Olympic torch relay rejigged amid protest, but modified Six Nations sh

[kimmy]

Scumbags. Have these idiots ever considered how their tactics make them look?

I can't think of anything that could possibly do less to win sympathy for your cause than jumping a young woman on what would have been the happiest day of her life.

-k

[charter.rights]

Scumbags. Have these idiots ever considered how their tactics make them look?

I can't think of anything that could possibly do less to win sympathy for your cause than jumping a young woman on what would have been the happiest day of her life.

-k

NO one seems to know what her cause was.....how could you have sympathy for something that doesn't even exist....?

[Oleg Bach]

Stupid torch! It looked like a broken aluminium base ball bat that had been run over by a street car! What arty company got the contract to design this peace of embarassing shit? First Nations have nothing to be proud of in so far as these competitions. There is not one canoe race...not one spear tossing contest...just a lot of decendants of those that shot buffalo from a train while on their way to Buffalo. People who are so much into being heros that they train so hard phyiscally that they can barely speak. Have you seen those adds? The ones with the atheletes that look like they are on big pharma medication...it use to be that our athletes were bright...does no one test them for brain doping?

[charter.rights]

I hear ya....

The games are between the drug companies to see who can make a performance-enhancing drug and still keep it from showing up in a drug test.

[Oleg Bach]

I hear ya....

The games are between the drug companies to see who can make a performance-enhancing drug and still keep it from showing up in a drug test.

Blood doping is a the perfect example of legitimate tampering and creation of an advantage. Once the games where held in China - a nation that did not even have fit air for an athelete to inhale..a nation that executes more citizens than all other nations combined..well I just lost faith in the old noble idea of what the Olypics was. The only people that adhere to the excietment generated by these competitions are those of moderate intelligence. People who are aware of the state of humanity world wide at this point can not take these games in any form of title seriously. It's over....the Olypics are dead...and the participants and enjoyers along with the profiteers have now become the problem. A problem that does not need to be shored up as a legitimate concept of great human endevour.

[Griz]

I hear ya....

The games are between the drug companies to see who can make a performance-enhancing drug and still keep it from showing up in a drug test.

There are some events that make the winter games great like the ice hockey. All the others depends on interest but I find boring i.e. curling. And whose going to pay big bucks to sit on a grand stand in Whistler just to watch the participant "whiz" by in a flash. Seems a bit dozy to me As for the doping? I totally agree with your statement and in past have heard the term "United Steroids of Athletes!" Sure, yanks hold your heads high with all your steroids. Money has screwed up a lot of things not only the olympics...NHL not as great as it was when it wasn't all about money....olympics--all about money and those CEOs and cushy jobs--the whole thing is just one big waste of money--billions of dollars for a two-week party. In schools, they bleed poor students for every buck in the textbook industry. Yup money for brainwashing material ...

[kimmy]

NO one seems to know what her cause was.....how could you have sympathy for something that doesn't even exist....?

Sure we do. She was part of an anti-poverty, pro-native group.

-k

[kimmy]

Stupid torch! It looked like a broken aluminium base ball bat that had been run over by a street car!

Actually, it kind of looks like an enormous joint to me.

-k

[William Ashley]

I suspect most of the residents would look at the torch relay coming into their community as a positive thing. Their Council was onside with it.

People generally like to pretend that the 'militants' speak for the natives of Canada. That is not the situation. These militants, in fact, often challenge the traditional authority in the communities, as they have here.

In fact, the Six Nations are the one group of natives that is different from other natives. They have no 'aboriginal right' to their land -- they got their land from the English monarch, and their forebearers immigrated here, like the rest of us. They have always been the most economically successful of native groups because they have valuable skills, often with heavy machinery, and big construction. Even this 'demonstration' isn't about anything real. "Stolen land!" indeed. It's just the militants twisting Canada's tail. It's just one group arbitrarily ruining the plans of another group.

If natives aren't citizens of Canada, why are we giving these non-taxpayers over $10,000 in benefits, per capita?

What is the alternative?

[Smallc]

What is the alternative?

Well, the alternative is obviously to give them nothing, since according to some, we have no agreements and so no obligations to them.

[William Ashley]

What is the alternative?

I thought I should add Canadians should recognize that the natives saved Canada.

[Smallc]

Saved it?

[Griz]

Way to go William! The big test: we shall see how many Canadians would flunk such a simple fact through smallc's answer

[kimmy]

Saved it?

I'm also extremely excited to hear how. I can hardly wait to learn this important piece of Canadian history.

-k

[Guest TrueMetis]

I'm also extremely excited to hear how. I can hardly wait to learn this important piece of Canadian history.

-k

Same here.

[Wilber]

I'm assuming he is referring to the part played by Britain's native allies during the War of 1812. In this he has a point. The part played by those like Tecumseh and his people was very important to the defense of Canada. Whether it saved Canada is debatable but it was certainly an important factor.

[Smallc]

Phil Fontaine, former head of the Assembly of First Nations who now works as an adviser to Olympic sponsor Royal Bank, carried the Olympic torch partway through Long Plain First Nation on Friday. Crowds were sparse, with just a few hardy spectators braving the freezing temperatures to cheer on the flame.

Some First Nations groups say the Olympics offer an opportunity to focus international attention on Canada's treatment of aboriginals. The torch relay was effectively blocked in several First Nation territories, while other aboriginals lined the torch route in Manitoba this week to highlight hundreds of murdered or missing aboriginal women.

But Fontaine said this isn't really the time to dwell on the negative. "There are people who see this as an opportunity (for protest). I see this as a celebration," he said at the Long Plain school following his torch run.

Link to story by Chinta Puxley

Very interesting. I agree with Fontaine.

Edited January 9, 2010 by Smallc