Special Status No More

The only sensible response to the "Idle No More" protests is to abolish all special status for aboriginal Canadians once and for all; a disaster for chiefs and band councils, a boon to ordinary first nations Canadians who want to live a decent life.  The very idea of special legal status based on race is an abomination that cannot be tolerated in a modern democratic nation like Canada.  There is no issue, be it legal, economic, environmental or otherwise that cannot be handled perfectly well by Canadians of all backgrounds working together within a context of common citizenship.   

Canadians have to stop naively thinking that supporting the chiefs and professional activists in the aboriginal community translates to support for average First Nations Canadians. It doesn't.  It just entrenches the status of the chiefs and band council members who are a major cause of the poverty and hopelessness that many First Nations people find themselves in.  Do you know why other ethnic groups in Canada do not these same problems to anywhere near the same extent? Because they don't have chiefs, that's why!  If being regular Canadian citizens works for Europeans, Asians, Africans, East Indians and everyone else, there’s no reason why it would not work for people of aboriginal background.  The sooner that special aboriginal status is abolished and replaced by common citizenship for all, the better off we will all be.