Okanagan Indian Band Writes to T2

They wrote our Prime Minister a letter, published today by Castanet:

"We, the Chief and Council of the Okanagan Band and member of the Syilx/Okanagan Nation wish to express our support for the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs who are attempting to protect their land by blocking TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast," states the letter signed by Louis.

"When the Crown or its agencies refuse to hear from a legitimate level of government such as a Hereditary Government and its Chiefs, it is seen as (a) calculated and insidious attempt to divide communities and sow internal dissent within the nation in order to impose its will. This is not in the spirit of proper consultation and tramples all attempts at establishing true reconciliation as articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada and the UN in its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

“Canada’s history is replete with instances of First Nations people forcibly removed from their land. Whether by government policy or police action, the result is the same – economies and cultures are destroyed, ecosystems ravaged and rights unjustifiably extinguished in the name of 'public interest.'"

Louis goes on to say:  "that consultation and reconciliation demand respect for rules and systems of government "that were in effect in this land long before people with Western European ideas of governance immigrated here."

Tramples all attempts?
"True" reconciliation?

Economies destroyed?
We know about Trudeau destroying things...all sorts of things.
Including the economy!

So how about YOU removing the blockades so the economy isn't destroyed?

You know...the economy that pays YOU.

IMHO...Anonymous Comments

...from a Financial blog that deals with Canada's economy.

These are generally on the effects of FN blockades, not causes (for people who automatically call any comment on FN blockades racist):

