Some might argue that he is making a mistake in the interest of political correctness and avoiding opening up a new line of attack from the Liberals & NDP.
Some might argue that he is making a mistake in the interest of political correctness and avoiding opening up a new line of attack from the Liberals & NDP.
“The chiefs had hoped that the government would make a concrete commitment to increase funding to first nations, especially to education”
That’s because in the old days when our forefathers were hunting and trapping an annual budget of 8 billion dollars a year in government payoffs would have gone much further for the 1.2 million First Nations people of today.
Yes of course the white man has left us with land to call our own, to forest or mine or build businesses with and not taken any taxes from us, or regulated us from hunting or fishing like our ancestors.
BUT:
We want and demand the white man’s Health Care, Social Services, Schools, Hospitals, Casino’s, 4×4 trucks, Skidoo’s & rifles to hunt with and a free McMansion on a nice lake as well.
“They don’t talk about it because Canada’s based on a myth,” he said. “Now we need to talk about royalty revenue sharing.”
From Chief Bill Erasmus,NWT.
That’s what it’s always been about,isn’t it. So far, just a lot of high-sounding speeches. I suppose we’ll find out the details in the next few weeks.
Don’t expect much,when politicians meet,not much usually gets done for the people that need it.
harper isn’t mulroney,
Douche lawyers sitting around tables for 11 months figuring out how to burn our money isn’t his style.
If change comes it will drip,drip,drip towards action.
Well it appears the axe is a little dull, so a kitchen paring knife will have to do.
“To be sure, our government has no grand scheme to repeal or to unilaterally re-write the Indian Act. After 136 years, that tree has deep roots,” he said. “Blowing up the stump would leave a big hole.”
But then as my learned friends in the PPLI have observed, “Any problem can be solved by the judicious placement of explosives.”
Hence reforming the Indian Act will have to be done by a ‘legislative weaning’ process through smaller charges.
Well the ‘old man’s’ first job to Canada in 1958 was the “Ripple Rock explosion” which was the largest post war non nuclear bit of fun keeping the sea lanes open. Seemed to work pretty well.
Seems to me, you just have to adjust the size of the charge.
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
Here’s what bothers me about it.
My dad is part of the North American indian background from the USA near the Vermont/Quebec border and his people existed there pre-1776.
But today we see the 45th paralell that france and the English agree upon and later came the 1794 Jaye-treaty for shared-citizenship to any natives that fled into canada during the genocide and stay there. The irony is that the smug elite First nations American Indians that settled in canada elsewhere have hijacked the Native Act to define what THEY see as candian Aboriginals,and because of this I don’t have Indian Status in canada but can get a NIS ( Native Indian satus ) card from the US for the Visa-Exempt status as 50% American Indian.
Thanks to the canadian natives it seems that my dad’s people are American indian with no recognition in canada other than being born here about 1/2 Klm from vermonts Border but i now have to prove the US origins.
But almost every Aboriginal in canada was from the migrations by natives in the South West USA near Arizona or near mexico as the tribes headed North and adjusted to the cold once the global warming allowed them to move North.
What arrogance to be American Indians that stole canadian land from the animals and now lay claim to the Land as always THEIRS as if the globe saw humans falling from the sky to land in all the Nations where each group today claims they were always there too.
My gawd, that means about 150 examples of Evolution where males and females juts appeared and then inbred for centuries to make the various “Races” . But somehow in canada to appease people the Public schools teach the African kids and others that they came from apes and we all came from Africa.
Which one is it, were there 100 adam and eves , or 100 swamps where humans came out of as fish then morphed in jews,Christians and muslims??
The way I figure it, in about 30 years time when the Asians out number the whites in this country, somebody will be told to pound salt when it comes to land claims and such.
The Indians immigrated from elsewhere originally regardless of how you want to argue who was here first. Modern DNA testing shows upwards of 25% Caucasian DNA in Great lake Indians and a little less further west, proving some earlier European contact around the last ice age. But so what?
The point is – What did they do with the land that they so covet today when they had free range of it? Absolutely nothing with it that they still can’t do with today, like freely hunt and fish and have Tepee villages.
