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Dear Canada, a sappy YouTube video for Canadians
(www.youtube.com)
There are two things that I find soothing in the recent debacle wrt basic Canadian sovereignty.
First, executive authority resides in the PM, and the PM is selected by and must face question period in the House of Commons. The vaunted US system of checks and balances is useless when the other branches are compromised.
Second, the fundamental problem in the US isn't structural, it's that around a third of the electorate is okay with the rank corruption and self-dealing from the top. They cheer on the acts of a Presidential monarch. It doesn't matter how your democracy is structured, when around a third of your electorate no longer values democratic traditions you are in a dangerous place.
In Canada though, we've seen a fairly strong repudiation of Maple MAGA and the Qonvoy movement. It's a little weird, I've seen Qonvoyers missing the point, thinking everyone is on side with them somehow, because Canadian flags? But the ratio of pro-Qonvoy pro-Canada sentiment (where there isn't an obvious and rampant bot problem) seems to skew pretty far away from the Qonvoyers. I think we face the same dangers the US is facing, but it looks like we have a little more runway.
As to point 2, do not rely on Xitter for your news. It has turned into an algorithmically twisted bot-manipulated hellscape of discord and echo chambers. Speaking to the choir here on Lemmy.ca Canada community, but encourage Canadians to make an account on a Canadian Mastodon or Lemmy instance. I recommend dipping their toe into the Fediverse with Mastodon, and just following some Canadian news sources.
I think one of the issues is that "meaningful consultation" has been very wishy-washy. In practice though, it works out that every band that might have any right to consultation can tie up anything in interminable lawsuits. In trying to avoid clarifying what constitutes "meaningful consultation" we've sleepwalked into this current environment where nothing can be built.
I still remember the mess around the Wet'suwet'en "hereditary" chiefs infighting and vs. the elected band council.It doesn't matter if you are pro-pipeline, anti-pipeline, whatever. It highlights what a mess "meaningful consultation" is. Who do you consult with? The traditional chiefs successfully ousted 3 traditional chiefs and won a court case saying they had to be consulted as well.
Extrapolate this across the country and it's a nightmare for any project that wants to respect indigenous rights.
I expect some replies along the lines of "Canada's an illegitimate country" and such, and good riddance, and there is some truth. Between the Proclamation of King George III, and a good chunk of BC First Nations not having treaties, it's a bit of a pickle. I don't know the way out. I like how the Nisga'a Final Agreement finally sorted all this out for the Nisga'a, but there hasn't been any further agreements along this line since.