Matt Henderson, A Great Teacher!

[socialist]

It takes the words of a great teacher, this one in manitoba to tell the truth about the idle no more opposition. we can't let racists have an open forum to spew their garbage. but i guess it does make them look stupid so maybe its not so bad afterall. for all the teacher bashers out there here is a great article written by someone who truly cares. teachers care.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/fyi/gutless-and-illogical-wonders-187569391.html

[TimG]

It takes the words of a great teacher

Actually, it is nothing but the rant of a ideological partisan who misrepresents history and facts. If there is any racism out there is it perpetuated by the people demanding special status based on their DNA and then insisting that it is not racist.

[westguy]

Socialist-Don't you think it is racist to expect/demand special treatment just cuz of your race?

[socialist]

Socialist-Don't you think it is racist to expect/demand special treatment just cuz of your race?

i know there is tto much racism in this country and a lot of it is being directed at first nations ignorantly. too many people don't understand thi issue. the author of this article, a teacher, understands it better than any of the uneducated rubes on this forum.

[Moonlight Graham]

K-12 Teachers need to teach more Canadian history in the classrooms. A lot more, because it's pathetic.

Question for everyone: Can you name Canada's 2nd Prime Minister, the one who served after Sir John A. McDonald?

I would bet 95% of Canadians could not answer this question (including myself, I had to look it up).

[socialist]

K-12 Teachers need to teach more Canadian history in the classrooms. A lot more, because it's pathetic.

Question for everyone: Can you name Canada's 2nd Prime Minister, the one who served after Sir John A. McDonald?

I would bet 95% of Canadians could not answer this question (including myself, I had to look it up).

there's a difference being taught real history about how a group of people have been abused compared to useless fact based history like your silly question.

[socialist]

Actually, it is nothing but the rant of a ideological partisan who misrepresents history and facts. If there is any racism out there is it perpetuated by the people demanding special status based on their DNA and then insisting that it is not racist.

Tim, critical thinking is what is needed and you are not showing that you understand that concept. you totally miss the point of the article. that to me is sad but indicitive of the major ignorance of a majority of the population of this country.

[TimG]

critical thinking is what is needed and you are not showing that you understand that concept.

Sorry, you are the one that is missing the ability to apply critical thinking. The provisions that grant aboriginals special status under the law are racist. You may argue that that they are legal requirements that cannot be ignored but they are still racist. Pointing out racism is not racism.

[Sleipnir]

K-12 Teachers need to teach more Canadian history in the classrooms. A lot more, because it's pathetic.

Question for everyone: Can you name Canada's 2nd Prime Minister, the one who served after Sir John A. McDonald?

I would bet 95% of Canadians could not answer this question (including myself, I had to look it up).

Umm Robert Borden? Wait no ummm -looks it up online-

[Moonlight Graham]

Tim, critical thinking is what is needed and you are not showing that you understand that concept. you totally miss the point of the article. that to me is sad but indicitive of the major ignorance of a majority of the population of this country.

Did they teach you basic manners in teacher's college? Thought not...because you insult someone in pretty much every reply you ever make.

[Moonlight Graham]

there's a difference being taught real history about how a group of people have been abused compared to useless fact based history like your silly question.

You think who our prime ministers were are useless facts? Much of history is "fact-based" (we should hope at least, though history is always told from a particular point of view meant for a particular audience). This country has a history of not teaching the history of Canada, whether it is our political history or the history of aboriginals.

If you do become employed as a teacher I hope you help campaign to the "powers that be" to have more Canadian history taught in our schools.

[socialist]

Did they teach you basic manners in teacher's college? Thought not...because you insult someone in pretty much every reply you ever make.

No I don't. i just tire of the ignorance. i post what of the best articles ever written and all you do is ask a silly question tryin to deflect attention from a great, honest, factual piece of writing.

for all the unnecessary garbage teachers have to put up with, maybe people can realize that teachers shape minds and teach critical thinking skills like what this teacher is doing.

[socialist]

You think who our prime ministers were are useless facts? Much of history is "fact-based" (we should hope at least, though history is always told from a particular point of view meant for a particular audience). This country has a history of not teaching the history of Canada, whether it is our political history or the history of aboriginals.

If you do become employed as a teacher I hope you help campaign to the "powers that be" to have more Canadian history taught in our schools.

history is going by the wayside, thankfully, and it is more important to teach sustainable development in social studies classes. we need to teach real history such as the treaties, and every kid in this country should know how the residential schools have and continue to hurt people all because of imperalists.

[Moonlight Graham]

for all the unnecessary garbage teachers have to put up with, maybe people can realize that teachers shape minds and teach critical thinking skills like what this teacher is doing.

