The Justice for Our Stolen Children protesters got what they wanted. They had their meeting with the provincial government earlier this week.
They provided their list of requests or demands to the government, which is well within their right.
And they’re going to continue with their camp protest in Wascana Park, which has now been there for nearly five months, ever since Gerald Stanley was acquitted of second-degree murder in the death of Indigenous youth Colten Boushie in North Battleford.
They hope to get another meeting in two more weeks.
It’s become a source of frustration for a lot of people. They wonder why the camp wasn’t taken down until last month, and why it’s been allowed to start up again. They’ll renew those calls now that the protests have had their meeting with the government.
They were frustrated that Canada Day celebrations in Wascana Park had to be relocated because of the protest camp.
The Regina Police Service points out that the protests have been peaceful, and they’re right.
But eventually, law enforcement needs to step in and deal with those who are breaking the law.
One also has to wonder why it took the provincial government so long to meet with the protestors, and if the protests would still be going if a meeting had happened earlier.
Also a factor is that people eventually tune out these protests. The message gets lost, people scoff at the names of the protests and the camps, and these protests fade to irrelevance among the general public.
We’ve seen these lengthy protests before. Remember Occupy movement, with unemployed people griping about the wealthy and claiming they were the 99 per cent, even though the majority of the population wanted nothing to do with them?
It might seem like a good idea to set up a protest camp for the long-term because of a positive initial reaction. But that positive reaction eventually sours.
It’s one thing to protest. It’s a democratic right. It can be effective when it’s done in a proper fashion. (An idea typically lost on current generations of protesters).
Granted, people who protest typically have too much time on their hands.
But it’s not a right to set up camp in a park, break the law, force a city to change its Canada Day plans, and be an inconvenience to the general public.
The healthier our Indigenous communities are, the better off Saskatchewan and Canada will be. There are some truly amazing people living on and off reserves. We should marvel at their art, music and storytelling abilities.
And much of Canada’s history when it comes to the treatment of Indigenous people is shameful at best.
We still have a long ways to go.
But that doesn’t mean they should be setting up camp for five months in a park.
