Harper to meet with Chief Spence/First Nations leaders

[wolfen_one]

I listen to there policy and believe they are the most powerful voice for the environment ,
(sorry I'm having trouble with my PC but this was posted by Kibbs)



Every summer I drive through Port Alberni to go fishing and every year I watch local FN people snagging "piles" of salmon on the river on the edge of town. They then proceed to have a couple older ladies to sit 100 yds away on the hwy. and sell them for $10-15 each. The kicker is that they have a big sign at their table that says "F--- U DFO. This is the type of policy I have seen more often than not.

[zzontar]

It looks like Spence is not gaining popularity with everyone:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/quebec-grand-c ... 40729.html

A top aboriginal chief, Matthew *bleep* Come, who was among a delegation of chiefs that met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa on Friday, says it's time for Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence to save face and end her hunger strike — now on its 33rd day.

"I don't know who is advising her. I don't know who she has surrounded herself with," said *bleep* Come adding "but I think if one is to make statements, they have to be credible based on at least some facts, on some knowledge, and hopefully be able to compromise."

[waterwings]

The mining company gives Attawapiskat about $2-million a year for use of its traditional land. De Beers also says it hires locally and provides various training programs.

OMG

[waterwings]

I just opened my mailbox and the following message has been sent to me 17 times:

THIS CHIEF IS A GRADUATE LAWYER AS WELL AND IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH THE CORRECT ATTITUDE.



Chief Clarence Louie, Osoyoos BC speaking in Northern Alberta :

Speaking to a large aboriginal conference and some of the attendees, including a few who hold high office, have straggled in.

'I can't stand people who are late, he says into the microphone. Indian Time doesn't cut it. '
Some giggle, but no one is quite sure how far he is going to go. Just sit back and listen:

'My first rule for success is Show up on time.'
'My No. 2 rule for success is follow Rule No. 1.'
'If your life sucks, it's because you suck.'
'Quit your sniffling.'
'Join the real world. Go to school, or get a job.'
'Get off of welfare. Get off your butt.'

He pauses, seeming to gauge whether he dare, then does.
'People often say to me, How you doin'? Geez I'm working with Indians what do you think?'
Now they are openly laughing ..... applauding. Clarence Louie is everything that was advertised and more.

'Our ancestors worked for a living, he says. So should you.'

He is, fortunately, aboriginal himself. If someone else stood up and said these things - the white columnist standing there with his mouth open, for example - you'd be seen as a racist. Instead, Chief Clarence Louie is seen, increasingly, as one of the most interesting and innovative native leaders in the country even though he avoids national politics.

He has come here to Fort McMurray because the aboriginal community needs, desperately, to start talking about economic development and what all this multibillion-dollar oil madness might mean, for good and for bad.

Clarence Louie is chief and CEO of the Osoyoos Band in British Columbia's South Okanagan. He is 44 years old, though he looks like he would have been an infant when he began his remarkable 20-year-run as chief.. He took a band that had been declared bankrupt and taken over by Indian Affairs and he has turned in into an inspiration.

In 2000, the band set a goal of becoming self-sufficient in five years. They're there.

The Osoyoos, 432 strong, own, among other things, a vineyard, a winery, a golf course and a tourist resort, and they are partners in the Baldy Mountain ski development. They have more businesses per capita than any other first nation in Canada.

There are not only enough jobs for everyone, there are so many jobs being created that there are now members of 13 other tribal communities working for the Osoyoos. The little band contributes $40-million a year to the area economy.

Chief Louie is tough. He is as proud of the fact that his band fires its own people as well as hires them. He has his mottos posted throughout the Rez. He believes there is no such thing as consensus, that there will always be those who disagree. And, he says, he is milquetoast compared to his own mother when it comes to how today's lazy aboriginal youth, almost exclusively male, should be dealt with.

Rent a plane, she told him, and fly them all to Iraq. Dump'em off and all the ones who make it back are keepers. Right on, Mom.
The message he has brought here to the Chipewyan, Dene and Cree who live around the oil sands is equally direct: 'Get involved, create jobs and meaningful jobs, not just window dressing for the oil companies.'

'The biggest employer,' he says, 'shouldn't be the band office.'

