It hasn't been a great month for Carolyn Bennett, the minister of Indigenous and northern affairs.

On Canada Day, Idle No More First Nations activists and their allies crashed a picnic she was hosting in a posh area of Toronto.

It was part of UNSettling Canada 150. Demonstrators voiced their objections over the Trudeau government's reliance on photo-ops to convince Canadians that it's addressing Indigenous issues.

Then yesterday, a respected legal scholar, Marilyn Poitras, submitted her resignation as a commissioner on the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

In a brief letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Poitras stated that the commission's current structure makes her unable to fulfill her duties.

Bennett, along with Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and former status of women minister Patty Hajdu, carried the can for creating this structure.

"I believe this opportunity to engage community on the place and treatment of Indigenous women is extremely important and necessary," Poitras wrote. "It is time for Canadians to face this relationship and repair it. I support principles aimed at doing this work in an inclusive, community engaged way through indigenous practice and from a strength based process."

In between these events, the Globe and Mail and Policy Options highlighted how not enough is being done to prevent Indigenous youth suicides.

And Gitxsan children's-welfare activist Cindy Blackstock continues hammering the federal government for refusing to provide Indigenous kids with the same level of support on reserves as is provided by the provinces.

Recently, Blackstock tweeted about how the Liberal government has ignored four court orders.

https://twitter.com/cblackst/status/883801491282243584

Meanwhile, many Indigenous people in B.C. are exasperated by the Trudeau government's support for the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. It will result in 400 oil tankers per year travelling past the traditional lands of the Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, and Squamish peoples on their way through Burrard Inlet.

Trudeau also supports the Site C dam in northeastern B.C. over the objections of Amnesty International and the Assembly of First Nations. 

This $8.8-billion megaproject will flood traditional territories of members of the Treaty 8 Tribal Association. This is happening even though demand for electricity in B.C. has been flat for a decade.

Trudeau replaced other cabinet veterans

Bennett has represented an upscale Toronto riding for 20 years. And there's the rub: Trudeau has demonstrated before that he's happy to get rid of the oldtimers.

Earlier this year, the foreign affairs minister, Stéphane Dion, was replaced by Trudeau favourite Chrystia Freeland. Dion was named special envoy to the European Union.

Another Liberal veteran from the 1990s, John McCallum, was shuffled out of cabinet and named ambassador to China.

Other experienced Liberal MPs such as David McGuinty, Wayne Easter, and Hey Fry weren't appointed to cabinet in the first place.

In light of this pattern, my guess is that Bennett's days are likely numbered.

But replacing Bennett with a younger and more telegenic minister isn't going to address the central problem identified by the Idle No More protesters on Canada Day.

And that's the predilection of the Trudeau government to emphasize photo-ops over substance.

Sure, it's great that the prime minister attended a ceremony at Rideau Hall where the governor general handed out awards to high-profile and high-achieving Indigenous people and their allies, including singer Gord Downie.

But on the ground, life hasn't changed all that much for many Indigenous people living in poverty on reserves and in Canada's largest cities.

At a recent protest over the eviction of a tent city in Vancouver, Indigenous antigentrification activist Herb Varley put it this way:

"As Canada ramps up its celebrations, there is going to be a national narrative of yes, Canada used to be colonial, it used to be racist, it used to be classist. But if you look right here—if you look at who they're displacing yet again, if you look at who is filling up the prison systems, if you look at who is filling up the foster-care system, if you look at who is dying in the opioid crisis—it disproportionately affects indigenous people."

Until Trudeau addresses this reality, he'll still be dogged by the perception in some circles that he's a man who speaks with a forked tongue.