It is often said that one of the culprits of Western culture and the process of colonization is the way it converted larger communities and families into nuclear homes with individualistic and/or egotistical values.  Historically and traditionally here on Turtle Island we lived within communities where we were all related to one another and where we all had a role in teaching children values and morals.  For the most part these values and morals were embodied through teachings, songs, and rituals.  Once these values and morals were embodied, during times when our bodies and minds failed us, family and community members would remind one another of their collective obligations.  In this way family and community members were an important element of Indigenous governance tradition.

Oftentimes some people will actually excuse a family member’s lack of good moral judgement through statements such as, “I am not responsible for her actions” or “she is doing her job and she really is a nice person”.  This line of reasoning, though, is rooted in an oppressive governance structure that relies on individualistic and/or egotistical values, and must be reconsidered; this is especially so if one claims to be leftist.  Said another way, family and community members who remain silent as they stand beside violators of human rights are themselves complicit in the violation.  And further, through their silence they remain stuck within an oppressive governance system; an oppressive system that is comparable to the system that has forced many families to find refuge in Canada.
​
The contradiction of a young family finding refuge in Canada, yet that same family then denies Indigenous women and children their land and treaty rights, exists in plain sight for all to see.

​​​​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

Men, have you encountered so called liberated women who told you that you cannot be a feminist? If so, no longer fret.  Go back and tell them the theoretical framework of old white feminism is not working anyway because it remains within the humanistic paradigm versus the naturalistic paradigm. Then tell them you are now Indigenist, which represents a genuine paradigm shift that we all need, a paradigm shift where men are situated, where the natural world that includes water and trees sits at the core not just women.

Afterall we are all Indigenous to the Earth and we all have Indigenous knowledge. Stand up for the water versus old white feminism that won't embrace you. The Indigenous paradigm will.

​​​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

All too often settler people say to me, “The Algonquin have to get it together and stop being so divided”.
 
Although I am Algonquin Anishinaabe, a person does not have to be Algonquin to carry a critical thinking lens or framework in understanding that the issue with the denial of Algonquin rights, the destruction of our land, the pollution of the Ottawa River, and the destruction of our sacred places is in fact a settler issue and a settler government issue.  It is not an Algonquin issue; not at all.
 
It is not too difficult to reason that here in what has become the nation state called Canada, settlers have benefited from colonization in enormous and lucrative ways; in more ways than the Algonquin have.  Through the construction of Canada settler people have had greater access to Indigenous land and settlers have benefited more from the resources mined and pilfered from the land.
 
There are more settlers on Indigenous lands, and it is their settler government that continues to spend millions and millions of dollars to ensure the Algonquin remain in hardship, in poverty, and divided.  Let’s face it, as long as the Algonquin remain divided Canada can, and will, blame us for the very divide Canada has manufactured ‒ again through the resources pilfered from Indigenous land.
 
Through the settler court system, from the 1973 Calder decision through to the 2017 Tsilhoqot’in decision, Indigenous people have won the recognition for our rights yet Canada continues to deny these rights to us.
 
Indigenous people have also placed their bodies on the land over and over and over again.
 
It is about time settler people stop with the practice of blaming Algonquin people for the ongoing desecration and pollution of the land and water that we all need; trees and animals included. Said another way, the time is ripe for settlers to stop blaming Algonquin ancestors and fellow Algonquin who walk the earth today for what their ancestors did and their current settler government continues to do to the Four Orders of Creation.
 
Too many so called friends and acquaintances continually say ignorant things to me over and over again about the Algonquin.  They blame us.  This has to stop. Settlers, you own this situation.  It is time for you to put your bodies on the land and on the line.  Mortgage your homes; sell you summer homes too; then there is the content of those homes, it can all go too. Really serve the cause.  You can do this.  Whatever steps you take to generate the change you seek and the change we all need, stop with the excuse of blaming on the Algonquin for the continued pilfering of the land that you mostly benefit from.
 
Settlers stop externalizing your responsibility.  Settlers, you own this; not the Algonquin Anishinaabeg.

​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

Settler people must stop judging Indigenous women in petty and dismissive ways such as nasty name calling.
 
Recently, I had a few experiences that were really telling of questionable settler thinking and a sure indication that they remain unaware and ignorant of the legitimate manifestations of structural oppression and how best to address it.
 
One individual called me “needy”, another called an Anishinaabe women “a wimp” and further “too angry”. There is so much I could say that is wrong about settler people name calling, regardless I will remain with offering a bulleted point list as I am sure I can make my position succinctly.

