$1:
So natives get to be special Canadians and get free housing for perpetuity, while having all the same rights as other Canadians? In BC, we're negotiating land claims. I'm not aware of one treaty band in BC where they were promised housing. Do we have to keep paying for ever for conquering them, or can we just invite them to be regular Canadians like everybody else?
You seem to be under the impression that Natives have it good. They don't. They live in squalor. They've adjusted to survive in their circumstances, the same way Palestinians have in the occupied territories, the way Blacks have in the US ghettos. Unfortunately, much of that survival mechanism reinforces destructive and anti-social, anti-government, anti-majority attitudes, drug abuse, domestic violence, etc. and does not leave them, as a community, in any kind of position to just pick themselves up and sort themselves out at your command. They say communities can not move on from tragic pasts until 4 generations have passed, when there is no longer any living link to the tragedy, when nobody alive can recall being told first-hand accounts by their grandparent of the tragedy. Our clock started ticking circa 1974, so we still have a long way to go.
They don't have all the same rights as other Canadians. Reserve land is still owned by the Crown and any Band Council decision is subject to approval of the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs. The limits of what Band Councils can and can not do is prescribed in the Indian Act, which was not written by Indians, but by the "White Man" government to serve government interests.
Also, why should these people be forced to become "regular Canadians"? Why not just set them up so they're economically self-sustaining and off the federal dole and free to arrange their communities as they please? Think of it as "start up investment" that will end the perpetual cycle of handouts that dont meet their needs or ours. I don't think anyone wants to be the ward of a negligent parent and have no say in their own destiny. Nobody wants free housing when the free housing is as shitty as what they've been "given". Im sure they would prefer a true hand-up then a shitty, insufficient hand-out. What FN really want is the ability to participate in their own future, not for the "White Man" government to make decisions for them and tell them what they need. That still hasn't happened yet. The Indian Act, the Dept of Indian and Norther Affairs, etc, are all old institutions designed and built in the 1800's to
control FN people, not to include them. How can you not see that?
$1:
They can change their environment, move off reserve, or they can do something about conditions on reserves if they want. You see seem to see them as perpetual victims, when they haven't been for quite a few years now. Don't you see that it's your attitude that helps to keep them dependent?
Some problems here:
1) Poverty is self-perpetuating and dis-empowering and can not be solved by focusing on the few individuals who beat the system. Just like right-wingers always say "poor people just need to work harder until they're not poor anymore, like that one guy who was in the news last week." Substance abuse, defeatism, alienation all conspire to keep large numbers of the oppressed group (be they poor people, blacks, Indians, whatever) from participating. If the experience of a group of people is that the System is evil, the odds of them joining the system and being good little capitalists are slim.
2) Poor people are not likely to move away from their support network of neighbours, relatives, etc as this is part of how they get through life. this is who babysits their kids, lends them money, help them find work, etc.
3)There is actually a large and growing number of urban aboriginals, especially in the prairies. However, the educational resources on the Reserve are not sufficient to provide them with skills to be successful in the city, and many of the social problems that took root in the Reserve follow them. Addictions and attitudes dont simply evaporate at the city line.
4)They dont have the resources to solve their own problems because their communities dont receive anything comparable to the support that other Canadian communities have. As I mentioned earlier, their schools, hospitals, water systems etc are deplorable because the govt only gives them a fraction of what it gives "white" communities.
5)Why are you dictating their options to them? Why can't they simply be empowered to find their own solutions? That empowerment means
1) Collaboration and dialogue between FN and the gov, not a one-way patronizing dictation from Ottawa.
2)Cooperative Planning and
3) Yes, money to bring the resulting plans to fruition. They don't have it so its got to come from somewhere.
$1:
My community pays taxes, same as yours. When natives start paying taxes, they'll get more back from govt as well. But in terms of spending, the govt spends more per native than they do per Canadian. It just all disappears down the rabbit hole is all.
They paid a tax back in 1492. The payment was called North America. Its only a lot "per native" because their population is small as we've killed most of them off. Also, we deliberately intended for these people to be poorly compensated dependents don't you see that? There's never been an honest attempt by the government to help these people become regular Canadians, ever. Convert them Christianity, yes. But equal citizens? No. Not once.
CKA Uber 
CKA Uber 
![[B-o]](./images/smilies/drinkup.gif "Drink up")
