Accountability Now

A few things on this: 1. Alberta is the only province without a sales tax. If a 5% tax were introduced then the defict would be replaced with a surplus within a year. The tax may be a long term solution but the current deficit is more the result of poor short term budgeting. They spent a bunch of money thinking more was coming in. If the current situation stays then they will indeed need to get their spending in check. 2. Redford recently posted the idea of a west to east pipeline to have Alberta oil refined in New Brunswick. Of all the pipelines, I like this one the most as it keeps the oil in Canada allowing for more jobs in the east and hopefully better prices at the pumps for all Canadians. If Alberta is selling oil on the cheap, then its best that Canda gets the break. I'm not saying we can't have the Keystone or Gateway lines as well but its troubling to think that we are still importing oil at world market rates. 3. Why are there so many women premiers now? Holy crap! (Just kidding)

Another great cut and paste job by Jacee. However you convenienty didn't cut and paste a very key part. "None of the allegations have been proven in court and the RCMP has not commented on the report." The allegations are very serious as we do need to hold our officers to a higher standard. Having said that, they are human and will make mistakes. I am all for a further inquisition to see if there have been any wrong doings but as always we have our typical left media that likes to only show one side of the story. Did they dig a little deeper to see the conditions of the people they were interviewing? As per the Canadian Mental Health Association, The link between homelessness and mental illness is well documented: 30-35 percent of the homeless in general, and up to 75 percent of homeless women specifically, have a mental illness.2 http://www.ontario.cmha.ca/fact_sheets.asp?cID=3975 I'm not making a large jump to say the police are innocent but a deeper examination is needed before such judgement is passed. You do realize that the RCMP is a NATIONAL police force? Making a genrealization that ALL forces in the RCMP are 'rogue' and have no accountability based on the actions of one area and possibly one department are ridiculous and unwelcomed. Here I'll throw it back at you....Attiwapiskat squandered their bands money. All First Nations are thus corrupt. How do you like them apples? I am all for an outside group to perform the investigation. The RCMP does this all the time by having City police foreces involved with internal investigations. This is the type of accountability that I wish cheifs and native reserves would adhere to but unfortunatley do not.

Exactly!

Irrelevant. Ottawa. Noodles. See...I can say random things to avoid questions too. Your problem is that you don't even read what people are saying. I said two or three times that I agreed with INM to begin with but it lost me with their antics. But your head is in the sand and you don't see that I have said that. One suggestion....stop trying to make yourself look good by copying and pasting other people's ideas. Have an idea of your own. Even if its a bad idea at least it shows you're trying.

You hit the nail on the head. The INM movement, whether they like it or not, needs to win over the rest of Canada. The Federal government will continue doing what it does because they think that is what they think the people who elected them want. From a democtratic point of view, the Native population doesn't have a voice due to its numbers. If they presented a logical, well thought out argument which is void of drama and idiots then at least they would have a chance to win over bystanders. But alas...people have turned them off already because they don't want to play it that way.

You are hopelessly mired in not answering questions. It is hopeless talking to you. All I asked was for your opinion and you can't even do that? Are you afraid your cheif will find out and not pay you from his fund? Are you afraid you will be banished from the tribe? The question was not irrelevant at all....you have tried to make it irrelevant because you don't want to answer it. Have fun with your head in the sand. If I feel any sorrow for the native population, its only because they have no desire to be accountable. But its like your FN legal council said "Poverty is usually and most effectively cured with money, not “accountability.”" Good luck with that. http://www.theglobea...article7029504/

Ok...I'm not asking INM if she's a train wreck and bad for their cause. I'm asking you. If you could choose to eliminate her from the face of the INM movement...would you? This is pretty much a yes or no answer so no side stepping. I'm not sure what isn't clear. I stated from the beginnning that I agreed with certain points from the INM movement and not others. Moreso I beleive that others in the group (Spence, Cheifs, and road blockers) have totally distracted and set back their cause. Am I looking for reasons to dismiss it? No....I already have and so have most Canadians. Any movement that lacks the integrity and coherency that INM does deserves to be dismissed.

