Posted on 05/16/2007 5:01:58 AM PDT by Clive
Canadians want two things when it comes to the treatment of aboriginals.
The first is respect for the principle that no one is above the law.
The second is that land claims must be fairly resolved and a way found to address high rates of aboriginal crime, unemployment, poverty, addiction, disease, illiteracy and suicide.
The first principle -- no one is above the law -- means aboriginals don't get to shut down rail lines, as one native leader in Manitoba has threatened to do this summer.
It means they do not get to hold innocent communities hostage, as has been going on in Caledonia for 15 months, due to gutlessness by federal and provincial politicians.
It means the malicious twits who posted instructions on YouTube about how to shut down Canada's rail system must be hunted down and prosecuted.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and every premier need to make this clear -- and back it up with military and police force. Turning a blind eye encourages disrespect for the law by all Canadians. It is the gateway to anarchy.
That said, how can it be, with federal, provincial and municipal taxpayers spending more than $10 billion annually to better the lives of Canada's 1.3 million aboriginals, that so many continue to live in poverty, both on and off reserves?
Should we even have a reserve system which, considering the appalling conditions on so many of them, is a form of apartheid?
How, after all these years, can there still be 800 outstanding aboriginal land claims, with the average case taking a decade just to be heard and some up to 20 years to resolve?
While nothing justifies law-breaking, justice delayed is justice denied.
Our political leaders need to come clean with us.
If $10 billion a year isn't enough to address this mess, how much is?
Why does so much government and aboriginal bureaucracy stand between this money and the people it's supposed to help?
Politicians urge "patience," but patience got us into this mess. It's time for Canadians to become impatient, and demand action. Once and for all.
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Interesting
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
“That said, how can it be, with federal, provincial and municipal taxpayers spending more than $10 billion annually to better the lives of Canada’s 1.3 million aboriginals, that so many continue to live in poverty, both on and off reserves?
Should we even have a reserve system which, considering the appalling conditions on so many of them, is a form of apartheid?”
Connect the dots - it’s the $10B of unearned money that creates the poverty - no secret there! As to the reserve system, it was racist at inception and nothing about it has changed, except for the worse.
The Government of Canada should offer a one time cash settlement to all ‘Status’ aboriginals. It would be for them to become full Canadians and give up their individual claims.
$100,000 will get rid of a lot of problems!
Of course, part of the problem is political correctness: the moment you suggest changes are needed, you’re accused of being “paternalistic”, or the old chestnut - “racist” - because you’re suggesting Natives can’t take care of themselves now.
Same thing with the imiigration “debate”. So people avoid it, and the situation drags on for another few years.
Have we not about done with the system where these people lay around on reservations, do nothing productive, and collect large amounts of federal money which always finds its way into the pockets of a few while the others do without? Their idea of enriching themselves is setting up gambling casinos, not any kind of productive work. They want to live a life which was possible hundreds of years ago, and at the same time, to have all the things that the rest of us have and work for and have worked for for hundres of years. They do not seem to see how this is not going to work, but I do. I cannot live the life I live by being a hand embroiderer, and they cannot do so by murdering polar bears and carving soap stone. I do not want to hear any more about their pre-historic land claims. No more.
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