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Seven-year-old Ferlin Iahtal lies in his home-made bunk bed in his home in Attawapiskat on Dec. 17. Twenty-one people live in the house that has plastic on the ceilings to stop water leaks.
Canada’s active neglect of the First Nations continues. Under the heavy mantle of the oppressive Harper regime minority groups and those concerned with justice should be prepared to take a pass until the current regime of plutocratic conservative troglodytes have been put out to pasture. Harper intends to meet with First Nations leaders again, to discuss land use, resource revenue and living conditions for Canada’s first peoples.
“More than 400 aboriginal chiefs will meet Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, and government ministers at a summit known as the Crown-First Nations Gathering in Ottawa. It is the first official meeting of its kind since he took office in 2006. The aim is to improve the relationship between the Canadian government and what is known as Canada’s First Nations communities. That relationship stalled six years ago when the current Conservative government abandoned a five-year, $5bn plan known as the Kelowna Accord.”
Stalled is quite the understatement as First Nations concerns were unceremoniously kicked to the curb by the Conservative government.
“Resolving outstanding land claims is among the top priorities. Aboriginal leaders feel the current process of settling the claims unjustly favours the federal government.
Also high on the list of priorities is economic development. First Nation leaders want to secure a fair share of revenues from the exploitation of natural resources on aboriginal lands. And on health and education, most First Nation leaders will be pressing for a commitment to levels of funding and services comparable with those for non-aboriginal communities.”
Nothing unreasonable here, just people wanting to take part in the prosperous 1st world nation Canada is. A world that has, for the most part, been denied to First Nations people.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government is increasingly coming into conflict with the needs of First Nations communities as it promotes the extraction of oil and other natural resources. A diamond mine projected to become one of the richest in the world is just upstream from the poverty-stricken town of Attawapiskat on James Bay. The mine is on traditional lands, but the royalties flow to the province.
A puppy sits on the porch of a home in Attawapiskat. Inside, the home has no plumbing or sanitation facilities.
That town also made headlines recently over living conditions when it was found that people were living in tents, shacks and trailers in temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius. Charles Angus, a member of parliament representing James Bay, describes the conditions within several of the First Nation communities as an “international disgrace for our nation”. He[Charles Angus] tells Inside Story: “The Attawapiskat crisis certainly shook Canada. In a way it has been our Katrina moment because Canadians were shocked that people were living in such dire conditions but then also shocked that the government had no plan, no seeming interest to respond.”
Racism is alive and well in Canada as we continue to neglect our First Nations and keep them impoverished and on the margins of society.
“Canada not only created these reserves, they displaced First Nation’s laws with provincial child welfare, education and health laws that should apply to all Canadians. The result is most horribly experienced by children. One-in-six First Nations communities don’t even have the basics like water; some of them are using buckets for sewers. The list goes on and it is unacceptable in a wealthy country like ours, and completely preventable.”
-Cindy Blackstock from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada
We still have far to go on improving our own imperialist record, mending decades of neglect is going to be a huge project, one that is unlikely to be undertaken by the current Conservative Government of Canada.
Harper and his mercurial band of autocrats are merrily stomping on the neck of democracy. Sadly, this isn’t news, but rather par for the course as dissent, reality based or not (I’m looking at you prison bloat omni-bus bill) will be passed hell or high water. What makes the Wheat Board debacle such a gut-rolling spleen bursting festival of shitacular brazenness is that our government intends to ignore what the courts have to say on the matter as well. Canada, in theory, still regards the rule of law as important as long as it follows the will of the governing party… Rule of law be damned. A spirited opposition has risen to the task of fighting Harper’s autocrats:
“The Harper government has reneged on its promise and is now breaking the law, and we intend to hold them to it and ensure that farmers’ democratic rights are respected,” board chairman Allan Oberg said Wednesday.
The board will file an application with the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, asking it to rule Bill C-18 invalid. The bill is currently before the Senate and could become law within weeks, so the board is also asking the court for an injunction to suspend the bill until the case is heard.
The government has already suffered one legal setback over Bill C-18. A Federal Court judge ruled last week that the bill violates the Canadian Wheat Board Act, which says the government must consult farmers via a plebiscite before making major changes.
Justice Douglas Campbell made it clear, however, that his ruling was simply a statement on the government’s actions. He did not order the government to halt the bill and said he was not interfering in the legislative process.”
