— Musings —12.28.2012 10:44 AM
— Musings —12.28.2012 10:44 AM
Warren, my comment was stupid. I apologise to you and anyone else who took offence.
Thanks, but my daughter is a citizen of a Yukon First Nation. I take a less than academic view of comments like yours.
The more publicly exposed Braydon Mazurkiewich (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/12/14/mb-tories-brayden-mazurkiewich-kapyong-barracks.html), and now Paul Stickney, are only a tiny slice of the grotesque underbelly of this particularly ugly beast.
Casually, routinely spouting such stupid, hate filled comments is a glowing testament to the ingrained sense of entitlement & innate nastiness of racist Conservatives everywhere.
I am sick of it. I am sick of the cultural oppression, I am sick of the hatred, I am sick of the ignorance, I am sick of the lies, and I am sick of people vesting time, money & resources in spreading hatred fear & lies about First Nations in Canada. To what end? What is the fucking point?
Glibly mouthing the rote “I apologize if anyone took offence” line is just more posturing & pandering from ignorant fools – where the only error, apparently, is getting publicly exposed as a hate-filled bigot. People take offence because it is fucking offensive to anyone with any humanity. Creeps.
When I get a moment, I’ll tell you how I really feel……………………
It is purely a fucking disgrace.
That person, was only the first in a series. The second one is a current constituent rep for Conservative MP David Sweet. This person, when commenting about native problems, Idle No More, and Chief Spence’s hunger strike wrote: “Too bad so sad … “. Completely dismissive.
This is a person whose job it is to help constituents solve problems. So you can imagine the quality of service natives would get if they went in there – and why Chief Spence and many other natives think it’s a waste of time speaking to “our” local Conservative MP.
Warren
I share Que Sera’s feeling. One antidote wold be to share stories of Canadians who work closely or in partnership with Aboriginal Canadians to help promote change. I’m thinking of groups like Right to Play and you must know of others. Lets flood sites like yours with good and positive stories where there are those working for change. I urge others who know such groups or people to also share.
I’ve spent the better part of fifteen years working directly (on my own) for Chiefs & Councils in fly-in remote First Nation communities all over Northern Canada – on the prairies and in the territories.
The issues aboriginals are dealing with have always been more or less the same regardless of the community: housing, education, health, resource exploitation. The government funding available, legislated levels of poverty, and institutionalized racism varies depending on geographic location of the community. The federal funding formulas vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and are not applied uniformly across the land for all aboriginals.
The federal government has an entire department devoted to slick efforts to off-load treaty & funding obligations & to “massage” the media message. The federal government appears fully vested in the biggest propaganda campaign going to demonize and marginalize aboriginals in Canada. It is beyond sick and it defies human comprehension – particularly in this millennium.
70% of the people I meet & know down south are incredibly interested in my work & interested in learning everything they can about aboriginals and aboriginal communities. 10% couldn’t give a hoot. And then there are the 20% vocal racists who can’t spray enough hatred & venom & their peculiar brand of ignorance about aboriginals.
I applaud Chief Spence and her willingness to put herself out there for her people. Certainly not anything you could accuse Harper & his Conservatives of doing. No doubt Flaherty will take time out to freshen his makeup & powder his nose before he announces the next round of cutbacks to aboriginal funding across Canada – while the booming resource sector is sold outright to some of Harper’s favorite “foreign special interest groups”.
John Diefenbaker delivered the vote to Aboriginals and brought in the Bill of Rights. He would recognize the Harper party if it hit him in the face. He’d probably be called a socialist friend of the terrorists by the current bunch of louts running the show.
Should have said “WOULDN’T recognize…etc.”