Jacee...you just do t get it. If the conservatives or liberals or any other political movement had a train wreck like Spence they would backbench them or get rid of them. Yet INM continues to hold her high up. And don't give me this media crap. The media didn't do the fake hunger strike. The media didn't put shout the threats. And the media didn't put on INM t- shirts and block roads. The media can only do so much but ultimately the story tells itself. The true tendency that shows is how FN people would rather side with their own (even if they are train wrecks) rather than admitting they did something wrong. The same way that no one calls out the cheifs. The minute you do speak out and criticize...you are alienated by the group. The rest of Canada can see the troubles but no one in the FN side will admit to it. This example here is case in point. You could have said yes, Spence is a train wreck and we should have anything to do with her. But that would mean agreeing with the enemy...right?

Here is the article (copied and pasted). I highlighed specific line for you to focus on: Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is calling on fellow chiefs to continue advancing the Idle No More movement. Ms. Spence joined an Idle No More panel discussion on Friday, saying by video link the movement cannot fade now that the liquid-diet fast she undertook to draw attention to native issues has ended. SUSTAINABILITY Aboriginal Insurance aims to fix native housing problem ADAMS AND GOSNELL-MYERS Don’t forget Canada’s urban aboriginals. They're not just passing through FIRST NATIONS Tories dig in on first-nations legislation “I’m asking everyone to encourage all the chiefs to work with the grassroots people,” Ms. Spence said from Attawapiskat, Ont., after earlier lamenting: “Sometimes I feel it’s the leadership not fighting hard enough, because they’re afraid to.” It was Ms. Spence’s first public speech since she returned home from her protest in Ottawa, organizers and Attawapiskat staff said. Ms. Spence told the crowd she’s still “suffering from the impact” of her fast. “I’m getting better,” she said, thanking those who supported her. Treaty relationships are still broken and first nations people remain second-class citizens as “the white man law is always overstepping our own laws,” she told the crowd. “This is why we have to tell the government we’re not going to take this no more.” Idle No More was launched by four women in Saskatoon last November, but Ms. Spence’s protest soon made her the reluctant face of the movement to push first nations rights into the spotlight. Speakers at the University of Alberta seminar discussed how to keep the movement from fading. More ground-level organization is needed for it to be politically effective, said Wab Kinew, director of indigenous inclusion at the University of Winnipeg. “We have the potential for a very strong ground game,” he said, adding that the movement thrust first nations issues “into the national collective consciousness.” “And what do we do with that? Do we say, ‘Oh well, we’ll try again next time?’ … No, we’ve come too far to turn back now,” he said. Tanya Kappo, an early supporter of Idle No More, said the movement is in a “transition,” with supporters sorting out the next step. “It’s still all relevant, and people are still waiting and wanting something different,” Ms. Kappo said. The movement has been overwhelming, said Cecil Nepoose, a panelist who is an elder of the Samson Cree in Alberta. “[Ms. Spence] is leading the process, and the council and the chiefs are caught in the middle. They don’t have the understanding if they haven’t had the grassroots experience,” he said. Heather Nooski, 31, of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in B.C., was among the 300 people at the seminar. She called Ms. Spence a role model, and didn’t expect Idle No More to fade away. “It’s not going to stop. It won’t,” she said

Globe and Mail is paywall? Try this one http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Idle+More+alive+well+University+Alberta+forum+hears/7940988/story.html

I agree with your statement and I'm not trying to pick on you but can someone explain why this conservative goverment is a western based goverment. I understand that Harper holds his seat in Calgary but he was also born and raised in Toronto. Moreso...there are 71 Conservative MPs from BC, Alberta, Sask, and Manitoba combined. Ontario has 73 alone. Then Quebec and Maritimes have 19. I'm not trying to complain about West vs. East as I fully understand its representation by population but no matter what....it will always be an Ontario or Quebec goverment. Maybe this year we have more of a voice but I don't see the western base.

