Question: Are you able to help me with a brief summary on this text with no quotations. Discrimination against Aboriginals in Canada: Bill C-45 Jane Freiburger
Are you able to help me with a brief summary on this text with no quotations.
Discrimination against Aboriginals in Canada: Bill C-45 Jane Freiburger [1] Aboriginal people have been discriminated against for centuries. Many Aboriginals feel that land claims, which have been a major issue for well over two centuries, are a good illustration of this discrimination. This is true in many nations, and Canada is a perfect example. Aboriginals feel that obligations under the treaties and the Indian Act are not being met by the Canadian federal government. Freiburger uses a concrete example to show support for the opening statement, which could be based on opinion, not fact. [2] On 18 October 2012, the Harper government introduced Bill C-45. This affects the Indian Act, the Navigation Protection Act, and the Environmental Assessment Act. These changes have angered many Aboriginal people as they believe that more laws and legislation will further erode treaty and Indigenous rights and the rights of all Canadians ("9 Questions," 2013). Many Aboriginals feel that this bill discriminates against them by taking the decision-making powers away from them, showing that non-Aboriginals know what was best for them, which is discrimination. The writer introduces a controversial issue to provide grounds for the stated claims. [3] Bill C-45 alters the Indian Act, which includes changes to land management on reserves, making it easier for the federal government to control reserve land (Gotz, 2012). Bill C-45 also alters the Navigable Waters Protection Act. This Act was used to protect 2.5 million rivers and lakes and now only covers 97 lakes and 62 rivers. This leaves rivers, lakes, and oceans vulnerable to exploitation and it leads the way to mining and the controversial Enbridge Northern Gateways pipeline to move forward (Fotheringham, 2013). Again, this alteration is felt to be discrimination, as the people who live on these lands will not be consulted before their lives are disrupted. This argument is supported by fact. [4] In order to protest this loss of rights, many Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals participated in the "Idle No More" campaign in order to bring awareness of the latest issue of discrimination to the Canadian public. Unfortunately, both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the media added to the discrimination issue. During this protest, Prime Minister Stephen Harper typified Aboriginals as arrogant imperialists and denied that colonization exists. Minorities have always been a focus of the media, particularly framing them as the problem. It is part of the way the news is created rather than it being the people who carry personal prejudices. This type of structural discrimination is not intentional, but it is harmful (Kunz, 2013). In the Idle No More protest, this message was very apparent, supporting the Aboriginal claim of discrimination. Again, Freiburger uses facts to support her argument. [5] Among the non-Aboriginal population, there is a clear misunderstanding of what the Aboriginals are trying to attain. A recent poll from Ipsos Reid found that about two-thirds of Canadians believe Canada's Aboriginal peoples received too much support from federal taxpayers; they believe that Aboriginal peoples are treated well by the government and most of the problems Native people face are brought on by themselves. On the other hand the poll also found that two-thirds of Canadians believe the federal government must act now to improve the life of Canada's Aboriginal peoples (Akin, 2013). This poll shows the ignorance on the part of most Canadians and adds to the discrimination that exists