Conservative MP Rob Clarke would like to repeal the Indian Act but people attending a meeting in Saskatoon on Saturday were in no mood to hear the reasons why.
The northern Saskatchewan MP was interrupted several times as he tried to explain a private member’s bill he has put forward which aims to do with away with the Indian Act.
Few of the roughly 100 people at the meeting disagreed with the notion that the Indian Act needs to be changed but most, like University of Saskatchewan law student Rachel Snow, say Clarke and the Conservatives are going about these changes in a high handed way and without proper consultation.
“They want to replace it with legislation that they’ve driven and developed from the federal perspective. And it is still a paternalistic approach and it hasn’t worked for the past 200 years and the colonial movements haven’t worked for the past 500 years. So, I can just see failure with this and continued problems and protest.”
Those at the meeting also questioned why Clarke voted in favour of Bill C-45, the Conservative omnibus bill some say will make sweeping environmental changes on First Nations lands and waters, and what the federal government is doing to improve First Nations education on-reserve.
Clarke, who oversees a large northern Saskatchewan riding with the second largest percentage of Aboriginal people within a federal constituency in Canada, is a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation.
The three-hour meeting was hosted by the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan and took place at St. Mary’s Wellness and Education Centre.