RUBENSTEIN: Trudeau response to Air Canada flap not exactly a feather in his cap

“Much ado about nothing” — the name of a Shakespearean comedy featuring lots of deception and first performed in 1598-1599 — nicely characterizes a story featuring undeserved indigenous privilege lazily reported across the country by the mainstream media.In a CBC interview on Friday, April 26, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak claimed attempts by Air Canada staff to seize her [sacred] headdress on Wednesday [April 24] have created "a pivotal learning moment in history." There's hyperbole for you. Woodhouse Nepinak is calling for change after the flight crew tried to appropriate the sacred item from her on a flight between Montreal and Fredericton, while saluting fellow passengers she said tried to come to her aid in a “distressing situation.”"I want to focus on making sure that First Nations can come through our airport and our airlines, all airlines, Air Canada included, in a safe way, in a respectful way," she said Friday morning."I've always felt apprehensive about taking [the headdress] on with me, and I don't want to feel like that anymore," downplaying this was a unique experience for her based on the everyday airplane issue of limited cabin storage space.She said she boarded a plane in Montreal on a Wednesday evening flight to Fredericton, N.B., her headdress housed in a special carrying case she usually places in the overhead compartment. This time she had carry-on luggage that she put overhead, so she stowed the case under the seat in front of her.Everything seemed fine, she said, but then "something just changed. It got really bizarre."Flight staff told Woodhouse Nepinak the case — not the headdress which she was allowed to carry in her lap — had to go into the cargo hold, a simple requirement based on airline stowage and safety regulations.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who once called 'understandable' the burning of dozens of Christian churches following so-far unproven allegations that the remains of 215 Indian Residential School Students had been 'discovered' in Kamloops,” termed the Woodhouse Nepinak incident “unacceptable.” He said it was a “mistake” on the part of Air Canada.Translation: burning down churches, no problem; following airline protocol, big problem.Though a frequent flyer, the national chief still opined, "I was kind of stunned" by this demand. "Some of our teachings teach us" a headdress is "like your child, like your baby. It's with you. It's part of you" and should be handled with the respect people might give a Bible, holy oil, or hijab, she said.That this narcissistic indigenous activist chose to apply this to the headgear’s container, not just the headdress, seems much more stunning.Woodhouse Nepinak is not some sanctified priestess; she’s just the chief lobbyist for Canada’s largest indigenous lobby group. Presumably, she received the headgear to encourage her to lobby for even more money, not for performing indigenous miracles.If there was one incident that showed how far Canada has sunk into self-degrading silliness, it is this one.Though the case was returned to her at the end of the flight and though Air Canada promised her a 15% rebate for any inconvenience this may have caused, this hyper-privileged national chief of an organization plagued with charges of corruption, patronage, secrecy, and mismanagement was far from satisfied. “It [the rebate offer] must have been a generic response,” Woodhouse Nepinak said in an interview, calling the entire experience “humiliating” and “unbelievable.”What was “generic,” namely the type of compensation given to ordinary Canadians, was deemed insufficient by a member of Canada’s growing cohort of arrogant indigenous elites.Instead, she insisted on An apology from Air Canada’s president and CEOA commitment from the airline to appoint an indigenous person with ties to a home community to the board of directorsA face-to-face meeting between “knowledge keepers” and Air Canada's board of directors and senior officialsA circle of Indigenous advisersA special protocol for aboriginal passengers, and Cross-cultural training for staffSuch demands giving a whole new meaning to the expression “much ado about nothing.”Woodhouse Nepinak also shared the incident in a Facebook post. “I won’t be letting anyone take away my headdress or case again,” she wrote. “Air Canada needs a protocol for First Peoples so that we are not harassed for our sacred items. Our headdresses don’t belong in garbage bags by airlines,” distorting the fact that it is normal practice to store bulkhead items like such containers in special purpose plastic bags.As for the “sacredness” issue, it’s hard these days to identify anything indigenous that is not considered sacred, in this case even the container housing a war bonnet of unproven authenticity. A quick internet search would immediately show the presence of countless beautiful headdresses for sale at very reasonable prices. More important, why should non-indigenous Canadians be obliged to bend a pandering Trudeau-like knee to claims of aboriginal sacredness in a country where freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.Hymie Rubenstein is editor of REAL Indigenous Report and a retired professor of anthropology, the University of Manitoba.

RUBENSTEIN: Trudeau response to Air Canada flap not exactly a feather in his cap

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