He also says the time has come to get over it. 'No more whining about 100-year-old failed experiments.' 'No foolishly looking to the Queen to protect rights.'

Louie says aboriginals here and along the Mackenzie Valley should not look at any sharing in development as rocking-chair money but as investment opportunity to create sustainable businesses. He wants them to move beyond entry-level jobs to real jobs they earn all the way to the boardrooms. He wants to see business manners develop: showing up on time, working extra hours. The business lunch, he says, should be drive through, and then right back at it.

'You're going to lose your language and culture faster in poverty than you will in economic development', he says to those who say he is ignoring tradition.

Tough talk, at times shocking talk given the audience, but on this day in this community, they took it and, judging by the response, they loved it.

Eighty per cent like what I have to say, Louie says, twenty per cent don't. I always say to the 20 per cent, 'Get over it.' 'Chances are you're never going to see me again and I'm never going to see you again' 'Get some counseling.'

The first step, he says, is all about leadership. He prides himself on being a stay-home chief who looks after the potholes in his own backyard and wastes no time running around fighting 100-year-old battles.

'The biggest challenge will be how you treat your own people.'

'Blaming government? That time is over.'


Maybe someone should get him to talk to Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence.

[dogspoiler]

Congratulations to Chief Louie, This Man can cut through the nonsense and tell it like it is. He is the type of leader that the natives need, not the type that hides in a tent claiming to starve herself after robbing her own people.

[Roadster]

I like him, ever since I first heard about him. He wants his people to make things better for themselves. He also sees history as something in the Past as it should be, there has been a lot of time to heal their wounds as anyone who lost something would have to do. We lose a loved one to a drunk driver we have to keep on living and paying our way, right? We lose a job we have to find a new one right? We dont band together and huddle in a corner. If we all whined about losses hundreds of years back we'd all be nowhere, feeding off each other,,, its time to leave the crib in my opinion and become men and women of society. This teepee and starvation thing is old now. Any points to be made have been and it hasnt been all good,,, might wanna suck back and head off in a new direction,,, how bout a positive one,,, how bout moving forward and each man and woman looking for personal gains of their own, maybe we wont have to take care of your young, maybe they will be smarter then many of us.

[LoneWolf_53]

Man's got some nads.

[Ken7]

@zontar

Low income non-native people do get perks - they get free meal programs and free school supplies at school, they get child care subsidies, sports and arts program subsidies, GST and (in BC) Carbon Tax credits, low income housing subsidies, welfare recipients and some low income non-natives get free/reduced cost medical and free dental and free/reduced cost prescriptions and I am sure there's other benefits, too. Welfare will also pay for work clothes and boots if they get a job that requires them and they don't have them already.

Would you consider "free housing and no taxes to be like winning the lottery" if you had to live on an Indian Reservation in their homes provided in order to get it and abide by the rules and restraints set out by the federal government? The homes belong to the feds and perhaps you may not be allowed to make changes and repairs to it but have to live with what they will pay for (or not pay for). If it is an uninsulated house and the temps go sub-zero but you have to pay the heating bill, is that a bonus? If your water source is not clean or your plumbing backed up, is that acceptable in return for a free house and no taxes?

I do not believe for a moment that a house anywhere in Canada was built for anyone, even the Natives and it was not insulated.

Now if you said there was no glass left only plywood I'd agree.

Once again where is this information coming from or as you would say "Link please"

[grammafreddy]

I do not believe for a moment that a house anywhere in Canada was built for anyone, even the Natives and it was not insulated.

Now if you said there was no glass left only plywood I'd agree.

Once again where is this information coming from or as you would say "Link please"

Well, sheesh, ya coulda answered the questions instead of just picking my post apart

You'd be surprised about homes built in Canada that have no insulation. A lot of the older ones don't - or they may have had sawdust that settled to the bottom or even newspaper stuffed into them. LOL - ask Queenie about insulation.

By any chance, did you happen to follow the link about the northern doctor and what he had to say about the way the feds constructed the natives' homes?

[grammafreddy]

I like the message Chief Clarence Louie is putting out, too, but I have to wonder, since his reserve and band are so well off, are all his band members wealthy and live in fancy homes? Do they have nice yards and no junky vehicles sitting around rusting? Do all the natives on the reserve share equally in all that wealth?

