#fnpoli

The minister of Aboriginal Affairs (currently Bernard Valcourt) is appointed by the Prime Minister of Canada and is part of a party that's elected by the Canadian peoples. He’s not accountable to the people his policies affect like me. There’s nothing the Status Indian, Non Status Indian (legal term ppl) Inuit and Metis can do if he really messes up. We can politically scold him, But that's about all.  The Chief and Council people talk about are often 1 Chief and 4 Councillors. They still answer to Aboriginal Affairs and submit reports or face being put under co-management or third party management. They don't really have any say what happens off the rez.  The lobby groups like the Assembly of First Nations are just lobby groups that have no veto or legal say in matters (unless they sue). The AFN isn’t an aboriginal parliament and only the Chiefs vote for them (630ish people) They just give their input. But it's ultimately up to the dept and the minister.  So I don’t directly vote for the actual person who is in charge of the policy and funding at Aboriginal Affairs, I don’t vote at all for national representation like Assembly of First Nations (AFN) or Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) So as a grassroots native outside of the political system is it really surprising when if take to the streets in protest? When I do vote my election issues take second stage to whatever the other 96% of Canadians feel is important. If you actually came up with a newer system that allowed me to vote for the actual people who form the policy on and off reserve and introduced actual debates and open form of governance for the indigenous peoples as outlined in the 1996 royal commision of aboriginal peoples you would probably see less conflict on the news.