1. Settler people need to remember that they have lived the privilege of colonization and that their privilege has come off the backs of Indigenous people.
2.  Settler people need to remember that your homes and all your material possessions stuffed within it are on land, and off the land, that we were and continue to be denied.
3.  Settler people need to remember that in the summer, it is you who go off and vacation in your summer homes that also reside on Indigenous lands.
4.  Settler people need to remember it is Indigenous women and their families who are dealing with pedophiles and sexual offenders at a higher rate in our collective communities.
5.  Settler people need to remember that Indigenous women are missing and murdered in much larger numbers.
6.  Settler people need to remember that it is the sons of Indigenous families who are filling up Canada’s jail industry in much larger numbers.
7.  Setter people need to remember that Indigenous families have a higher rate of disability, both physical and mental.
8.  Settler people need to remember that it is the poverty that has been imposed on Indigenous people, and again that settlers gained from and continue to gain from, that result in us making decisions that in many ways harm us in the long run.
9.  Settler people need to remember that it is our families that continue to be destroyed and divided so Canada can thrive.
10.  Settler people need to remember that it is our communities that lack clean water and who live boil water advisories.
11.  Settler people need to remember that it was our culture that was criminalized, and further it is our culture that continues to be appropriated by settler people.
12.  Settler people need to remember that it is members in our communities that are pooping in buckets.
13.  Settler people need to remember that is our family members who are dying homeless on the streets.
14.  Settler people need to remember that it is Indigenous knowledge that continues to be reduced to “elderism” and that Indigenous knowledge holders and intellectuals continue to be ignored and dismissed through “elderism”.

 Morals move through the heart, they take the same path the human spirit does, and the same path emotions take. The people we should all fear are the people who lack the moral, spiritual, and emotional intelligence to speak up about the injustice Indigenous women face on a daily basis. It certainly is not Indigenous people who are righteously sad or angry. In short, look out for the “nice” accommodating, subservient and obliging people.
 
If you lack the intellectual ability to understand Indigenous women and ALL the knowledge we have, have the intelligence to listen versus silence them through name calling.

​​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

Do not believe Trudeau and Bennett when they say they respect the nation to nation relationship and genuinely want to pursue reconciliation. They are bold face liars. Read this and learn more about how the destruction of the sacred remains a colonial agenda:

​https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/akikodjiwan/

​While the City of Halifax has the intelligence to remove the statue of Edward Cornwallis, the City of Ottawa moves deeper into Canada’s practice of genocide against the Algonquin Anishinaabeg.
  
As many people know there has been a long-time effort to Free the Falls and Save the Islands located in the Ottawa River just upstream from Canada's Parliament buildings. Chaudière Falls and Chaudière, Albert, and Victoria Islands are an ancient sacred meeting place where Creator placed the First Sacred Pipe within the land and waterscape, the ultimate symbol and ritual of reconciliation.

Many supportive people have worked hard to have this sacred place restored, re-naturalized, and preserved as the sacred place it is. At one time this support also included the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa. Despite this, and within the context of the Liberal government's rhetoric of "reconciliation" corporate power and the economic paradigm are moving forward with the continued onslaught of Indigenous rights and Indigenous sacred places.
 
Although it is said the Tsilhoqot’in decision ushered in a new paradigm of the need for Indigenous consent versus consultation, on December 15, 2017, the Government of Canada approved a series of land transfers between the National Capital Commission, Public Services and Procurement Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and Windmill Dream Zibi for lands on the islands. This Crown land transfer happened without the consent of the larger Algonquin Nation, which includes the status and the non-status in both of the provinces living in Quebec and Ontario.
 
Regardless of this lack of Algonquin consent, as of February 5th, 2018 the Ontario Land Registry identifies Windmill Dream Zibi Ontario Inc. as owners of parcels of land on Chaudière Island and Albert Island.
 
What makes this worse is the City of Ottawa is currently in the process of constructing nine kilometres of parkland along the Ottawa River that they will name “The Sir John A. Macdonald Riverfront Park”. Why can’t Ottawa be as smart as Halifax?

Inspired by Dalhousie student and ally to Indigenous people Masuma Khan; it is my thought that, “Reconciliation can kiss my ass!”

​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

​As many know, one of the main differences between Indigenous people and most if not all settler Canadians and our knowledge philosophies is that Indigenous people value the original dream of the Creator and Creator’s natural law. Another way to understand this difference is to value that Indigenous assumptions, beliefs, knowledge, teachings, and rituals are intentionally and consciously designed around natural models and features. This serves to keep us rooted within the naturalistic tradition. In short, the naturalistic tradition places natural law at its core where humans are placed within the context of all the other beings.
 
