"...you can come on my land whenever you want?"

            When I think of the role of the government, I think of a slow-acting, money-burning, self-perpetuating machine that is not so well oiled; it appears that Karl Marx is significantly more critical of the role of the government when he looks at the impact they have on the people. Mullaly states that Marxists believe that the capitalist government basically is there to “to act in opposition to the real interests of all members of society by constituting an ‘illusory community’, which then serves to disguise the real struggles that classes wage against each other” (Mullaly, 141). In this post, I would like to probe at truth found in examples of how the BC and Ontario governments attempted to ignore the indigenous people’s way of life by green-lighting the extension and construction of mines on Indigenous land.

            In my first and less dramatic BC example, I read that Place and Hanlon did a study involving the consultation process of Indigenous people in the extension of a copper and gold ore mine on traditional but untreatied land. They looked over ideas such as the short-term benefits, such as jobs, and long-term consequences, such as blows to the environment and to the people who live there (Place and Hanlon, 2008); one participant effected by the potential mine stated that dealing with the government “means working in accordance to ‘their policies, not ours’” (p. 170). In Ontario, I read that the events leading up to the a mine project on a portion of land belonging to the local Indigenous people resulted in court battles, several arrests and an injunction for the Native people to remove themselves from their occupation of the site where the company planned on searching for Uranium (Algonquins threaten to reoccupy Ontario uranium site, 2008); one grandmother even reported to fight by means of a hunger strike (Forsey, 2008).

            From what I read here, it would appear that each province is mostly in favour of construction each mine but are willing to entertain jumping through the hoops of meeting with the respective Indigenous groups residing in each province. While these people groups are bringing up valid concerns of environmental hazards and health of those who live there, the provinces are hoping that some compromise would still be reached. The whole idea of a government/business/force coming into an indigenous area to harvest material despite obvious destruction to natural resources sounds like plotline to a Hollywood movie, but apparently is more real than we realize (minus the love story, but it is happening in 3D). The bourgeois, er, the government needs to stand up for their citizens and not allow large corporations to treat them like pylons. The role of the government should be to seek the best for the individual and collective needs of those who reside in their countrys, not ask them to move aside when money could be made to bring the economy up. Citizens needs to hold government officials accountable in making sure their actions and policies benefit the people, not just the market; after all it's 2011, not 1984.

- Kel

Mullaly, R. (2007). The new structural social work (3^rd Ed.). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Place, Jessica & Hanlon, Neil. (2011). Kill the lake? kill the proposal: accommodating First Nations' environmental values as a first step of the road to wellness, GeoJournal, 76, 193-175

Algonquins threaten to reoccupy Ontario uranium site. (2008, January 11). Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2008/01/11/ot-sharbot-lake-080111.html 

Forsey, April. (2008, April). First Nations Fight To Protect Rheir Land, The Monitor.