Canada's First Nations - CF help, protests, solutions, etc. (merged)

[aesop081]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/attawapiskat-keeps-court-date-federal-government-over-housing-023212973.html

ATTAWAPISKAT, Ont. - The Attawapiskat First Nation says it won't drop legal action against the federal government over the appointment of a third-party manager to handle the band's finances.

That's despite the fact the government announced on Thursday that Jacques Marion is being withdrawn by April 19.

The government indicated Thursday it's satisfied with progress in the management of the reserve.

The band issued a news release Friday saying it welcomes the news, but still intends to proceed with legal action launched last year to try to block Marion's appointment.

The band's news release says it wants the courts to "refute" Prime Minister Stephen Harper's suggestion that the band mismanaged federal funds in the face of a housing crisis.

The community of 2,000 declared a state of emergency last October after a severe housing shortage forced more than two dozen families to live in temporary shelters, some without insulation or plumbing.

The band also wants the federal court to declare that Marion's appointment was unlawful _ a hearing is set for April 24.

Marion's appointment drew fierce criticism, the latest attack occurred last week when band officials accused them of failing to send money on time to students from the community who are studying off the reserve.

Marion was late sending the monthly allowance that many of the post-secondary students need for food, rent and expenses, aboriginal leaders said.

“The failure to pay post-secondary allowances to students at a critical time in their studies was simply the latest in a series of failures by the Third Party Manager to administer the First Nation’s funding responsibly” Chief Theresa Spence said in the release.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan announced earlier Thursday that the money is now in the students' accounts, but critics had said it didn't flow quickly enough.

Government officials said Thursday that Marion was not being withdrawn because he had done a bad job, but due to the fact the band had done a good job in improving the health and safety conditions that had required the outside control in the first place.

They said the 25 families affected by the housing crisis were now living in better conditions.

Humm, ok chief, whatever you say !

 

[Rifleman62]

You can take this anyway you want. A bit long, but interesting take.

From Small Dead Animals (some of the comments are very funny). http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/019790.html

The history lesson: How the Whites Took over America (Canada) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tacvR87FzBU#!

 

[fraserdw]

As an Indian, I take it as a bit of white supremacist BS.  Judging by the comments that go with on Youtube I would be right.

 

[aesop081]

As an Indian,

"Call center" Indian or "come to our casino" Indian ?

I kid, i kid........ ;D

 

[fraserdw]

Miq Maq Indian.

 

[Canadian.Trucker]

I was just up in Attawapiskat in March.  Let me just say the homes they received are your standard mobile home.  Nothing super or fancy, but they'll keep you warm and comfortable.

In the end this whole situation was a farce and quite honestly just brought a few larger and systemic problems to the front page that have to be resolved.  Will they?  Probably not any time soon, but hopefully it's going down that road.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Happen to see 90 million laying around?

 

[a_majoor]

More scandal. We really should insist on transparency and accountability since we, the taxpayers of Canada, are providing the monies. Don't want to open the books? Fine, we don't want to send you the money until you do:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/13/innu-nation-angry-as-former-chief-paid-1m-in-two-years/

Innu nation angry as former chief paid $1M in two years

Joe O'Connor  Jul 13, 2012 – 9:31 PM ET

Sheshatshiu community members gather on July 13, 2012 at the Innu Development Limited Partnership offices in Sheshatsiu, NL, calling for transparency and greater accountability at the IDLP.

Jeremy Andrew is 27 years old and tired. Tired of being disappointed by Innu leaders in Sheshatshiu, NL., tired of asking questions that never seem to have answers, tired of waiting for things to change in a place where nothing ever seems to.

“It pisses me off,” says Mr. Andrew, an Innu Nation board member and facilities manager at the local high school.

“It” is the latest in an ongoing series of scandals buffeting the tiny Innu village in Labrador, not far from Goose Bay. A document listing the salaries of several employees of the Innu Development Limited Partnership — a private enterprise owned by the Innu people whose mission is to broker deals with non-aboriginal companies looking to do business on Innu lands — was leaked to the community by an unnamed insider.


Related

‘The Chief cannot be trusted’: Innu band council under fire for suspect spending


Publishing First Nations band council salaries is ‘colonial’: Manitoba chief

.
It revealed that Paul Rich, the ex-CEO, and a former band chief, was paid $658,847 in 2011 — and in excess of a million dollars in his last two years combined as head of the IDLP. In years past, the CEO drew a salary closer to $100,000.

“Nobody should be making $650,000,” says Mr. Andrew. “Not when you have so many people in the community unemployed and an overall lack of programs and social services to help the people.

“All of that’s completely being ignored. Our kids are being born and taken into foster care — because we have alcoholism, high rates of drug use and a lack of jobs. We have some serious problems here.”

“Nobody should be making $650,000. Not when you have so many people in the community unemployed and an overall lack of programs and social services,” Sheshatshiu resident Jeremy Andrew said.
..
Several community members gathered at the IDLP office in Sheshatshiu on Friday, plastering the buildings red façade with neon green and pink placards. “Leaders is misleading our people,” read one; “How long has this been going on?” read another.

