But to be honest, I was not sure what I was going to vote before heading
off to my polling. Unfortunately, Mulroney and his propaganda pals used
scare tactics of Canadian ruin to get `yes' votes. I have a feeling that
might have been some of the reason for the eventual failure of the ref. Just
talking to the people around me (I have no TV so
don't really know what the greater country feels about what happened) many
people voted no mainly to resist Mulroney's scare tactics.
However, it
seems none of us is going to get what we want. The general feeling around
here (Kitchener, Ontario) is that Mulroney and other governmental officials
are going to back off all the issues that the referendum was addressing.
Including self-government.
Once again, I did not see their impassioned
remarks last night, but apparently Mercredi and Chief George were not only
upset, but ominous with their message to the people of Canada- Mercredi
commented that he did not know what he was going to tell his people, since
he had told them to stave off more "radical" measures to see if these
issues (of self gov't, land rights, etc.) could be settled peacefully
through a new Canadian constitution. Both men seemed to think that there
might be violence of some sort in retaliation to the `no' vote. They both
considered this an insult to Native Canadian people.
I am hoping that this is not a dead end, that Mulroney and co. will not
close their eyes to the many Native issues that must be addressed. I don't
know if it will help, but I plan on writing the House of Commons in order
to ask Mulroney not to give up on these issues despite the "no" vote.
Perhaps if enough people do this, someone up there will listen. Otherwise
the issue will likely be dismissed until racial tension and upset cause the
Canadian government to listen, and I'd hate to see it go that far again.
Many people saw the `no' vote as a defeat, which it was, but almost half
the country voted `yes', which seems very substantial to me. I hope that
the government realizes that many Canadians are interested, and are supportive
of Native self-government (if not the other items addressed in the
referendum -proposed agreement for constitutional renewal). 76% of
Canadians voted, which seems like people are concerned.
I suppose all we can do is keep writing letters and hope that something is
done before more violent tactics are used.
viveka
vvonros3@mach1.wlu.ca