Really, Bridle No More.
As in the verb.
Every now and then something comes across my computer screen that I wish I'd written.
This is one of those, so it's reprinted here in its entirety.
Unfortunately, the author was--and remains--anonymous.
Otherwise I'd be sending him or her my thanks for putting to words what many, many people feel.
"On a very
serious note and regarding the "Idle No More" movement, I offer the
following:
Over the years we have all listened and watched as successive Canadian governments have tried to deal with the residue of our colonial past. On the evidence, a wide range of policies, and a huge amount of our money, has failed to solve a seemingly insolvable problem of abortive aboriginal treaties, perceived entitlements, and social disasters. Many good people on both sides of the fence have spent lives of frustration using different administrative models to no lasting effect.
The only consistent result of over 100 years of wasted time, money and lives is the fact that, for many, being a treaty aboriginal has become a business in and of itself; Aboriginal Incorporated has become a way of life, a leadership management philosophy, a negotiating tool, a public spectacle, and a very lucrative business model, at least for a few. The latest public display of Chief Spence and her Aboriginal Inc. handlers has backfired and, with the release of the audit report on her financial management of millions of tax dollars, we see what really is the issue: The criminal misappropriation of funds intended to help the social ills of an important but socially failing segment of the Canadian population.
This has to stop. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over, and over, while expecting a different result. A failed policy approach is a failed policy approach and over 100 years should be sufficient evidence that enough is enough. We need to start from first principles:
1) No one in Canada is above the law of the land.
2) Your economic well-being is your responsibility. It is not the government's job to pay you to fish and hunt.
3) Employment rules apply to everyone. If you can't get a job where you live, then move. Idle No More at our expense!
4) If you receive public funds, you are accountable. Penalties apply.
5) Theft is theft; see 1) above.
6) If the funds are badly spent or the recipients do not care for the infrastructure and benefits provided, the funds will not be replaced.
7) Treaties will be respected in the context of the date of the treaty and the standards of the day.
8) Your administrative costs and the pay of your local leadership will be set by the people that fund your operation.
9) As our municipalities are governed by provincial rules, so the reserves will be governed by federal rules.
I believe this list is a good start but is clearly a work in progress. I further believe that a valid counter to the Idle No More movement needs to be a strong Enough Is Enough movement. Plainly said: we have had enough!
I truly hope the government gets the picture and puts its foot down once and for all.
If enough Canadians repeat this message then perhaps the abusive power of Aboriginal Inc. will be lessened and the real needs of the thousands of aboriginal Canadians in need can be met.
Enough Is Enough!"
Over the years we have all listened and watched as successive Canadian governments have tried to deal with the residue of our colonial past. On the evidence, a wide range of policies, and a huge amount of our money, has failed to solve a seemingly insolvable problem of abortive aboriginal treaties, perceived entitlements, and social disasters. Many good people on both sides of the fence have spent lives of frustration using different administrative models to no lasting effect.
The only consistent result of over 100 years of wasted time, money and lives is the fact that, for many, being a treaty aboriginal has become a business in and of itself; Aboriginal Incorporated has become a way of life, a leadership management philosophy, a negotiating tool, a public spectacle, and a very lucrative business model, at least for a few. The latest public display of Chief Spence and her Aboriginal Inc. handlers has backfired and, with the release of the audit report on her financial management of millions of tax dollars, we see what really is the issue: The criminal misappropriation of funds intended to help the social ills of an important but socially failing segment of the Canadian population.
This has to stop. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over, and over, while expecting a different result. A failed policy approach is a failed policy approach and over 100 years should be sufficient evidence that enough is enough. We need to start from first principles:
1) No one in Canada is above the law of the land.
2) Your economic well-being is your responsibility. It is not the government's job to pay you to fish and hunt.
3) Employment rules apply to everyone. If you can't get a job where you live, then move. Idle No More at our expense!
4) If you receive public funds, you are accountable. Penalties apply.
5) Theft is theft; see 1) above.
6) If the funds are badly spent or the recipients do not care for the infrastructure and benefits provided, the funds will not be replaced.
