All Things First Nations - CF help, protests, solutions, residential schools, etc. (merged)

[foresterab]

Interesting article from the Frasier Institute:

Here's a sample, shared in accordance with the fair use laws:

Complete article here

What's interesting is that they used Atikoken as the counter point to the situation in Attawapiskat.  From my memories of working in and around Atikoken it's probably the most intergrated community I've ever been in from a racial point of view...mixed native/european/metis marrigies are extremly common and race by and large is a non-issue.  Although it does have good road access there is limited employment with many youth eventually ending up in Thunder Bay to chase oportunities...

For comparison's sake 10 years ago when getting out of school a buddy bought a truck and put the downpayment on a $76,000 house to work there...and the truck was the bigger portion of the loan. when the time came to sell due to a transfer he ended up walking away from the house because there was no buyers...that's a depressed economy.

 

[vonGarvin]

To be fair to Attawapiskat and Atikoken, the comparisions are superficial; however, when the wages and benefits (etc) of Attawapiskat are more than the entire operating budget of an entire community, one can only go "Hmmmm....."

 

[Tow Tripod]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Act

We and the Native People of Canada signed this little agreement in 1867. We will never "close" Native Reserves in this country. Do the Chiefs have to be responsible to their own people? Absolutely!

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-5/

What I can see in the future is an endless series of negotiations on replacing the Indian Act with another document that could in fact cost taxpayers even more.

My final point would be that we have spent billions of dollars on Afghanistan for example at a cost of 158 Canadian soldiers with poor to minimal results. We have also spent billions on Aboriginal Affairs with the same overall result.

Their has to be a solution to this problem because I do not wish too see Canadian children playing near their own fecal matter on the CBC again.

 

[Brad Sallows]

What provokes my skepticism is the notion that in the internet age, the young people are interested in living out their lives in the remote communities which have no particular employment drivers except governance.  I find it hard to believe many of those people would not prefer to suffer the agonies of city living.

 

[Strike]

My final point would be that we have spent billions of dollars on Afghanistan for example at a cost of 158 Canadian soldiers with poor to minimal results.

what has that got to do with the price of tea in China?  ???

 

[vonGarvin]

My final point would be that we have spent billions of dollars on Afghanistan for example at a cost of 158 Canadian soldiers with poor to minimal results. We have also spent billions on Aboriginal Affairs with the same overall result.

 

[Tow Tripod]

Techno,
It's an opinion. Not an argument! I'm not arguing with anybody but as a Canadian I want a viable solution to what seems like a hopeless situation. Thank you for time.

 

[Tow Tripod]

Strike,
I was in China last year. What type of tea would you like? All I'm saying is that we should come up with some type solution to this domestic problem and attempt to sort our own house out first.

Like Techno, Thank you for your time.

 

[GAP]

I've always been under the impression that we have been in a long term (generational) plan to educate the new generation to allow that generation to solve the dilemma the reserves are in. There's probably been great leaps, but the converse is that educated natives tend to see the possibilities outside the reserves and move on

:2c:

 

[OldSolduer]

Strike,
I was in China last year. What type of tea would you like? All I'm saying is that we should come up with some type solution to this domestic problem and attempt to sort our own house out first.

Like Techno, Thank you for your time.

And any solution we (the "white" community) will offer will be met with derision and name calling by the current crop of aborginal leaders.

 

[Strike]

All I'm saying is that we should come up with some type solution to this domestic problem and attempt to sort our own house out first.

Unfortunately we live in a global community where we are expected to help out other nations when asked and/or required, so trying to sort out our own problems before even considering going somewhere else is not an option.  Imagine if we had that attitude during earthquakes in Turkey or Haiti or after hurricanes down south.

 

[a_majoor]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but so long as *we* alow the "Indian Industry" to exist and provide the perverse incentive of billions of dollars for nothing in particular to continue to flow, the people who benefit the most will do everything possible (media, cries of racism, occupations, court battles, etc.) to continue to get their hands on our money. (In a similar context, Jerry Pournelle points out there will be poor and unemployed people so long as we pay them to be poor and unemployed, and so long as we pay people to "take care of" poor and unemployed people. In fact, the more we spend "hiring" people to be poor, the more people will apply for the job.)

Tough love will have to come in stages.

Stage one is to account for the money we provide, using third party managers if necessary. IF there is a refusal to be accountable, then we should simply shut off the money. We are halfway there now.

