55 Replies to “Emergency At Attawapiskat”

  1. “…Just reading it will make you a racist.”
    On the contrary, for me it reinforces that Indians, Inuit, and Metis should be treated the same as every other race of people in this country, no special privileges. That makes me a NON-racist.
    It’s the current paternalistic system that is racist by-definition, and until we accept that and agree that it is fundamentally wrong, we will never be able to move forward from said failed system.

  2. You are a racist Kate, not necessarily by virtue of the above, but by your past posts which suggest that ‘race’ exclusive genetics account for intelligence, levels of violence, etc.

  3. Along this line,Joan Crockett was blunt tonite on P&P,spoke about the on-reserve homes being ‘trashed’…the outrage from Gerard Kennedy,and Evan was palpable.John Ivison agreed with her.

  4. Is it racist to assume people should be able to take care of themselves with 19 million dollars going to their reserve?
    Or is it racist to assume they cannot take care of themselves because they live on the reserve, therefore we must solve all their problems for them??
    Can you see the difference Jen?

  6. “You are a racist Kate, ….levels of violence, etc.
    Jen, I’m guessing you’ll always see what you expect to see. This post was put up to test you. Sort of like a Rorschach test.

  7. It seems to me that natives want the best of both worlds – they want the land left alone (no mining, hydro, oil, etc. unless they get big payments, of course) so that they can enjoy it in their “traditional” ways, but at the same time, they want all the modern conveniences of TV, electricity, internet, SUV’s, health care, etc., etc.
    They’ve had over 400 years to assimilate, and they haven’t done so; instead, they just try to guilt the rest of Canada into payoffs. I’m sick of it. Either get with the program, or get left even further behind. Cut the funding now, publicize the numbers so people can see exactly how some “chiefs” are ripping off both their own people and Canadians, and put a sunset provision into any further funding. I hope in another 20 years, we can shut down the whole aboriginal ministry.

  8. In the mid-70s I flew into Northern Ontario reserves on a regular basis. They were absolutely disfunctional communities way back then, and it doesn’t appear as if they have changed a bit – I take that back; now they are probably worse now.
    What hasn’t changed a bit is that everyone with the responsibilty and authority to change things are still doing the three monkeys routine: pretending the problems aren’t there or pointing fingers outward instead of inwards.
    No guts, no honesty, no desire to truly help their fellow human beings.

  10. Frankly, we don’t owe Indians anything. They gave us cigarettes. We gave them booze.
    Bon mots abound.

  12. ” It is pointless to bitch about why they don’t change for the sake of our convenience, and come work in our farms and factories for minimum wages (on top of the ugly history). On other hand, the current system of bribery and confinement does not work. Perhaps, we should let them roam free again and tend for themselves with some regulations, but that idea freaks the hell of Canadians…”
    This comment from Shaidle’s link exemplifies how impossible it is to solve the problem when so many have this romantic notion that the Indians are “Noble Savages” who can survive all on their own, and that White Man’s society is the real villain.
    Let ’em roam free,they’d starve to death,most don’t know how to hunt and trap anymore.
    As another post said, “the Mohawk iron workers seemed to have no problem assimilating”.
    And neither have many Indians who have left the corruption of the Rez and found gainful employment where the jobs are.

  13. Well, I read that Shaidle piece and now I feel like running outside in a bed sheet and burning a cross on the front lawn. Yeeeeehaw!
    I have an idea though. What if we just cut out all the BS and treated the Indians EXACTLY THE SAME as we treat White Anglo Saxon Protestants like myself?
    Oh, and maybe incarcerate forever the guy on the Attawapiskat reserve with the really nice house, three pickup trucks and five skidoos. Just to encourage the others, yknow.

  14. I confess, I too, was watching “power and politics” today (keep your enemies close) and heard Joan Crocketts comment about the lifespan of a reserve house. Finally, someone actually said it, out loud, on cbc no less. The instantateous howls of outrage and disbelief from Solomon and co. was equally entertaining, “was it substandard construction?”, “check your facts” etc.These people have obviously never been anywhere near a reserve when the cameras aren’t rolling or talked to any who was. Thank you Joan.

  15. Who are they going to blame once the White man is the minority? Where will they get money from? The Chinese, Muslims, or Jamacians? Good luck with that lol.

  17. It’s simple: stop subsidizing poverty and more importantly, get the government out of the way of private land ownership and reserve development. Not that I expect much anything from PM Status Quo Steve.

  18. How about that Bob Rare quote from today, where he screamed at Harper for the outrage of suggesting the people of Attawapiskat should be held responsible for anything…

  20. a take at restating Jen’s post: if you note or expect different performance levels in intelligence tests, cancer or disease susceptibility, job market participation, government handout acceptance rates, likelihood of a society to be civilized, or hereditary diseases then you’re a “racist” because you note that race can play a role in how things turn out. If, on the other hand, you expect that all people of a race should think the same way then you’re a liberal so you can’t be a racist. Better?