Here you go.... http://m.theglobeand...?service=mobile She was the keynote speaker for an INM teach in session in Edmonton just last week.

I don't watch Sun that much however I did a quick search and easily found three videos on the issue. Perhaps you weren't trying too hard? http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/search/brazeau/ My point was not to talk about Brazeau in detail. Rather its to show that you don't let the idiots take center stage like INM has let Spence do to their campaign. The leaders of Idle No More contiue to use Spence even though she is their 'Brazeau'.

You're right...guilty until proven innocent. But I can't blame Harper for taking some action although a suspension may have been a little more reasonable. Perhaps the Harper group knows more than the public does on this?

They sure as hell aren't distancing them too far from the cheifs if they have Spence doing a teach in. I can guarantee you that Harper won't be using Brazeau for any engagements

I had seen this web page but only because I searched for it. In my opinion, they should have been much more vocal about it. Maybe to the point of calling them out in the media. Most people in Canada aren't checking the INN website for this. Most are watching the news and coming to their own conclusions which are not positive. But let's not kid ourselves....to what point did they actually get scolded? Just yesterday Theresa Spence was leading an INM teach in in Edmonton. They have used and continue to use whatever media attention (good or bad) they can get. To be fair....most of Canada hadn't heard about INN until Spence and the leaders did what they did. Too bad it was a double edge sword.

Here is where we differ....you group this into oil side versus non oil. I have very little to do with oil...actually my business would run a lot better if it weren't in Alberta. Like me...there are a number of people who don't make a living off oil. I break the sides into responsible personalities versus victim personalities. The Occupy movement was nothing more than the have nots bitching about their lot in life. IDM started out as a responsible approach but quickly became a gripe about what the 'white man' has done. No logical requests or solutions to the problem just blaming anyone they can for their lot in life.

No....I actually respected the environmental approach they were taking at first. That doesn't mean I agreed with it but I thought they had a good message. However once the fake hunger strike and illegal road blockades kicked in...I really started to dismiss their validity. Once I saw Occupy's involvement...well it was the last straw. It really became a case of all victoms uniting. It's too bad if they really did want to save the environment but that not really what this fight was about for them which is why I have a hard time supporting their cause.

What are the Papaschase claiming they were given? Are they saying nothing? 7 out of 10 families including the cheif moved years before the other 3 did. I have to beleive they were satisified with the compensation given at the time or they would hvae come back. I also have to beleive that all who were actually compensated were happy enough because we never heard of it again for 100 years.

Ok...just read up a bit more on this. The reason the case got thrown out is that the claim elapsed the allowable time frame to make a claim. So IF (and big IF) the Papaschase did have a claim then they didn't make it in time. As such...in the courts eyes all other information is irrelevent. If we wanted to discuss whether this was a legitimate claim or not then I would have to ask why they think they are entitled to 2.5 billion when all 10 families already received compensation and agreed to sell the property? Where is that money? They just want more money because of a perceived loophole? Its claims like these that make the rest of Canada leery of other native claims. Are they for real or just greedy. I'm really starting to believe its the latter.

I don't know much about the actual court case but in light of numerous cares where the Supreme Court has been very favorable to native claims, it seems odd that the Supreme Court was unanimous on this decision. They must feel fairly confident this was the right decision?

That's not surprising as they share a common enemy with the Brits. Its like I said, anyone who has a gripe with Canada or Britain or if their life just sucks in general....now is the time to say it by joining in with Idle No More. Seriously....that movement lost me when Occupy got on board.

I'll have to have a quick read over that one. If its on reserve lands than no issues!

So again... Touche Michael. I am all for owning up to the promises made. Further to that I have no problems with natives asking for compensation and consulation for activity on their land. But the rest seems like a hodge podge of info! It certainly would be nice to deal with it once and for all.

In these situations, I agree that the band should be compensated just as I would expect to be comensated as if I owned land. Are most cases like this where government or business has gone on reserve lands?