Stage two is to decouple moneies to the native people from the band council. $8,000+/year may not buy a house, but it sure beats having to suckhole to the current crop of reservation leaders in order to get a home or education, or even a few scraps from the table. Frankly, the late and unlamented Kim Jong Il raised that sort of "leadership" to an art form; hardly the sort of example we want to emulate.

Stage three is to provide easy means to evacutate from the reservations, so native people are not trapped in places with no prospects. Functioning reservations will keep their people, but non functional ones should see an exodus (along with money from the "per head" payments).

Stage four is to scrap as much of the laws and regulations as possible that maintain segregation between Canadians based on ethnic background; Apartheid wasn't pretty in ancient Sparta nor 20th century South Africa. Everyone should have the opportunity to own and have unfettered use of their own property as a minimum. If that means annulling ancient treaties, then so be it, we no longer need help against New France or the manifest destiny crowd of the James Madison Administration, and the railway right of ways have been in place for more than a century. Time to move into the 21rst century.

The status quo is unsustainable and no amount of new money will make things better; time to change tracks and go in a different direction.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Give 'em some "Rae days" Bobby, because paying me and my co-workers overtime to work our normal shifts to save money made about as much sense as some of the funding schemes in this thread.



  http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/19/rae-ignores-history-of-neglect

Great Canadian explorer Bob Rae journeys up to the deep north of Ontario over the weekend and discovers a Native community called Attawapiskat living in squalor on the shores of a mammoth bay named James.
"This is a Third World," he cries, as if his eyes are the first to bear witness. "And it is right here. Right here at home."

We are uncertain if he also cried, "Eureka!"
But perhaps he did.
We remind him, therefore, that this should not have been a Jacques Cartier moment.

We remind him, in fact, that he was premier of Ontario at the time former Attawapiskat chief Ignace Gull appeared before a royal commission to talk about appalling living conditions on his northern Cree reserve -- about scores being crammed into poorly-heated huts, about lack of water, about abuse both sexual and physical, about rampant alcoholism, and about how the reserve's youth were killing themselves huffing gasoline fumes.

And it was "right there," right in his own backyard, 20 years ago when he was not only the NDP premier of Ontario but the provincial overlord of Attawapiskat's provincial money.
So spare us if his cries over the weekend don't move us.

Bob Rae did nothing 20 years ago when he could have, and should have.
He ignored Ignace Gull's pleas.
And he is doing nothing now but lay blame at other doorsteps, namely the Harper government's, even though it was largely a Liberal government that did nothing for over the last two decades to alleviate the hell that remains the frozen septic tank of Attawapiskat.

No, to Bob Rae, now interim leader of the Liberal party that failed Attawapiskat so miserably, it is all Stephen Harper's fault.
It was one quote in particular from Rae over the weekend, however, that left us cold.
"We can't go on like this for the next decade or the next 20 years without some real improvements," he said about Attawapiskat.

Why not? He let it go 20 years ago. The Chretien Liberals let it go for 20 years.
If Rae wants to play the blame game, he can start with himself, and then move up the line.

Just don't feign ignorance or innocence.

 

[Rifleman62]

I've always been under the impression that we have been in a long term (generational) plan to educate the new generation to allow that generation to solve the dilemma the reserves are in. There's probably been great leaps, but the converse is that educated natives tend to see the possibilities outside the reserves and move on

Didn't various organizations including churches attempt to educate Indian children in order that they could have the same opportunities as every other child? What happened? Every one of them was abused, and because of that abuse they lost the ability to be parents to the children they conceived. Or should that be the children they reproduced. Children that grew up with the same values and inabilities.

I believe Indians get all their education for free. They can go to university forever if they want.

There are exceptions, individuals and Bands. The West Kelowna and Osoyoos, BC are very, very well off.

What do Canadian taxpayers and the Indians themselves get for at least 8 billion, plus, plus, plus from various sources? The Bands do not operate ships, tanks or planes.

 

[dapaterson]

Thucydides :  Clay Chirky put it best:

Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Thucydides :  Clay Chirky put it best:

Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.

That sums up the whole problem.


This reminds me of the Jews during WW2 in a way.

Watching documentaries and movies I always wondered how Jews were exterminated by the thousands and often didn't seem to put up a fight. Sure I saw a movie with that douchebag from friends about jewish resistance fighters in some slum area but for the most part it always seemed like the Jews would put up no resistance and just go along with being exterminated. 


