Grant them their freedom. Create a new nation in Canada, just for them. Called the First Nations people, they are a group of Canadian indigenous peoples with 634 recognized tribal or reservation governments across the country. They're in the news right now as the bodies of 215 children have been found in unmarked graves in Kamloops, British Columbia, at the site of what was the Kamloops Indian Residential School. That news is shocking the world, but not the people, themselves.
"It is part of our oral history that there were children buried and burned in furnaces," says Manny Jules, a former chief of the Kamloops band.
Why grant the First Nations their own nation? Because, they have been held down by the Canadian government. They were robbed of their land to begin with, and now they are held back from developing and progressing as a people. Read this, from a Deseret News article by Naomi Schaefer Riley:
"If you want to see how the land question affects members of First Nations, drive at night to the top of one of the peaks overlooking the city. On one side of the river, there are lights everywhere — apartment buildings, homes, businesses and hotels. On the other side — the land held by Jules’ band — there’s mostly darkness. It’s not quite as stark as the difference in satellite images between North and South Korea, but it comes remarkably close."
Riley explains how the government's role and the refusal to allow them to own their own property holds them back. They deserve better. We should help them get it. I, for one, will be contacting the mayor of the city, petitioning him to endorse the 634 reservations and tribes of the First Nations people to become their own nation.
Belief in freedom requires that we grant them their freedom.
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