One Vellacott of a Guy!

I’m kinda jumping on this subject a little late, considering Maurice Vellacott has already announced that he is resigning his proposed position of Chair of the Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Northern Development, and Natural Resources. It seems to me that most of the hub-bub was over his remarks about the Chief Justice’s judgments, and not so much over his support of Saskatoon police officers who dumped Aboriginals on the outskirts of town. But the Aboriginal reaction against Vellacott is quite strong, as seen here in this CBC link.

Here is the bio that appears on his own website. He has served as a pastor and a landlord. I don’t see anything in this brief bio that indicates why he is qualified to be on the Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Northern Development, and Natural Resources. His only possible qualification is that he was deputy critic for that Committee when the Tories were the Opposition. All this means to me is that he is well-versed in how the politics of that position work. But is he well-versed in the people and situations involved? Any jackass can critique a government policy, but it takes someone different to create effective policies. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to me to appoint to this position someone from a province that is becoming notorious for its racial segregation and prejudice, especially when he doesn’t have any real ‘hands-on’ experience (I couldn’t find any, let me know if any of you can).

In his statement of resignation, Vellacott cites partisan politics as the problem. He doesn’t even give the nod to how Aboriginals reacted to his appointment. What does that tell you about what kind of committee leader on Aboriginal issues Vellacott would have been?