Harper to meet with Chief Spence/First Nations leaders

[Ken7]

shawn n steve.jpg

this guys chief ,chief they want him to grow a pair and stop suckin up to steve

He's a smart Indian. “You get more bees with honey then vinegar." Spence might be able to learn from this Chief.

Reality is, the Natives need to get maters straightened out with the Government. The Government has to stop dragging their feet and start making everyone involved responsible and accountable.

Spence having these demands and then withdrawing is like she is trying to make all Canadian Hostage.

Making demands then when they are met, she bucks and raises the bar. She is not making friends and is turning more against her cause. She is very fortunate the press did not have the opportunity to speak to her people. The truth may have unfolded if they did not fear for their safety.

Spence’s games will only work so long, many of her people are getting wiser. If she continues with her game even the media will drop her story because she's a flake and I don't think she is to intelligent as she thinks she is, she may end up being subject of a Criminal investigation yet.

I further find it hard to believe she has so many supporters, who have not figured her out. It could be also that those are her paid aids, which are receiving the money, which was the money that has not been accounted for.

[Ken7]

If she was gonna hunger strike, she shoulda stayed off the fish broth. Thats not hunger striking, thats dieting.
Be a man about it, strike like Bobby Sands did.

She won't be impacting Jenny Craig, her diet isn't working.

[kibbs]

even our future prime minister had to get a photo op

[Graham Adder]

...I further find it hard to believe she has so many supporters...

Perhaps the majority of her support is based on her message, not her methods.
Her message as understood by the individual can be subjective of course, but for a lot of people there is power and truth in some of the things she has said and is protesting for no matter how pathetic her methods seem or the real reasons behind her stand.

[oneh2obabe]

Audit of northern Ontario First Nation is not the first to raise questions about finances.

In their audit of 2011, the independent auditors Ross, Pope and Company from Timmins, Ont., made some of the same points that Deloitte would later make, although not with the same level of detail — and certainly not with the same amount of publicity.

Here are a couple of quotes from the letter Ross, Pope sent to Attawapiskat mangers to inform them of some of their audit's findings:

"During our audit, we noted that many general journal entries made had no supporting documents. When asked for explanations of the entries, often, none could be provided. This resulted in additional work being needed in order to substantiate amounts in several accounts.

"Not all payments were applied to the accounts payable sub-ledger, and invoices were not recorded properly."

The audit highlighted other problems beyond what Deloitte examined:

"During the current fiscal year, budgets were not compiled.

"We note that the collection of accounts and funding receivables are often in arrears. In fact, in many cases, collection efforts are not made until cash flows are in crisis situations."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/201 ... s-faq.html

[wolfen_one]

...and in Thunder Bay this week a native girl was abducted and raped by two white unknown males who were making racist comments during the rape - not the first.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-b ... ml?cmp=rss

If a white teenager was abducted and raped by two natives...would have been front page news by now.

Also in that city, the local PD's are dropping off natives outside of city limits in -25 weather and making them walk home. Not the first time in this country either.

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/content ... randed-him

This thread if full of those age-old under the breath tones of racism against natives that I used to hear living in Thunder Bay.

We stole this land from the natives. (My family came to Canada in the 1970's from Europe but even I feel guilt) We have subjugated them to the point where they are the most vulnerable visable minority group in Canada - and they should be the richest considering every dollar that comes out of Canada's "natural resource" sector should be partially theirs.

We destroyed their culture and lives. They are a society that has had a few hundred years to adapt to something our societies have been doing for a thousand years. We brought them alcohol and greed. Yet non-native Canadians love to fault them for not being able to keep up or for having social troubles.

We owe them more. Respect for starters.

My families were forced out of their homes,land,and countries in Russia and Germany. Am I entitled to compensation...land, housing,education,health care, cash?

[the truth]

same here wolfen my family was also forced out and lost everything in ww2.the hole thing is a joke

[Rwede]

Kelowna lives on $100M budget and supports 120,000 people.
Her band lives on $34M budget and supports 1,500 people.

The difference is that Kelowna actually supports its people with its budget, but her band does nothing of the sort. That's the exacerbating side to it all, the huge per capita budgeting variance between the two notwithstanding.

[wolfen_one]

The difference is that Kelowna actually supports its people with its budget, but her band does nothing of the sort. That's the exacerbating side to it all, the huge per capita budgeting variance between the two notwithstanding.[/quote]


Not to mention ....it's residents pay taxes in almost every form imaginable.

[Snman]

Excellent point(s) wolfen_one.

[Merry]

Chief Spence really is beginning to hurt rather than help the First Nations Cause, and that's too bad because the Government really DOES need to rethink the way it deals with First Nations. But Harper will likely use this whole Spence issue to deflect attention away from the REAL issues yet again, and life will continue as it always has (which is VERY bad news for all those living in substandard conditions on remote reserves, and also for us, the taxpayers who are footing the bill).

When one considers the amount of taxpayer dollars that have been given to this particular reserve, and compares that with the dreadful living conditions of many of the band members, it is obvious that some kind of money mismanagement (or corruption) has taken place. The subsequent audit simply reinforces that view. How ANYONE can justify the large salaries paid to the Chief and her common law spouse, given the dreadful state of affairs up there, mystifies me, because obviously these two folks have not done a good job. It seems to me that these two individuals should be reviled, not put on a pedestal.

If a local town council allowed municipal services to deteriorate to as low a point as they appear to be in some of these remote reserves, while at the same time paying themselves exhorbitant salaries and objecting to any kind of external audit, I think it would be headline news and the Mayor and Councillors would not be being treated kindly in the media. Their names and faces would be all over the news, and it would be a scandalous story. But when the same thing happens on a reserve the media are strangely silent; more concerned about being accused of being racist than in exposing possible corruption or incompetence. And that has got to change if we are ever going to help the poor victims of our present system.

I say again that the Government needs to find a way to give the "ordinary" First Nations people a voice in how they'd like to be governed. A way of bypassing their current "overlords" such as the First Nations Assembly, because frankly the current system isn't working for those ordinary First Nations folks. Maybe a series of public meetings; a travelling committee that visits reserves nationwide and invites submissions from the "ordinary" band members, as opposed to just those who are currently serving on the band councils.

[zzontar]

It would have been interesting to hear what Chief Spence's band had to say. Too bad she blocked the media from going onto the reserve to get any information and they'd be charged if they tried. Perhaps the government should level the playing field and charge Spence every time she leaves the res, what a bunch of BS!

[Rwede]

Good points, Merry, however, when they couldn't even find "volunteers" to open the boxes of goods that were donated to the reserve, I really doubt that the will to make changes exists. Can you imagine freezing your butt off, but being too lazy to open a box of warm clothing that was donated to you? It boggles the mind.

The culture of dependency has become so deeply entrenched that even an evolutionary change is going to be a painfully slow process, let alone a revolutionary change. That's why this "INM" movement is nothing but a party for the same group of players that partied at occupy. It's a joke.

[kibbs]

and charge Spence every time she leaves the res, what a bunch of BS!

maybe we should bring back the leave pass which carried on till the 60s

[cutter7]

Heres another look at the numbers.
http://www.oktlaw.com/blog/taking-a-sec ... t-numbers/