[dogspoiler]

Gramma I must laugh in your general direction, The Feds never constructed anything, the houses were built by contractors. The question is, who did inspections ? why didn't the band check the homes themselves ?

[Roadster]

I do not believe for a moment that a house anywhere in Canada was built for anyone, even the Natives and it was not insulated.

Now if you said there was no glass left only plywood I'd agree.

Once again where is this information coming from or as you would say "Link please"

The only house I ever saw without insulation was one this chick was living in, rented, two growing kids and she washed so much laundry she thought one day,,, "Hey,,, if I make my land lord install new insulated skirting around this double wide I am renting and vent my dryer into the underside I can pay less for my heat bill". So, she demands the skirting be replaced, yup nice job. Then she has a friend vent her dryer under the mobile. Ahhh nice and warm, 12 loads a week she does anyway should slow the need for that damn furnace to come on right? She complains to me one day she has wet and icy windows,,, no one else sems to have this problem "Hmmm, has your skirting got any ventings on it?" "yup, I think so, its all new, just replaced a couple months ago" (ventings we boarded up, found this out much later) ,,,,, So, she needs to ask her landlord about this then, me thinks, I am no window expert. She wouldnt do that,,, she has altered the place to save herself some bills. The next winter the windows are worse. And so on till she had mold inside on carpets and walls, many wonder colors of mold! And light switches are making poping noises, a snale was found electricuted,,, no joke! Her walls were cold, her insulation was falling down, drooping and useless. Would a house be built without insulation? Nope,,, likely not but it can have a "No insulation" issue. Some people are just that dumb, when they rent they dont maintain and if they do any work on the rental its for fire wood or saving a buck, no thinking going on. By the way she and her kids had constant lung illnesses.

If those houses were without any insulation someone didnt care to maintain them. PROPERLY

[grammafreddy]

Gramma I must laugh in your general direction, The Feds never constructed anything, the houses were built by contractors. The question is, who did inspections ? why didn't the band check the homes themselves ?

Beats me.

Did you read the northern doctor's assessment of the native housing or are you just gonna get your jollies laughing at me? If you're not going to bother to follow the links and get the same info I am getting, why are you bothering to post in this thread? Obviously you are not interested in the topic if you don't want to be informed. Why ask me the questions? Are you unable to search for answers to them yourself?

[grammafreddy]

The only house I ever saw without insulation was one this chick was living in, rented, two growing kids and she washed so much laundry she thought one day,,, "Hey,,, if I make my land lord install new insulated skirting around this double wide I am renting and vent my dryer into the underside I can pay less for my heat bill". So, she demands the skirting be replaced, yup nice job. Then she has a friend vent her dryer under the mobile. Ahhh nice and warm, 12 loads a week she does anyway should slow the need for that damn furnace to come on right? She complains to me one day she has wet and icy windows,,, no one else sems to have this problem "Hmmm, has your skirting got any ventings on it?" "yup, I think so, its all new, just replaced a couple months ago" (ventings we boarded up, found this out much later) ,,,,, So, she needs to ask her landlord about this then, me thinks, I am no window expert. She wouldnt do that,,, she has altered the place to save herself some bills. The next winter the windows are worse. And so on till she had mold inside on carpets and walls, many wonder colors of mold! And light switches are making poping noises, a snale was found electricuted,,, no joke! Her walls were cold, her insulation was falling down, drooping and useless. Would a house be built without insulation? Nope,,, likely not but it can have a "No insulation" issue. Some people are just that dumb, when they rent they dont maintain and if they do any work on the rental its for fire wood or saving a buck, no thinking going on. By the way she and her kids had constant lung illnesses.

If those houses were without any insulation someone didnt care to maintain them. PROPERLY

Actually, that's pretty close to what the doctor said about the housing standards for the natives in the north. Did you read that link?

Aw hell, I'll give it to y'all again since I doubt anyone will go back and search for it ...

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... -43-years/

[dogspoiler]

Hi Gramma, I don't have the time or desire to read endless links and reports made by unhappy people and many by the ones responsible for the problems, It's just that when you said the Feds constructed the the homes, I had a vision of the PM and his cronies with shovels and hammers building houses on the Rez. I think that would make anyone chuckle a bit.