I don't think many people would dispute this. Critical thinking was taught quite well for me as a student in my last few years of high school, say with enormous emphasis starting in Grade 9 and increasing every year. My particular english teachers were awesome at teaching me critical thinking via constant essays I had to write.

I don't think many people would also disagree with the author that there are so many idiots out there online that make anonymous ignorant comments about natives or whatever the topic is. My comment was on-topic because the article wrote about how more history should be taught in schools, and it's true,

[Moonlight Graham]

history is going by the wayside, thankfully, and it is more important to teach sustainable development in social studies classes. we need to teach real history such as the treaties...

Wait, do you support more history being taught or less, i dont understand.

[TimG]

we need to teach real history such as the treaties

What you want to teach is a version of history that misrepresents the treaties in ways that benefit aboriginals. A true history of treaties would be something that most aboriginals reject because it undermines many of their claims.

every kid in this country should know how the residential schools have and continue to hurt people

Every kid should be taught the historical context that led to the residential schools. Specifically, the belief that assimilation was the best way to help aboriginals and the residential schools. It may be that the residential schools were poorly funded and that assimilation is no longer something that we consider to be good or necessary. But teaching a history that does not make this context clear is a dishonest history. Edited January 20, 2013 by TimG

[punked]

What you want to teach is a version of history that misrepresents the treaties in ways that benefit aboriginals. A true history of treaties would be something that most aboriginals reject because it undermines many of their claims.

Every kid should be taught the historical context that led to the residential schools. Specifically, the belief that assimilation was the best way to help aboriginals and the residential schools. It may be that the residential schools were poorly funded and that assimilation is no longer something that we consider to be good or necessary. But teaching a history that does not make this context clear is a dishonest history.

Tim socialist isn't a real person it was Merlin play, a left wing dummy for the right of this forum to knock down including Merlin.

[socialist]

Tim socialist isn't a real person it was Merlin play, a left wing dummy for the right of this forum to knock down including Merlin.

quit it with your stupid tin foil hat garbage. i am who i am on this forum. don't like it then leave it.

[gunrutz]

It is not racist to disagree with someone. but sure, some people are racist, and make racist comments, but most don't, those that do only muddy the waters, they do not negate the arguments, the calls of racism from some of the INM gang about virtually any criticism of the movement or native people is just as bad.

Stop infantilizing these people and let them face the consequences of their actions, good or bad.

[Michael Hardner]

Tim socialist isn't a real person it was Merlin play, a left wing dummy for the right of this forum to knock down including Merlin.

Punked - please just report someone if you suspect them of being a clone. Thanks.

[jbg]

Actually, it is nothing but the rant of a ideological partisan who misrepresents history and facts. If there is any racism out there is it perpetuated by the people demanding special status based on their DNA and then insisting that it is not racist.

I just tried to put my hip boots on to wade through the excrement of that article.

The FN's were largely wiped out by smallpox and other diseases almost before a shot was fired. About 95% of them. Why are 5% of the people entitled to 100% of the land?

[jbg]

Tim socialist isn't a real person it was Merlin play, a left wing dummy for the right of this forum to knock down including Merlin.

quit it with your stupid tin foil hat garbage. i am who i am on this forum. don't like it then leave it.

Punked - please just report someone if you suspect them of being a clone. Thanks.

Ah, the war of the screen names in cybersapce.

[Sleipnir]

we need to teach real history such as the treaties, and every kid in this country should know how the residential schools have and continue to hurt people all because of imperalists.

I'm sure they already do.

Edited January 21, 2013 by Sleipnir

[WIP]

It takes the words of a great teacher, this one in manitoba to tell the truth about the idle no more opposition. we can't let racists have an open forum to spew their garbage. but i guess it does make them look stupid so maybe its not so bad afterall. for all the teacher bashers out there here is a great article written by someone who truly cares. teachers care.

http://www.winnipegf...-187569391.html

That was a good article, and hopefully one that can balance out some of the damage done by the corporate spawn at SunMedia, National Post, Globe & Mail etc.. He's right that Canadians are almost ignorant about our nation's history....which in my day, didn't even mention the agreements our forefathers made to keep the peace while they flooded the new land with more and more immigrants from Europe. Once the loyalists felt they had the upper hand, then it was time to aggressively marginalize natives onto small, fragmented reserves that were mostly of no real economic value at the time, and forcibly remove their children to be indoctrinated in church-run boarding schools to learn the "white man's ways." And just like the blacks in the U.S. are told to just 'get over' slavery and the informal slavery of the Jim Crow Era, the Aboriginals of Canada are told that they are 'living off the Government!' This happens even though they have never received a fraction of what was promised when compared with what is spent annually by the AANDC (much of which is pilfered within the dept.).

