Harper to meet with Chief Spence/First Nations leaders

[Roadster]

I don't know what you are saying but I don't care about the aboriginal stuff anymore, it's time we protest for equality and everyone fends for his/herself when able and use the system for when not able like having lost a job and trying for a new one, or disability and children left without a parent so we can get them an education, white, black, native, Chinese,,, what ever they be, all Canadians should be taken care of when they Need it because they couldnt find work or are actually unable. I will fend for anyone who WOULD fend for themselves if they could, no chiefs needed, just a right proper system for the welfare of those who try for themselves first. Our welfare system could use an overhaul too to get the dead weight off it's shoulders.

[grammafreddy]

From the link ... http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/Engli ... _4241.html

Opening remarks from the Auditor General:

Main Points

The administration of Indian Affairs is one of the most complex areas of public administration, involving difficult historical, constitutional, federal-provincial and social issues. (paragraphs 14.1 to 14.9)

The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) does not have a clear legislative mandate for funding or delivering Post-Secondary Education Assistance and Social Development services. Thus, roles and responsibilities are unclear and there is no real accountability link between the Department and Parliament for these activities. (14.19 to 14.27)

This absence of a clear legislative mandate has resulted in misunderstanding and uncertainty among Indians about the purpose of these activities and the services to be delivered. (14.28 to 14.31)

The Department requires a clear legislative mandate which defines the responsibilities of Canada with respect to the delivery and funding of services to Indians. Such a mandate would facilitate the negotiation of agreements between Canada, the provinces and Indian bands, and establish the accountability framework that is now missing. (14.32 to 14.35)

The Department has improved its systems and procedures in the areas of Housing and Community Capital Facilities. (14.89, 14.90)

For over 20 years we have reported that the Department cannot assure Parliament that funding provided to bands through contribution agreements and other funding arrangements is used for its intended purposes. (14.95 to 14.98)

There remains a fundamental need for a more practical approach to funding bands, which would include a realistic monitoring role for DIAND. (14.118 to 14.122)

On top of all this mismanagement, the total funding for Indian and Nortern Affairs includes all the staff and bureaucrats who sit in government offices pushing papers around on their desks and who have never even stepped foot on a reserve or spoken to a native person. Their wages, benefits and pensions come out of the same pot as the money that goes to the bands, the same pot as what pays for any federal funding for anything to do with the native people - or for anything to do with northern affairs that doesn't have anything to do with native people directly, just things in the north of Canada.

To take the total budget for DIAND and say it all goes to the native people is hogwash and it needs to be looked at much closer. Funding for native people is one of the most misunderstood and confusing things about our federal and provincial governments. For example, the feds don't deliver the health care for natives - the provinces do - but the feds transfer funding from DIAND to the provinces ($X per person) to cover that.

That there are fiscal abuses is a given - but those abuses happen on both sides of the fence - by natives and by government employees. There is no excuse for the government employees but in some cases (not all) the natives may not have the education in financial management to know how to keep the books. In other cases, the books are "cooked" by the chiefs and band councils - because they can and because the person doing the books may not have any power or education to do otherwise.

I'm not excusing anyone - not government(s) and not the natives. The whole shebang needs an overhaul and the way services and funds are delivered to reserves needs to be seriously redone in such a way that no chiefs or council members get any more benefit than their people do.

[Roadster]

GF, it seems they are not allowed to step foot on a reserve and talk to the natives themselves,,, just sayin, even reporters get pushed away, by band police yet...

[grammafreddy]

GF, it seems they are not allowed to step foot on a reserve and talk to the natives themselves,,, just sayin, even reporters get pushed away, by band police yet...

Roadie - that was ONE reserve not every reserve. And as far as I am concerned, Chief Spence and her band council made that decision because the reserve was being flooded with lookie-loo reporters and others who were only there to exploit the people.

Now, don't get me wrong - there appears to be some pretty big corruption happening on that reserve. As things now stand, the individual reserves have a say in who can access their government-allotted land. What is needed is for the people (not necessarily the chiefs and band councils) to make their voices heard over the din of the chiefs and councils. If they have substandard housing but the reserve gets big funding, the people should be asking some pretty pertinent questions. In a lot of cases, I would probably bet there are very few regular folks on the reserves who have any idea about what kind of funding they get, where it comes from, what extra comes in from businesses operating on the reserves, and where any of the money goes. In a lot of cases, there is so much alcoholism, drug abuse and generations of FAS that most just don't care as long as they are being taken care of day to day.

