How best to develop Canada's Aboriginal languages and cultures?

[Machjo]

Nobody, the English, the French, the Metis, the First Nations, no group deserves a dime of tax dollars to preserve any language or culture. Any group, the Chinese, the Greeks, the Italians, the Poles, etc who desire to protect such things can do so at their own expense. One group or another group are still citizens of Canada and all should be treated equally, so in order to spend on one the government should be spending on all, and in my opinion the government should not spend on any.

Wow! Now what you're saying there is radical. Essentially, you're saying that it's not up to the government to dictate the language in which tax dollars are to be spent, such as when the government compels schools to teach English and French. Now taht I can agree with. Examples of how this could work are described in option 2. give parents a school vouchers, lets schools teach in the language of their choice, and let the market decide. No more government subsidies for this or that language.

[Machjo]

I would go a step further and state the only solution is full integration.

Now you're contradicting yourself. first you agree that we should live and let live, and now you're saying full integration. So, into which culture should we integrate in? Enlgish? French? The local Aboriginal language? Again, you're now proposing statism.

[Machjo]

Secure home ownership is both an Aboriginal right and a fundamental Human right. Cultural and mental health are dependant upon secure land holdings that are administered by the holders with responsibility towards past, current and future generations. Without land there is no legacy. The individual that is separated from ancestral land is a lost and tormented being. They are like a dry leaf blown in the wind . They have no meaningful foundation to stand upon and they leave a poor legacy for their descendants. As they tumble in the wind, they ultimately vanish and are forgotten.

Most of the major land claims that I am familiar with are products of both Federal and Aboriginal fraud. The Federal and Local Governments want to gather a group of agreeable Aboriginal vendors to engage in land surrenders and sales that the vendors generally have no right to. Select groups of well organised Aboriginals derive personal profit from land sales and royalties they are not entitled to. A few examples of this are the New York Mohawks and Lake Superior Mississaugas that lay claim to the City of Toronto. That region is the ancestral Territory of the nearly extinct Wendats. Manitoba Cree obtain oil royalties in Alberta from land that is the ancestral possession of the Blackfoot. The British Columbia Niska have derived profit from lands that are the ancestral possessions of their neighbours. Only a minority of Aboriginal people derive any gain from these malicious and fraudulent practices. Many Aboriginal peoples are dispossessed by them. Both the living and future descendants of land fraud practioners are victimised by suffering in both this and future worlds. They are accursed. That is why there is so much rape, murder, robbery, arson and other violent crimes in their communities. Their guilt drives them to consume each others homes and lives just as they have consumed the land and spiritual rights of the neighbours they have dispossessed. Those that sacrifice and labour on behalf of the dispossessed can be freed from this curse. Those that do not seek to remedy these injustices stumble blindly into a painful state of disembodied oblivion.

Concerning fraud, I think a free-market based system would solve that. give school vouchers, and let the free market reign. No more official language at the federal level, immigrants should simply be required to find a job, and whatever job they can find work in is equally legit. no more taxpayer money going to English and French. o more legislation favouring English and French over the Aboriginal languages and cultures. Let the free market reign and problem solved. Right now, though. it seems the statists and socialists like to contro, control, control. Official Languages Act, Indian, Act, etc. etc. etc. Just ban any law favouring one language over another. in fact, put it in the constitution. Bingo, problem solved.

[Riverwind]

So are you saying that Canada should have no official language and let the market deal with the languages on an equal footing?

We do need an official language for use in the laws and the courts. My point is there is nothing sacred about English or French and that the official language can/should change to suit the demographics of the society affected by the laws.

[Machjo]

We do need an official language for use in the laws and the courts. My point is there is nothing sacred about English or French and that the official language can/should change to suit the demographics of the society affected by the laws.

The US Federal Government has no official language, only a de facto language. Why could Canada not do the same thing, leaving each government department to react pragmatically on a case-by-case basis, instead of requiring bureaucrats in Quebec City to know English or in Victoria BC to know French. It's just a big waste of money.

[Machjo]

Besides, official languages will be of no use if a unilingual Inuktitut-speaking Inuit goes to court in Ottawa.

So let's just let the courts react on a case-by-case basis.

[Riverwind]

The US Federal Government has no official language, only a de facto language. Why could Canada not do the same thing, leaving each government department to react pragmatically on a case-by-case basis, instead of requiring bureaucrats in Quebec City to know English or in Victoria BC to know French. It's just a big waste of money.

The constitutional language of the US is English. If congress tried to pass a law written in Spanish it would likely be thrown out by the courts based on unwritten understanding. However, if society changed to the point where congress would consider writing a law in Spanish then changing the consitutional to allow such laws would be also possible.

It really does not make a difference if an Inuit showed up in court demanding a translator. The case woudl ultimately be decided based on the law written in English or French and any testimony that was not in that language would be translated for purposes of the court record.