Canadians should feel shame and outrage at the decision of the Harper government to vote against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Reading the document, it is not difficult to understand why the Tories are unwilling to join the rest of the world in recognizing the rights of aboriginal peoples. Virtually every aspect of the declaration speaks eloquently and forcefully against abuses of the kind perpetrated by Canadian governments for generations.
Don’t take my word for it. Read the declaration and judge for yourself.
Paul S. Graham 
This decision adds to years of abuses of aboriginal people in Canada, and demonstrates the current government’s committment to ongoing colonization. It is certainly in the interests of the current government and its corporate backers to keep aboriginal people unhealthy and disempowered.