Willful Blindness About Indigenous Peoples: The Democratic Deficit and Canadian Public Policy Making

Willful Blindness About Indigenous Peoples: The Democratic Deficit and Canadian Public Policy Making

Public policy officials, elected and appointed, continue to ignore the value dimensions of public policy making in ways that profoundly impact the individual and collective lives of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The au-thors examine two policy fields—health and communications—to highlight the peril of ignoring Indigenous cultural contexts. They conclude that the overarching policy of wilful blindness to Indigenous values, ways of being, and knowledge systems represents a continuation of the colonial mindset that has persisted since settlers arrived.