First Nations stooges: South Africa in 1987 and Iran in 2012

Todays National Post front page carries a story about the exploratory mission to Iran being organized by Terrance Nelson, former chief of Manitobas Roseau River First Nation, and a small delegation of like-minded Canadian aboriginal activists. Nelson believes that Irans dictatorship can be a helpful partner in addressing Canadian human rights abuses because the Ayatollahs have always promoted the human rights issues of indigenous peoples in this country.

These Iranian leaders, of course, would be the same folks who ordered the rape, torture and killing of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi (dont worry, Mr. Nelson, shes not indigenous) not to mention countless other barbaric crimes too numerous to list in this space. But never mind that: Nelsons militant rhetoric casts Ottawa as the enemy of Canadas natives. And by the logic of the-enemy-of-my-enemy, the holocaust-denying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is perversely imagined to be a kindred spirit.

Its a sick joke. And its not even the first time its been told: The spectacle of militant Canadian natives traipsing off for photo-ops with one of the most reviled, human-rights-abusing regimes on earth played out in exactly the same way 25 years ago.

In August, 1987, in advance of a visit by then- External Affairs Minister Joe Clark, South Africas white supremacist government flew in four Canadian Indian leaders for a Pretoria news conference and a lavish, all-expenses paid fact-finding tour aimed at discrediting Canadas sanctions regime. Among the stooges whod been brought to South Africa for the propaganda event was Gerald Wuttunee described by the South Africans, somewhat hilariously, as a Red Indian Chief from Sescatchewan. (The Canadian delegation, Toronto Star correspondent Peter Goodspeed reported at the time, also had several non-Indian members including one Eileen Presseler, who was then president of something called the British Columbia Free Speech League. In Pretoria, she declared that Canada was into a period of censorship, book banning, political show trials, that kind of thing, thought crimes.)

A few months before that, in March, 1987, Louis Stevenson, then chief of the Peguis Indian Reserve north of Winnipeg, invited South African ambassador Glenn Babb to conduct a fact-finding tour of his impoverished community. Babb readily agreed, and he showed up with dozens of journalists in tow.

The visit suited the agenda of both men: Stevenson was able to press his case for more government funding through the national media, and Babb used the suffering of Canadian natives as a backdrop for his claim that Canada and the West more generally had no moral standing to criticize Apartheid (a policy Babb described as benign).

The media circus at Peguis was somewhat surreal, according to a report by the Stars Derek Ferguson, with Stevenson dressed in deerskin and full headdress, and Babb in an expensive blue serge suit and navy cloth overcoat, surrounded by bodyguards. Stevenson gave a speech in which he requested $99-million in aid from the South African government. Babb said he would see what he could do.

In the last 25 years, nothing has changed, apparently: Militant native leaders, who purport to be pursing the cause of racial justice, make common cause with the most openly hateful and bigoted regimes on the whole planet. All thats missing, in 2012, is for Irans version of Glenn Babb (had he not already been thrown out) to go traipsing around Kashechewan or Attawapiskat with a Press TV camera crew.

One hopeful note for me to end on: In response to Stevensons 1987 stunt, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) unanimously passed a resolution condemning Babbs visit to Peguis. Twenty-five years later, it would be nice if the AFN gave a similarly full-throated condemnation of Terrance Nelson and his like-minded band of useful idiots.

National Post jkay@nationalpost.com Twitter @jonkay

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First Nations stooges: South Africa in 1987 and Iran in 2012