I think this is the million-dollar question and one that many of us have been contending with, not only in the past weeks but in the past months and past years.
To your point, this is something that has been on the radar of many indigenous organizations, leaders and communities for quite some time. I actually believe that DEI policy created an environment in which programs that are intended to level the playing field are seen as preferential treatment or as advantages for a certain group. There's not a lot of knowledge yet as to the history of indigenous-Crown relations in Canada. A lot of Canadians still don't fully appreciate the reach and impact of the Indian Act and how we got here.
In large part, when you have programs that appear to favour one group or the other coupled with policies that promote self-identification.... The most recent example was Bill C-53. First nations leaders had a lot of questions for government around checks and balances on identification. DEI policies, hand-in-hand with policies that put in place self-identification for these types of programs, really lend themselves to the situation that we're currently facing.