Indigenous Nationhood blogger strikes a nerve

INDIGENOUS NATIONHOOD BLOGGER
Pam Palmater seemed to have hit the raw nerve of a certain Conservative Senator in mid-march with her writings at indigenousnationhood.blogspot.ca/2012/03/afn-election-2012-stopping-assimilation.html?m=1 and the Twitter-verse lit up with his response. Palmater talked about political strategy in her blog, saying the Assembly of First Nations National Chief was taking a page from the playbook of Patrick Brazeau, former president of the Congress of Aboriginal People, by sucking up to the governing Conservative Party.

“Two things about this “strategy” (if you can call it that): (1) it may have won Brazeau a cushy Senate seat (an immediate, individual gain), but it left the grass-roots off-reserve people with nothing but an indebted organization with a horrific reputation as being the mouth piece of the Cons with an anti-First Nation political slant (long-term, community pain); and (2) the organization itself never gained anything in terms of major budget increases, political concessions from the Cons; nor did it advance the rights and interests of off-reserve Aboriginal peoples in any measurable way,” Palmater wrote.

On March 18, Brazeau from his Twitter address @TheBrazman said he wasn’t upset by the blog, but threatened Palmater, a law professor associated with Ryerson University, with exposing what he described as her ‘hypocrisy’.

“I’ll show your true colors,” Brazeau threatened. He even told her she could sue him if she felt anything he was saying was ‘off the mark.’

For her part, Palmater responded to Brazeau’s comments in a dignified way, even inviting him to drop by the next time he is in Toronto “& get whatever it is off ur chest.”

She told him that her blog is the opinion of one First Nations woman, and that it was meant “in the spirit of political insight & commentary.” Brazeau told Palmater her blog was “insignificant except to those who don’t know any better.” The Twitter-belly-aching went on from Brazeau over the course of a couple of hours, and the next day even Liberal MP Justin Trudeau chimed in.

Trudeau and Brazeau were set to take part in a charity boxing match on March 31. One twitterer who was following the conversation told Brazeau to stick with boxing because “you are empty handed in battle of wits against @Pam_Palmater.” Trudeau responded saying “Nah, he’s in trouble on the boxing front, too. He’s in way over his head in this fight.”

UPDATE: On March 31 Trudeau defeated Brazeau.
www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/earth-hour-it-was-lights-out-senator-brazeau