Truth and Reconciliation... Legitimacy

[Hal 9000]

Probably not a good idea. Clearly, they need to own the management but perhaps they can be offered guidance. There is obviously mismanagement at all levels. We need to work together to resolve them. It's a no-brainer.

C'mon, you really think it's a no brainer? That's as naive as saying world peace is a no brainer or global warming.

[WestCoastRunner]

C'mon, you really think it's a no brainer? That's as naive as saying world peace is a no brainer or global warming.

Why is it a no-brainer? Obviously, we need to work together.

[jacee]

What would you, Jacee and the rest do if Stephen Harper or Christy Clark announced they were sending in someone to manage the FN reserves and their money?

I'd say who's coming to manage my town?

They need HELP!

How's your town managing?

Got any corruption issues?

Wasted money?

Shortage of funds?

.

Edited June 12, 2015 by jacee

[jacee]

What's happening right now is closer to genocide. You're obviously an idealist, but i don't think you've been to a reserve before - or seen the effects of what that environment does to children generation after generation.

I'm no idealist. Gave that up decades ago.

What's happening now is recovery from "cultural" genocide.

100 years, generation after generation of children terrorized and brutalized, and passing that on in families.

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=890

For over a century, the central goals of Canadas Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the Treaties; and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be

described as cultural genocide.

Cultural genocide is the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group.

States that engage in cultural genocide set out to destroy the political and social institutions of the targeted group. Land is seized, and populations are forcibly transferred and their movement is restricted. Languages are banned. Spiritual leaders are persecuted, spiritual practices are forbidden, and objects of spiritual value are confiscated and destroyed. And,most significantly to the issue at hand, families are disrupted to prevent the transmission of cultural values and identity from one generation to the next.

In its dealing with Aboriginal people, Canada did all these things.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission addressed intergenerational trauma.

It's one of the lasting effects of the residential schools.

And it's very much in evidence.

But so is strength and recovery.

.

Edited June 12, 2015 by jacee

[WestCoastRunner]

I don't understand the stance against 'FN's' standing up for their cultural rights. Clearly they have every right to fight for their identity. Why is there so many people fighting against their struggle and why aren't there more people fighting alongside them.

Edited June 12, 2015 by WestCoastRunner

[TimG]

I don't understand the stance against 'FN's' standing up for their cultural rights. Clearly they have every right to fight for their identity. Why is there so many people fighting against their struggle.

Phfft. What a strawman. This has nothing to do with 'culture'. It is amount money. FN want others to support their lifestyle choices and see exploiting 'white guilt' as a means to that end. Edited June 12, 2015 by TimG

[jacee]

I don't understand the stance against 'FN's' standing up for their cultural rights. Clearly they have every right to fight for their identity. Why is there so many people fighting against their struggle and why aren't there more people fighting alongside them.

There are. Lots. Even some here.

But there's just some real 'anti' types here who derail, dominate and disrespect on this topic.

They like to beat their heads again brick walls, dreaming that the genocide can still be completed. :/

.

[jacee]

Phfft. What a strawman. This has nothing to do with 'culture'. It is amount money. FN want others to support their lifestyle choices and see exploiting 'white guilt' as a means to that end.

As we speak ...!

Here's a fine specimen , wcr. ?

TimG, you are a parody of yourself. ?

.

[Smallc]

Make up your mind!

I've never said anything different.

[TimG]

Excellent article documenting how aboriginals themselves are to blame for the slow progress:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/negotiation-and-reconciliation-is-a-two-way-street/article24919535/

Michael Mendelson of the Caledon Institute, no friend of the Harper government, wrote a detailed review of what resulted, the proposed First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act. He dismissed completely the accusation that Mr. Harper was obdurate and unreasonable and that Mr. Atleo sold out. It was a fair and reasonable deal that gave aboriginals major gains in money and control.