7) Treaties will be respected in the context of the date of the treaty and the standards of the day.
8) Your administrative costs and the pay of your local leadership will be set by the people that fund your operation.
9) As our municipalities are governed by provincial rules, so the reserves will be governed by federal rules.
I believe this list is a good start but is clearly a work in progress. I further believe that a valid counter to the Idle No More movement needs to be a strong Enough Is Enough movement. Plainly said: we have had enough!
I truly hope the government gets the picture and puts its foot down once and for all.
If enough Canadians repeat this message then perhaps the abusive power of Aboriginal Inc. will be lessened and the real needs of the thousands of aboriginal Canadians in need can be met.
Enough Is Enough!"
(Author
unknown)
As an aside, interesting comment that municipalities are governed by provincial rules; the spurious actions of Coldstream tend to illustrate how screwed up British Columbia really is.
"Government putting their foot down...oh oh..." admits Kia.
With respect, this is a naively simplistic post. I particularly disagree with the grand and ludicrous statement, "...100 years of wasted time, money and lives..."
ReplyDeleteBritish/Canadian governments and societies did taken over land occupied by natives. I think we can agree on that. Well, look to other places in the world where this happened and the colonial government took your "enough is enough" approach. How about Israel (or Armenia or many, many other places). The result is not compliance and prosperity. That is wishful thinking. The result is generations of murder, war, terrorism and all of the hate, manipulation and corruption that goes with it. Oh, not to mention the cost to taxpayers of all of this.
Accomodating those who occupied the land before us is very difficult. It is imperfect. It is often ugly. It is inconvenient. It can be open to manipulation. It can be annoying.
But it is the right thing to do in a civilized society.
I much prefer an obnoxious protest at an interection to a car bomb.
ReplyDeleteHere's some first-hand knowledge:
"Just a little info to think about when watching the news reports about the chief's hunger strike.
I worked in every “poor” northern Manitoba reserve as a probation officer for years and they are ALL THE SAME. Repeat…ALL THE SAME!!!!!
And it’s a local joke!!!! There are more new trucks and cars, skidoos, boats, ATV’s, Flat screen TV’s, Tech toys, and designer clothes in those reserves BUT they will not spend a dime of their own money on their house or appliances or furniture or a broken door or a broken window because
“that is the band’s responsibility” and so they don’t, and they wait for the band to fix it – for as long as it takes – which never happens, and the house and everything else in it (except the TV and tech toys) falls apart in squalor. I have seen it personally! Year after year! Band administration takes trips across the country, hell across the world on “aboriginal cultural workshops and healing seminars”, take cruises, stay
at fancy hotels, wine and dine and gamble at casinos every year. The chief of one aboriginal community actually owns a very large house in Winnipeg which he lives in and runs band business via skype For chrissakes!
Substance abuse treatment center workers all went on an
aboriginal healing cruise” in the Carribean from funds that were supposed to pay for treatment patients. Another bunch flew to Arizona for an Aboriginal awareness conference (2 weeks) in the desert (happened to be Close to Las Vegas). They all came back saying they had one Hell of a good time sporting all the turquoise jewelry they bought (also with band
funds) as part of their expense accounts. And it goes on and on….and if a
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Deleteand if a white person questions any of that…Yup..you are Racist!!!! Hell, I was racist for recommending sending a man to jail for stabbing and killing his buddy in a drunken fight over a girlfriend. This man happened to be a band counselor!!!
Did the shit ever hit the fan and I had to get Wpg provincial justice dept. head office assistance to get that one through. And they wouldn’t let me back on the reserve cause I was a woman, white, and racist!.
(Well, what about the guy who was killed and his family!!!! Doesn’t he deserve justice????) Well, in the end the offended and band counselor went to federal jail and my name was mud!