The naturalistic tradition is different from the humanistic tradition. The humanistic tradition places humans above the natural world and above all the other beings. This includes all of humanity’s creations such as governance and economic traditions. They are not designed to work with Creation; rather they are designed to control and monopolize Creation. While humans are smart beings and we are able to create amazing things with the gift of our mind, our egos and blind selfishness of the paramount importance of the natural world, and that humans too readily default to, is our own worst enemy. This is what is meant by the Anishinaabe philosophy and saying, ‘humans are pitiful’.
 
As we all know the humanistic tradition and inventions that emerge from it is devastating our collective land and waterscapes, so much so that our water is polluted with layers and layers of different kinds of pollution: debris such as plastic and other forms of garbage; chemicals such as organic compounds like dioxins, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals; sewage and biological waste; and radioactive particles. Again, this is the result of human beings placing their needs over and above all the beings within the natural world.
 
The problem is that most people are suffering from ‘cognitive paradigm paralysis’, meaning they are unable to think conceptually about the paradigm they live within, and thus unable to think critically about the limitations of their paradigm ‒ the humanistic paradigm ‒ and value that there is a better more intelligent option waiting for them to shift into. The culprit is the pitifulness of human cognition.
 
A telling example of people’s inability to understand that they are stuck within the irrational humanistic tradition / paradigm is the fact that when a brick and mortar Church, Mosque, or Synagogue is damaged, people are disgusted and outraged and they call it a hate crime; yet when a natural Indigenous sacred place such as Akikodjiwon and Akikpautik located within the natural world of the land and waterscape of the Ottawa River is further desecrated these same people are unable to shift conceptually and value that this too is a hate crime. This inability continues to harm Indigenous people as well as all people and Creation.
 
Akikodjiwon and Akikpautik are the very land and waterscapes where Creator placed the First Sacred Pipe, the ultimate ritual and ceremony of reconciliation. The Spirit of the West Wind gifted his son Nanaboozo with the Sacred Pipe for fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and citizens of all nations to assist in reconciliation. Sadly, Akikodjiwon and Akikpautik are slated for further desecration through the construction of Windmill’s condominium and retail complex. This is happening just upstream from Parliament Hill.

As many know I have been on a long learning journey piecing together what Canada has done, and continues to do, to Indigenous peoples. What I know for sure is the most effective way to destroy a people is to destroy their sacred beliefs, stories, and places. It is an abomination that the further desecration of this sacred place of reconciliation is happening during the time of the Liberal government’s reconciliation platform.
 
You are likely more familiar with my recent work challenging the sex discrimination in the Indian Act. Over the last few years I have also been working with allies from Free the Falls and Stop Windmill and Indigenous people and Elders regarding the need to respect Akikodjiwon and Akikpautik. We are at a loss about where to turn and so I turn to members of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal People.
  
Additional resources:

• http://anishinabeknews.ca/2015/05/26/opinion-lambert-on-free-the-chaudiere-falls-and-save-the-islands/
• http://albertdumont.com/dreamkeepers-politicians-chaudiere-falls/
• http://muskratmagazine.com/celebrating-canadas-150th-featuring-the-desecration-of-an-indigenous-sacred-place/
• http://albertdumont.com/asinabka-impossible-to-buy/
• http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/windmill-to-unveil-domtar-land-plan-1.2460753

​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

​Many Layers of Structural Oppression
 
The knowledge of living as a structurally oppressed person is foremost held within the everyday lived experiences of the oppressed. The location of the knowledge of oppression resides within the bodies and hearts of the very people. As such, the wisdom needed to remedy structural oppression is located within the critical thinking minds of the oppressed themselves. Not all structurally oppressed people are able to move the knowledge from their bodies and hearts to the location of their minds. Remember that critical thinking is a gift and a skill.
 
Most people know we live in a society that oppresses women. Few people will deny this. But we need to keep in mind that heterosexual, able-bodied, white women only experience one layer of structural oppression, and therefore only know one layer of the knowledge. Further, they lack the intersectional knowledge located within the spaces of having more than one layer of structural oppression.
 
It can be said that the level of knowledge within the “Well of Wisdom”, needed to challenge oppressive structures that white women have, is not deep and murky. This sounds unkind but this is true. This is one reason why older white feminism was critiqued by women of colour. While white women were happy with the shifts made, women of colour were not ‘celebrating the continuation of the oppression’ as the shifts were mostly the assimilation of white women into patriarchal systems.
 