People are demanding that the RCMP investigate, that the IDLP crack open its books, that the corporation started, and owned by the Mushuau and Sheshatshiu First Nations — for the benefit of the community — makes its paper trail public.

Paul Rich, the man under the microscope, could not be reached for comment. Rumours are swirling as to his whereabouts. Some believe he has left the community, others say he is lying low. Nobody has seen him for days.

Messages left at the IDLP office were not returned.

Allegations of corruption play like a broken record in the village with a population of 1,054. Eight months ago it was another leaked document, a different scandal. Back then a letter on Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation letterhead, signed by Chief Sebastian Benuen, and obtained by the National Post, surfaced. It was a request for funds addressed to the band’s corporate trust administrators at the Bank of Montreal branch in St. John’s.

Chief Benuen, the letter stated, required a “payout — in the amount of $20,000 each” to two unnamed members of the community for their “services” plus an additional “$50,000 in administration fees to compensate [Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation] for the additional costs incurred with these pay-outs” — plus an additional “$90,000 for administration fees.”

Protests erupted.

Taniana Benuen, the besieged chief’s wife, allegedly vandalized the local radio station after the announcer, Angela Gregoire, began taking calls from the public to discuss the letter’s contents.

“She beat up the radio station,” Ms. Gregoire told the National Post in November. “It was the chief’s wife.”

A petition was circulating calling for Chief Benuen to step down. He didn’t. Now his name has surfaced on the leaked IDLP document. He sits on the IDLP’s four-member board, a position that paid $38,000 in 2011.

“It is frustrating, and the only thing I can do is speak out,” Mr. Andrew says. “These board members have the power to change things, the power to reveal what was going on at the IDLP. How much money has gone into the IDLP without anybody knowing where it is being spent, or where it’s going — or whether it is even benefitting the community or just benefitting a select few?

“The truth needs to come out. Transparency is the main issue right now, and accountability, too. It’s fine to be transparent, but if you’re not held accountable — what’s the point?”

National Post

• Email: joconnor@nationalpost.com | Twitter: oconnorwrites

 

[Canadian.Trucker]

I agree 100% with the above statement and article.  I believe I said this before, but I know of a Chief of a First Nation community in Northern Ontario that owns a home in Thunder Bay that is worth over $1,000,000.  This community in Labrador is not alone in what it's going through.

Why is accountability being fought so hard?  If everything is above board and decisions are being made the right way with the money, then leaders should have no issues being transparent.  Fighting being transparent and honest should always send up red flags.

 

[ArmyRick]

Greed is a nasty disease that can corrupt those in power. Too bad their is no immunization for it!

 

[a_majoor]

Greed is a nasty disease that can corrupt those in power. Too bad their is no immunization for it!

The ancient Greeks (no jokes about my first hand experience) had one solution, what we would call "term limits".

Members of the Jury were selected at random for each case or sitting.

Members of higher level juries (which debated policy questions or audited senior figures like the Strategoi or Polemarch) were also selected by lot, in many cities they were excluded for subsequent drawings for the remainder of the year.

Members of the Boule were selected for a one year term and never eligable for selection during the remainder of their lives.

No system is perfect, and by the time the real Thucydides writes about demagogues were skilled at swaying the Juries to vote on whatever they could whip up passion for (in one case the Jury voted to kill and enslave the entire population of an allied city that had risen in revolt, the very next day they were persuaded to reverse the vote and send a recall notice to the punative expedition). As well there were no term limits to Strategoi or Polmarch appointments, once elected to the post you could attempt to have the Jury reconfirm you every time your term ran out.

Since the current system of governance on the reserves is based (in a practical sense) on patronage between family and clan members, then current laws and institutions are not really equipped to deal with this. Realistically, dramatically limiting the powers of "cheifs" and other elected officials will remove a lot of the incentive to game the system, so that is the solution I would favour.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Greed is a nasty disease that can corrupt those in power. Too bad their is no immunization for it!

Sure there is.  It's called  integrity and honour.

 

[GAP]

Having worked on Reserves, I found that the moment one family/power group gets elected out and another in, the new ones feed at the trough quickly because the others did, and they want to before they get kicked out. It's a self-licking ice cream cone cycle.....

 

[Old Sweat]

Having worked on Reserves, I found that the moment one family/power group gets elected out and another in, the new ones feed at the trough quickly because the others did, and they want to before they get kicked out. It's a self-licking ice cream cone cycle.....

It wasn't all that long ago - less than half a century - that that sort of thing was fairly common in municipal and provincial politics.

 

[Bass ackwards]

Since it falls in line with the last couple of pages of discussion here, I'll add this article from the Thompson Citizen, reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act. (highlights mine)

Split Lake walkers hope to build homes step by step
BY IAN GRAHAM

Multiple generations of one Tataskweyak Cree Nation family were among a group of walkers who arrived from the Northern Manitoba community in Thompson on July 6 near the beginning of a journey – by foot – to Winnipeg, which they hope will raise awareness of the housing crisis on their First Nation as well as pledges that will go toward the construction of new homes.

