The NDP’s Niki Ashton has been taking shots at the current Liberal prime minister and one of his predecessors with regards to how the government talks about indigenous issues and the actions it takes.
The Churchill Keewatinook-Aski MP took to Twitter April 22 to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for donning boxing gloves for photos at a Brooklyn boxing club instead of visiting youth in his own country.
“When I think Brooklyn I think of @BernieSanders who fights 4 the ppl not of #PMJT who fights 4 photo ops #priorities,” Ashton tweeted, then responded to someone pointing out that he was with a youth group by tweeting, “I’d be happy to host him in our North where youth wish they had a boxing ring period.”
Ashton then told the Toronto Star that while many of the prime minister’s international trips – he’s spent 30 days outside the country since being elected – were for worthy purposes, she wished he would take the time to visit places like Cross Lake in Northern Manitoba, which has been struggling with a high number of youth suicides recently.
“These kids (in Cross Lake) don’t have a drop-in centre, they don’t have a recreation centre, never mind a boxing ring,” Ashton told the Star. “Why’s he working with young people in Brooklyn when he’s the prime minister of Canada?”
Ashton was also critical of Trudeau’s comments to New York University students that Canada could support peacekeeping missions “without some of the baggage that so many other Western countries have — either colonial pasts or perceptions of American imperialism.”
“He said that Canada doesn’t have the baggage of colonialism,” Ashton said in the House of Commons. “So maybe that explains why six days after taking office this government signed a deal to let the Catholic church off the hook in terms of their financial obligations to residential school survivors. How can this government talk about reconciliation when they’re signing secret deals that undermine restitution?”
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett responded by saying that the Liberals did not sign the agreement, but that it was signed Oct. 30, five days before they took office.
“We believe that the Catholic church and only the Catholic church can achieve reconciliation with indigenous people in this country and we are urging them to do the right thing, pay the money that they promised to pay,” said Bennett. “They have a moral obligation to do this for the healing of indigenous people.”
Trudeau later referenced Canada’s treatment of indigenous people in response to a question while speaking to the students in New York.
“We have consistently marginalized, engaged in colonial behaviours, in destructive behaviours, in assimilationist behaviours, that have left a legacy of challenges to a large portion of the people who live in Canada who are Indigenous peoples,” he said.
Earlier in April, Ashton criticized former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien for comments he made.
“Suicide and self-inflicted injuries are among the leading causes of death for First Nations peoples,” said Ashton in the House of Commons. “But this didn’t just happen. In fact the trauma that is apparent through suicide, and that is apparent through suicide crises across Canada is the direct result of our history of colonization and decades of racist policies passed through this house, approaches, policies and laws that have sought to silence, intimidate, assimilate and kill indigenous peoples. It is strangely ironic that today, the day we held a debate on a suicide epidemic in First Nation after First Nation, is also the very day, the 140th anniversary of the Indian Act, a piece of legislation that is the symbol of colonialism. This piece of legislation and the way it is imposed on First Nations is deeply connected to the oppression that exists today. These assimilationist views, these colonialist views that pushed these kind of policies continue to be perpetuated today even today, even today. A former prime minister of Canada, when asked about the suicide epidemic in Attawapiskat, perpetuated such assimilationist views in suggesting that First Nations peoples should just leave their communities. Quote: ‘The problem is sometimes you cannot, you know, it’s, you know, people have to move sometimes.’ End of quote. First Nations people and many people that work in solidarity with First Nations peoples know that these views are unacceptable so where do we go from here? Well, today, let’s join our voices in saying never again and that together we will work in solidarity and commit to action so that no other life is lost and that we can truly achieve justice.”
Ashton recently told the Opasquia Times that she had been asked by people to consider running for the leadership of the NDP again when it comes time to replace current leader Tom Mulcair, who received the support of less than half of voting members at a leadership review.
“I’m very honoured by the ask,” she said, though she neither rejected the possibility nor confirmed that she would run. She was similarly non-committal in an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press April 26, during which she discounted the idea suggested by some that she might take a run at the provincial NDP leadership to replace Greg Selinger. Ashton was seventh of seven candidates when she ran for the federal NDP leadership in 2012.
