca. I think that also really helps us out is money to help keep this independent media project going. There are about 500 or so people who already donate monthly to Heap Couples going, so you should join them. Everyone's doing it.
00:48:46
Speaker
You just go to, there's a link in the show notes, or you can go to theprogressreport.ca slash patrons, put in your credit card and contribute 5, 10, $15 a month, whatever you can afford. We would really appreciate it. That is it for our podcast today. So thank you for listening and goodbye.