An Act of War; Oka Crisis Part 2?

[Brass Monkey]

So when are the 1st nations going to go from being a Victim to a Victor?

When First Nations stop being disregarded as 2nd class citizens on their own land. Maybe when they’re allowed to get a 21st century education.

[featfan]

Why do you continue being a victim when you could be standing for a better life?

[seewood]

This isn’t a disgruntled few its several dozen of the communities most influential members aka hereditary chiefs, elders etc.

Just wondering if the school curriculum on band land explain how taxes work in the rest of Canada, off band land.. Where taxes come from. Who pays those taxes. What are the taxes from the feds, provincial and municipal used for.
In this case and I believe every case across Canada, the taxes derived from income and business taxes, are used to provide bands much and perhaps in some cases , all their funding to live and function.
Do these demonstrators understand this underground pipeline will provide opportunities to band members that are in the area where the line passes? Just what is so wrong with an underground natural gas pipeline in the outlying areas of BC?
As mentioned, the feds have a responsibility to consult, included in that I understand, is to respect any concerns and do what is possible to mitigate those concerns. It is well known to most , except Stuart Phillip, that the bands do not have a veto.

So, wonder if the media will show up with camera and microphones? Perhaps briefly, weather is cold and miserable there at the moment.

[Brass Monkey]

Why do you continue being a victim when you could be standing for a better life?

I’m not a victim, I grew up in one of the most politically powerful and prosperous reservations in all of North America, most First Nations are not as fortunate. I went to a regular highschool, many First Nations have a single wide trailer for a high school.

[featfan]

The report shows that while indigenous people account for roughly 5 percent of Canada’s total population, they represented 27 percent of its prison population in 2016-2017 — an increase of 8 percentage points over the previous decade.

Among youth and women offenders, the overrepresentation is even more dramatic. Indigenous youth — just 8 percent of Canada’s youth population — made up 46 percent of all admissions to correctional services in 2016-2017, a figure that skyrocketed 25 percentage points in a decade. Of all federally sentenced women, 43 percent are indigenous, making them the fastest growing prison population in Canada, according to the Office of the Correctional Investigator, a watchdog for the correctional services.

So when are 1st Nations going to step up or just whine help me?

[vegas1500]

So would a lot of hard working, tax paying Canadians.

Hardworking taxpayers stood by residential schools too, they actually funded it, maybe their judgement hasn’t been so friendly to natives. To clarify, you would support starving this community if they don’t comply with federal law?

Nope but would be in favor of cutting off all federal funding.

[vegas1500]

So when are the 1st nations going to go from being a Victim to a Victor?

When First Nations stop being disregarded as 2nd class citizens on their own land. Maybe when they’re allowed to get a 21st century education.

Who’s stopping them?? The same people from stopping them from going out and getting a great paying job?

[The Green Barbarian]

So when are 1st Nations going to step up?

I don't think this is a fair statement. I've spent a lot of time reading about how the Indigenous and their leaders are working hard to move forward, and they are stepping up. They are trying really hard. Working incredibly hard to move their people out of the past, consumed by hatred and misunderstanding, and into the future. I also do most of my charitable giving to Indigenous causes. Unfortunately you have these "splinter groups" like this one that are standing in the way of jobs, and the economy, for reasons that are inexplicable and make no sense. And you have a certain number of Indigenous consumed by hatred, like the OP, who just can't move out of the past, and into the future, and so falsely portray these splinter groups as some kind of heroes, and the poor RCMP as some kind of villains. It's really sad to see. Just horrible in fact.

[The Green Barbarian]

When First Nations stop being disregarded as 2nd class citizens on their own land. Maybe when they’re allowed to get a 21st century education.

and how do you propose to fix this? I am curious. There is a lot of funding that goes to First Nations education and post-secondary education. You don't seem to think that this is good enough. So tell us, without a bunch of guilt, what you think would work. Can you do that? Or is it impossible?

[Brass Monkey]

The report shows that while indigenous people account for roughly 5 percent of Canada’s total population, they represented 27 percent of its prison population in 2016-2017 — an increase of 8 percentage points over the previous decade.

Among youth and women offenders, the overrepresentation is even more dramatic. Indigenous youth — just 8 percent of Canada’s youth population — made up 46 percent of all admissions to correctional services in 2016-2017, a figure that skyrocketed 25 percentage points in a decade. Of all federally sentenced women, 43 percent are indigenous, making them the fastest growing prison population in Canada, according to the Office of the Correctional Investigator, a watchdog for the correctional services.

So when are 1st Nations going to step up or just whine help me?

