12.27.2012 04:41 PM

Killer whale totem

With a baby in the blowhole, a bear, a thunderbird and two salmon at the bottom. By Doug Horne Jr.

The problem wasn’t getting it. The problem is where to put it.

20121227-134110.jpg

6 Comments

  1. Marc-Andre Chiasson says:

    How about putting it on the cover of the book you’re going to write (you just don’t know it yet) concerning the political abuse of aboriginal peoples by the Harper Government and how Jean Chrétien was the damn best Minister of Indian Affairs that Canada ever had. Best wishes for 2013.

    • VC says:

      That could never be a book unless it is a work of fiction or an attempt to obliterate one’s own intellectual reputation (no one would ever accuse it of being the former). Moreover, it’s doubtful that Aboriginal peoples would find it amusing that you are holding popularity contests about who was the “damn best” Minister of Indian Affairs. If you knew anything about Indian Affairs, you wouldn’t be so flippant.

      • Marc-Andre Chiasson says:

        My dearest VC. It must be the season as you seem to be experiencing delusions of wonderland. You and I must have different interpretations of what constitutes a work of fiction. I don’t think the following examples among many of the Harper Government’s treatment of aboriginal peoples are imaginary. What was their first big policy decision when coming to power? Tearing up the Kelowna Accord. They then voted against the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples. Eventually, Harper mouthed an apology for the Residential Schools fiasco but then took steps that went directly against reconciliation efforts such as ending the mandate of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, cutting the budget of the National Aboriginal Health Organization to the point that it had to cease operations, and slashing the health program of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. And don’t get me started on the inequalities for aboriginal youth regarding social services and disabilities. To you, VC, this may be fiction but I don’t think Canada’s native peoples see it quite that way. As for Jean Chrétien, I agree that this is a subjective view on my part. He was Minister of Indian Affairs from 1968 to 1974 and, in my opinion, accomplished a number of good things including establishment of an office to settle native land claims and creation of 10 new national parks. And finally, I am not totally oblivious about INAC or DIAND or whatever it’s called now, and its trials and tribulations. As Executive Director of a Federal Council in Atlantic Canada for a few years, I worked closely with the fine folk there who managed to accomplish a hell of a lot in the face of constant staff reductions and budgetary cuts.

        • VC says:

          What a delightfully inadequate and at the same time predictable response. Packaged up in your defensive condescension is the implication that Stephen Harper has only done Aboriginal peoples wrong whereas Jean Chretien was their saviour. Whatever the merits of Chretien’s tenure as PM, there has never been a “damn best Minister of Indian Affairs” and the entire premise of your suggestion would be the grounds of fiction, and entirely insulting to Aboriginal peoples. Despite your selective production of popular tidbits, arranged into a self-serving comparison to support your argument, it is an altogether infantile pursuit without any actual intellectual significance. I say this not as someone that has some post-secondary education, but as someone who has long since finished primary school.

          But above all, I know that Aboriginal peoples would not find your naive pissing contest engrossing by any stretch, and this despite your substantial bona fides of having worked with the fine folks at “whatever it’s called now” (AANDC, by the way is its most recent corporate identity; its legal name is still DIAND). Your qualifications to speak on the behalf of Aboriginal peoples should be given the same consideration one receives by dint of being related to a neurologists to speak of brain surgery, which is to say none at all.

          And not to worry: I certainly will not engage you over “inequalities for aboriginal youth regarding social services and disabilities.” It’s doubtful that you are the authority par excellence in this area in any case. I generally rely on my own professional background, having worked in this very area for about 10 years now for both the federal government and NGOs on just these particular issues.

  2. the salamander hordes says:

    Why not buy.. and leave it with me… heh heh .. trust me ..


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