However, once the wheels of injustice are greased, there is little to be done to stop the nefarious deeds –
“Five government-appointed directors now in charge of the Canadian Wheat Board decided Friday morning in Winnipeg to drop the board’s bid to block legislation ending its marketing monopoly for Prairie wheat and barley.
Legislation to end the wheat board’s single-desk became law Thursday night, when Gov. Gen. David Johnston gave royal assent to Bill C-18.
With its passage, the eight farmer-elected directors of the board are gone.”
So it is done. Of course in klassy Conservative style:
“Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was jubilant Friday morning, telling farmers gathered in Balgonie, Sask., that it’s a great day.
“This feels damn good. It’s been a long time coming,” Ritz said. “Finally you have marketing freedom.”
Farmers in the room with Ritz cheered.”
Woo, now we can enjoy the bountiful harvest of the ‘free’ market! Soon to be followed with “all hail our new corporate agricultural overlords!!”. Now it is just a matter of time as the real work of divide and conquer can begin. Without the protection of the wheat board we can look forward to even more corporate agriculture and all of the ill effects associated with strict monoculture farming practices.
When the small farmers are all gone, we’ll look back and note the passage of the legislation that marked their end. We’ll also note the cheering, for the sake of irony and the inevitable “I told you so” that is forthcoming.
Our friends who live on the East coast seem to be clinging to a few anachronistic views about the autonomy of women and the spectrum of choice that should be available to them when it comes to reproductive services.
“Even though it’s a legal medical procedure, P.E.I. remains the only province where abortion services are not offered locally.”
The general notion is that because P.E.I is so darn small some medical procedures necessitate a trip out of province.
Doug Currie the Health Minister says: “There are many services that are currently not available on P.E.I. that Islanders do have to travel off Island for. Unfortunately, due to our limited resources here on P.E.I., being a small province, being a small population, there is just so much money to go around.”
Well Doug, I think it might be time to add one more service to list, call it expanding the economy or increasing your governments commitment to the people but let’s get all of Canada up to speed on its offerings of health and medical services.
MP Brad Trost (tosh) brings home the fail.
“A part of their [planned parenthood] mission statement is to support abortion, which I view as morally wrong,” he said.”
Hey Brad your “Moral decisions” should stay the frack out of a woman’s business when it comes to her body.
“Brad Trost, the MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, says he will continue to oppose federal dollars being provided to the organization Planned Parenthood.”
Ah, the enlightened people elected this baron of misogyny and he continues to speak out against women. Fantastic.
“But Trost says he needs more information before he comments on his government’s decision to renew funding for the International Planned Parenthood Federation.”
Since when do conservatives look at information about what they are legislating? He’s going to require conservative reeducation.
“During the federal election campaign, the Conservative MP told the Saskatchewan ProLife Association that, thanks in part to petitions from the group, the federal government had stopped giving money to Planned Parenthood.”
Utter Tosh has a record of doing and believing in stupid things. Apparently if you’re a Canadian conservative, it is a good for your career.
It is comforting to see that our financial myopia extends to the production and export of asbestos. If the tarsands and the associated environmental degradation is a slam dunk for Canada, for then exporting asbestos should hardly be on the radar.
“Canada won the fight, for at least another two years, to keep asbestos off an international list of hazardous chemicals as discussions wrapped up in Geneva on Friday.
The conference of participants to the Rotterdam Convention ended without agreement on whether to add chrysotile asbestos to the Annex 3 list.
The country was one of only a handful — and the only western country — to maintain its objection until the end of the week, denying the conference the consensus it needed to make the change.”
Conservative cabinet ministers in Ottawa insisted the lung-cancer-causing substance can be used safely.
Right on! The Conservative government making a principled stand for industry and profit, frack the science and those damn weenie Europeans. What does fact have to do with this issue?
Apparently the NDP gets it.
“Asbestos is the greatest industrial killer the world has ever known. More people die from asbestos than all industrial causes combined, yet Canada continues to be one of the largest producers and exporters in the world. We are exporting human misery on a monumental scale,” said NDP MP Pat Martin. “Our position is morally and ethically reprehensible.”
Full marks for rhetoric, but the message is pretty clear. Unlike the Liberal party who seem to think it is a great idea with a few ‘realistic’ qualifications.
“Liberal MP Marc Garneau said despite Paradis’ insistence that asbestos can be used safely, he should know that’s not the case in developing countries.