It seems like this is sort of the case with the reserves and band council and money. Not that anyone is being exterminated (though death is caused indirectly) but it's pretty apparent to EVERYONE what is going on.  Why aren't the average reserve joe blow's standing up and saying what the f$%* is going on, where is the money?  Natives in my experience pride themselves on being warriors, a warrior nation, warrior spirit etc..  Threaten to arm border guards and they're going to take up arms, block roads, make scary faces and use violence.  So where are these same warriors. Is not the average native American on one of these reserves willing to stand up for themselves?  Why do they seem like passive sheep allowing themselves to be starved to death while their shepherds are rolling around in $50'000 SUVs living in mansions?

 

[GAP]

Why aren't the average reserve joe blow's standing up and saying what the f$%* is going on, where is the money?

Because they are literally waiting their turn. Most reserves are divided into familial factions. When "your" chief gets elected, it's your faction's turn at the trough....

 

[dapaterson]

Because they are literally waiting their turn. Most reserves are divided into familial factions. When "your" chief gets elected, it's your faction's turn at the trough....

... which is the case in many political systems.  You used to be able to tell which way an area had voted in Nova Scotia by the quality of the roads.  New ashphalt = voted for the government.

 

[OldSolduer]

... which is the case in many political systems.  You used to be able to tell which way an area had voted in Nova Scotia by the quality of the roads.  New ashphalt = voted for the government.

Now they get a new regiment!! 

 

[Edward Campbell]

Now a senior UN official, an American professor from New Mexico named James Anaya weighs in, according to this article which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawas-handling-of-attawapiskat-crisis-draws-un-rebuke/article2278146/

Ottawa’s handling of Attawapiskat crisis draws UN rebuke

KIM MACKRAEL

OTTAWA— Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011

A United Nations official had harsh words for Ottawa Tuesday over the housing crisis in Attawapiskat, calling conditions in the first-nations community “dire” and noting the problem appears to be widespread.

“I have been in communication with the Government of Canada to express my deep concern about the dire social and economic condition of the Attawapiskat First Nation,” James Anaya, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said.

“Many of this First Nation’s approximately 1,800 members live in unheated shacks or trailers, with no running water. The problem is particularly serious as winter approaches.”

Attawapiskat, which is located on the edge of James Bay in Northern Ontario, declared a state of emergency this fall over a lack of suitable housing, sparking national and international media attention as observers compared conditions in the community to those found in the world’s poorest countries.

The Conservative government says it has spent about $90-million on the community over the past five years and has blamed Attawapiskat’s problems on financial mismanagement. It placed the community under third party management, angering Chief Theresa Spence and many band members.

The Assembly of First Nations voted unanimously earlier this month to stand by Attawapiskat’s leadership and ask the United Nations to monitor Canada’s actions on the remote reserve.

In a statement published on the United Nations website, Mr. Anaya said other first nations communities in Canada are facing similar problems.

“The social and economic situation of the Attawapiskat seems to represent the condition of many First Nation communities living on reserves throughout Canada, which is allegedly akin to third world conditions,” he wrote.

“Yet, this situation is not representative of non-Aboriginal communities in Canada, a country with overall human rights indicators scoring among the top of all countries in the world.”

Mr. Anaya noted that aboriginal communities face higher rates of poverty, and poorer health, education and employment outcomes, and said he has received reports indicating that first nations communities are systematically under-funded in Canada. “Further, it does not appear that the government is responding adequately to requests for assistance,” he added.

He also scolded the federal government for allegedly resisting efforts by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to examine allegations of discrimination related to funding for first-nations communities.

A spokeswoman for Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan called the letter an inaccurate publicity stunt.

“Anyone who reads the letter will see it lacks credibility,” Michelle Yao wrote in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail. “Our government is focused on the needs of the residents of Attawapiskat – not publicity stunts. We are also focused on addressing deep-rooted issues that have plagued Canada's First Nations communities for generations.”

Ms. Yao did not immediately respond to a question about which parts of the letter the government disagreed with.

Mr. Anaya said he wrote to Ottawa on Monday requesting a response to concerns over reserve funding and more information on what the government is doing to improve conditions.

“I will be monitoring closely the situation of the Attawapiskat First Nation and other aboriginal communities in Canada,” he wrote.

As stated, "Mr. Anaya noted that aboriginal communities face higher rates of poverty, and poorer health, education and employment outcomes ..." which is, by and large, true. But the article also states that "[My Anaya] said he has received reports indicating that first nations communities are systematically under-funded in Canada [and] it does not appear that the government is responding adequately to requests for assistance" which is very highly debatable.

Despite my somewhat jaded views on government communications, I am glad to see the Minister's office is fighting back. Now is the time for some political persuasion; Canadians - to hell with the UN and the world - have to know how much of their money is being spent and how it is being used, or abused.

I repeat: I do not know the right answers, but ...
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