Bill C-45: The Idle No More Movement

Barker, J. (2008). Gender, Sovereignty, Rights: Native Women's Activism against Social Inequality and Violence in Canada. American Quarterly, 60(2), 8. Retrieved fro m http://search.Proquest.com.Ez proxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/61688929?Acc ountid=15182.

Twenty-first century reporters fill the airwaves with “news” pertaining to facets of life entirely opposite of awareness and activism. When news regarding anything aside from the lives of celebrities or current pop culture does make the headlines, the story seems presented in a watered-down, somehow censored, fashion; leaving the reader asking more questions than they received answered. As the major methods of mass media become increasingly consumer driven, the great majority are presented with less mentally stimulating material called “news”. As a result, Americans are often less informed, and thus less willing to become involved in, political, social, and economic issues, nation and worldwide. Through the application of relevant and straightforward journalism, like that practiced by Ida B. Wells, the people of this country may be armed with the knowledge needed to have an effect on the events unfolding today that will affect tomorrow.

After the strangling claws of the Indian Act were felt, the Canadian government began to issue more laws that intruded with the aboriginals lives and took away their rights. The first of these was the “Potlatch Law” (Hanson, n.p.). It banned potlatches and other ceremonies of the aboriginals, all for the purpose of forcing the

When researching for this assignment, I noticed something interesting: there was almost no media coverage regarding First Nations issues in Canada until the Resistance 150 protests started. It seemed like nobody knew what had happened, and the people who did know didn’t

The freedom and right to be able to freely express thoughts, opinions, and concerns are critical in the efficiency and fluency of American and Canadian democracy. With such a large and vast nation, there is bound to be a parallel in size of diverse thinking and perspective. In order to properly and directly voice these opinions,there needs to be a type of media to do so with. In her 1854 editorial, Mary Ann Shadd Cary goes on to discuss the importance of one particular form of media; the newspaper. Cary is able to explain that need for expression of opinion through media, the need for “colored canadians” to specifically have their own paper, and that need to inform misinformed citizens on Canada’s issues through her own style of diction to

Having lived in Canada when I was 8 before the US-Canada magazine dispute occurred, I found myself thoroughly engrossed in Canadian culture. It seemed a perfect culture, built to protect domestic interests and despite the potential division between countries, created a safe environment where people were unafraid to leave doors unlocked, due to almost no crime. The peaceful and respectful nature of most Canadians isn’t just a fluke, the country was designed this way, and one of the primary influencers of this strategy is the media. Watching the news in Canada, the focus is positive, the message is positive, there is no forced fear of sense of doom as we see here in the US. Life is about being sustainable, not so much a struggle to the top of the food chain, but working together, instead of separating and segregating groups. That is except the region of French Quebec; however, Quebec is like a whole new country in itself.

For twelve years Murphy led the fight to have women declared legal "persons" in Canada. When petitions from various women's organizations failed to open in

The choices of words, research, and exceptional organization in an essay will amaze an audience, while a poorly written one will make a very strong argument ineffective. This failure of possessing a robust argument and being unable to effectively deliver it is expressed through Adrian Mack and Miranda Nelson’s “Vancouver Hockey Riot Is a Symptom of a Larger Problem”. The authors view the riot of June 15th, 2011 in a much broader perspective and intend to use the event as a means to attack the government. Published in the youth-oriented magazine, The Georgia Straight, the essay focuses to appeal to the youth of Vancouver and does this adequately through its aggressive tone. However, due to the lack of crucial evidence to support their claims and along with the hypocrisy within the piece, the effectiveness of the essay to express the argument is poor.

INM originated when four women — Nina Wilson, Sylvia Mcadam, Jessica Goredon and Sheelah Mclean — organized a work shop focused on how the conservative omnibus bill, Bill C-45, would affect first nations people. This bill proposed changes to various acts and regulations that would directly affect Aboriginal sovereignty. These include; the Indian Act, the Navigable waters protection act, the environmental assessment Act and the Fisheries Act (Graveline, 2013: 293). These proposed changes mobilized aboriginals and non-aboriginals across Canada to come together in solidarity and form the largest movement for indigenous rights in Canada since Oka in 2002. With an excellent campaign strategy involving social media such as Facebook and Twitter, the INM movement has been inspiring youth and women to come together collectively to demand change. Through rallies, protests, round dancing and road blocks, the INM movement has gained national coverage in the news media (not all of which has been sympathetic to the INM cause). In particular, the six week hunger strike of Chief Theresa Spence gained immense news coverage, and put pressure on the Prime Minister to quickly organize meetings with chiefs of first nation tribes (Graveline 2013: 293). While exposure in the news media, is necessary in order to win the