- A timorous federal government.
- for all you people in Alberta, stranded by illegal protests.
- wondering why people burning tires on railway lines are getting more attention than you.
- the FN protests have turned a structural problem into an intractable mess. They’re not about just a pipeline anymore. It’s land. Residential schools. Missing aboriginal women and girls. Unceded land. Treaty rights. A thousand years of injustice and colonialism.
- indigenous activists in the land of maple co-opted the kids...Behold the faces on the urban protest lines.
- our nation is being shafted and disrespected by the #ShutDownCanada movement, the FN rebels and their dewey-eyed young altruistic, Twitter-fed disciples.
- Outside the GTA on Tuesday activists shut down commuter train lines. On the west coast they blocked access to the Port of Vancouver. Elsewhere in BC, Ontario and Quebec roads and rails were rendered useless to traffic.
- Burly cops with clubs. Off to the slammer. Problem solved.
- 2020-21 will be totally man made crises as we come fully under UN control.
There is a plan, a timeline and a masterful execution.  Why we are seeing the shut downs closer to large cities. Social media and online comment are scraped via A.I. to determine next move.  Totally weaponized. Middle class is the enemy.  Entire war rooms, divisions are working on this round the clock.
- An independent Alberta could arrest idiots who try to block stuff and force them to dig bitumen with a shovel and wheel barrel.
- If you wanna protest do it on the sidewalks. Not on the street or tracks which disrupts people going to work or home. It’s illegal and we should send in the army to clear up this mess T2 get off you a$$ put them in cuffs and lock them up for good.
- T2 is just beyond ridiculous … feckless fool.. but hey he sports a culturally appropriated native tattoo… and stuffs his pants.. whadda a country… post-national whacko-ville.
- I hope that’s the last “selfie” prime minister. What a joke he has become…
- Trudeau the Elder would have sent in tanks. Trudeau the Younger does nothing but wish everyone “Sunny Days”. Disconnected fool.
- Trudeau has just learned what every other politician already knows: negotiating with the indigenous is a waste of time. They aren’t represented by anyone or anything – a paper signed by the band council is worthless. A paper signed by the hereditary chiefs is also worthless as a new chief can appear anytime and simply cancel the deal, block the tracks/roads etc. What we are witnessing here is a war amongst the Wehstuten for control, and Canada is caught in the crossfire.
- When T2 shrugged and said it is not my problem now with a blank face stare at his news conference. But that’s just my take on things. I could be wrong. I agree we have a problem(s) as a Country. I just think T2 isn’t the answerer. Maybe if I smoked some weed it might just look better, I don’t know.
- Commuters being interviewed regarding the go train lines being blocked by FN .  One woman said she is sympathetic , but it will add 3 more hours to her commute to get home .  Don’t any of these FN people work ? Seem to have lots of free time to disrupt the lives of people with jobs .
- There are two reasons JT has trouble making executive decisions, first he never had to make many when he was young, secondly he doesn’t have the life skills that most people his age have, common sense and logic to fall back on, this wouldn’t matter as much if he was restocking grocery shelves but pretty important with the temporary position he now holds.  Also, imposing his strong socialist agenda on western Canada is like threading a metric nut on a SAE bolt.
- am finding it hard to be a proud Canadian. American friends, take a lesson from us. This kind of government does not work. Domestic terrorists blocking highways and putting things on the railroad tracks without being charged with anything. A few years ago I would not have believed this could be happening in my country and nobody doing anything about it.
- I rather trust the guardianship of the planet to those people, who were conscious that all their actions have consequences for 7 generations – thousands years before Al Gore and teenage climate messiah got enlightenment – than people, who run the world with the next quarter as their horizon.
-  Do you think the US would ever even remotely consider such a government?  As an American, I find the bland acceptance of (or even support for!) blockades absolutely flabbergasting. I find it hard to believe all government, RCMP, and much of the population can be spineless and confused fools, but it’s hard to draw another conclusion.
-  So basically the First Nations affected by the mine want to see it built because they are eyeing up the jobs and the potential economic benefits they may see, but nope, now it’s cancelled.
- So basically what we have is 5 members of the Wetʼsuwetʼen nation who aren’t even part of the duly elected government causing all this trouble. What a waste of time and money.  I wonder if these so-called “hereditary chiefs” drive pickup trucks? I bet they do. I don’t know many natives that do not. I’m guessing they all have quads and skidoos and hunting riffles too. Most natives grow up on quads since they do not need a license or insurance on the reserve or on crown land which many reserves are surrounded by (they need insurance on crown land but not the reserve). I bet they all heat their houses too. And watch TV. And power their hockey arenas. Environmental champions my rear-end. Have you seen what quads do to an off road trail? It is a much larger impact than motorcycles. But, to be fair, there are usually lots of motorcycles on the reserve too.
- When the rule of law isn’t upheld by those sworn to do so, citizens will fill the void.
- “Justin you’re not tequila, you can’t make everyone happy.” Of course, he is slowly upsetting all of his constituencies over time, as he fails to save the environment and build a strong economy at the same time. Of course, if you look for a great candidate for Prime Minister, it’s clear we’re not attracting quality people to politics in any of the major parties.
- Have you ever been to a reserve? The typical native has: A heated house with electricity, A pick up truck, A quad, skidoo, A hunting riffle and all available fishing equipment including nets, Shops for the same groceries you do but has to drive further to get them, Internet, Cable or satellite, Clothes and running shoes made in China, Sometimes boats.  The fact is that the average native has among the highest carbon footprints of anyone in the world.
- How come no one blockades the reserves? If you are a laid of CN employee what else do you have to do ? Might as well inconvenience them too.
- Any new barricades set up should immediately be shut down and perpetrators arrested.
- I could start a go fund me page. Call it Blockade Busters. Pay people to blockade the blockaders. Make it a social event too, bring some brewskies, weenies, marshmallows. Have a nice fire. Sing some songs. Dance. If the cops bust us we can bail out and sing Jailhouse Rock. And send in new blockers.
- Just watched an interview with an Indigenous leader and I was amazed the rough shape his teeth were in. Only six short years ago Health Canada spent $1.1 BILLION on additional supplementary dental, vision and prescription drugs. With that kind of money one surely would have had dental work done that would put any Hollywood star to shame.
-  And the FN all go back to Siberia from whence they came (according to the Human Genome Study).
- What the government is unable to deal with right now are extortionists and eco-fascists.
- Canadian anthropologist, Wade Davis can explain why we need to listen to natives from all over the world.
- Nobody gets special respect based on lineage or race. That would be unequal opportunity for others.
- Welcome to the world of FN blockades. You Easterners a little late to the dance. Around 25 years ago us commercial guys were shut down on Fraser sockeye because the natives were fishing full tilt up the Fraser canyon & DFO was afraid for escapement.  Four of us decided to drive up the canyon in my buddies crew cab & check it out. Sure enough, lots of fish being loaded for transfer & sale on various size trucks.. No DFO fish cops or RCMP in site. Lots of natives. Not all our local smaller, rounder faced Coast Salish. Mixed in were big men with their hatchet faces & eagle beak noses. Had to be Mohawks, Cree or Ojibway. All dressed in camo. AK 47’s slung over their shoulders. Full banana clips & spares on their belts alongside hatchets & knives.  We turned the music off, didn’t say a word & kept on driving. Finally came to a spot on the highway where we could U turn with nobody around. Drove back through them eyes on the road & hands upon the wheel. When we got to Abbotsford stopped for the cheap gas & pop cause it was awful hot. One of the fellows said “I think we’re finished boys”. And we were.
- Natives from all over the world???? Would that include Russians? How about the Chinese? The Dutch? Not the ones living in Canada or the US (or South Africa) but last I checked most of Holland was still dutch. What about England? What about India?  This is silly talk. North American natives drive pick up trucks just like I do. They don’t know anything more about stewarding the land responsibly than I do. What they do know is that grievance politics pays.
- If that inconveniences too much anyone who arrived here without invitation, or finds it too much to handle, the door is open to return to live on the land of their ancestors, where everything is resolved.
- The Wetsuweten aboriginal “protesters” dont give two cow turds over a thin pipeline running through less than 0.05% of their undeveloped , empty, forested land…..they want more money.
The non aboriginals are a polyglot of anarchist luddites looking for any excuse to protest anything as they happily cash their govt subsidy cheques or use free medical govt facilities as the drive on govt roads and bridges to get to the nearest tattoo or piercing shop.  Hypocrites all on a creaky, overloaded ( if you’ll pardon the pun)bandwagon.
- Trudeau’s team of spin doctors cant find a way out of his ridiculous fantasy world of appeasing natives and green millenials protesters while spending 10 billion dollars on a pipeline for fuel to Asia.
He has proven to the electorate he doesnt have all the answers for everyone.  Not too smart when he’s sitting in Parliament with a minority govt….hanging on by his fingernails.
-  We’re all natives of somewhere. Natives aren’t restricted to Dances with Wolves.
- They exist, announce their claim with great pride (been there), yet know or have forgotten the rules and proceed to say the rules do not apply to them with circular reasoning.
- I don’t think anyone should get respect for what their ancestors did anymore than others should be blamed for what theirs did.
- Alberta Blockade Bill.  $25,000 fines or jail….Take your pick.
- More and more Canada looks like a failed state, a nation of two people’s: the elite and everyone else.
- You should really go visit a reserve and report back about your findings. Your fairytale view of native life will be shattered in so many ways it’ll make you cry.
- No Jurisdiction means Canada does not exist. Simple as. It’s helpful to have the lines drawn so clearly.
- What about their social programs? Care for their youth? All better than what we “settlers” do?
Have you visited a reserve? A northern reserve? An FN-run mine or gravel pit?  Please stop mistaking their ceremonial traditions for environmental excellence.  For the most part I believe First Nations want to be on equal footing with everyone else, socially and economically so why are we accepting a minority of rogues as the de facto speakers for an entire population? I realize it helps assuage some people’s misplaced feelings of guilt, but grow up.
- Canada comes with this unresolved baggage. If that inconveniences too much anyone who arrived here without invitation, or finds it too much to handle, the door is open to return to live on the land of their ancestors, where everything is resolved.
- Were the “aboriginal” immigrants invited here when they walked over from Siberia? Should they return to the land of their ancestors too ?
- The concept of ‘Lo, the noble savage’ was coined in England during the 19 century as a romantic ideal. Ideals rarely survive contact with reality.
-  What are we building?  Try to build an oil pipeline – No! Protest and cry like babies. Nothing gets built.Try to build a natural gas pipeline – No! Protest and cry like babies. Nothing gets built.Try to build a hydroelectric dam – No! Protest and cry like babies. Nothing gets built.What are we allowed to build in Canada?