Intersectional Feminism
 
While white women do have some of the knowledge of structural oppression and the wisdom of how to address it, it stands to reason that women of colour will have more. What is more, women of colour will also have the intersectional effects of being both a woman and a woman of colour; where the experience of intersectional effects mean they also know the inter-acting results of experiencing two levels of structural oppression. What this means is the level of knowledge in the “Well of Wisdom” that women of colour hold to challenge oppressive societal structures is deeper and more murky than the level white women have.
 
While women of colour know more than double the knowledge of structural oppression over white women, it stands to reason that women of colour with a disability embody even more of the knowledge and wisdom: more than three times the knowledge in that again they also hold the intersectional effects contained.
 
We can keep adding to this. For example, a woman of colour with a disability and who is gender non-specific will even have more of the knowledge and wisdom needed to address structural oppression.
 
In sum, the knowledge of structural oppression is located within the lived experiences of the oppressed where the multiply oppressed have more of the knowledge and wisdom needed to challenge it. My goal here is not to set up a knowledge competition but rather to illustrate why it is that people under more levels of oppression are able to identify the limitations of the less oppressed, that being white women. It is because they hold more of the knowledge.

Cognitive Dissonance is Unpleasant
 
All too often when white women take on a social justice issue, where they lack a deeper understanding of the knowledge of structural oppression, they are then faced with situations of cognitive dissonance when a person who is more oppressed speaks up letting them know they are not addressing issues in a way that the more oppressed need them to be addressed. Experiencing cognitive dissonance is emotional and the feelings that emerge are negative: embarrassment, shame, anger, hate, toxicity, lateral violence, arrogance, and ignorance. The good thing is the best learning is emotional; not nice though.
 
What happens all too often when white women are informed or told about their ignorance they become reactionary so much so that they can and will rely on and hurl nasty adjectives to describe the person who was brave enough to speak up. Interestingly, I have come to know that the nasty adjectives actually best describe the less oppressed person’s emotional state brought on by their cognitive dissonance rather than the more oppressed brave person. The emotions are a result of them being challenged in ways they are ignorant about; or result from them being called out about their unspoken political agenda that further oppresses such as them supporting the current Minister of Status of Women Maryam Monsef who is not addressing sex discrimination in the Indian Act, the land claims process, and the destruction of sacred Indigenous land and waterscapes.
 
On White Privilege; We Need White Women, But …
 
While it is indeed a wonderful thing that white people are now learning about, reading about, thinking about, and talking about white privilege, white people do not have the everyday lived experience of being at the back end of white privilege where as such they do not hold the monopoly of knowledge on white privilege. It is crucial to keep in mind they do not and cannot ever hold the depth of knowledge and wisdom that people of colour hold on this topic. In short, because it is not their everyday lived misery they do not know it wholistically, deeply, or completely.
 
Some people may be inclined to think, if white women do not hold enough of the knowledge of structural oppression, and if people who are more oppressed are not happy with the actions of white women, then they need to take a lead role in the process of challenging structural oppression and forget about white women. This line of thought is reactionary and not the thinking of a genuine social justice seeker, not at all. Asking white women to reflect on who has more of the knowledge is valid; it does not mean the more oppressed don’t need them in the struggle. Of course we do. What we need is for them to take a back seat or follow and serve the more oppressed.
 
What is more, the less oppressed people who argue there is the need for the more oppressed to be nicer when they encounter settler ignorance really need to think critically about intersectional feminism, and stop burdening more oppressed people with settler emotions.
 
I have produced a large volume of short reading materials that enhance the knowledge shared in this blog:
 
Intersectional Oppression:
https://journeymagazineptbo.com/2016/09/14/2830/
Follow the Turtle:
https://www.lynngehl.com/follow-the-turtle.html
Critical thinking and the Charity Model:
​www.lynngehl.com/black-face-blogging/critical-thinking-and-the-charity-model-of-social-justice
Kawartha Truth and Reconciliation Support Group on Maryam Monsef:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lynn-gehl/canada-is-carrying-out-cultural-genocide-with-a-smile_a_23204482/
http://www.windspeaker.com/news/opinion/opinion-minister-monsef-disappoints-on-bill-s-3-and-continues-the-discrimination/
White Woman’s Gaze:
https://www.lynngehl.com/black-face-blogging/that-white-womans-gaze
On Nice People:
https://www.lynngehl.com/black-face-blogging/nice-people-scare-me
On Reconciliation:
http://muskratmagazine.com/celebrating-canadas-150th-featuring-the-desecration-of-an-indigenous-sacred-place/

Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

Critically thinking people in Peterborough have been working long and hard on issues of social justice from the perspective of multiple intersectional oppressions, meaning colour, gender, disabilities; yet it appears that not much progress is being made. Of course this has to do in large part with oppressive power, but it also has to do with a lack of critical thinking about the limitations of the Charity Model of social justice. While compassion is valued and needed, the Charity Model is for the most part a back-end focus to social justice issues and thus not capable of addressing the deeper structural issues oppressed people face. In short, back end compassion alone is not enough; front end solutions are needed.
 
