Debate partially sponsored by @FullTimeGeek

Please visit the debate frequently!  The winner of last weeks debate is @salmanbukhari54 with a respectable vote tally of 9 and @ailenepm  has won the steem for contributing a vote to that winning post!  Congratulations.  

Week 12 debate topic - Broken Treaties

Two days ago Gerald Stanly was found not guilty in the death of Colten Boushie, a case that has sent shock waves throughout Canada.  While this case is being seen as a white vs indian case, it raises some deep rooted relationship issues between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and those of us who's ancestors came from other lands.  

While the state believes that the Queen now has title to this land, acquired through treaties, conquest and Doctrine of Discovery, the Indigenous believe the treaties are peace treaties to share this land equally.  Despite the differences of opinion on what the spirit of the treat is all about, the Crown has constantly violated the treaty through their own greed, contempt, bias and genocidal behaviours.  That leads into this weeks question:

This weeks Debate Forum question: Despite the fact that the Federal Government and her subjects have apologized for their behaviour in the past, they continue to engage in violent behaviour.  Does that behaviour constitute a failure to live up to the terms and conditions of the treaties and if so, does that invalidate the treaty due to non-performance, fraud and violence?   

The rules of this debate:                      

1. Keep comments on topic.
2. No personal attacks, name calling or yelling.  
3. Be respectful, thoughtful and articulate with your thoughts and views.
4. Participants can ask questions but lets limit the discussion threads to three deep.  That means the individual can  respond  to the question posed and then the thread must stop.  
5. The post with the highest vote count will win the debate.  Highest   value will not be used to determine the winner but will   naturally reward commenters who make excellent points.  That   way everyone's   vote counts the same when it comes to the final prize.      I will break any ties.
6. Debate deadline is 10pm MST February 17, 2018.  At which point I will then tabulate the results and send the prize to the winner.
7. Curators are encourage to vote as well, giving higher   percentage upvotes for well thought out and written responses, lower or   no vote for anybody who breaks the rules or fails to articulate   their position.
8. Winner will receive all the SBD that I receive from this post,   complements of the curators who are participating and partially sponsored by @FullTimeGeek.  
9. Out of the winning post, the voter on the bottom of the list with   100% upvote will receive all the Steem from the debate post, to   encourage more voting!
10. I am the moderator and as such I disqualify myself from winning.   My decisions are final. I will not tolerate covert or overt violence in   this debate.  Please keep it respectful and on topic.
11. For this debate, I will disqualify those who fail to follow the spirit of the debate.

The spirit of this contest is to engage the readers with thoughtful   debate and to explore ideas that are not commonly made available to   the    average Jane and Joe.  I also want to see if this is a good way  to     get low steem users participating and being rewarded with steem  to  help them build influence on this platform.  Readers are reminded  that  all comments are the opinions of those who are posting and as such  it    is    your responsibility to do your own research and make up  your own    mind  on these topics.  There is no write or wrong answer.   Let us  debate this  issue with respect, honour, dignity, heart and intelligence.     I am now on steemit.chat, user id @wwf. and discord (WWF#2870)  If you want to private chat, you can contact me there.           

Past debates

Week 11 - Pipe Lines - won by Hive account@salmanbukhari54
Week 10 - Trade Agreements - won by @salmanbukhari54
Week 9 - Legitimacy of Government - won by @dubem-eu
Week 8 - Guaranteed Income - won by @salmanbukhari54
Week 7 - Sectarianism & Dogma - won by @shai-hulud
Week 6 - Spirit vs Letter of the law - won by @shai-hulud
Week 5 - Indigenous Reconciliation - won by @dubem-eu
Week 4 - Net Neutrality - won by @skycae
Week 3 - Geoengineering - won by @cheneats
Week 2 - Government sponsored vaccination programs - won by @cheneats
Week 1 - Fixing government vs self-governance - won by @yulem