Beijing is targeting Canada’s First Nations leaders with intelligence operations based on tourism that are aimed at securing Aboriginal-controlled natural resources, a Top Secret report from Ottawa’s intelligence-review watchdog NSICOP says.
Additionally, Beijing funded a British Columbia provincial candidate and its Consul General in Vancouver took actions to cover up the candidate’s “possible Chinese Communist Party membership,” NSICOP’s June 2019 draft report alleges.
The Bureau exclusively obtained NSICOP’s unredacted, 2019 report on foreign interference, which details China’s pervasive operations to bribe, coerce and co-opt Canadian leaders at all levels of government.[…]
“Many of the same tactics used to target elected officials at the federal level are replicated with provincial, municipal, and indigenous officials,” the June 2019 NSICOP report obtained by The Bureau says.
Canada’s Aboriginal leaders — and the tension between federal and First Nations jurisdictions over natural resources in northern Canada — are an unexplored aspect of the Chinese interference story.
But the 2019 NSICOP report demonstrates crucial national security issues at stake.
It suggests Beijing is seeking clandestine relationships with First Nations leaders under false pretences in order to control Canada’s strategic resources in areas of increasing geopolitical importance.
“In late 2011, China invited a national-level group of Aboriginal leaders to travel to China. A CSIS assessment noted that the invitation was advertised as an opportunity to develop tourism for First Nations,” NSICOP’s report says.
“According to a Minister Counsellor at the PRC Embassy, the tourism opportunity was merely “beipian” (Mandarin for ‘to be fooled’) and that the true intention of the invitation was to pursue Aboriginal-controlled natural resources.”
Expensive Sins
If treaty payments in the neighborhood of $126 billion don’t sink the Canadian economy, I don’t know what would. While it’s true that the annual per person treaty payments are very low, why wouldn’t a court also take into account the mushrooming budget for the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs which made such payments redundant over many decades?
In a unanimous ruling, the panel of nine judges declared both Canada and Ontario had “dishonourably breached” their obligations under the Robinson Treaties signed with the Anishinaabe of Lake Huron and Lake Superior in 1850.
Harley Schacter, a lawyer for Red Rock First Nation and Whitesand First Nation which started the group’s fight back in 2001, told reporters on Friday he believes his clients are owed “a couple of billion to as much as $126 billion.”
“It’s a victory for everybody.”
Everybody, that is, with the exception of taxpayers.
Decolonizing The Friendly Skies
Some days I’m floored at how many nonsensical concepts can be packed into one article, but someone seems to have outdone themselves once again. These folks might want to take a step back from the race baiting mill and acknowledge the benefits of a technology that exists thanks to a culture of entrepreneurship and individual rights that they routinely conflate with colonial oppression.
“It’s really a decolonial effort where it returns the power into our hands so that we can again assert our own self-determination, determine how it unfolds within our region,” said Jacob Taylor.
“There have been no treaties signed for the sky, so Indigenous people have an inherent right to participate in the aerospace industry.”
Unlimited Demands
Sorry, but having to work within the confines of a budget is not part of a plot set up by evil colonialists to destroy you. Whoever came up with this number probably assessed the progress so far and decided that it was time to get back to reality. Proper investigation would entail forensic excavation and the affected parties seem to be doing everything to avoid exactly that.
David Monias, chief of Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Manitoba, was on the Zoom call.
“I am profoundly dismayed by the Canadian government’s decision to impose a cap of $500,000 per year on funds allocated for unmarked residential school burials,” he said.
“This reduction is not only inadequate but reflects a troubling denialism regarding the true scale and significance of this issue. It is essential to recognize that these burial sites are crime scenes, and as such, they must be protected, preserved, and properly investigated.”
Rewriting History
It’s anyone’s guess as to what this latest apology entails, but I’m sure it includes large monetary payments. What’s more bizarre is that the recipients didn’t originate in Canada, but in the United States.
As detailed in this more balanced article, the Sioux and Lakota were properly considered refugees, not original inhabitants.
The government appears to have granted these refugee-American-Indians full rights under Section 35, meaning that multi-billion-dollar land claims and reparation demands are imminent. Many Indigenous speakers at the press conference stated that the Dakota/Lakota and other tribes were already on their traditional lands when they escaped into Canada, a fact disputed by the foregoing evidence from the official North West Mounted Police history.
Anomaly Abuse
The only real anomaly in this narrative is the fact that certain political leaders do not understand the concept of evidence.
A search of the grounds of a former residential school in northern Manitoba has uncovered 187 anomalies, according to First Nation leaders.
