On May 29, First Nations people across Canada will stage a "day of action" to draw attention to the poverty, appalling living conditions and despair that plague many of their communities.
Their message will be an uncomfortable one for a country that prides itself on being one of the most forward-thinking in the world. But there are reasons for all Canadians to listen closely.
Many First Nations communities are in crisis. Dozens of reserves have dilapidated schools or no schools at all. Children on reserves are far more likely to be in the care of child welfare authorities than children in the rest of the country, as federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser recently reported. Rundown and overcrowded housing, dirty drinking water and unemployment dog many remote reserves.
It is a recipe for desperation. Little wonder that gangs and suicide are rampant, both on reserves and in cities where many First Nations people now live.
Yet except when protests (Caledonia and Deseronto, as well as mining disputes in northern and eastern Ontario) or crises (the mass evacuations of Kashechewan and other nearby communities after recent flooding) force us to confront these awkward truths, it is a problem most Canadians are content to ignore. We do so at our peril.
Canada's native population is growing far faster than the rest of the country. It is also disproportionately young.
Some of these young people are beating odds that are heavily stacked against them by attending college and university, entering professions like law, nursing and medicine, and starting businesses. But they are still a small minority. In the meantime, widespread hopelessness and alienation are sowing the seeds of radicalism. As Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, recently told the Star's editorial board, "There are a lot of very angry young people out there."
Canadians can ill-afford to stand by as this generation of youth languishes for want of opportunities and resources most of us take for granted. Glimmers of hope, including a proposed new specific land claims process, don't even begin to make up for years of indifference.
With the death of the 2005 Kelowna Accord at the hands of the Harper Conservatives and no credible strategy on the horizon to replace it, natives understandably feel they have no choice but to call national attention once again to the issues they face.
Okay. Typical liberal GARBAGE.
Who is WE ?? If WE don't make "good faith" efforts? Where has the Star been on protecting indigneous RIGHTS (see if you even see that word in the above article. See if they mention that indigneous peoples have RIGHTS. Ask yourself, day after day after day, of publishing, how often do you see good articles on First Nations people in The Star? Yet, ALL of Canada is living on INDIGENOUS property.
The only thing they do is expect Phil Fontaine (one sole sell-out indigenous person) to be the spokesperson for an entire country . setting him up as the ultimate authority. Why not talk to Mohawk Nation News instead?
Why not talk about the UN attacks on CANADA? Why not bring up how natives fight everyday for SANITY in an insane nation, providing the leadership that WHITE PEOPLE lack?
How much has The Star done for native people ? Why this "sacred" we ? The natives have every right to educate their young to be LEADERS, but do you see a SINGLE native person in a powerful position in Canada? Do you see their faces on the money?
Did The Star see fit to attack the liberals on this issue ? Shit no. They just keep telling natives to "cool it" over and over in all the years I have lived here, without offering any SIGNIFICANT help themselves. The CBC offers little, but at least they have consistently brought up the issues. NOW did the best job last year of covering native protests. But have a look at what The Star itself did last year which was ZIP.
There is going to be HELL on these days of action for White Canadians. Cars will burn on the Railroad tracks and the din of angry voices will be DEAFENING - and what then? The Star will just allow all the leadership to get picked off in the native community - just like it did last year? Did The Star give ANY money to Robert Lovelace, Paula Sherman, or Shawn Brant?
Well, no of course NOT. They don't pay the attorney's fees, they don't even clear up the mudslinging that is aimed at bonafide, realistic native leadership.
For shame. Whoever actually wrote this I say .. YOU ARE CULPABLE YOURSELF. Don't hide behind your friggin liberalISM, driving past some reservation in your Porshe on the days of action and saying - Oh, I tried to help them out, because like other Canadians, I am certain you are MORE THAN CAPABLE of looking the other way.
That is the REAL CANADIAN way - when someone suffers, look elsewhere. Don't talk about it, don't show the real pain in a significant way. I've been in this country suffering like hell since 1994 and no one at the Star does a followup story on it !! So I friggin well know how hypocritical The Star really is. Started out alright in my relationship with them, but hey! the wounds I suffer are REAL DEEP, and it's that way with ALL native people.
I vote at least with my buck$. I won't pay a friggin dime for their idiotic newspaper, as I know what they do. I saw their booth at the last powwow. No one went near it - they gave away NOTHING FOR CHILDREN - just sold subscriptions. UNBELIEVABLE. Get an ombudsman at the Star for native people who shows you how to TREAT PEOPLE humanely.
Next year, I hope I write a different response to your friggin editorial. Maybe by NEXT YEAR, the Harper government will be gone and the Star will be FORCED to write an editorial saying how Canada owes compensation to ALL native communities in Canada ...
Ya want to help a native out, Toronto Star? Give me a column and I'll write the TRUTH every single week and I'll climb out of my POVERTY and explain to Canada why natives are ANGRY, as they have every single right to be. It would give me the chance to talk to native leaders and have press credentials. But give me a chance to explain it all every single week, not just as you are afraid of violence towards your own friggin buildings.
Toronto Star - you are part of the solution, you are The Problem. Get friggin REAL.
Ain't gonna happen is it? RIGHT.
As for you, dear reader, May 29th, be there or BE SQUARE. Enough is MORE than enough.
Virginia
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