Canadians are blissfully unaware of a crossover between indigenous activism and pro-Palestinian activism and the “land back” movement. It’s a reality that may turn into a rude awakening for Canada, especially if a Palestinian state is recognized by the Canadian government. Would that set a “land back” precedent, in the worldview of indigenous activists in Turtle Island (their name for so-called North America…)?There was a Hamas-related hostage-taking recently in Canada. Nothing as brutal as what happened to Israelis on October 7, 2023, but it was, in my opinion, a concerning incremental escalation in the ongoing pro-Hamas/pro-Palestinian demonstrations reverberating across Canada.As reported by The J.CA International News, the Place Montreal Indigo Books store was invaded by the noisy pro-Palestine/Hamas mob and someone locked the doors from the outside with a bike lock. Tweets showed a handful of Montreal police lounging against a counter inside while the harassment of Indigo proceeded. Why were they lounging and not rounding up protestors? .EDITORIAL: Canada’s new hate crime legislation: A dangerous erosion of free speech .Yes, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does allow for peaceful protests and freedom of assembly; noisy mobbing of a store, harassing customers, and workers is far beyond a peaceful protest. Locking people in has criminal implications.But Canada’s UNDRIP Action Plan specifically states that “Colonial laws, policies and practices that have interfered with Indigenous people’s self-government are repealed or amended.” Is this why the law is not being enforced these days?.When Canadians think of foreign policy, do they ever think that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) might have any influence? Probably not.The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas may have changed that.Most Canadians were surprised when Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his intention to recognize a Palestinian state, especially as Parliament was not in session. Such a motion had been soundly defeated in 2024 in a vote of 204 to 118 in the House of Commons that stopped short of recognizing a Palestinian state..EDITORIAL: Defending Alberta’s children: Why the notwithstanding clause is necessary.Not only has Prime Minister Carney, a Catholic, been courting the Muslim vote, declaring in a speech to the Muslim Association of Canada that “Muslim values are Canadian values,” he has made indigenous reconciliation a key part of his nation-building strategy.On October 26, 2023, just over two weeks after Hamas brutally slaughtered some 1200 Israelis and took 250 Israelis and foreigners hostage in Gaza, a petition was launched titled, “Indigenous Solidarity with Palestine.” There was no mention of the Hamas attack on Israel; the entire petition was framed as resistance..Subsequently, in Canada, upon the election of Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak on December 7, 2023, the AFN issued Resolution no. 82/2023 demanding an Israel-Gaza ceasefire. The resolution was moved by Wilton Littlechild, a former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The resolution passed unanimously with 4 abstentions. The resolution is framed under UNDRIP, which includes “Article 26 (1): Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.”.EDITORIAL: Canada's catch-and-release justice system is failing you.Effectively, this resolution aligns the Assembly of First Nations members with the Palestinian cause; it rejects any notion that the Jews are indigenous people to the land of Israel, despite the fact that traditionally, Native Americans saw Israel as a model for their own regeneration of culture and language.In the 2020 book, “Zionism, An Indigenous Struggle,” explores Native American and Jewish issues, “focusing on Palestinian attempts to hijack the Native American struggle for rights and recognition into the framework of Palestinian suffering.”It seems the effort has been successful..The AFN resolution mentions the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens but excludes any condemnation of the Hamas’ attack and hostage taking, thus appearing to also side with Hamas, a recognized terrorist group by Public Safety Canada.Canadian taxpayers fund the AFN. According to the AFN’s 2022–2023 financial statements, their revenues totaled $52,843,378. Government funds totaled $48,544,757, or 91.7% of total revenues.Qatari-funded Al Jazeera posted an op-ed on December 13, 2023, titled “Palestine’s and Turtle Island’s liberation are entwined,” proposing that this joint movement must go beyond “tokenism.” “Palestine’s freeing is simultaneously entwined with the freeing of Indigenous and Black people in Turtle Island. To end Palestinian occupation, the bewitched American/Canadian false dream must fall and be replaced by a genuinely decolonial enchanting else.”.EDITORIAL: Suddenly, the Left doesn’t think cancel culture is funny anymore.In June of 2023, the Justice Department of Canada issued its action plan to align all Canadian laws with UNDRIP. Since then, Canadians, particularly those in British Columbia, which has adopted a provincial form of UNDRIP, known as DRIPA, have been shocked by various “land back” arrangements which are being undertaken without due process and which, many say, are outside of constitutional law. The giving over of Haida Gwaii to the tiny Haida Nation is one glaring example; more recently, the Cowichan ruling brings into question the validity of fee simple property title of “The Claim Area consists of lands owned in fee simple by Canada, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA), the City of Richmond (Richmond), and private third parties.”.Land back has been a rallying cry for many years in the indigenous community. Canada itself set something of a precedent when Nunavut was created on April 1, 1999. In March of 2025, Robert Lyman wrote an article proposing that Nunavut be sold, perhaps to the USA, to prevent it from being a burden on Canadian taxpayers, noting that, “The federal government’s financial transfers to Nunavut in 2025-2026 are projected to be about $2.3 billion, or an average of about $56,000 per resident of the territory.”There appears to be further similar “land back” expectations from other bands. For instance, who can forget how, in an open letter in the Globe and Mail (no longer online but a copy can be found here) on October 18, 2021, the Kamloops First Nation tried to exploit their claims of finding an alleged mass grave and the human remains of 215 children, wherein they were so wrought with grief over the phantom genocide, that they were “seeking title, jurisdiction, and rights over our lands.”.EDITORIAL: A sole-ful disregard for the taxpayer.Though various apologists like Sean Carleton have claimed that First Nations did not propagate the term “mass graves” — that it was only misinformed media and pundits who inadvertently adopted this term, and only for a short period of time, in relation to the Kamloops First Nation claim, in fact, AFN Resolution no. 01/2021 uses the term frequently. AFN Resolution no. 01/2021 also enshrines the notion of “genocide” in this passage: “Stand in solidarity with the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc and all survivors of the Residential School System and their families and assert that the mass grave discovered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School reveals Crown conduct reflecting a pattern of genocide against Indigenous Peoples that must be thoroughly examined and considered in terms of Canada's potential breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law.”.The crossover of Canada’s phantom “no-name” genocide and land back demands coinciding with the geopolitics of the Israel-Hamas war, claims of genocide against Israel for the war-dead Gazans, and a sudden global push for Palestinian state recognition is a concerning confluence of events. These seem to bear out what David Meir-Levi wrote in his book “History Upside-Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression” in 2007. He explained that the KGB adopted Arafat and the Palestinian cause in 1972, with the intention of instilling Nazi-style hatred for Jews throughout the Islamic world, as a weapon to bring down Israel and their main supporter, the United States. Arafat was advised to use the angle of “human rights” — which would appeal to campus students and Western public opinion. Is this not also the centre point of UNDRIP and the Indian residential school “genocide” claims against Canada?So, the question is, if a Palestinian state is recognized by Canada, will various First Nations demand equal treatment? Their own nation states? And what kind of chaos might ensue? And why are Canadian taxpayers funding our nation’s own destruction?
