Metaneos

CBC News Well, yes. Of course it would make First Nations somewhat cautious. The number seems arbitrary. Arrived at because it was the freed money from another budget. First and foremost, the government needs to consult First Nations leaders. There are organizations set up, mainly by First Nations, which can lead to an overarching dialogue, even with dozens of disparate and widely varied First Nation cultures throughout Canada. I'm sure a face to face meeting between Trudeau and Bellegarde would've helped this process along quite nicely. But at the moment, it seems like Canadian leaders are hiding away, avoiding First Nations leadership, and this announcement was meant to placate white voters with a conscience, rather than about working with First Nations. Listen to First Nations concerns and criticisms. That shouldn't be difficult to do.

CBC News I don't see it recovering. This has been a substantial body blow. Unless the government decides to break the law. But even they need to obey their own courts. At the very least, observe the niceties. Can't see the PacificNorthWest LNG plant surviving a court challenge, either.

Ottawa Citizen The Nurenberg Defense? We First Nations value symbolism. Who's appointed by the government to work with us is important. That it's Charlie Angus criticizing this appointment is also important. This may be a case of 'hippie punching': the Liberal government not wanting to appear to consent toward leaning too far forward toward reconciliation with First Nations. At the same time, who in the Liberal Party is well-known for working with First Nations, now? Bob Rae? But he's retired. It'd go a long way if he were to comment on this appointment. If he doesn't comment, that would also say much.

Some notes, and free writing, (please excuse the free flowing nature of the following writing). Some musings on First Nations, and Canada, without much structure or cohesiveness. Simply ideas. Let us put to rest misconceptions and lies about the residential school system. First of all, it didn't work. Whether there were deliberate flaws in its design, or the flaws were placed within unknowingly we cannot state with any sort of certainty. The men behind the residential school system are all long dead. We can probably gleam some motives from what they'd left behind, but we cannot be certain, at all. Let us put this in the past, finally. We First Nations probably couldn't let it rest, just yet, however. Canada had never acknowledged the residential school system. Never deliberated. Never investigated. Never self-reflected on what had happened. And had allowed its history to fade and become terminal. And worse, there are those who would try to convince Canadians ...

CBC News Suddenly, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has released its findings. Well, I shouldn't say suddenly. It was a lengthy process, with little help from the previous federal government. Over 6000 people were interviewed by the commission. The official number of deaths is about 3200, but the commission believes this to be a conservative estimate. The testimony itself illustrates how the residential school system, to this day, weighs heavily upon Canadian First Nations peoples, influencing even the most recent generation, deeply, in ways not easily described. And please remember, the Harper government had done its best to neuter this commission, to restrain it from investigation into criminal matters. That the commission itself had survived the worst of the Harper government's tendencies toward introspection is testament to the resolution of those involved to shed even a bit more light onto this past. Symbolism is important. This commission was important. Let...

CBC News Realistically, there's only so much can be done The long term goal should be to be helping these remote communities become more and more self-sufficient so there's less need for a community member to have to travel to and fro their home to a neighbouring town for particular needs, or to strengthen the presence of civilization along side those roads and highways. However, three million dollars? Honestly, it seems quite a bit low. This is over 700 kms, altogether, with many communities, in-between. And the winter conditions alone are harsh and demanding. Three million dollars will be used up, very quickly. The most helpful part of this would probably be the $1.6 million allocated toward BC Transit. An extra bus per community with an extra diver should help, although it's a question if the funding will stretch to cover all the communities, in-between. Considering this is the provincial government, they can only do so much, and only indirectly. Now it's up to ...

Dozens of B.C. First Nations failed to file financial statements by deadline  Unabated. Unopposed. Shameful. Hateful. Unjustifiable. This shaming treatment of First Nations leaders must stop. I hate Harper for this. I hate the Canadian government for this. I hate Canada for this. The Harper government gives to First Nations communities all the pennies it had discontinued, and then demands absolute accountability upon each and every god damned cent. Every cent must be tracked, three times signed for. First Nations bands are paralyzed with fear for any misstep invites in third party management, which is more often than not, utterly worse at managing First Nations communities than the supposed corrupt leaders it displaced. Third party management is the new age Indian Agent. Cities are not subject to this humiliation. Provinces are not subject to this dishonor. Harper himself stonewalled his own Parliamentary Budget Officer when he was being asked difficult questions about his o...

CBC News Thank goodness. White people wearing headdresses is odd, in addition to being ignorant. Hopefully more organizations follow suit.

Enjoy the rest of the day, people.

CTV News I am still left feeling betrayed by Canada, even after all this time since the deep sixing of the Kelowna Accord. My anger hasn't abated, since then. It's grown, within. How can we ever trust the Canadian government, again? How can we trust the opposition parties, after year upon year of lily livered mere disapproval of Harper's policies? The Conservative government's native education policy is immoral, Martin said in a speech during the Assembly of First Nations' annual meeting. Damn right, it is! Harper's set back Canadian-First Nations relations by generations. He represents old Canada to us First Nations. The Canada of yesteryear.  The Canada that thought nothing more of us than that we were little more than animals, and at best savages. We have no place in Harper's Canada. And if Canada returns Harper to power in this coming election, we will know Canada has no place for us, either, except where we already are. In purgatory.

thestar.com Despite historically low rates of election participation, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde says there are 51 ridings across the country where aboriginal voters could play a key role. Nearly half of them are held by the ruling Conservatives, according to a list produced by the national aboriginal group. “Fifty-one ridings can make a difference between a majority and a minority government. People are starting to see that,” Bellegarde told a general assembly of the AFN in Montreal. I hope people heed these words. We First Nations are criminally marginalized, and we need to use whatever means are available to us to better our lives. Otherwise, we will continually face difficulties in this society. We have nothing to lose by voting.

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.

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.

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.

APTN National News Bellegarde said Ottawa’s favorite tactic is to use the word “veto” when describing why it continues to oppose the full implementation of the declaration in Canada. The Harper government has claimed, in its argument against supporting Saganash’s bill, that the declaration gives First Nations veto power over legislation and development impacting its rights and territories. “The term veto is not used in the UN Declaration. Veto implies an absolute right or power to reject a law or development that concerns Indigenous peoples, regardless of the facts and law in any given situation,” said Bellegarde. “Canada then builds on this imagined frenzy of absolute power and declares: ‘It would be irresponsible to give any one group in Canada a veto.’” If only Canada's opposition party leaders were as tough on the Canadian government as Chief Perry Bellegarde. He's been doing yeoman's work since being elected, and mainly he's been doing the job he was ...

Kwikwetlem Chief Ron Giesbrecht re-elected despite million dollar payday Injuns aren't allowed the big bucks! Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt said at the time, the large payday was " not reasonable" and promised that government would look after the best interests of taxpayers if First Nations didn't. Even if that money wasn't actually paid by Canada, but by the earned profits of that First Nations community? It's a small community with under a 100 residents, but the community somehow won the lottery, and are profiting through smart financial deals. And somehow it's wrong if that community is rewarding its leadership for having them break free of the poverty many Indian Reserves operate under? Well, actually, I guess so. Injuns aren't allowed to be anything but poor, miserable, and outcast!

A quote I liked from a recent The Intercept article : The passage of the terrorism bill would represent a new “open season on First Nations who are speaking out,” she says. Oppose Bill C-51, for good, and for yourself.