There is much ignorance among the non-native population about the reserves and the people who live there. I know of several in the Cariboo where the store on the reserve was banned from selling booze to the natives but they sure did a booming business in cases and cases of vanilla weekly. Some alcoholics (even young teenagers) melted down phonograph records and sniffed the fumes to get high - thus destroying brain cells. Mothers fed their infants Kool-aid in their bottles and the public health nurses who visited the reserves and did baby wellness clinics were constantly trying to re-educate the moms about providing milk not sugars, but when you're drunk and/or high 24/7, Kool-aid is easier and faster.

Sex among young people is rampant and FAS girls have no birth control - or even the inteligence to take it. They have babies and don't look after them. My girlfriend used to take foster kids and one infant she had (and eventually adopted) came to her from the hospital - with urine burns down to the bones in her legs because her FAS mom thought she was a doll and only took her out of her crib when somebody came to visit and they would "play" with her. The urine burns were from the elastic on her plastic pants over top of her cloth diaper that was never changed from play time to play time. This infant girl was the third child the ministry took away from this mom.

I know of another young boy (8 years old) who used to steal - he would break into people's homes and steal food and would cache it. He never knew where his next meal was coming from and his grandfather, who he lived with, was always drunk and never home to give him a meal. He was in town at the bar. So the kid stole food and hid it in a variety of places so when he was hungry he could have something to eat. By 8 years old, when the ministry removed him from his grandfather, this habit was so entrenched and he trusted nobody - and he continued to steal food and hide it even though he now had regular nutritious home-cooked meals with his foster family. My girlfriend had him and eventually had to give him up as a foster kid because he became a real problem in their neighbourhood - breaking into people's homes and turning on the TV, getting food from the kitchen and sitting there watching TV and eating at 3 in the morning. Many times the cops got called and many times they brought him back to his foster home. He ended up at 14 in a halfway house for juvenile delinquents - the result of his upbringing on the reserve by his grandfather. His parents were both alcoholics who had committed suicide when he was a toddler.

These cases are not unique. They are the norm for a lot of the reserves. How do you take people like this and expect them to get jobs and be productive members of society? Drug gangs are rampant on reserves, young people are addicted to both booze AND drugs now, FAS is normal for them as is teen pregnancy.

In order to have solutions, you first must understand the problems.

[kibbs]

In order to have solutions, you first must understand the problems.

yay grannys back

[ford150]

My brother was/is an alcoholic. He has always blamed everyone else for his condition and circumstance. It’s part of the disease to blame others booze causes depression and many other mental illnesses. He had lived as a homeless person for decades, a bum. My dad has always felt guilt. My alcoholic brother has used this guilt to basically blackmail my dad into giving him money year after year. After seeking counselling my dad finally realized that my brother’s problems were no fault of his upbringing. My dad was told he was enabling my brother to continue on with his destructive ways. My dad closed the cheque book and cut him off completely. In less than a year my brother finally decided he must get his act together as he could not sit around drinking with his buddies waiting for the next cheque to arrive. He checked into a rehab facility and got sober. He works at a recycling plant sorting trash, got a crappy apartment, started paying a little child support to his daughter. (First time ever) He was able to get visitation rights at first supervised but not anymore. My dad never did understand the problem but he did find a solution. Both are living happily ever after.
That is more personal information than I should have provided but as you can see it’s the same story but on a much smaller scale.

[Roadster]

Agree to that some Ford,,, they have even demanded we deal with the depression and suicide level on their reserves,,, how is this our fault? We keep supplying cash when someone could get out of his four walls and find a job? Should we step on the reserve property and put those ones in need through our courses? Would they allow that? Should we yank them off the reserve and clean up their issue? No, not gonna happen. They wouldn't allow it so we would have to send in more money to support a service and hope it gets to those in need of it. Can we monitor that progress? Bet not. So my option if I was the one standing in front of those demanding this support would be,,, let's bus those willing and able to a work site and see how they do,,, those others not so willing at first might see this as a good thing and apply for this service as well.
I would offer work shadowing or trade schooling and wash all other packages of payment to those not applying,,, sounds harsh? That's what my parents woulda done if I needed it.
As far as the other politics,,, get in line with us and vote the guy you think will concentrate on your wishes, write your MLA like we do.. It's not right to think your group should stand in front of certain decisions above all other Canadians.

[grammafreddy]

It's not right to think your group should stand in front of certain decisions above all other Canadians.

Yeah, sure, Roadie ... like "other Canadians" don't cost taxpayers big money at all, eh? Like nobody but Indians collects welfare. Like nobody but Indians gets help with addictions. Like nobody but Indians gets free prescriptions and free health care. Like nobody but Indians uses the Food Banks. Like nobody but Indians gets subsidized shelter and subsidized child care and subsidized sports and arts programs.