These ‘White Papers’ focused on the social and economic problems that were rampant within the First Nation communities and was considered to be humane because of the fact that Native peoples were integrated within mainstream society [pp.6]. These problems were ‘highlighted’ through the result of various studies conducted by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from 1966 to 1969 and became the basis of the ‘White Paper’. Although the paper was ultimately defeated, these beliefs were brought into mainstream society and became a more idolized form of modernizing the Aboriginal peoples. This form of ‘helping’ the First Nations peoples was the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development [D.I.A.N.D] way of dissolving the First Nations reservations. These institutionalized ideologies were masked as social and economic reforms that addressed the First Nation communities [pp.5-6]. Such reforms include the state of welfare on First Nation communities, re-educating the youth, and the identification of a First Nations person according to the government, which also includes the apology that Prime Minister Harper spoke on June 11th, 2008. These ideals have become the driving force behind the United Nation’s ‘Universal Declaration of Indigenous Rights’. This declaration has yet to be signed by Canada for a variety of reasons, one of them being that it is in direct violation of Article 25, which is a right to social services and health

She argues that women face many institutional and societal barriers. In this regard, I will give examples of the institutional and structural barriers such as “The Indian Act” which have significantly affected Indigenous women in Canada in many ways including social, economic and political. While comparing feminists and Indigenous feminists, I think that Native women are different in several ways including social, cultural, historical, political and economic; therefore, Indigenous feminism is a way of practicing the values that they have been taught and inherited from their

Shortly after these amendments were introduced, four women from Saskatchewan began communicating via social media to discuss Bill C-45. The main concern these women had were if the bill was going to further oppress Indigenous rights and destroy environmental lands across Canada. A movement was formed in an attempt to stop the government from introducing more legislation that will erode Indigenous rights. On November 10, 2012, an event was organized to raise awareness regarding this bill. The movement was to be known as the Idle No More movement.

On December 5th 2012 Bill C-45 was passed in Canada. This piece of legislation changed how lands would be managed on native reserves. It also removed protection of thousands of bodies of water in Canada. Four women from Saskatchewan started emailing each other of what this piece of legislation meant for the indigenous population of our country and started sharing this information to the First Nations communities. This was the birth of a movement named Idle No More. The movement gained popularity across Canada and one month after the first phases Idle No More had a National Day of Action, on December 10th 2012, in locations across the country.

Throughout history, Canada’s identity has changed in many ways and there have been many historical events that have greatly shaped and impacted Canada’s history and identity. The Women’s Movement and women’s contribution in the past and throughout history has had the greatest impact on shaping Canada into what it is today. Among many identifying qualities like being multicultural, bilingual, and world leaders, Canada is also country that has changed immensely in the way of becoming a country that has learned to accept women, move towards providing them with equal opportunities and treating them equally. Through economic, social and political movements and actions, the contribution from women and the women’s movement have increased, changed and improved women’s rights and equality greatly. Women worked to create independence and equality economically through their contributions to war on the homefront in WWI resulting in greater workplace equality, socially through the actions of the Flappers in the 1920’s giving women currently, the confidence and strength that they need to speak up, and politically, through the work of the Suffragists including the Famous 5 to allow women to have the same political rights as men.

Indigenous people have been oppressed since colonization in the 1500’s, which resulted in the Indian Act of 1876 and Residential Schools, that lasted many generations. As a result, this created negative outcomes such as sexual assault and psychological abuse, leading to substance abuse, mental health, and suicide problems. The Canadian government’s, overall goal, was to Westernize Indigenous people in different parts of Canada. Due to this, Aboriginal people feel disconnected, deprived, lost and traumatized. As well as, being stripped out of their identities, with the lasting effects of inter-generational trauma passed to generations, with its present effects on the 21st century. As Frideres (2008) stated, “the new generation of Aboriginal people has grown up without assigned roles or groups that anchor Aboriginality so that identity can no longer be granted.” Many of them feel that in order for true healing to start the identity catastrophe must be settled first. This has brought me to wonder if the creation of social media has helped revive the Indigenous identity (Frideres, 2008). Through social media’s present effects and strength in this current day and age, social media has given marginalized groups a voice to be heard, allowing Indigenous people to use social media towards their advantage. The main question of my research is how does social media affect the Indigenous Identity? More specifically, the paper will focus on the research question, has social