The Unjust Society

"Aboriginal people in Canada were outraged when the White Paper introduced by Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Jean Chretien amounted to an assimilation program: the repeal of the Indian Act, the transfer of Indian affairs to the provinces, and the elimination of separate legal status for native people. The Unjust Society, Cree leader Harold Cardinal's stinging rebuttal, was an immediate best-seller." "Cardinal summed up the government's approach as "The only good Indian is a non-Indian." He coined the term "buckskin curtain" to describe the barriers that indifference, ignorance and bigotry had placed in the way of his people. He insisted on his right to remain "a red tile in the Canadian mosaic." Above all, he called for radical changes in policy on aboriginal rights, education, social programs and economic development." "The Unjust Society heralded a change in the political landscape. Thirty years later, however, the buckskin curtain has still not disappeared. Canada's First Nations continue their fight for justice."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.