These three events – and there are others – at least slightly modify the apparently entrenched narrative that “reconciliation” has not been tried in good faith by governments, and that the failure to achieve agreements nudging Canada toward “reconciliation” has been entirely the fault of governments. They bear some blame for the unhappy state of current affairs, to be sure, but not all of it.

Edited June 12, 2015 by TimG

[Hal 9000]

I don't understand the stance against 'FN's' standing up for their cultural rights. Clearly they have every right to fight for their identity. Why is there so many people fighting against their struggle and why aren't there more people fighting alongside them.

The FN people stay on the reserves because they're given money to do so. They are manipulated by their own bands and chiefs to stay. If they all decided to leave the reserve, the band/chiefs would get no money, and the FN's people would have to work. It's a sick cycle.

The white man isn't holding them back, their own people are.

[jacee]

Excellent article documenting how aboriginals themselves are to blame for the slow progress:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/negotiation-and-reconciliation-is-a-two-way-street/article24919535/

Throughout our history with Indigenous Peoples in Canada, our 'agreements' have been full of weasel words, poison pills, sharp dealing, double talk and bald faced lies. This was no different.

/pamela-palmater/2014/04/

chief-shawn-atleo-should-tear-first-nations-education-act

Then came the "deal" -- the promise of adequate funding, First Nation control and legislation that would recognize our Aboriginal and treaty rights to education. From the moment Atleo-Harper held their joint press conference, First Nations knew we were in trouble. Atleo sang songs about how he was saving our children from the status quo while Harper countered every point Atleo made -- although with great tact.

When Atleo realized that Harper wasn't singing the same song, Atleo sent a strongly worded letter asking whether or not any of the promises Atleo made to First Nations were in fact going to be kept by Harper. The answer was no.

...

Lawyers, academics, analysts and political commentators all seemed to come to the same conclusion: the Act did not reflect First Nation control or protect treaty rights, and even the funding was an illusion.

"The proof is in the act -- Bill C-33 which was supposed to be called First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act actually reads:

An Act to establish a framework to enable First Nations control ..."

Weasel words, poison pills, sharp dealing, double talk ... forked tongue.

Historically, 'Indian' Agents and other Crown agents have made 'deals' with whomever they could isolate and get to sign a paper, without the ratification by the whole community that is required by the Royal Proclamation 1763:

"... at some public Meeting or Assembly of the said Indians, to be held for that Purpose"

Many such historic 'deals' have now been overturned in land claims actions on that basis - the community never consented.

With that history, the scene of Shawn Atleo and Harper working out some secret deal ... Atleo singing it's merits while Harper undermines every commitment it 'appears' to make ... deja vu to Indigenous communities.

It was doomed to fail.

Jeffrey Simpsons 'analysis' is very lightweight, superficial, patronizing and colonialist. He doesn't address anything of substance at all, and makes no attempt to comprehend First Nations perspectives.

And his poisonous words "radical aboriginals" ... reveal racism ... just plain icky.

Where we are today, in the aftermath of the truth about the residential schools genocide ...

We have to do better.

.

Edited June 12, 2015 by jacee

[Keepitsimple]

Perhaps this has been previously posted. Canada may very well have reasons for regrets and apologies but we certainly were not alone - in keeping with the thinking of "the times" here's how other countries have tried to reconcile with their Native populations - including Australia, New Zealand, Northern Europe, Greenland and South Africa.....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-other-countries-have-tried-to-reconcile-with-native-peoples/article24826144/

[cybercoma]

At the same time, they have a rampant prescription drug abuse problem that's getting worse with no end in sight

That's called the suburbs in the rest of Canada.

[cybercoma]

\ They should be holding FN leaders accountable to progressing their communities and we should be doing everything we can to help them with this accountability.

Who's "they"? And what's "progress"?

[PIK]

Jacee some day when you are older ,you will understand how wrong you have been.

[Smallc]

That's called the suburbs in the rest of Canada.

Quantity...per capita usage...not even comparable.