The comments above certainly put an entirely new spin on the acronym:  IMHO...in my humble opinion.

...it sure does!

Secession? Them or Us?

The post heading is the first question that occurred to me as I read Diane Francis' article, reproduced below:

Rail blockades could turn into a full-blown secession crisis

    The government stand that it does not want to “inflame” the blockade situation is pure cowardice. The nation is being blackmailed and we must never agree to pay a ransom to appease a few bullies who are pressing dubious claims of having sovereignty that pre-dates confederation.

     As Ms Francis observes below, “Such lawlessness has been emboldened since 2015, when Trudeau decided the federal government would not enforce the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.”

 
     Having waived accountability, our government is shovelling funds to indigenous people. 2019-20 transfer spending for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada:

 

Transfer payments for Negotiations of Claims and Self-Government Agreements		$140,082,583
Transfer payments for Specific Claims		$683,719,699
Transfer payments for Management and Implementation of Agreements and Treaties		$1,016,898,027
Transfer payments for Consultation and Accommodation		$600,000
Transfer payments for Consultation and Policy Development		$33,080,295
Transfer payments for Federal Interlocutor's Contribution Program		$79,591,830
Transfer payments for Basic Organizational Capacity		$25,285,531
Transfer payments for First Nation Jurisdiction Over Land and Economic Development		$80,397,462
Transfer payments for Northern and Arctic Governance and Partnerships		$108,867,172
Transfer payments for Individual Affairs		$5,455,720
Transfer payments for Residential Schools Resolution		$1,000,000
Transfer payments for Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Business Development		$43,670,000
Transfer payments for Economic Development Capacity and Readiness		$99,174,478
Transfer payments for Land, Natural Resources and Environmental Management		$139,304,896
Transfer payments for Climate Change Adaptation and Clean Energy		$32,550,000
Transfer payments for Northern and Arctic Environmental Sustainability		$8,956,499
Transfer payments for Northern Contaminated Sites		$86,443,610
Transfer payments for Nutrition North		$95,317,628
	TOTAL	$2,680,395,430

 
Source is here.

