Is NL a Province?

The end of the original Churchill Falls deal was always going to be a decision point on whether Newfoundland and Labrador should remain in Canada.

That statement may shock people. But if you are a Newfoundlander, you must question your place in Canada.

Canadians assume that a Newfoundlander’s place is beneath them. It is why Newfoundlanders generally distrust Canadians. A helping hand up is always accompanied by a slap down. Canada is a country that robbed us blind and then called us stupid for complaining.

Why do I believe Newfoundland is a Taken From, not a Have Not Province (colony)? The Internal Rate of Return, like the rate charged on your Visa card, on Hydro-Québec’s investment in the original Churchill Falls project was 38.5% by 1990. Credit card companies are prohibited from charging rates defined as usury.

By 1999, the profit from the Churchill Falls deal not only paid for Churchill Falls but was enough to generate a positive return on Hydro-Québec’s US$20B James Bay project. Through 2026, the Churchill Falls project has paid Quebec north of $64B while paying Newfoundland less than $3B.

Tell me about the values of Canadian democracy again.

From Newfoundland’s perspective, and Alberta’s too, it is a group of independent provinces exploited by Ontario and Quebec for the benefit of Ontario and Quebec. Feudalism disguised as democracy.

The results for Newfoundland’s economy have been devastating. Without affordable power, industrial production facilities opened in the 1970s have largely been closed. Investment to develop new natural resources was solicited on far worse terms than would have been available. It kept Newfoundland from developing its own economy and left it open to further exploitation through a new Churchill Falls deal that extends Hydro-Québec’s yoke for another 50 years.

Canada calls itself accepting, but only to those who do not question its openness. They will accept anyone who accepts their lesser place. Putting someone in their place is a Canadian pastime designed to remind people that they are beneath you. Cruelty is always on display.

Case in point. Pamela Wallin, the former Beyakian Senator from Saskatchewan, hosted a Residential School Denier on her All Nonsense podcast this summer. A former national anchor for CTV News, elevating the racist denial of Canadian Indigenous abuse.

This is embarrassing. Not only for CTV but for the other national broadcasters like CBC or Global who refused to cover the story, for the Senate, which did not denounce her, but for every politician who did not call out blatant racism.

More children died at residential schools (Murray Sinclair stated the number could be as high as 30,000) than the NAACP says were lynched in the US after the Civil War (3,446). While Canada is having difficulty accepting the genocide at Residential Schools, small solace is found in being farther ahead than our American cousins, where Notre Dame still runs a collection of the Mission Schools Ryerson copied (ace.nd.edu).

But to put residential school denialism in context, the American College of Surgeons has estimated that from 1970-2022, 3.083 victims of school shootings in the US. Does the exact number of children killed at Residential Schools need to be exactly confirmed before we acknowledge the depravity of the institution?

Would Pamela Wallin have interviewed Alex Jones next?

Is Wallin’s cruelty unique? Absolutely not. During the #BLM protests in 2020, when hundreds of thousands of Canadians marched against the racist violence of American police, Canadian police killed 6 Indigenous people without any charges. The killing of Eishia Hudson, a parallel to the shooting of Renee Good, is not acceptable.

Eager to appear intolerant of racism, Canada congratulated the Calgary Flames for firing Bill Peters for racially harassing Akim Aliu. But said nothing when he was replaced by Darryl Sutter, whose family charity sponsors the Red Deer Sutter Chiefs, a team that won the 2026 Esso Cup. No racism was seen when the NHL held its BLM stand against racism with the Chicago Blackhawks. And CBC Indigenous did nothing when Leafs players called Craig Berube Chief on Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts in 2025.

Personally, hateful attacks have been ignored when Don Cherry incited racists to harass my family and me during the hearings on mascots in Mississauga in February 2017. I had my status card questioned on the stand in the HRTO, my government-issued ID, according to Haudenosaunee identification standards; yes, the HRTO adopted the position that all Indigenous people are the same. Except for any Newfoundlander who recognizes their Indigenous heritage, they are liars. (QalipuPretendiandNation)

The Human Rights Commission of Ontario intervened in the mascot case and then claimed it came in to determine the interplay between Indigenous sovereignty and human rights; the implication being that my rights may be subject to their sovereignty. And then said, with support from the Canadian Human Rights Commission, that they found conditionality in the Charter when they wrote that the individual human rights system is not ideally suited to deal with Indigenous issues.

To top it off, for my work on mascots, where I challenged the continued presence of Indigenous mascots in my daughter’s schools and my wife’s employer, I achieved 3 results:

• In early 2016, my wife lost a position closer to our home when I objected to the school board tying her employment to my case on mascots. I filed a complaint, and the HRTO sent the application back.
  1. I filed again later to protect my kids from further abuse after other children were yelling at my kids in school for me challenging mascots. Watch Systemic Injustice for details.
• In 2020, DPCDSB called my wife on the way to work to move my then-walker-using, PPMS-stricken, immunocompromised wife another 11 km away to near Bramalea Hospital to teach an online class. It was the highest COVID infection rate postal code in the country at the disease’s peak.
  
  2018. The day before, I mocked them for defending their principal on a College of Teachers complaint since they did not comply with the mascot wear ban agreed upon in the HRTO that was publicized in December 2018.
  2019. Remember the Sgt. Major who put Adrian Cronauer in harm’s way in Good Morning, Vietnam. Is exposing my wife to the then unknown risks of COVID any less mean?
• Aware of the treatment of my wife, the College of Teachers ruled two things.
  1. That a separate side deal extended the timeline for mascot wear removal that I was not a party to, nullifying the HRTO deal.
  2. That Indigenous mascots did not violate safe and accepting schools.

So, my viewpoint is that I have been subjected to people attempting to keep me in my place for asserting my equality. I do not think I am better than anyone; I have offended Canadians by telling them they are not better than me.

They haven’t put me in my place; they’ve only confirmed that my place isn’t as an equal citizen in Canada. If you don’t believe me, make the mistake of believing you have rights. My experience is illustrative because it applies to Newfoundland’s sovereign right to own its resources. While I do not like Canada, my contempt for the country cannot be concealed; I encourage you to make up your own mind.

I think Canada has shown its ill intent. It is why Mark Carney shaking the Black player’s hand in the Cataractes de Shawinigan dressing room to appear accepting, or him suggesting $0.0188/kWh was a fair deal when he would not accept less than $0.10/kWh at Brookfield, shows his disregard for other people’s concerns.

His government does not value the rights of Indigenous peoples or Newfoundlanders in its vision of Canada, a country founded on colonization and immigration. As a Newfoundlander or as an Indigenous person, we are neither colonist nor immigrant. Canada and Carney see our place as lesser.

It is why I do not believe remaining in Canada is in Newfoundland’s best interests. Canadians like Hydro-Québec or Mark Carney do not believe Newfoundlanders deserve equal treatment. They believe they can withhold rights at their whim, and our resources are theirs to exploit. From my perspective, if even the Charter is conditional when inconvenient, don’t rely on Canada to respect our borders or our ownership of Newfoundland’s natural resources.

If the Wakeham government signs away Newfoundland’s ownership of its natural resources in Churchill Falls for another 50 years, without discussion of full exploration of alternatives inside and outside of Confederation, then the reputation of the Stupid Newfie will be almost impossible to shake.