Has the "Indian Industry" fallen victim to the Stockholm Syndrome?
Contacts:
Gordon Gibson, Senior Fellow in Canadian Studies
The Fraser Institute
Telephone: (604) 737-7878
Email: gordong@fraserinstitute.caRelease Date: 16 November 2000
VANCOUVER, BC — Many public servants involved in aboriginal policy have been taken intellectual hostage says noted author and commentator Gordon Gibson, in an article released today, "The Stockholm Syndrome and Treaty Negotiation," published in the November issue of Fraser Forum, The Fraser Institute's monthly magazine.
"In the treaty negotiation process of the Indian Industry, the motives of one group crucial to the talks have been very puzzling. That group is the collection of public service people, federal and provincial. How, one asks, can a group of otherwise decent, intelligent people buy into a totally failed policy which includes such outrageous ideas as race-based governments-something totally out of place at the beginning of the twenty-first century-and sincerely defend these ideas? What can explain this?" asks Gibson, senior fellow in Canadian studies at The Fraser Institute.
Public servants are supposed to serve the public interest. Yet current aboriginal policy clearly undermines common citizenship, transparency, and accountability.
The public has a strong sense that there should be compensation for the past. However, survey evidence shows that a strong majority think that the idea of governments based on race to be wrong, believe that aboriginals have no more right to such ethnic governments than any other ethnic group, and that once redress is made for the past, aboriginals should be simply ordinary Canadians.
"It is not enough to say that public servants are simply loyally doing what the politicians ask them to do. Anyone who knows the dynamics knows that the politicians are, on this file, reluctant and relatively uninformed observers, increasingly horrified at the growing evidence of failure," says Gibson.
While the motives of others around the table may be clear, Gibson suggests that the key to the bureaucrat's behaviour lies in the "Stockholm Syndrome."
This phenomenon, observed during a hostage taking in Sweden in the 1970s, refers to the identification of captive with captor. The necessary conditions are a belief that one's captor has power over you, a relative isolation from other support systems, the impossibility of escape, a plausible grievance claimed by the captors, and evidences of friendship and humanity within the larger context of threats-all symbolic components of current aboriginal policy-making.
"In intellectual terms, much of the public service involved in the Indian Industry has been taken hostage. They have been beaten down, little supported by their distant political masters, held hostage and made to feel guilty or otherwise mentally roughed up in a thousand interminable meetings in windowless rooms," says Gibson.
As in the incident that gave rise to the original identification of the Stockholm Syndrome, many in the process are broken and brainwashed, and ultimately adopt the perspectives of their captors.
Government has a fiduciary duty to aboriginals which is clearly reflected in the negotiation process, but given this skewed perspective, who looks after the fiduciary duty to the general interest?
Gibson suggests the solution is a virtual putting into trusteeship of the public service side of the Indian Industry. (Every other part of the Industry is doing its expected job). "The logical trustee would be the Finance Minister. He or she cannot avoid having a clear picture in their own accounts, not available to the public, of the most massive and tragic policy failure in Canadian government today. The voice of the public interest could then be returned to the table," says Gibson.
"Anyone who has examined the progress of negotiations has to wonder who has been sitting on the public side of the table. The Ministry of Indian Affairs has a mandate to advance the cause of Indians. This mandate does not seem to include their overarching duty to the public," he concludes.
Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy organization based in Vancouver, with offices in Calgary and Toronto.
For further information or for a copy of the November issue of Fraser Forum contact:
Suzanne Walters, Director of Communications,
The Fraser Institute, (604) 714-4582,
Email suzannew@fraserinstitute.ca
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