John Ivison: Damning audit of Aboriginal Affairs shows a department … – National Post
July 31, 2014
Bernard Valcourt has been handed the political equivalent of the punishment meted out to Sisyphus, who was tasked with rolling an immense boulder up a hill in Hades for all eternity.
The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs not only has to appease 560 First Nations bands, who want more federal money and fewer conditions, he also has to take the rap for the worst department in government. It is an unenviable job. When the First Nations Education Bill unraveled, I remember saying that, after covering native affairs for a decade, I’d reached the considered opinion that nothing of substance would ever be achieved. Ever.
There’s plenty of blame to pass around for this tragic state of affairs. In the specific instance of the Education Bill, critics and rivals of the then-Assembly of First Nations National Chief, Shawn Atleo, turned down the opportunity of a $1.9-billion injection into native education in order to settle personal vendettas. The deal with the federal government was endorsed by AFN executive committee members in December, who then turned around and abandoned Mr. Atleo in the spring. There is no harder job in Canadian politics than herding opinion among the fractious chiefs, each of whom thinks he or she is a head of state.
