Fascism And Contemporary Canada...Part Three. Canada’s First Nations and TEPCO.

Fascism And Contemporary Canada. Locating The Conservative Government Of Canada Led By Stephen Harper. Part Three.  Canada’s First Nations and TEPCO.

Written by rmathews@telus.net

Two major disasters point to the Canadian Conservative government lock-in to blind neo-liberal policy … which appears more and more to the world as disguised fascism (the uniting of governments and corporations to exploit resources and repress populations in pursuit of private profit).  The first disaster – which is political - is pointed to by Russell Diabo (First Nations Strategic Bulletin: June-October 2012). He writes an article entitled “Harper Launches Major First Nations Termination Plan….”

The second disaster – a full-scale nuclear ecological disaster - is given a quaint twist in Vancouver’s 24 Hours newspaper. (Sept.9, 2013, p.3).  In an article devoted to sculpture about to be shown at Vancouver’s Aquarium, Michael Mui reports that it comes largely from the Japanese tsunami of March 2011.

But Michael Mui doesn’t mention the earthquake that caused the tsunami. Nor does he mention the Fukashima nuclear catastrophe arising from the earthquake and tsunami – all connected - all involved in creation of the floating debris (and what else?) washing up on B.C.’s coast. Was Mui under orders from the PMO? The PMO, it seems, has never heard of the Fukashima nuclear meltdown on the edge of the Pacific Ocean shared by Canada – a meltdown which grows worse and worse with each passing hour – and has been doing so for more than two years.

Both disasters involve key environmental questions – as we shall see.  And both – strangely – are connected to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA. Allegations are that the U.S. National Security Agency (target of Snowden’s revelations) fed data to specific other allies, Canada included.  And the operations of U.S.N.S.A. have been more and more connected to “the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis – or all three” (theguardian.com, jun 14). 2013).

A pattern begins to appear. Bulldoze anyone preventing energy exploitation.  Disintegrate any organizations that demand action on climate change, extraction pollution, or on specific “natural catastrophes”. That means, in Canada that (a) organizations freely expressing opinions become “enemies”. (b) Organizations with historical rights over land/development must be erased. (c) Claims  of the citizenry to responsible regulation and information must be denied. (d) Governments must underplay and/or deny outright catastrophes … like the one at Fukashima.

Among the kinds of target groups we are talking about who have to be dealt with are environmentalists, anti-fracking organizations, First Nations, and even the general population when it becomes seriously engaged in demanding action on the results/implications of climate change or major disasters.

The Conservative government’s determination to terminate the existence of the First Nations is expressed in a number of recent bills attacking and undermining various aspects of First Nations integrity. Summing up the assault, Russell Diabo alleges the Conservative government of Canada made clear its intention in 2012, and Bill C45. Constitutional experts have described Omnibus Bills like Bill C-45 as distinctly and intentionally destructive of democracy in Canada.

But well before that, the long negotiated and completed Accord between all major levels of government in Canada and major First Nations representatives – called the Kelowna Accord (2005) – about to provide a renaissance for First Nations peoples - was stopped dead in its tracks by the new minority Conservative government led by Stephen Harper. Not only did the government stop action on the Accord, but denied it was changing policy.

The word “racism” is an inflammatory word to use at any time.
But the consistently anti-First Nations attitudes, policies, and actions of the present Conservative government look more and more like a concentrated attack on a minority racial group with the clear intention to harm, oppress, and insult it.

First Nations people (a) attempt to preserve the environment (b) sound alarm bells about climate change (c) call into question deregulation and government by Corporations (d) and they have – constitutionally – real powers over (especially) land not ceded to modern, euro-Canadians governments. 

Russell Diabo sums up the Bills in parliament and other Conservative actions as a signalling of the intention of the present Conservative government to “(1) Focus all its efforts to assimilate First Nations into the existing federal and provincial orders of government of Canada”; and to “(2) Terminate the constitutionally protected and internationally recognized inherent Aboriginal and Treaty rights of First Nations.”

Global expert on the history of ‘first peoples’ since European Expansion, Anthony Hall describes the process as a series of actions “to dismantle existing machinery of federal environmental protection and federal responsibility for ‘Indians and lands reserved for the Indians’ so that Canada’s natural resources can be more quickly exploited by foreign corporations….” (Anthony Hall, “Flanagan’s Last Stand”, Veterans Today.)