  21. Granted Kathy Shaidle and Laurie Gough have decidedly different styles, the message is eerily similar.
    Money for nothing isn’t a sollution, it’s a problem and more than one way.
    Consider the costs government incurred just dispensing the money that seems to have been pissed away. I bet they squandered just as much.
    The Rez…perpetuating a permanent underclass and a professional class who “care” for them.
    How symbiotic…

  22. Canadian natives historically lived in a socialist society. Life was harsh until they were able to trade goods with the Europeans. I wonder to what extent their demand for alcohol was because this was an item they could enjoy for themselves and, as long as they’d drink quickly enough, would not be obligated to share with everyone else.

  23. A few years ago I spent time fishing in far northern Sask. It was enlightening to hear my Dene guides (who lived off-reserve and made damn good money guiding) talk about the trashed reserve housing… Windows and walls knocked out so horses could drink from the bathtub, that kind of thing. They talked about $90K-plus houses that were absolutely unliveable within two years of construction.

  24. I was an auditor of indian bands in Northwestern Ontario during the early 80’s. One band I audited received $60,000 per year for every man, woman and child on the reserve, and that’s just from the Feds. Remember this was 30 years ago. Yet, most families on this reserve lived in huts. Dirt floors, maybe plastic over the windows, and a wood stove. Also, each family had a charge account with the local general store (I won’t mention the name because my sister-in-law married a Hudson). Ridiculous then, ridiculous now. Accountability and transparency – the sooner the better.

  25. “… I wonder to what extent their demand for alcohol was because this was an item they could enjoy for themselves and, as long as they’d drink quickly enough, would not be obligated to share with everyone else…”
    Interesting possibility …

  26. I can remember as a kid back in the 60s of what the rez was like in northern Quebec….
    …an old woman sitting on the porch smoking a pipe while the canvas flap over the doorway, minus a door, blew in the breeze. The bathtub was outside for the horse to drink out of. Plywood covered some of the windows but not all.
    Fast forward to the 90s and 00s in Labrador, Alberta and the NWT. Nothing has changed…flew into Hopedale and it was only marginally better. The ones that came into Yellowknife for medical and dental appointments didn’t really take it seriosuly whether the appointment was for them or a child…there was a liquor store and bars….very sad really. For what its worth, I have never seen a whiteman or a blackman or a yellowman frozen to the sidewalk after having pissed themselves while passed out at -40 but I’ve seen them chipping a redman and redwoman off of the sidewalk more times than I care to remember.
    And ya know what else? I know folks of native ancestery who have retained their culture while embracing all that Canadian society has to offer. They are as miffed as I at their peers.
    So, for the better part of 50 years, I have lived on the peripheral edge of the first nations culture. I have my opinion of them and have been called a racist…ya know what? I don’t care anymore..either join the new millenium or die in the old ways.

  27. Even if you don’t trash your own house others often will. It’s a free-for-all. My wife’s family moved off the rez years ago, this was one of the reasons.
    Things appear to be getting worse not better.

  28. I lived briefly in a northern community and what Miss Gough described is EXACTLY what I saw. It was truly a madhouse that no money could ever fix.
    If you want to help, give them NOTHING. People either care about their destinies or they don’t. Leaving aboriginals in their northern ghettos does nothing to fix the problem. The white liberals have one of their victim-card groups out-of-mind and out-of-sight, the chiefs would gladly screw over their own people, the reserves have their own apartheid state and the aboriginals who DO leave make good lives for themselves. If we stopped throwing away money, the chiefs couldn’t be greedy buggers. People who do want to leave will do so and work hard to make a good life for themselves and their kids. Those who don’t will perish. The racism and elitism white liberals think doesn’t exist on reserves will eventually wither when there are fewer people under the proverbial thumb.

  29. I went to high school right near a reserve and 40% of the students were natives. 4 native students graduated in my class of over 100 students. I’m not making it up. The thing that shocked me was it wasn’t for lack of intelligence or even drive! It wasn’t cool to graduate. So sad to see. Someone has to figure out how to stop this cycle.

  30. Knight/Iron Man…I heard that outrageous rant from Boob Rae…if someone has the capability I think we should get a link to it.
    His racism was apparent and Jen needs to see the difference.