To know for sure what the anomalies are, Monias said the sites would have to be excavated and DNA testing would be required.
To do that, he said the First Nation would need funding from the federal government.
In what universe would the discovery of a potential crime scene require federal funding prior to investigation?
Evidence Is Just A Tool Of Colonial Oppression
When it comes to abuses suffered by indigenous school kids boarded in private homes, it’s apparently not the job of the mainstream media to actually investigate such claims, but rather to accept them uncritically. Anything beyond that would just delay the writing of cheques by the federal government, or so it would seem.
Now, the suffering of boarding home survivors is being recognized and compensated under a Federal Court-approved $1.9-billion settlement agreement with Ottawa.
Survivors are also allowed to submit more than one claim — the first to get $10,000 for attending a boarding home, and a second for additional compensation based on the abuse suffered.
But like the day school settlement, and unlike the residential school claims process, the claims process for boarding home survivors is entirely paper-based and won’t involve hearings with lawyers.
No Payments, No Interest, Forever
You don’t have to dig far into the details to find out that this “loan” is really just a giveaway, or, in modern parlance, a “special-purpose vehicle”.
The government sent a letter to First Nations groups last year proposing a special-purpose vehicle that would hold a stake in the pipeline, and individual groups would be able to choose whether to opt in. For those that want a piece of the action, the government intends to provide risk-free access to capital, the letter said, without providing details such as how big of a stake it would sell.
A Nation of Rent Seekers
If someone’s going to question whether a $510 million legal fee is excessive or not, why not ask the same question about the $10 billion settlement that triggered the fees in the first place?
Two First Nations have launched a court application against the lawyers who helped bring forward a $10-billion settlement with Canada and Ontario, saying the $510 million they’re set to be paid is too much.
“The legal fee is extremely over-the-top,” said Garden River First Nation Chief Karen Bell.
She said she has an “obligation to seek accountability and transparency,” and the application should not disrupt payments to beneficiaries. Those payments are scheduled to start flowing in August.
We Are All Treaty People
And some people are more treaty than others: Did you know about the British Columbia’s quiet plan to co-manage all public lands with provincial First Nations? Robin Junger talks to Mike about the B.C. NDP’s new economy-destroying legislation.
Canfor has announced the permanent closure of its Polar sawmill in Bear Lake, BC, the suspension of its planned reinvestment in Houston. This follows the announcement that one line of production will be indefinitely curtailed at the Northwood Pulp Mill.
h/t Trace
The Broken Record
You could erase the dates in this article and aside from the monetary amounts there would be no way to tell whether it was written today or 5, 10, 20 or 50 years ago. No half-awake thinker need be perpetually stumped as to why an economic system premised on the Soviet model doesn’t suddenly produce great outcomes. Note to Canada’s developers of aboriginal policy: stop banging your head against the wall.
“Time after time, whether in housing, policing, safe drinking water or other critical areas, our audits of federal programs to support Canada’s Indigenous Peoples reveal a distressing and persistent pattern of failure,” Hogan said at a press conference Tuesday.
“The lack of progress clearly demonstrates that the government’s passive, siloed approach is ineffective, and, in fact, contradicts the spirit of true reconciliation.”
It’s the fourth time since 2003 that the auditor general has held the government responsible for unsafe and unsuitable First Nations housing.
The Libranos: Just Another Day In Bananada
Blacklocks (paywalled) – MPs yesterday summoned Defence Minister Bill Blair for questioning on how an employee became a millionaire while moonlighting as an Indigenous contractor. Members of the Commons government operations committee gave Blair until month’s end to appear for cross-examination: “It is wrong.”
Related: Video
Kristian Firth of GC Strategies admits in committee to meeting various government officials outside of a work setting – allegations that he previously denied.
Conservative Michael Barrett: That sir, and you can check with your lawyer or with a dictionary, is a lie. It’s perjury.
YOU get a Ski-Doo! and YOU get a Ski-Doo!
The Libranos: ArriveScam
It is right on his LinkedIn that ArriveCAN contractor David Yeo, President of Dalian, works for the Department of National Defence. He has worked for the DND for *37* years – since 1987.
They just figured out he’s a federal employee that also won massive contracts? For real?
To complete the trifecta of corruption, enter Chief Big Screen TV.
The Globe and Mail first reported that the company presents itself as Indigenous-owned and together with another company, Coradix, worked on the ArriveCan app. According to the Globe, the two companies are in receipt of $400 million in government contracts.
Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu yesterday announced a review of how it awards contracts to Indigenous-owned businesses. The government’s policy is that five percent of the total value of government contracts go to Indigenous businesses by 2024.