Here is another local joke……lots of the summer forest fires are started by the locals and referred to as “make work projects”. All the guys in the community get recruited by provincial natural resources depts. to fight the fires and get supplied appropriate clothing, boots, hard hats, gloves etc. and get paid huge dollars (much more than on welfare or
seasonal EI. The old folks, women and kids get evacuated to the “city” to be put up for free, they eat out, go shopping, Use recreation facilities to entertain their kids, take cabs all over the city and make a huge mess of the hotel or rec. complex where they are billeted. They even have the gall to complain about the food because their food vouchers aren’t enough to eat out at restaurants where they want to. The first
week or two go along smoothly and all the natives are enjoying
themselves, but into the third or forth week, the novelty is wearing off and they now want to go home. The fire situation hasn’t changed and their community is still enveloped in smoke but the same people who made such a uproar about needing to be evacuated for health reasons, now want to return to the community cause they need to go fishing or something. They
have had their summer vacation, bought everything they wanted to and now want to go home. The airplanes they took them to the city for evacuation now have to be doubled because of all the returning “luggage” like cases of Chips and pop,, TV’s, new clothes and everything else they cared to buy.
Do you know that the Air Canada Stewardesses and flight crews refused to use a downtown Wpg. hotel any more because of the conduct and state left behind every summer by native evacuees. And they were called racist!!!
The Thompson Rec. center and Norplex pool incurred literally thousands of dollars in damages by the evacuees that they refused to billet them any more unless the federal Government paid the bill for clean-up and damages. Fire or any other evacuations are seen as vacations.
Hell when I send kids to southern correctional Facilities, the kids see it as a holiday. They get all their medical issues taken care of, teeth, eyes, etc and schooling, and the parents don’t send any clothes with them, they are given to other family members as they expect the justice dept. will outfit the kid going to kiddie jail in a whole new wardrobe to take home with them…And they
And they don’t want any Wal-Mart stuff. No, they want fancy label clothes! Most of these kids are illiterate because they don’t go to the big fancy schools that have been built for them on the reserve.
ReplyDeleteThe band administrators have the kids attend for the first week of school so the school qualifies for their per diem Student allowances and then don’t care about what the kids do after that. By Thanksgiving, of the 30 odd kids that started in a classroom, less than a dozen are still attending. So the poor native teacher who complained of being so overworked at the start of the year and needed a teacher aid, now has
10-12 kids and a teacher aid…that is a ratio of 5/6-1. And she is never there in the classroom because she is always traveling out of the community to the city shopping, visiting or whatever because she earns such a good wage, leaving the unqualified teacher aid to teach the remaining students.
No wonder they have a dismal high school graduating record. Hell, the students don’t even get to grade 8. And the kids don’t walk to school, they are all bussed. They buy huge numbers of busses, drivers, fuel, maint. people at the start of the school year because all the kids “show up” (at the insistence of chief and council) and then by October less than half are still attending so you have all those big expensive busses driving around the community almost empty. And that
doesn’t even begin to look at the waste at the nursing station where people plan their illnesses and ailments to coincide with out of town/city amusement fairs, calendar holidays or out of town family reunions. They never follow through with taking medications as directed as expensive as they are, they don’t look after themselves, diabeties is in epidemic proportions, alcoholism and drug abuse is rampant, It is not uncommon to see the garbage can outside the nursing
station containing freshly filled prescriptions of pills or ointments, bandages but the pain killers are usually resold. A lot of northern community members make their own “home brew” even though it is a dry reserve.
I had a school in one community where a full 60% of the
(continued AGAIN)
ReplyDelete(why doesnt it fit?)
a full 60% of the kids from grades K-8 were FAS/FAE! If they flew in as much fresh fruit and vegetables as they did pop and chips and Kentucky chicken, there would be a real difference. In one northern community the nurses reported that they could always tell when the caribou herds were near the community for the men to hunt cause they saw such an improvement in the overall health of
the band members from eating fresh wild meat and less junk food. I am babbling on….I have NO…repeat NO sympathy for those poor northern reserves and YES, the responsibility rests at the Band office and don’t let any one tell you different.
None of them have any training in band administration, finance or even a high school education. I’ve been there/done that! Funny that the news didn’t show where the chiefs(3) and 14 counselors live!!! Bet it wasn’t in a shack!
