The current band council and Chief Theresa Spence, who gained national attention for fasting on Victoria Island during the height of the Idle No More protests, are requiring ballots to be cast in person on the reserve Tuesday, making it difficult for band members who live outside the remote northern Cree community to have a say in Attawapiskat’s leadership.
As a farmboy, one of the things I learned is that you cannot pull a pig out of the trough while it is feeding; it won’t leave until the trough is empty.
Theresa and her boyfriend have a good scam going. They won’t allow a fair election that would end their cash flow.
I am not sure why members off the reserve should have a vote. The ones that left are the smart ones but they don’t have to live under whichever incompetent council they elect.
…to get the mail-in ballots and send them out all over the country: it would be almost $10,000.”
Let’s see:
1862/3351 = 56% of band members live on res;
44% X 2166 = 954 eligible voters live off res (approx.);
$10,000/954 = $10.48 per mail-in ballot.
Sounds like Attawapiskat accounting; better ask for a government grant.
The article fails to mention how many elected positions are open.The last I heard,Attawapiskat had 18 Band Councillors and three Chiefs, to govern a Band of 1800 people.
I suppose there’s no rule against having as many Councillors and Chiefs as they want, but it seems particularly wasteful in a Band that is deeply in debt.
Westbank FN,with a population of about 6000,and massive commercial and residential development,has one Chief and four Band Councillors.
I wonder where Charlie Angus is these days.
Between 2006 and 2011, the Attawapiskat received (bled) $105 million from the Canadian taxpayer. And 10 grand for mail-in ballots is just too expensive? I suggest it’s 10 grand that they’d not be able to stick in their pockets. They’re thieves and extortionists. Period.
It’s long past time we got rid of the Reservation system, they’re ripe for abuse of all sorts not he least of which is abuse of taxpayers dollars that flow into their bottomless pits while their laughing at us.
As for Charlie Angus, the Big Wind from the riding that contains Attawapiskat,he’s just resting up so he can demand more money be spent in Theresa’s Fiefdom.
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“scar says… I am not sure why members off the reserve should have a vote.”
why? is being an aboriginal band member a geographical thing?
the latest estimates are that the federal government spends 10 to 12 billion dollars per year to maintain the reservation system. given the general crime, outrageous levels of corruption, substance abuse, child mortality & family violence… maybe taxpaying canadians should have a vote too.
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Band financial accountability kicks in next year with full auditing. I doubt they get much co-operation.
…is being an aboriginal band member a geographical thing?
I think it’s a pseudo-ownership thing, each band member has a right to occupy the reservation land just as other Canadians have a right to occupy the land they pseudo-own in other municipalities. In municipal elections residency is not a requirement for voting.
I they don’t vote this porker out they deserve what they get – pul the plug on fed funding of this klepto trough guzzler.
If they don’t vote this porker out they deserve what they get…
Occam, I tend to agree but there is a bit of victim-blaming involved. For example if Justin becomes the next Prime Minister, will you and I deserve what we got?
” acting chief Christopher Kataquapit said he couldn’t discuss details of Tuesday’s election and wasn’t available for an interview.
A representative at the Attawapiskat band office Monday said no one from council was available for an interview. There was no answer Monday at the home of Spence.”
I speculated way back in April that Spence and her beau may have suffered an electoral defeat while on the spring goose hunt.
Since that time,she has not been in the news. The Thunder Bay news,nothing.
http://www.netnewsledger.com/news/aboriginal/
APTN,same nothing.
http://aptn.ca/pages/news/
In fact,Theresa of Attawapiskat has not even found a camera on her own.
Does Charlie Angus ,her best friend forever know where she is? How about Justin or Carolyn,or any of the gladhanders that flocked to photo-ops with her? Has the CBC forgotten her?
The ones that left are the smart ones … or the ones that were forced to leave by the criminals in charge.
In either case … who cares? Except the criminals in charge who stand to loose because of those “off rez” voters….
I think there’s a difference between “fasting” and “eating fast”.
Agree, but don’t hold your breath. Trudeau thought about with his commission white paper and Chretien tried to open negotiations, but the hew and cry was so great that they dropped the effort. PM Harper is trying to whittle around the edges in a few areas and the opposition parties in order to get votes and the UN immediately scream racist blue murder. The gravy train for the bureaucrats FN leaders like Spence will continue on indefinitely.
in the USA not only is residence not required, breathing is not required, as long as you vote democrap. Land of the voting dead!!!!
Canadians will have to take decisive action soon, before rapid population growth and inflationary pressure make the cost of supporting native communities completely unsustainable.
According to statsCan, just under 1 million Canadians self-identify as natives, and of those, over 600 thousand are “full status” Indians.
It’s hard to figure out exactly what the cost to taxpayers is, but in the case of Attawapiskat, the 100 million dollars over four years, (so let’s say $14K per person per year), is actually only a part of the true cost. This does not include the lost revenue in taxation, or indirect support costs, like the subsidies to the airlines that operate there, or the subsidies for government services and other indirect costs like hardship pay for the civil servants who work in these communities. Nor does this factor in the costs borne by the provinces, which are responsible for the delivery of health services and education, (Indian Affairs still expects provinces to chip in).
I have also wondered if this includes the bi-annual air fares for all residents for their shopping excursions to Timmins.
I frankly believe that when you factor everything in, Indian Affairs’ 8 billion dollar budget is only a small fraction of the cost to taxpayers. What happens 15 years from now when we are supporting 900 thousand or perhaps over a million persons instead of 600 thousand?
Reserves are an unsustainable mess. They cost many times more to maintain than any comparable suburban neighbourhood, and they contribute absolutely nothing to the citizens who are compelled to sustain them. And no, I don’t think that their “cultural contribution” is a fair exchange for cash.
I know that live is very difficult on many reserves, but I’m less and less convinced that it should be my problem.
Actually, $10 per ballot sounds like a reasonable handling cost, if you factor in the effort required to manage and process all of the returns. I’m not sure I’d consider it “really expensive”, though.
The opposition, the CBC and other media twits flocked to the Chubby Chief’s tent was another attempt to get at and discredit PM Harper.In the end they all looked like the fools they are.
The reserve system is not sustainable, something has to give besides taxpayers’ money going into a bottomless pit with no respect shown in return.