What they do want from the white man is all the white man’s conveniences of society that white man brought and created a Nation with. A Nation that the aboriginals failed to create in the first place, aside from a collective of tribes on certain areas of land at best.
They should be thanking all their gods that the Europeans founded NA before the Chinese eventually settled. What rights do they think would be in place today? Think Tibet. In fact the NA Indian’s should be the biggest critics of further immigration including China, India, Islam etcetera, because once they achieve parliamentary power due to their increasing demographics it’ll be lights out for the Indians and the white man’s treaties.
how does PMSH keep from just breaking up when you face someone in that jaunty chapeau?
The Indians came from China,when I don’t know.I just married a Chinese lady,would that make me an Indian?
I wonder if any of the Chiefs have actually read the treaties or what they grant. I’m guessing that they wouldn’t like the treaties strictly enforced like some are calling for.
Free money and generations are fooked. Just look at the evidence.
Money for education? I’m all for that.
With safeguards in place, or not a red/brown cent….
Its a tough decision not to change the Indian act but how long can this insanity go on….more than likley we have long since past the Trillion Dollar mark…for a very few people,this is just a sink hole as they are no better now..it seems…these people just happen to be living there at the time when the Europeans arrived…who did they steal the land from..this happened all the time…so 99% of the suppose 1st nations…more than likley could be 5 or 6th nation…//
WARDS OF THE STATE MUST HAVE CHANCE TO EARN A LIVING
If amendments to the Indian Act are necessary, the Conservatives must hasten them forthwith, and process structural changes to either annihilate the reserve system, or re-task their mandates. We need accountable proficient experienced leaders, natives who want jobs, and reserves with individual home ownership based on the municipality model and that are mandated to tax in order to provide the essentials.
Rather than continue to treat these people as wards of the state, an alternative would be to move the reserve to areas where work is procurable. An additional option would be for families, led by men who care for their family and who are not hydrophobic of the south, to re-locate closer to civilization’s job sites where they can sustain their families. For example many locations in Alberta and Saskatchewan are advertising to recruit both skilled and unskilled employees at high pay rates.
WARDS OF THE STATE MUST HAVE CHANCE TO EARN A LIVING
If amendments to the Indian Act are necessary, the Conservatives must hasten them forthwith, and process structural changes to either annihilate the reserve system, or re-task their mandates. We need accountable proficient experienced leaders, natives who want jobs, and reserves with individual home ownership based on the municipality model and that are mandated to tax in order to provide the essentials.
Rather than continue to treat these people as wards of the state, an alternative would be to move the reserve to areas where work is procurable. An additional option would be for families, led by men who care for their family and who are not hydrophobic of the south, to re-locate closer to civilization’s job sites where they can sustain their families. For example many locations in Alberta and Saskatchewan are advertising to recruit both skilled and unskilled employees at high pay rates.
Just never ends. Over ten billion a year and nothing resolved. As Knight99 stated earlier, they want every amenity the white man has to offer, but want special status as indians with no responsibilites. This is 2012 and we are still apologizing for every slight ever commited by our forefathers. Politicians in every province lack the balls to shut off the taps but sooner or later this nonsense has to end. We can’t go back and they are unwilling to move forward. Give them the land they are on to do with as they please. Two years welfare with free access to higher learning and then shut it down. New motto shall be : Get a life, get a job and get out of our wallets”.
Become Gary at 5:48
love and agree with jeff’s comment at 5:28
To many vested interests for Harper to abolish the Indian act. It has to be eaten away chunk by chunk.
I dunno, we should find out more as this issue unfolds.
But so far the “Indian Act” has just been another catch-phrase for the NDP to get itself into the news again and muddy the issues post-Attawapiskat. Another issue to whip up and embarass Indians so the patronizing NDP commies can look like they know how to handle Native interests better that Natives themselves do.
Charley Angus is a dork, because if my memory serves me correctly the Indian Act is in fact the very legal foundation upon which Native people can argue their treaty and land clams with the historical support of the Crown. It’s just not that simple to throw the whole thing away, and I think Harper’s approach – one step at a time — is reasonable until they sort it all out.