Further, oppressed people want and need more than being patronized with small tokens of charity at the back-end. They also want more than being someone’s “feel good moment” where they are offered charity so a privileged person can feel that they did a good thing at Christmas time. Yes, this actually continues to happen.
 
It is often said that social justice awareness, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and actions must emerge from the location of intersectionally oppressed people. This is mostly true as they embody, live, and have much of the knowledge of oppression. But it is also said there is the need to embrace genuine critical thinkers to guide processes of social justice efforts to a real and more meaningful place. Unfortunately critical thinking is also not well understood where as a result sometimes a “token critical thinker” is relied on when addressing social justice issues.
 
Critically thinking (with some criticizing too) about critical thinking?

1. Criticizing is not critical thinking
2. Not all people are critical thinkers
3. Not all people of colour or people with disabilities are critical thinkers
4. Critical thinking exists on a continuum where sometimes the most oppressed holds more of the skill
5. Being involved with social justice for a long time in itself does not make a person a critical thinker
6. Being an older person does not mean that said person holds the wisdom of critical thinking
7. Critical thinking can be taught and honed through critical thinking disciplines and training such as sociology, anthropology, African Studies, and Indigenous Studies ... .
8. Saying someone is not a critical thinker is not arrogant, not at all
9. Everyone has gifts, critical thinking is just one that we need to value rather than assuming we all have this skill
10. Thinking all people are critical thinkers is an act of anti-intellectualism

When it comes to addressing social justice issues, critical thinking is a process of thinking deeply about the limitations of society's oppressive structures such as employment standards and requirements, standard operating procedures, policies, and legislation that are causing certain people from living a good life.  Critical thinking is also a way of being and acting that challenges, at the front end, oppressive structures for the purpose of serving people. Critical thinking and acting on it is much more than relying on the Charity Model at the back-end. Here is a short video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLyUHbexz04

What has caused me to think about this issue of the limitations of the Charity Model and the need for genuine critical thinking in social justice? Recently a video was posted in a facebook group titled “Carol's Place” that was clearly rooted in the Charity Model of social justice. In this video a privileged person was walking around a city offering small tokens to homeless people thinking he was doing a good thing when in fact what he was really doing was exploiting the homeless for the purpose of his own “feel good moment”. Sadly a few members of the Peterborough community clicked like on this posting thus endorsing the Charity Model. This small example of a misplaced facebook posting is a sure indication that some people in Peterborough remain stuck in a Charity Model and further, lack the gift of critical thinking. (I have chosen not to post this link here as I do not want to give it anymore currency than it is already gaining.)
 
It is my thought that the Charity Model of social justice emerges from: the inability to really value where structures of oppression come from; the inability to really value that oppressed people are indeed consciously oppressed through standard operating practices, policies, and laws; and the inability to perceive that Indigenous people do indeed have a valid knowledge system and paradigm that is being actively thwarted and denied by the government of Canada. As a result, sometimes the Charity Model marches forward only addressing back-end solutions and failing to address the root causes of structural oppression.
 
Here are two insightful videos that address the deeper issues with the Charity Model. In the second video the speaker uses the anger that exists between “the haves” and “the have nots” to perform what he knows. As a man he is more easily afforded the right to be mad.
​
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wmtjnp-7wg
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=telgvKBdY9E
 
The City of Peterborough can do better.

​​​​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com

On Tuesday October 17, 2017 the Standing Committee of Indigenous and Northern Affairs discussed the specific claims and the comprehensive land claims process.  In this short video clip conservative MP Kevin Waugh asks Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Treaties and Governance and Joe Wild of Indian Affairs and Northern Development the question, “What is nation to nation anyway?”  Wild’s response is telling.  Wild explains that Canada defines nation to nation only in terms of the Indigenous people sitting at the table with Canada.  He offers no discussion at all in terms of it meaning sharing the land and resources with Indigenous nations on a more equal basis which is what genuine nation to nation has to mean.

What the entire meeting at this link:
http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/XRender/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20171017/-1/28107?Language=English&Stream=Video&useragent=Mozilla%2F5.0%20(Windows%20NT%2010.0%3B%20Win64%3B%20x64)%20AppleWebKit%2F537.36%20(KHTML%2C%20like%20Gecko)%20Chrome%2F62.0.3202.94%20Safari%2F537.36

​​Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.