Thursday, September 13, 2007

It's official: Harper thinks natives shouldn't have title to their land

So the United Nations has passed a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Guess which four countries -- the only four -- voted against? Why, the four countries with the worst records against native people, naturally -- Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Why is that? Let's speculate. All four countries run by small c-conservative regimes (except New Zealand, although Helen Clark does have a coalition with some right-wing parties). Many of the land claims happen to cover government areas where there just happens to be oil or natural gas, or precious commodities like gold or diamonds.

Hmmmm ....

Vote for this post at Progressive Bloggers.

1 comment:

Amanda Van Der Steen said...

These four countries are also the countries that haven't fully destroyed or integrated their native population and have to fully deal with this UN resolution.

It's a little special for countries like France, Germany, Britain and Iran to vote for this - aboriginal rights in other countries that would see them reoccupy all the land - because they don't have a dog in the hunt.