In media appearances, a Brock specialist talked about a study that looked at how provinces could collaborate more with Indigenous people, the persistent causes of labor unrest in Canada, and trends that affect online gambling. One of the University’s original faculty members’ lives and accomplishments were also covered.
A recent study outlining the links between the provinces and the First Nations peoples affected by sovereignty and diplomacy was co-authored by the professor from Brock University.
The article on Understanding First Nations-Provincial Relationships in an inter-National Canada was co-written by Brock University political science professor Liam Midzain-Gobin and a former senior assistant to the New Brunswick commissioner on systematic racism. It looks at how interactions between Indigenous peoples and the provinces have fared in terms of reconciliation.
According to Midzain-Gobin, the study acknowledges the problems that some of the parties’ lack of involvement has long-term generated. Many discussions about reconciliation and ties between Indigenous peoples and settlers boil down to treating newcomers as the federal government and treating Indigenous peoples like one big, homogenous group, the professor stated. That overlooks where the majority of the action is taking place, and disregarding it does not provide a complete picture of what is happening, what is feasible, or what is required if we are to achieve reconciliation.
Midzain-Gobin said that the study aims to alter the debate around the attention given to and the complexity of each group. British Columbia was one of the first Western nations to adopt and execute the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and as such, it has served as something of a model for what reconciliation would ultimately entail. On the other extreme, New Brunswick, like the majority of other provinces, vehemently rejected the proclamation and persisted in inciting First Nations by refusing to forge the kind of long-lasting partnerships required for reconciliation.
British Columbia was deemed to have a more inclusive approach than New Brunswick, according to Midzain-Gobin’s analysis of the data, and the research recommends that governments concentrate more about working with various indigenous groups.
The main conclusion is that this is how we observe provinces dealing with First Nations in both extreme circumstances, and how we can avoid that, in our opinion, is by attempting to establish relationships that are continuous and not simply issue-based, as he indicated.
According to Brock University’s Larry Savage, a professor of labor studies, unions have regained their workers’ ability to strike and turn to them to recover what they perceive to be a significant decline in their buying power, particularly in the wake of the epidemic. He claims that enacting back-to-work legislation to terminate the BC ports strike would be politically dangerous for the Trudeau administration since it would require Conservative backing. The advantages of the mediated arrangement, he claims, are causing some strain inside the BC port workers union. While the level of labor agitation this year is far lower than it was in the 1970s, he points out that if unions are regarded as efficient means of providing benefits to employees, there will be a resurgence in interest in joining one.
Last Updated: August 28, 2023