When are indigenous people going to be given a fair shot at success? Poverty breeds violence and crime, not natives, just in case you needed that clarification. Perhaps one of the most troubling things I see in Canadian culture is the inability for non-natives to even begin to imagine the life of one on a rural reservation somewhere. How many of your grandparents were denied a job or an education? Curious to know.

[Brass Monkey]

When First Nations stop being disregarded as 2nd class citizens on their own land. Maybe when they’re allowed to get a 21st century education.

Who’s stopping them?? The same people from stopping them from going out and getting a great paying job?[/quote]

Cultural inhibitions, community ties, poverty, substance abuse. Not everybody has the gall to abandon their community and family in the search of money. Great paying jobs only come our way in the 1960s-1970s, that’s my parents/grandparents generation. That’s not enough time to reverse 300 years of sanctioned poverty.

[erinmore3775]

Brass Monkey, you wrote "...This isn’t a disgruntled few its several dozen of the communities most influential members aka hereditary chiefs, elders etc." These are the Native members of the Gidimt'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, that are opposing the building of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Yet, the elected representatives of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation have signed agreements that allow access and the right to build.
Who represents the Wet'suwet'en First Nation? Do the elected representatives or the protesters represent the Nation? Perhaps this is a protest against how the Nation is governed and not against the pipeline.

[Urban Cowboy]

Like GB and Seewood, this type of protest annoys me to no end. Splinter groups do not represent the entire indigenous nation. The Gitimd'en are one of five clans that make up the Wet'suwet'en. While the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed the Indigenous nation's land rights and title had never been extinguished, the elected leaders of Wet'suwet'en have signed an agreement with Coastal GasLink to allow the pipeline to proceed.

https://www.northislandgazette.com/news/all-20-first-nations-sign-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-agreement/

Coastal GasLink president Rick Gateman announced that all 20 First Nations groups along the length of the Coastal GasLink pipeline have now signed a project agreement...Support for the agreements comes from the elected leaders of the 20 Indigenous bands as well as from several traditional and hereditary leaders within these communities,

Haisla Nation Chief Councillor Crystal Smith said the council is “...happy to celebrate Coastal GasLink’s major milestone....First Nations in Northern B.C. have a real opportunity to work together to build benefits for each of our communities, which respects Aboriginal rights and title, separate from the political realm,” said Smith. “This announcement from Coastal GasLink is an example of that opportunity.”

The blockage of the Coastal GasLink construction right of way is illegal. Any comparison to what happened at Oka is a total misrepresentation. What is happening here is a disgruntled few, who disagree with their elected leaders, and receive their band rights through those elected leaders, have taken the law into their own hands. Hopefully, they this enjoy their five seconds of fame and then peacefully disband to enjoy the benefits negotiated by their elected leaders. If they do not disband, I hope they are arrested.

A judge filed a court order to the Mohawks to force them to allow a developer to build a golf course on Mohawk territory, the Mohawks won eventually and now we look back in shame that we called Indians terrorists for protecting a burial site from a project developer.

Now we do the same thing here, a judge filed an order that natives must comply by federal law to allow a pipeline and we call them unemployed, radicals, disrupters etc. Elected leaders and councillors don’t have a right to sell out the indian band, we had a Chief try and do that with the highway exchange and we booted him from the community. This isn’t a disgruntled few its several dozen of the communities most influential members aka hereditary chiefs, elders etc.

Sounds an awful lot like internal political posturing, and the feds are only obligated to negotiate with those who are actually legitimately in power.

If as you say there's all these influential members with support, then why aren't they the ones elected and holding power?

Right now they are precisely radicals and disrupters.

[ferri]

Here is the topic. Get back on it or I'll lock the thread.

RCMP is saddling up to commence a raid on the Wet’suwet’en First Nations for protecting their sovereign and unceded land from federal development. I’m sure a lot of members on this forum remember watching the Oka Crisis in 1990, what’s your input on this similar scenario?

https://aptnnews.ca/2019/01/05/an-act-o ... territory/

[Brass Monkey]

Brass Monkey, you wrote "...This isn’t a disgruntled few its several dozen of the communities most influential members aka hereditary chiefs, elders etc." These are the Native members of the Gidimt'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, that are opposing the building of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Yet, the elected representatives of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation have signed agreements that allow access and the right to build.
Who represents the Wet'suwet'en First Nation? Do the elected representatives or the protesters represent the Nation? Perhaps this is a protest against how the Nation is governed and not against the pipeline.

This is both, look at the riots and resistance and France and their rebellion against an untransparent government and major political and economical changes without a national consensus. Trudeau represents Canada it doesn’t mean he operates the office on our behalf or asks what it is fair to the people, this is the exact same thing on a much smaller scale.