Missing And Misappropriated Aboriginal Money?
If your reserve was sitting on substantial oil and gas deposits you’d have to have pretty lousy management to lose track of $120 million, but accountability is probably an outdated artifact of the colonial mindset anyway.
Public financial reports for Frog Lake First Nation show the band is short $120 million in net assets over a five-year time period between 2013 and 2018.
The records show the band-owned business called Frog Lake Energy Resources has been losing millions of dollars since 2015.
APTN reached out the current Chief Greg Desjarlais and initially agreed to an interview but later cancelled.
In a virtual meeting with community members he says that an audit is unnecessary.
Grave Error
At the Western Standard;
Having lived at two residential schools when he was a university student in the mid-sixties, Clifton is Canada’s senior statesman about indigenous affairs.
He and Professor Rouillard take us from ground-zero at KIRS two and a half years ago, when the suggestion of burials had some mandarins, journalists and pundits convinced that it was a mass grave containing pupils from the school.
This revelation initiated a spiral of false claims which shook the world and caused moral panic among Canadians the likes of which has not been seen since the last world war.
And yet there is no evidence to substantiate the allegations that otherwise benign people, priests, nuns, teachers and staff at residential schools across Canada had a hand in malfeasance.
In fact, in every chapter, Grave Error puts the boots to false allegations. The handful of exhumations that have taken place — mind you, not at KIRS — have given up not so much as a missing shoelace.
I, Pocohontas
Canadians are so racist people pretend to be Indians.
A Canadian news documentary airing at the end of the week focuses on the Native identity claims of one of the most celebrated performers in entertainment history.
Titled “Making an Icon,” the description for the upcoming episode of The Fifth Estate on CBC News does not mention the name of the subject. But multiple Native people who took part in the documentary process told Indianz.Com that it’s about Buffy Sainte-Marie, whose decades-long career in music, television and education rests on her claim of being Cree from the Piapot Cree Nation, one of the First Nations in the province of Saskatchewan.
“An icon’s claims to Indigenous ancestry are being called into question by family members and an investigation that included genealogical documentation, historical research and personal accounts,” the description for the October 27 episode reads.
The documentary comes at a defining time for a performer whose life has been filled with groundbreaking moments. On August 3, Sainte-Marie, who turned 82 earlier this year, surprised her followers by declaring her “retirement from live performance. The announcement cited “travel-induced health concerns and performance-inhibiting physical challenges” facing the aging musician. […]
But the Native people who participated in CBC’s documentary process believe Sainte-Marie’s decision to step away from the spotlight is directly connected to the questions about her First Nations identity. According to the sources, work on the hour-long episode began more than a year ago and it grew to include interviews with individuals in the United States, where the performer was raised following claims to have been born in Canada and adopted out of Piapot.
Due to the lengthy production time associated with the CBC project, Sainte-Marie would have been well aware of the nature of the documentary — especially of its potential to unravel a career that began in the 1960s, the people said. The award-winning singer and songwriter has largely remained silent about her retirement decision, with no significant interviews appearing in mainstream media since her announcement more than two months ago.
Power To The People
Truth And Reconciliation
Normally, I oppose the prosecution of decades old “historical” sex offense charges as fundamentally unfair to the accused. But given the current culture of truth and “reconciliation”…
A First Nations leader and reconciliation spokesman in Saskatchewan has been accused of sex crimes dating back two decades.
Theodore (Ted) Quewezance, a residential school survivor and former chief of Keeseekoose First Nation, was scheduled to appear in Kamsack provincial court Tuesday charged with four historical sex offences.
Keeseekoose is a Saulteaux community in southeastern Saskatchewan, located about 20 km north of Kamsack.
Court documents obtained by APTN News show Quewezance is charged with single counts of sexual assault, touching a young person under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose, counselling a person under 16 to touch for a sexual purpose, and being in a position of trust while counselling a person under 16 years to touch for a sexual purpose.
The documents show the alleged offences involve a male victim who was a minor on Keeseekoose First Nation between September 1997 and September 2004.
h/t Kelly, who adds – The person in question also ran as a federal Liberal candidate in Yorkton-Melville
Shovels 1 – Knowledge Keepers 0
Jonathan Kay delivers the grim news.
A group called Mohawk Mothers has been seeking to delay/block McGill U’s “New Vic” project in Montreal—based on claims of secret burials & unmarked Indigenous graves on the site. Today, @mcgillu’s provost reported that no graves were found, including in areas identified by GPR. (no word yet on whether McGill’s leadership team will be indicted on charges of “denialism”)
The determined Mothers aren’t about to let colonialist concepts like “facts” stop them.