Let's make up laws

That's what a recent opinion piece in The Calgary Herald advocated.  Entitled, "Judges need training on Indigenous ways", it was written by a female native, Anita Olsen Harper (never heard of her), and basically said that natives should be given special treatment in the eyes of the law.  Really!?  I think they already are, judging by sentencing circles and other separate measures.

I had to think a while before I wrote a reasoned letter to the editor, but I managed it.  Here it is:

"Dear Editor,

"In Canada, the law separates church and state.  This should also apply to keeping cultural traditions of any kind -- including Indigenous -- separate from the universal law of the land, to which all Canadians must abide.

"Otherwise, what would prevent other groups from seeking justice and redress under their own preferred unique and separate cultural systems?  No country can operate if it applies different justice systems to different ethnic groups."

It was published today.  Frankly, it has to be said because the law is the law and I don't care if you're native or Muslim, you have to obey it.  The Canadian Constitution recognizes two founding peoples: the English and the French.  I'm sorry if natives think they are the true founding people, but that's not the way the constitution was written.  Canadian law is based on this fundamental principle -- even though Quebec provincial laws adhere to the more French "code civil" version.  The Supreme Court is the final arbiter and that, my friends, is that.  With 600 individual bands across this country, there is no way the law can accommodate them.

And that's as it should be.