Politics is a messy business, so it is helpful to have clarity now and then. 

Certainly, partisan posturing often can muddy the issues and impede progress. On First Nations issues, entrenched positions and a high volume of uninformed rhetoric from both sides doesn’t help either. As a result, before the bill had been tabled many blindly rejected the new education legislation, while others absurdly insisted it should be adopted. 

Those early positions were both unfair, but this much is now perfectly clear: unless it is amended before passing, the Bill the government tabled in parliament yesterday is a failure. 

I’ll admit it.  I was wrong.  I thought the Conservative government would never make a real investment in First Nations education.

That is how to admit a mistake.  Like an apology, it must be clear and unequivocal. 

My mistake was in believing anything Stephen Harper said about First Nations.  I should have known better.

He reversed himself in 2010 on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  His “no” vote at the UN in 2007 isolated Canada with three other countries against the rest of the world, but the PMO and its typists at all of Canada’s major newspapers insisted it was a principled stand, saving Canada from the evils of recognizing Indigenous rights.