This just in: The United Nations has adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which “sets out the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.” It also “prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them, and their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own visions of economic and social development.”

Canada joined Australia, New Zealand, and the United States as the only four countries to vote against the declaration, which was supported by another 143 nation states. Meanwhile, our Aboriginal peoples still have lower life expectancy, less access to education, a much lower average income, and a much higher suicide rate than the rest of the country. Heck, many Aboriginal communities still don’t even have potable water. Try and imagine our government allowing any village of white children to go without clean water for more than a few hours. Try and imagine them voting against the “rights to culture, language, employment, health, and education” of any other group and getting away with it.

Gah.