The fanatics burning down churches on Indigenous reserves and the Twitter pseudo-intellectuals who cheer them on have one thing in common: They presume to speak on behalf of Aboriginal people. Not letting First Nations speak for themselves is nothing new: if it’s not it’s church-burning cheerleaders, it’s politicians cancelling Canada Day, or environmentalists hijacking First Nations’ economic opportunities. Melissa Mbarki, a policy analyst at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute hailing from Saskatchewan’s Treaty 4, talks to Anthony about how all of them stand in the way of the genuine reconciliation with non-Aboriginal Canadians that so many Indigenous people want.