The Conservative government attack on First Nations is powerful, organized, staged, propagandized. Only coordinated resistance by First Nations and their growing number of allies in Canada will prevent the full-scale disaster intended by government in league with private corporations. The mass ‘day of action’ called for by First Nations organizations on October 7, 2013 must be a beginning. 

That day marks the 250th birthday of the famous Royal Proclamation issued by George the Third to defend the rights of indigenous peoples in North America in 1763. It demanded (among other things) that no First Nations land could be alienated from ownership without full negotiation, record, and participation of all the people involved.  The Royal Proclamation is a part of Canadian law, and it has been elaborated by courts and legislation (and the repatriated constitution) since.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is not a part of U.S. law.  One of the reasons for the U.S. War for Independence (1776) was that country’s rejection of the Royal Proclamation. In the 19th century, the U.S. made clear the status of people native to the land upon the arrival of Europeans. They were named a conquered people, possessing only such rights as the conqueror chooses to confer upon them. Racism rarely has clearer expression.

The Conservative government of Canada, we may conclude, wishes to place Canadian First Nations in the same strait jacket. 

Across the productive map of Canada and in almost every environmental area the present Conservative government led by Stephen Harper has cut, reduced, and/or redefined regulation … downward.  Doing so assists one class only – the wealthy class which profits from a de-regulated society.

Deregulation assists that class and it assists the forces it controls. One of those forces is the U.S.N.S.A. (National Security Agency) which has been spying on millions of people globally to guard (as already quoted above) against “the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks, or economic crisis – or all three.”

The Canadian Conservative government has conducted a two-prong policy of support for global corporations (the wealthy class)  as de facto government.  The first prong has been deregulation and the frontal attack on all First Nations rights and freedoms in order to open all doors to unregulated extraction of Canadian resource wealth and the unregulated exploitation of labour in Canada.

The second prong has been a policy of silence (where possible) and a policy of denial of (a) climate change (b) pollution from energy extraction and transport, and (c) the effects of industrial catastrophe.

Quickly and simply.  The Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO, a private corporation) was completely in charge of the Japanese Fukashima Nuclear facility.  It appears to have failed to maintain safety standards before the disaster ... or even to take account of safety needs.  It seems, as well, to have been unable to manage the effects of the earthquake and tsunami. It appears to have misinformed the public about problems and to have, quite simply, lied about contaminated water flowing into the Pacific Ocean. The local result may be that more Japanese are harmfully effected than TEPCO or the Japanese government will admit.

That government’s desire to host the Olympics in 2020 (and to “save face”) may explain its more than two year failure to act and its now possibly band-aid intervention in the disaster. TEPCO has generated almost no confidence whatever among nuclear specialists world-wide.

Finally, On August 26, 2013, the Japanese government took over emergency operations at Fukashima, having lost faith in the ability (or willingness?) of TEPCO to contain the devastation.  But not before growing problems have occurred – one of them being the leakage into the Pacific Ocean of highly toxic nuclear materials.

Quickly and simply. The disaster has been and is an international one, evoking almost no serious international response.

The Canadian government has taken no precautions whatever, has put into place no nuclear pollution registering facilities in Canadian waters (or elsewhere), and tries to avoid the issue altogether.  When confronted, it asserts it receives information from Japan – a source about information on the disaster that is less and less trusted in the world.

As is the case with its secret negotiation of international economic treaties harmful to the well-being (and even the Constitution) of Canada, Conservative government handling of the Fukashima disaster is a major Breach of Trust.

There is not the slightest doubt that the Canadian Conservative government should have a clear, examinable program of Pacific waters nuclear (and atmospheric) testing, reporting the results monthly (at least) to the Canadian public. 

There is no doubt the failure of the Canadian government is tied to its support of corporations like TEPCO and its determination to undercut and destroy scientific oversight of the Canadian environment on behalf of corporate profit.  There is very little doubt that its wholesale failure to monitor the disaster for Canadians is connected to the global intentions of U.S.N.S.A. to keep information from the public that might cause it to question policy and to take action to assure public safety.

The attack of the Conservative government of Canada upon the First Nations is a disaster – and it may result in other disasters not yet thought about. The attack has produced a ticking time bomb….

The refusal of the Conservative government of Canada to act on behalf of Canadians in the matter of the Fukashima nuclear disaster
is a shameful Breach of Trust. It may result in serious harm to the population and the environment.  If so, the cover-up will only inflame Canadians … and God only knows what the outcome of that will be.


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