The NDP and their drunken Scotsman Angus (btw, lots of aboriginal abuse in HIS people’s history!), as usual are like a mad locomotive engineer racing down the rocky mountains with a trainload full of explosives, and they’re not slowing down for the sharp curve. A big wreck is sure to follow.
NDP: Party of wreckers, with drunk drivers at the helm.
NEVER try and negotiate ANYTHING with anyone who insists on wearing a silly hat.
The natives want everything that the working class have,except the work.
I am maybe a second generation Canadian,I don’t know,my grandparents all came from other countries. They travelled thousands of miles,two from Croatia,one from Ireland,and one from Philadalphia.The men worked,the women raised the family. I never heard a disparaging word about Canada from any one of them.
They travelled thousands of miles on their own dime,and no they were not the Ignatieffs,for a better life.
I have moved 2,000 miles for a job. I’ve worked for 38 years,paying taxes all the way. It really pisses me off to hear the ‘first nations’ ask for more and cry the blues.
They have problems,but it’s not my fault,I’ve done my share. They have to assimilate or remain parasites.
peterj @ 7:41 >
Exactly!
Not to mention, I don’t get this racist BS that all white people killed Indians or had slaves 150 years ago so that we are now forced to pay compensations.
My family’s Irish/ Scottish ancestry has been here since the mid 1800’s and we never owned slaves or killed any Indians. We have however contributed greatly to the society that the Indians and blacks now want a piece of, without the input to have a legitimate claim. That said, I won’t blame them for wanting and trying, but I do blame the apologists and givers of my money and grandparents efforts for something that never happened.
That is why as the Chinese, continental Indians, and other third worlders eventually gain the reins of power that the “embarrassed to be white” left apologists give them, the Aboriginal Native Americans will truly go the way of the dodo right along with the European whites who made it all happen.
I kind of smiled when I heard how Harper parsed his statement.
““To be sure, our government has no grand scheme to repeal or to unilaterally re-write the Indian Act.”
There is no scheme, nor will there be a re-write unilaterally, at least not from the government.
What the strategy sounds like, is the same approach used to deal with the premiers.
Put them together in a room, all of them, tell them to come back when they have all agreed to one solution, and absolutely no side deals.
The fly in the ointment, is that due to the plethoria of levels of representation, and number of chiefs, the odds of all of them agreeing to the same thing is pretty long odds.
However, I have the feeling the Grand Chief won’t sit idly by if someone tries to get a better deal then the rest. I also get the sense that Harper won’t either.
If they start fighting among themselves I wonder if the media and opposition will blame anyone but the trouble makers *cough*nativeworriorsociety*cough*
GaryinWPg at 5:50 is absolutely correct. The ethnic community, for the most part, have no use for what they see as 1st nations nonsense. Too many of them came as immgrants/refugees with nothing and have worked & worked hard to build a life here for them & their families. Many of them, rightly or wrongly, see natives as drags on society and as more & more are elected to HOC the influence of 1st nations will diminish.
Scott >
“Many of them, rightly or wrongly, see natives as drags on society….”
….and some of them see them as cutting into their share of the loot.
Tomahawk. Harper won’t tomahawk the Indian Act.
I used to think that killing the LGR was too small a step and wished for the CPC to be more aggressive in restoring our gun rights. With all the fear-mongering and distortion of facts by the leftist media however, I now see why Harper chose to make incremental improvements.
I believe Harper prefers to play a long game and the best way to fix the Indian Act would also be through incremental changes (without admitting to the fact that this is merely but one step in a long journey). It’s an easier sell to all involved and it’s easier to get non-partisan support that way.
I read most of the Indian Act and I think the best thing for our PRIME MINISTER could do is remind them they surrendered many many years ago. Then start actually following whats in it, the minister in charge can do so many things, like take land with the stroke of a pen, just imagine the screaming if the government just relieved the Salish of there land that park royal sits on, HAHAHA.