[cybercoma]

Quantity...per capita usage...not even comparable.

Official source for that? I'd like to read more about it.

[Smallc]

Official source for that? I'd like to read more about it.

I can't give you a source. What I can tell you from direct experience spending time in the suburbs, the inner city, and near or on a reserve, and from having direct involvement with emergency and social services and the statistics that come with, it's not the same level.

The reason is simple - the lack of purpose that is most prevalent on northern reserves.

[Accountability Now]

The Silver Covenant Chain Treaty is in effect in Canada too as the Haudenosaunee people have always spanned the border, England did too back then when there was no border, and Canada assumed all treaties at Confederation.

.

Who cares where they spanned. The deal was made to promote business in New England and to secure the area. It had nothing to do with the Canadian area. The original deal was signed in New York and involved tribes from New England to the Colony of Virginia. Any colonies from Canada?

First developed in the New York area at a time of violence and social instability for the colonies and Native Americans, the English and Iroquois councils and subsequent treaties were based on supporting peace and stability to preserve trade. They addressed issues of colonial settlement, and tried to suppress violence between the colonists and Indian tribes, as well as among the tribes, from New England to the Colony of Virginia.

The Mohawks called off the Treaty in 1755 because of land they say was stolen from them in New York...which if you look on a map would reside in the US....not Canada.

The Albany Congress brought the Treaty back to good terms. Who was involved in the conference you ask? It was delegates from the 7 of 13 American colonies.

The Albany Congress (1754), also known as, "The Conference of Albany" was a meeting of representatives sent by the legislatures of the northern seven of the thirteenBritish North American colonies (specifically, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island). Representatives met daily at Albany, New York from June 19 to July 11, 1754 to discuss better relations with the Native American tribes and common defensive measures against the French threat from Canada in the opening stage of the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France.

Wait...whats that? One of their goals of the congress was to find common defensive measure against the French from CANADA???

The whole point of the Albany Plan was to unite the 13 colonies and they were using the natives as pawns in their plan.

[Je suis Omar]

Perhaps this has been previously posted. Canada may very well have reasons for regrets and apologies but we certainly were not alone - in keeping with the thinking of "the times" ... /[/url]

This is about modern Canada. And it is about a crime that carries the word genocide.

Many people will find both new and hard to accept the notion that Canada, and current Canadians, are accused of a crime as serious as genocide under international law. The phrase cultural genocide has escalated almost overnight from an activist slogan and academic obscurity into official Canadian language, after the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada used it last week to describe the indigenous experience, and then the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created and authorized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, used it as its central organizing concept in characterizing the experience of the last century.

It is a real crime with a real, internationally accepted definition. We could try to fight the charge in court, if it came down to some formal hearing, but it would be a tough one to beat. The law in question the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which Canada ratified and has been an enthusiastic supporter of does not have a separate category called cultural genocide.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/commissions-report-puts-canada-on-brink-of-a-historic-reckoning/article24825565/?service=mobile

And Harper and Canada and so many of its self righteous people have been studiously ignoring this genocide since forever. There are many, who like the Nazis, should be doing jail time. Edited June 12, 2015 by Je suis Omar

[Argus]

You only need to comprehend dres other post regarding progress on reservation communities. If these type of community projects can be implemented across Canada on all reservation communities it would ensure that FN communities retain their cultural identity. Basically the same as Quebec is doing to retain their identity. They have to start somewhere.

You aren't going to get Wal-Mart to set up shop on a reservation with 900 people on it, which is about average in Canada

[dre]

You aren't going to get Wal-Mart to set up shop on a reservation with 900 people on it, which is about average in Canada

You will if its close to another population center and most of them are.

[Bryan]

You will if its close to another population center and most of them are.

Why would they build it in the reserve and not in the population centre?

[bush_cheney2004]

Why would they build it in the reserve and not in the population centre?

Because there are other advantages to a location on sovereign reserve land.