I forgot to set up the following story. This piece written for the online Calgary Beacon, gets to the heart of what I believe is at the core of the refusal to follow the advice of the previous Royal Commission report and increasingly hostile treatment of natives in the media, which I see as part of the setup for more aggressive Federal Government action on behalf of increased resource exploitation:

First Nations Have Power To Stop Canadian Resource Development/Beacon News, Calgary

“If we want to access our resources in these more remote areas of Canada, we have to work out an arrangement with [First Nations] leaders,” said Bill Gallagher, author of

Resource Rulers: Fortune & Folly on Canada’s Road to Resources

. “

Their empowerment by the Constitution, backed up by 175 legal wins, is such that they are in a position to deny access to resources on an efficient and effective basis

.”

Many Canadians think of First Nations as wards of the state, like welfare recipients. They think of the $7.8 billion Canada will spend on Aboriginal Affairs during this fiscal year as a form of social assistance, not as payment due under treaty, like a contract. They think of First Nations as another interest group, like labour or a religious minority.

That is not how Canada’s 614 First Nations see themselves. First Nations consider themselves sovereign peoples who entered into nation to nation treaties with the British Crown. Over the past 40 years or so they have been slowly asserting their sovereign right to control what they call “traditional territory,” which usually includes natural resources of some sort.

Now, according to Gallagher, they are in a position of considerable power. First Nations really are Canada’s “resource rulers.” Victory after victory in Canadian courts have firmly established the principle that nothing happens on their land without their assent and their participation.

Gallagher is an Ontario lawyer who has spent decades working with First Nations on treaty issues, resource development and government relations. He says First Nations want to work with Canadian governments and resource companies to foster investment and jobs. They want to be partners in the new prosperity.

But if they feel they aren’t being taken seriously and their concerns aren’t being addressed, First Nations have the ability to seize the public agenda, for better or for worse, he says.

Take the Northern Gateway pipeline. First Nations have been the real driving force behind B.C. opposition to the project, which would carry 525,000 barrels of oil sands crude from Alberta to Kitimat on the West Coast on its way to coveted Asian markets. If the National Energy Board grants approval in 2014, some First Nations have said they’ll challenge Enbridge in court. If you accept Gallagher’s argument, they’ll likely win.

Gallagher says First Nations have already blocked three British Columbia mines in recent years.

“I think Canadians will realize these people are players. We have to be sure we channel this positive empowerment in a way that we can mutually benefit,” he said during an interview. “Instead, what we’re seeing is the negative empowerment that we’re all familiar with and we can only take so much interest in because it hurts to follow it.”

Gallagher thinks Canada may miss a golden opportunity if Prime Minister Harper doesn’t embark on a “positive empowerment” strategy that turns First Nations into partners and builds a solid working relationship.

The consequences of continuing with the current negative empowerment could be severe.

Do Albertans want First Nations blocking oil sands investment?

Do British Columbians want First Nations saying No to liquified natural gas exports to Asia?

Do Ontario residents want First Nations denying access to northern mining operations?

Chief Nepinak was being modest when he said Idle No More has the power to stop resource development and shut down the Canadian economy. That power rests with he and his fellow chiefs.

For the sake of all Canadians, aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike, let’s hope they use it for positive empowerment.

And let’s hope Stephen Harper understands how vulnerable Canada is if they choose not to.

On that last point - I have to disagree with the author; because Canada's 'vulnerability' is mostly in a legal sense....which haven't been respected so far, so why should we expect that treaties and agreements will be applied now...in a time of increasingly desperate and aggressive resource exploitation! So far, the Idle No More protests represent a non-violent reminder to Canadians that most of Canada's resource development and transportation, run through native lands and depend on native compliance for a smooth running economy.

I suspect that the increasing quantity of anti-native propaganda being disseminated right from mainstream private media sources has been a signal from the business community that they want their Government to be more aggressive in its actions dealing with natives, and they want the racist, anti-native segment of Canada to increase and become even more aggressive and supporting of what will eventually lead to state-sponsored violence against natives and native communities. Harper and his minions (including the ones who proliferate on this forum) will get their gold, but it is going to come at a higher economic cost and the complete loss of any esteem Canada has internationally, as troops move in to one reserve after another.

Edited January 24, 2013 by WIP

[August1991]

It takes the words of a great teacher... http://www.winnipegf...-187569391.html

Those are not the words of a teacher.