     It appears that about $2 billion of the transfers are to offset legal costs incurred by Indigenous bands. In short, taxpayers are funding Indigenous tribes to sue us. Activists blocking highways and rail lines have good reason to believe the federal government will not hold them to account. This illusion can be dealt with.
    Start with arresting and detaining all protestors who engage in the disruption of or access to government or private services. Make a peace bond a condition of bail. Do not impose fines; require a few hundred hours of community service with the alternative of time in jail.
     Indigenous hereditary chiefs are trying to impose 17^th century rule by kings on a portion of Canada. Like their counterparts in Europe and Africa they live in obscurity dreaming of a day when they can exercise the powers of their ancestors. Royalty in a democracy has a tough road to travel.
     Claims by hereditary chiefs that their sovereignty precedes confederation and “colonial law” repeals the human and charter rights of the people living on the lands claimed and negates the common law protections for order and peace.
     A successful claim by hereditary chiefs would mean that residents in the area would receive no services or support from the federal and provincial governments they refuse to recognize. Imposing a royal prerogative cuts two ways.
     There can be no negotiations with hereditary indigenous chiefs until they can prove conclusively that most residents living on the land that they claim accept the chiefs as their leaders. 
     Land claims are one thing and can be argued in court. Claims that inherited rights include the rule of people under royal entitlement is not acceptable in any free world nation. Too much blood has been shed to break the arbitrary rule of kings for us to ever go back to those horrors.

and Trudeau's government is to blame
 
Five years of pandering and subsidizing 632 First Nations leaders has led to this catastrophe
 
DianeFrancis
National Post
February 13, 2020
 
     The illegal road and rail blockades perpetrated by Indigenous radicals across the country are not about pipelines or fossil fuels. It’s an existential threat to Canada and its sovereignty — and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is to blame.

     Five years of pandering and subsidizing 632 First Nations leaders has led to this catastrophe, which is being spearheaded by five unelected hereditary chiefs in British Columbia who claim their nation — the Wet’suwet’en — is exempt from Canadian laws and regulations. They claim sovereignty over a 22,000-square-kilometre swath of land, an area the size of Israel, and have successfully invoked nationwide solidarity protests that have crippled portions of the country’s rail system.

     Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders and their accomplices have defied court orders and ignored agreements signed by 20 band councils, including their own. The issue at hand is the building of a 670-kilometre gas pipeline to a $40-billion LNG plant on the coast, but at stake is the future of Canada itself.

     On Dec. 31, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered protesters to allow workers access to a remote logging road in northern B.C. But Wet’suwet’en activists continued to block the road and, days later, 28 were arrested (six of whom were released without charges). Now, dozens of arrests have followed across the country.

     Such lawlessness has been emboldened since 2015, when Trudeau decided the federal government would not enforce the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. The law requires Indigenous leaders, often inherited chiefs, to be accountable and transparent by forcing them to publish audits of band expenses, including their compensation. Along the way, Ottawa has also sidestepped disputes involving corruption, rigged elections, no elections, nepotism and charter rights violations.

     By ceding its oversight powers to band chiefs and councils, without checks and balances, or any semblance of accountability, the feds have allowed the rights of the Indigenous people who fall under the control of these chiefs and councils to be trampled upon, according to Indigenous lawyer and activist Catherine Twinn. Now, the rights of all Canadians are being trampled on.
 
     Read on: https://nationalpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-rail-blockades-could-turn-into-a-full-blown-secession-crisis-and-trudeaus-government-is-to-blame/wcm/37ffc56a-86d4-45ba-bdbb-64b5cb5c56bb 

We must prepare to cast informed votes in the next election. Political parties are not credible or truthful during an election. Their sales pitches do not reflect their performance since the last election. That performance is what counts.

John Feldsted Political commentator, consultant & strategist Winnipeg, Manitoba   To subscribe: https://mailchi.mp/cfabc3018c46/feldsted-friends

First Nations Financial Transparency Act...the Myth!


I ask again...Them?  or Us?