  31. I remember reading the piece Gough published in the Post. What stuck with me most were the astounding letters they published afterwards. These tended to be along the lines of “a little girl threw her own feces at you in the classroom? Ha ha! Good for her you snotty white… etc.” In the article itself Gough came off as a sincere, selfless person, not arrogant, just someone who honestly wanted to help, and no reader’s impression of her personality could have inspired that kind of viciousness; what p*ssed off the letter writers was the fact that she criticized The System. (I don’t know whether most of these responses came from Indians or not. I’m not sure it matters.)
    It was reading Gough’s article and the following comments that convinced me that no reform of the reserve system is possible politically in Canada.
    (Jen’s apparently upset about IQ results and what they mean and such, which is a whole different topic.)

  32. For what it’s worth, the natives I’ve spoken with about these issues, both formally and informally, state that the main problem is corruption at the leadership(chief)level.
    The results of native self governance will not be realized for at least 20 years. If the outcome is not positive, the only option left will be assimilation. I hope the natives end up being successful in addressing the corruptness within their leadership and their specific social and economic issues-everyone of us would benefit.

  34. “They’ve had over 400 years to assimilate, and they haven’t done so”
    Or so they think. They value the same consumer goods. The main difference is that most whites work and most reserve natives live on non-existent treaty rights that they have convinced liberal Whitey to buy into.

  36. Nearly every native community I’ve visited across northern Canada has a huge disparity between rich and poor, directly related to how closely one is related to the Chief and Band Council members. It’s been that way for so many generations that it’s a de-facto tradition.
    The “$50,000/family of four” statistic assumes equal distribution and that’s not what happens at all. What our society might regard as nepotism and corruption isn’t viewed the same in their society. It’s looking after their clan first, just like it’s always been.
    It was easy for the previous federal governments to turn a blind eye to this. After all, what Province did most of our recent Prime Ministers come from? Similar traditions are entrenched in the culture of their Province.
    Not all native groups are capable of self government to standards that taxpayers would consider acceptable. A lot more accountability, transparency and public scrutiny is needed. Any payment to anyone from the government for any reason must be open to the public, that includes salaries and benefits of all government employees, Crown Corporation employees, and native government administrations.

  38. The problem, as usual, is mainly with the unelected bureaucrats that really run the country. They are and always have been more concerned with siphoning off their unassailable salaries and pensions from “managing” massive wealth transfers than with actually helping natives. Just watch how fast any entrepreneurial initiative that involves bands gets shot down. Or try and see how much red tape is involved in actually getting a rez kid through university.

  39. I’ve got an idea. Cut them off. I don’t care who you are or who your ancestors were but no one here has a monopoly on suffering and people have had to adapt to survive. That should go QUADRUPLE for the aboriginals.

  42. ‘race’ exclusive genetics account for intelligence, levels of violence, etc.
    Nope.
    It’s the culture.
    Now if the culture is race specific to a certain degree then whose fault is that when Indians can’t escape their cultural ghetto?
    1969 White Paper
    by Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chretien
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_White_Paper

  43. “They’ve had over 400 years to assimilate, and they haven’t done so”
    No, apparently Europeans have.
    Potlatch.

  45. @ Revnant Dream at November 29, 2011 8:17 PM
    Very true. In less than 40 years with no change in our immigration policies whites will be a minority in this country. Then no one will give a rats ass about the indians.I hope for their sake thay can see the future too. The fact that they want every amenity the white man has to offer but want to remain distinct and special won’t carry a lot of sympathy in the future. It shouldn’t now.
    Welcome to the 21 st century. Get a life’ get a job and get out of our wallets.

  46. So unfair for the kids.
    Laurie Gough is right about that.
    As in any dysfunctional welfare environment, the kids are suffering and learning to repeat the cycle.

  48. @ flaunagirl
    Kids don’t know they are suffering. What they see in their parents is normal to them. Your thinking is what got the government into all kinds of trouble when they took those “poor” kids away from their parents and tried to turn them into “normal” white kids. The government is still apologizing for that and the indians are still demanding ransom money for destroying their culture. Mentally they are still living in 1811 but have glorified it to the point where they feel they have lost a way of life. Nothing stopping them from going back to that kind of life except reality. They just haven’t learned what most of us already know. You can never go back. We continue to pay for their fairy tale existence and how we destroyed their noble way of life. In reality it was never there. The “poor” dysfunctional children are the pride of the dysfunctional parents and to interfere would mean more apologies in the future. The nuts don’t fall far from the tree . All cute little children turn into teenagers and then adults. Eventually the adults will make decisions that will change the mentality of their children. That’s still somewhere in the future. For now, the children are just what the parents want them to be. The kids will only suffer if we haven’t learned lessons from the past and intervene.

  50. How do you top getting an endless supply of money from those who pay taxes and keep the country going?
    Setting up houses and equipping them on so-called reserves in some remote, God forsaken place is like setting up bowling pins, they seem to have a short stand in many cases, get struck down and decrepit through neglect and the call for help to set ’em up again seems to be the routine.
    The beat goes on…….

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