$34 million a year !
Interesting article follows from: BY MARK BONOKOSKI,QMI AGENCY
ReplyDeleteFirst posted: Saturday, February 02, 2013 08:00 PM EST
Theresa Spence, Dec. 31, 2012. (QMI Agency/ANDRE FORGET)
Article
What a demoralizing week it was watching this country’s consensus media’s last-gasp attempt to transform the unpalatable rubbish dished out by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence into some kind of haute cuisine.
Most of it was overwhelmingly nauseous.
“She leaves Ottawa with her head high,” read the lead sentence in one editorial, adding that Spence’s “courageous 44-day fast epitomized the hunger of Canada’s First Nations for recognition and a square deal.”
This “head high” and “courageous” tripe was in stark contrast, of course, to an earlier national editorial in Sun Media that called a spade a spade and had Spence’s only accomplishment during her sorry charade as the “mesmerizing (of) the gullible.”
And then there were all the national news columnists weighing in, one who damned near wept over the abuse rightfully heaped upon the beleaguered chief who, instead of this “head high” nonsense, should be hanging her head in shame.
“Theresa Spence didn’t deserve the snide, accusatory asides and the social media slurring about her Escalade, her double chin, jokes about her ‘diet,’ gossip about her partner, her personal income, her showers and naps in a nearby hotel,” read one of the bleeding hearts.
“She didn’t deserve to have unflattering audit leaked while she was fasting in an unforgiving winter climate.”
Didn’t deserve? Of course she deserved it.
She set her own trap, and then she stepped in it.
continued (next comment)
(cont'd)
ReplyDeleteFace it, that supposedly “unforgiving winter climate” of Ottawa is decidedly more endurable than the truly unforgivable weather of Attawapiskat, particularly when there is a comfortable big-city hotel nearby where one can sneak off to take those showers and naps while supporters are left believing she is stoically holed up in a teepee.
Perhaps Spence’s supporters should publicly pony up the hotel bill to prove she spent only a modicum of time there, and steered clear of both room service and the mini-bar.
Until that happens, the joke’s on the believers. And on the media who dared not ask her the obvious question.
As for Spence not “deserving” being slagged about her Escalade, her “double chin” and “gossip” about her partner, again, why not?
Why is it not right for taxpayers to know why Spence spent publicly funded money on a top-end Cadillac to drive about an isolated reserve that has no roads leading to it, while her malnourished people are still living in unheated shacks?
Why is it that she does not “deserve” to be questioned about her “diet” — she called it a “hunger strike” — when, after 44 days, she exhibited no noticeable weight loss?
And why did she not “deserve” to be questioned about her partner Clayton Kennedy who, after having gone through his own bankruptcy in 1996, was being paid $850 a day in taxpayers’ money to oversee the finances of Attawapiskat that, according to a federal audit that was supposedly “undeservedly leaked,” is virtually devoid of accountability?
This, too, is undeniable. The audit spoke volumes.
While Theresa Spence’s tempest in a teepee at least put her within question range for the national media in Ottawa, she obviously wanted no questions asked that would burst her bubble or discredit a cause she wanted to perpetuate as noble.
Why else, for example, would First Nations police toss a Global television crew out of Attawapiskat while Spence, who ordered media off the reserve following the audit’s release, was still seeking attention in Ottawa.
If there was nothing to hide, or nothing to fear, Theresa Spence should have had no problem. But she did.
So much for the nobleness of her 15 minutes of fame.
It was the grassroots Idle No More movement — not Spence and not grandstanding chiefs deflecting their own guilt — who caught the public’s attention and, now that the Harper government is prepared for more sitdowns, it is time Idle No More makes a change of target.
Go after the chiefs and the band councils who supposedly lead the most squalid reserves where the poverty is soul-killing, and demand an accounting of where all the millions have gone.
If they refuse, take them to court.
Do that, and all Canadians will embrace the cause.
— Bonokoski is Sun Media’s national editorial writer