1  2  3  4  Next

Title: Conditions on reserves have worsened, AG says
Category: Political
Posted By: BeaverFever
Date: 2011-06-09 11:35:04
Canadian

   

hmm, I guess the chiefs are stealing even more money than usual.

   

   

Many reserves are never going to be in good shape. There's just no economic justification for them, so they'll always be welfare enclaves. We don't pay white welfare people enough, why should we pay more to red people? For those reserves who are next to white populations and can find some economic activity, they should take a page out of Chief Louie of the Osoyoos band. They are dong very well, average wage of their businesses is $20. but his motto is "you don't work you don't get any money." Other bands should try some of that, or move to where they can find jobs, not just sit in the hinterland and complain.

   

wow, I am completely floored by your insightful and persuasive rebuttal.

til then..

   

So instead of the feds giving them blankets they are giving them water that is toxic.

This reminds me of the planet money story about a school in Haiti. They had a school that was in such dire straits that people wanted to donate money to help them as all they wanted were a few books for the kids. When the donation came in though it was so much money that the principal decided to make a whole new school. This had the same effect as when the US troops liberated the German concentration camps and started to feed the survivors they ended up killing them. The principal ended up with a huge hole in the ground with nothing to show for it as he had no skill in actually building it.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/11/ ... t-in-haiti

Blaming the Chiefs though is ignoring the elephant in the room, the federal programs themselves. They are poorly designed and out of date and need to be phased out with effective policy. Till that is done we are just making the problem worse by throwing money at it.

   

Except when the feds tried that, it's the chiefs who protested. Goes back to Chretien's white paper when he was Justice minister. Just too many people who have a stake in keeping things just as they are, and use the racism charge to fight to keep it that way.

   

You may want to read, if you haven't:
Bad Medicine
A Judge’s Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community
by John Reilly
ISBN 9781926855035

http://www.rmbooks.com/book_details.php ... 1926855035

   

Can you give me a synopsis?

   

It's all whitey's fault.

   

I followed the link, and it doesn't sound like he's saying it's all whitey's fault. But it's just about the justice system in relation to aboriginals. In my mind that's the least of the problems.

   

I wouldn't roll your eyes at all, it's a very true statement.

Having experienced a reserve for the better part of 10 years, there's a huge gap between the wealthy people on reserves (usually the Chief or those within the Band) and the rest of the people.

You've got band members with castles for homes and the rest of the people living in shacks.

It takes 3 parties to come to the table to make it work. Natives themselves, the Chief and Band and the Government. So far, the only one coming to the table is the Government, with billions of dollars. Continually, Bands and the Chief blow money on needless facilities and the Natives just allow the abuse to continue to take place.

   

I does more than discuss the justice system in relation to aboriginals.

He says some very bitter things about the chiefs and they have actually initiated court action against him. Reilly suggests the chiefs have indeed been stealing.

It isn't a really well written book, (I mean the guy is a Judge, not an author) but what is in there is considered to be accurate and quite controversial.

   

Wasnt the whole Reservation idea, to give the indians the same quality of life they had before Europeans decided to put up shop?

   

Well here's what you're missing Andy:

"White" (or any people really) who are not on a reseverve get the added benefit of protection under provincial standards for housing, water quality, schools, food, etc. and they benefit from both direct and indirect provincial spending (ie. direct payments from welfare and other entitlement programs plus the indirect benefits such as public libraries, social programs, make work initiatives, provincially-funded non-profits, etc).

People on reserves have neither the protection under the law as those off-reserve and not even a fraction of publicly-funded resources available to them - either because they are outside the jurisidiction of the province or because Federal law still expressly excludes them from national standards and certain programs.

But tell me honestly, could you seriously sit in a room with government officials in Indian Affiars and nod your head when they agree to not do anything about contaminated drinking water?

I agree to some extent that some of these remote communities may be unsustainable, but the solution is not so simplistic as "telling them to move". The way I see it, the government relocated them there in the first place, the government is responsible for moving them out of there. Further, these Federally-funded schools (such as they are) are so inadequate that they don't provide even the basic skills for most who wants to leave to find success elsewhere, so you're just relocating the poverty from the Reserve to the city. You can't blame someone for not "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps" when you've preventing them for getting boots.

   

1  2  3  4  Next