Metaneos

CBC News A number. A concrete number. 6000. Of tens of thousands of students, 6000 or more, didn't return home. Y'know, I can't even imagine the first generation of students, what they thought, experienced. Perhaps they had some hope, some trepidation of this new institution. They, at least, had some genuine curiosity. It was an entrance to the white man's world. Well, it was supposed to have been. Instead, it was a meat grinder for the mind. And a bloodstain on the soul. 6000 stories, untold.

Fixed . I meant to swear at the BC Liberals.

Globe and Mail Update: Fixed a mistake. This is a serious allegation. I don't know if it's true, but I can believe it, because this is exactly the sort of bullshit First Nations can expect from the BC Liberals, daily. Callous disregard.

APTN National News This is a government that just doesn't care about First Nations. When it came to detailed questions about First Nations children and youth, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt drew blanks. When it came to detailed questions, Valcourt demonstrated he didn't care, at all, to learn about the people he's supposedly responsible for, to act as a representative for. He's supposed to be a conduit, a liaison between two nations. I don't know an awful lot of these answers offhand, but I'd sure as hell learn them good if need be. And Valcourt needs to learn this, doubly fast.

Vacouver Sun Damn straight. Nothing institutional has ever really changed for First Nations. Many departments that are ostensibly for First Nations are operating with the same spirit as they were for decades prior, which often times takes the form of colonial style management over First Nation lives. Even worse, many of these same departments also haven't really seen any sort of increase in funding for First Nations in those same decades. These are departments that are operating under outdated rules, working on shoestring budgets, handling problems they can't overcome. To solve these problems, First Nations have to be brought into the process, making the important decisions on how these problems should be tackled. First Nations should be allowed to take the lead on this issue.

CBC News Ugh. Reading this sort of story just gets me. Deep in the heart, it hurts me. This girl. Hell. She looks just like any other girl on my reserve. Like any girl I've met in my community. She was allowed to die. She was passed around, passed off, and then simply passed away. All while in the hands of a ministry that doesn't know what to do with this girl, and the hundreds of kids just like her. Damn it! The best way of dealing with these kids is to work with the families, the communities these kids are being taken from. Instead the BC government plucks them out of the parents' care, sometimes for frivolous reasons, and sends then into this machine-like bureaucracy, and sets it on the spin cycle. Where the kid ends up, and how they end up, is of no concern to the province! Just so long as they can punt these kids further away. Work with the kids' families! Work with the kids' communities! That's the best way.

The Intercept I feel a sense of worry reading this sort of article. How long before the USA begins undertaking this sort of campaign within its borders? Labeling outspoken activists and overly-inquisitive journalists as enemies of the state on a list that marks them for either harassment or death? The USA already has many of its own cities under near military control, with police rolling through the streets in military gear, using military vehicles to confront who knows what. Probably drunk naked party goers. These lists, these watch lists. They're trouble. Not just for whatever enemy the USA has declared war upon, but for the USA, too. This sort of thing corrupts the soul. Because there's no way of contesting them. No court can rule on these lists. Once you're on one, then boom! You're dead.

Calgary Herald This line is classic: “It’s astounding that it’s taken a whole team of scientists and more than 150 years to figure this out, that our people weren’t standing there with a frying pan in their hand waiting for a sockeye to jump in,” she said.

Better times ahead even after Canada drops nearly 20,000 jobs: economists Right. If we keep our chins up, and our boots strapped, happy times are just ahead. Maybe six months away, for sure! It'll be just around the corner, sunshine and rainbows. Honestly, things right now are untenable. We can't count on the economy to rebound, and we can't count on our government to insulate us from the worst of the current instability. For the time being, save your money. Even if it's just a little bit.