[zzontar]

Yeah, sure, Roadie ... like "other Canadians" don't cost taxpayers big money at all, eh? Like nobody but Indians collects welfare. Like nobody but Indians gets help with addictions. Like nobody but Indians gets free prescriptions and free health care. Like nobody but Indians uses the Food Banks. Like nobody but Indians gets subsidized shelter and subsidized child care and subsidized sports and arts programs.

What do you think the percentages of both would be?

[grammafreddy]

I don't know - but to infer "other Canadians" get nothing is wrong.

[Libelle]

I don't know - but to infer "other Canadians" get nothing is wrong.

But one group should not recieve anything that is not available to all Canadians. If the Canadian govt was to ever compensate for past wrongs done to different races and sexes we would all be living in cardboard boxes. Wonder when the rest will demand their compensation?

[grammafreddy]

I don't know - but to infer "other Canadians" get nothing is wrong.

But one group should not recieve anything that is not available to all Canadians. If the Canadian govt was to ever compensate for past wrongs done to different races and sexes we would all be living in cardboard boxes. Wonder when the rest will demand their compensation?

Probably when they get covered under the Indian Act.

A pesky little detail, I know ....

[Roadster]

Yeah, sure, Roadie ... like "other Canadians" don't cost taxpayers big money at all, eh? Like nobody but Indians collects welfare. Like nobody but Indians gets help with addictions. Like nobody but Indians gets free prescriptions and free health care. Like nobody but Indians uses the Food Banks. Like nobody but Indians gets subsidized shelter and subsidized child care and subsidized sports and arts programs.

See this is where you read me wrong and for negative reasons. We do have rights, we also have the freedom and ability (living under our own roof and on our own power) to make all the money we want to by getting our education, finding the right jobs and enjoying our own self worth, no one is paying for that but we do it. Sure we cost tax payer dollars but in a whole different way, not because we are held up on a chunk of frozen land but because we pay into it and we deserve it when it's needed, welfare, EI, tax returns, child benefit cheques food banks and such. but the truth is we live where we can get work, no one is doling out the cash to us as they see fit, unless we choose to live off welfare bucks and dont mind those limited wages, we have the right to pick our education level and work choices and we also have a big open door to learn and live with many cultures, move on to some other place if we like,,,
You see those people in Atapiskawat for example are not seeing any of this sept for maybe an arranged trip to a shopping mall, how often? You and I can go tomorrow morning if we like, we can see our doctor tomorrow after noon if we wake up sick,,, we purchased a car with our own money, we bought or rented a home in a community we chose, we are in driving or even walking range and we don't have to worry about missing the scheduled ride,,, we get to come back with as much new stuff as our vehicle will carry and our bank account allows us. Are they getting that? Do they get all that or are they being held there in a way by our government encouraging a living up north where there isn't much for them?
Why are they suffering if it's so good? Why are they crying out for more help? Why is there a noted higher level of FAS and substance abuse and suicides in their communities? Because they are doing without what life has to offer IMO, they are being held back in the day when the very basics were thought to be a good thing, they need to grow with open grounds, room to roam, and an open mind, and modernization, their history isn't cutting it for them anymore.
They need more and I hope some day they get more,,, not there in small communities and chunks of land all over Canada, more opportunities where the general public hangs out and enjoys all that's offered, like our parks the government supplies, the roads and the public museums, art galleries we manage to gain and even support through our donations,,, our beaches, our health support systems, the ability to eat in restaurants all our country men and women have brought us from their original homeland, and all those things that cost tax payer dollars but are offered to us as a public to share, not a small community where it may or may not become what it is supposed to become like for example a school that was built over a gas line area or what ever that was.
My argument that you are not seeing is it is time we see what's ruining them and why they think they need more and more, they wouldn't if they were able to do for themselves and it's impossible in a small community that offers nothing or is limited. We pay for our prisoner's living expenses to keep them in small communities so we know we can be safe and this is almost the same IMO,,, keeping them back,,, let them run free,,, let them be what we are, the public. Stop encouraging them to hold back and miss out on what life in the open field offers.
Equality for all, tax payer dollars for all, support systems for all, the right to have what we want for all... The ability to make life as good as it can be for all...
Where supposedly did the natives come from when they came to this country? Wasnt it the Chinese who said Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day,,, teach him to fish and he eats for a life time?

[steven lloyd]

Subject: U.N. REQUESTS FISH BROTH RECIPE

In a move to end world hunger the UN has officially requested access to Chief Spences fish broth recipe. Reasoning that if the Chief can survive for over 6 weeks on this soup without any noticeably ill effect, the World Health Organization has resolved to actually do something useful. In the future fish broth will replace food donations. World harmony and health for all is possible.

[LoneWolf_53]

Isn't that the truth.

I swear the gal looks even more robust after her hunger strike than before.

Somewhat of an insult to legitimate hunger strikers if you ask me.