Span 280 Week 11
What is Canada and The Colonialism of the Present
Dacyn Holinda and Jose Torres-Torija Cubillas
What is Canada?
- Is Capitalism sustainable (i.e. is capitalism “good” or is it “bad”)?
- How is Canada’s class structure altered due to the fact that it is a settler-colonialist nation?
- Is Canadian imperialism different, better, less harmful etc. than U.S. Imperialism?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArOIdwcj2w8 -Oka Crisis in 5 minutes
- Was the violence surrounding the Oka Crisis justifiable?
“I can tell you — from my own experience — that the indigenous social movements in Bolivia, which ended up bringing an indigenous person to the presidency, were also inspired by the Oka events” – Marcelo Saavedra-Vargas
- What in particular about the Oka Crisis was so inspiring to other Indigenous groups around the world?
- How can the working class and other Indigenous groups organize successfully in Canada?
Colonialism of the Present
-Recognition of First Nation? Does recognition equal respect?
-Do we think that the Canadian government is actively colonizing the First Nation communities and or land?
“Through commissions, courts, and councils, the Canadian state began acknowledging certain cultural rights, limited forms of political sovereignty, and some claims to land — but only so long as they didn’t interfere with the accumulation of capital or the extraction of resources.”
“Over time, however, indigenous peoples will begin to see that the forms of recognition given to us by the state for what they truly are: colonial distractions.”
-Do we see any similarities between the First Nation struggle to those in Latin America?
-Is armed resistance inevitable?
-Canada’s involvement in Latin America
Reflections:
I really enjoyed this past week’s discussion. I thought everyone was quite engaged and seemed to quite like both the texts. I thought the class was great in that we spent most of the time talking about struggles, particularly Indigenous ones, that are unique or rather central to Canada. It was interesting how everyone seemed to connect with the notion that the view of Canada portrayed to the world is very different to the actual reality of Canada. I also found the discussions on capitalism to be very enlightening. Everyone (for the most part) all agreed that capitalism was not sustainable and was a system that could not persist if we are to advance as a global society. All in all I was very happy with the debate and found that focusing on Canada was a refreshing change from our usual topic of Latin America. But at the same time was happy to see that we were able to make connections between the Oka Crisis and its effects on Indigenous movements in Latin America (specifically in Bolivia).
The Young Revolutionary 