"We started off in Split Lake on Tuesday morning, 11 o'clock, we did a prayer. members from chief and council and the housing authority attended that. and then they started walking - Roma [Spence], Greta [Clipping] and Sarah [Garson] - three of them started," said Lavern Spence, the spokesman for the group and also the husband of Roma. "Others have joined along the way and we are expecting more people to join us, a couple more from Nelson House and we'll see how it progresses as the public becomes more aware this is happening."

Several youth were also among the walkers who arrived in Thompson, including Christina Garson, Justice Spence, Jaylin Spence and Ginny Spence

In a meeting with Thompson MLA Steve Ashton, Churchill NDP MP Niki Ashton, Keewatin Tribal Council Grand Chief Irvin Sinclair and representatives of other organizations at Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak's office in Thompson, Lavern Spence outlined the housing situation in Tataskweyak Cree Nation, noting that there only 322 homes for a population of approximately 2,800 people, about half the number that are needed.

"You divide that, how many per house, how many in a house?" he said. "Sometimes we have two or three families living in a home. They take shifts to sleep. Families are big enough, they're taking shifts. Some will sleep during the night, they're all rested they get up and go and the next people that stayed up all night will go to bed. That's the reality. These are things that we're trying to find solutions for."

One of the walkers, Roma Spence, said the journey was already taking a toll on her body.

"That first day was really hard," she said. "Our feet were getting blistered. Right now I need medical attention because my feet are infected. Why am I going through this? For my people because I care for them. There's hardly any resources in Spit Lake."

In addition to creating awareness, the walkers hoped to collect donations and pledges that would be used to build 10 new houses at Tataskweyak Cree Nation using local contractors and labour.

"We're asking for help," said Roma Spence. "We need new homes."

Another participant, Greta Clipping, said her community couldn't rely on the chief and council to solve the housing crisis.

"I'm known as a, I can say bad, the bad one, mainly because I was against the dam because I knew that in the future our land was going to be destroyed, our land and water," she said. "Our chief [Duke Beardy] lives here [in Thompson] in comfort while his people are over there suffering. He is never around when we need him. That's not what I call a chief. I'm sorry to say but he's a businessman and he calls himself a chief."

Clipping also said band members were not informed about decisions that affect their lives.

"Even the elders who sit around like this in Winnipeg, they don't even want to acknowledge their people's voices," she said. "I'm sorry to say that but it's true. They spend $20,000 a week when they go to Winnipeg. That could be one two-bedroom house right there. They don't even bring anything back, 'Ok, come here people, this is what was going on. This is what we've gone to talk about.' Not once. That's not how you treat people. Being mistreated, it's not something you do to your people."

Alberteen Spence, Lavern's sister, who isn't one of the walkers but has taken part in other other actions, including a protest outside the TCN band office in May, and a blockade of the road to the Keeyask Dam site that began on Tuesday evening, said that while she had mixed feelings about the walk, the fact that TCN has a housing crisis couldn't be denied.

"The living condition and the standards are pretty low," she said. "They're usually called fourth world conditions because we live in a country that is one of the most affluent countries in the word and yet these conditions are right here in Canada with the economy that's doing much better than most countries in the world."

Full article:
http://www.thompsoncitizen.net/article/20120713/THOMPSON0101/307139923/-1/thompson01/split-lake-walkers-hope-to-build-homes-step-by-step

*************************************************************************

This is up in my neck of the woods.

I have to commend these folks for at least trying to do something about it rather than just sitting around whining. I would not care to walk from Split Lake to Thompson -it's a 125 km down a gravel road cut through the bush and the bugs are large enough to pose a hazard to aviation.
Plus they still have the 750 km walk to Winnipeg.

I don't hold out much hope for their cause, though. We know the chiefs are corrupt as hell. They know the chiefs are corrupt as hell. Even the chiefs likely know they're corrupt as hell. But no one is willing to do anything about it.
Steve Ashton (MPP) and Nikki Ashton (MP) will most likely (based on past performance) use this as a platform to shoot at conservatives from, but that's all they'll do.

I doubt many private citizens will pony up much cash -unless they're bullied into it. No one wants to throw good, hard-earned, money after bad.
And the beat goes on...   

 

[GAP]

And yet, while most know about them, not a one will build a stack-wall house. FFS they are sitting in the middle of hundreds of miles of forest, but they don't want to use the resourses right outside their own front doors.

They are warmer than anything the south can ship up, last longer, are sturdier and easily added to.

 

[Bass ackwards]

And yet, while most know about them, not a one will build a stack-wall house. FFS they are sitting in the middle of hundreds of miles of forest, but they don't want to use the resourses right outside their own front doors.

They are warmer than anything the south can ship up, last longer, are sturdier and easily added to.

I don't know if building a house out of stove-length logs is really a good idea on a reserve...
I hear what you're saying, though.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Here's an idea. Abolish the Indian Act.

 

[LineJumper]

Here's an idea. Abolish the Indian Act.

Sadly, doing something like that would draw a hard line. A line many serving members would have to look at. I am personaly loyal to the crown, today.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Sadly, doing something like that would draw a hard line. A line many serving members would have to look at. I am personaly loyal to the crown, today.

Why would serving members have to look at this line?