Time Bomb - a book by Doug Bland

[Treblehook]

This book by a professor at Queens University "argues that the conditions are present for an uprising by First Nations people frustrated by decades of seeing their aspirations ignored by Canadian governments". That having been said, one must wonder when the contributing factors, internal to First Nations communities, are going to be addressed, by Aboriginal peoples themselves. When I say internal factors I am referring to the corruption and incompetence that seems to permeate the management of all too many Bands across this great nation. The Attiwapiskat [fiscal fiasco] is an example. The seemingly endless accusations of fiscal mismanagement and resulting hardships, faced by the peoples of the Roseau River Reserve in Southern Manitoba, seems to be another. It is difficult to see much improvement in the circumstance and degree of hopelessness that exists, when these kinds of situations go on. Simply pouring more tax money into a bucket that is full of holes doesn't seem to offer much reason for optimism. The problems plaguing Native Peoples have not diminished over the past decades. There have been improvements, but not enough. The large scale migration from Reserves to inner city environments has created a whole new set of problems. Native youth gravitated to the gang life and then took it back to the Reserves which has been nothing less than disastrous/toxic. Hobema???

[the quadguy]

I agree with this fellow, You should see the Urban reserve the government created in Regina,where they were given homes in about a 20 square block area. It is wonderful the houses that were real bad are much worse now, There is only room in most of the front yards for two perhaps three upside down cars and not nearly enough room for the 6 dogs and three horses on the front lawn.. The first nation folks really made it into a wonderful modern day slum.

[Ken7]

I have always wondered this for the past ten years, coming from Saskatchewan it is much more apparent here as the bands in BC seem to have more on the ball.

Sadly, it may be a implosion as the common people who are not family or relatives are becoming wise to what is happening with all the bad press about misappropriation of funding. There are becoming too many youth who are learning, when money is not being spent as it was designated, they are educating those who used to sit back and take it or were not educated.

Their voices are being heard, they are getting together as there is strength in numbers.

Now in saying this, it is no secret there are only so many square hectares of land in Canada, they suggest with all settlements there is a shortage of 10% of the land mass of Canada. Therefore who will you short, which band? It further is no secret that due to years of ongoing struggles amongst themselves, they do not all get along. What will happen if one gets what they want and the other band does not, such as the Cree,Chippewa and the Ojibwa will this cause unrest amongst themselves?

I guess only time will tell, and I am of the opinion the Government has failed in the past, but it would be in their best interest to deal with the settlement of all treaties as soon as possible. The numbers of entitled persons is only growing as they continually change the true meaning of the Treaties to include more and more distant to the actual writing which was not the intent back in the day when the Indian was not of a mixed culture when the Indian Act was proclaimed.

[the quadguy]

Canada ,being such a vast country, All we have to do is give EVERY native a five acre piece of property ,say in northern Sask. Give each family member 5,000 cash ,And then inform them the well is dry, Go find a job, pay taxes and join the human race. This would be a lot less of a burden on the Canadian tax payer,When looking bat the billions we pay each year with no end in site. They could pool their money from mom and dad and the six kids ,sell off some off their land holdings move into the nearest town a buy a house and live happily ever after.