“This minister knows full well that it’s very difficult to use chrysotile in the proper working conditions. The procedures, the training, the complex equipment to use it in a safe way so that fibres aren’t accidentally breathed in,” Garneau said. “He cannot assure us that this is not being used improperly in countries that import it, Third World countries … This is willful blindness.”
Err…yah, so let’s take India where the majority of the people don’t really do the shoe thing. I’m sure they are ready for industrial grade lung death prevention procedures.
“But Paradis returned to the response he and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver have been offering since the Rotterdam Convention meetings started in Geneva earlier this week.
“We know that recent studies show that chrysotile can be used in a safe and controlled manner,” Paradis said. “This is risk management, so we know that chrysotile can be used safely in a controlled environment.”
Misery and drowning in your own fluids for the poor, but for the asbestos industry it is all smiles and chuckles. I become more proud to be Canadian every day under this conservative government.
The correlation between religion and the capacity to do monstrous deeds is again shown by the following clip which describes a few of the honour killings that have happened in Canada since the turn of century. Most certainly patriarchal cultural norms play factor, but it religion that puts the icing on the cake, the ultimate enabler for evil malicious acts.
Canada is a secular multicultural country and to maintain the level of freedom available to the citizens of this nation, the rule of law must remain firmly grounded in reason and rationality. Let it be known that practices whether they come under the aegis of religion or cultural norms will not be tolerated if they violate this countries laws and/or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Meandering though the Canadian progressive blogosphere I was struck by the amount of gloom and general disgust with our current electoral system. This response from a commenter Thinking Man Neil on Dawg’s Blawg that I’m cut and pasting summarizes things quite nicely.
A resounding hurrah for the return to Feudalism.
“A very dark day for Canada. Stephen Harper’s antipathy for democracy is legendary: shutting down Parliament twice to avoid public accountability, being found in contempt of Parliament twice for refusing to release information to the House of Commons, covering the lies and scandals of his MP’s, staff, and advisers, giving his MP’s instructions to disrupt parliamentary committees to render them unworkable, violating campaign laws, eliminating funding for a program that allows ordinary Canadians to challenge unjust laws, legislation, and government policies at the Supreme Court level (now only the wealthy and corporations get heard) and equating dissent of his policies with a lack of patriotism and treason. Those are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.
Sixty years of social progress was lost last night. Harper wants to re-instate the death penalty, scrap universal health care for a for-profit system, eliminate public funding for political parties, curtail women’s rights to abortion, enact draconian “law and order” crime bills and engage in internet surveillance of the populace, give corporations and the wealthy while increasing military spending dramatically and pouring countless, precious Canadian kids into pointless meatgrinder wars just so he can thump his flabby, neocon chest.
Stephen Harper and Preston Manning — his former boss in the Reform Party — set out 25 years ago to polarize Canadian politics and destroy the centrist Liberal Party; they achieved that goal last night. Jack Layton’s 102-seat opposition NDP have been neutered even before they get through the door of the House of Commons by Harper’s overwhelming 167-seat majority. Fundamentalist evangelical Christians and Christian Dominionists and Reconstructionists who are strong Harper supporters and have been gaining considerable access and influence in the PMO and Privy Council will demand the advancement of a very socially conservative agenda, expecting the elimination of abortion rights, elimination of same-sex marriage rights and possible criminalization of gays, lesbians, and transgendereds, censorship control over media and culture and the possible re-instatement of anti-blasphemy laws, the teaching of creationism in science classes, elimination of funding for stem cell research, and the re-establishment of the preeminence of religion in society. Corporate interests will get massive tax cuts, an across the board roll back of environmental and consumer protection laws, reduced competition and acquisition regulations, elimination of worker’s rights to organize unions and collective bargaining, privatization of private and public pension plans, and increased foreign takeovers of Canadian natural resources including freshwater. And there won’t be thing one that the NDP opposition will be able to do to stop it.
Harper has worked tirelessly and ruthlessly for many years for this; he won’t allow it to be overturned by an “unwanted election” in four years. He has a tough, disciplined group of MP’s that he micro-manages with an iron fist, and his goal is to keep that in perpetuity in the form of a one-party system. His plans to eliminate the per-vote and election reimbursement public subsidies that will drastically reduce funds available for election campaigns for some parties while his party will reap enormous corporate donations. What we’ll be left with in the end is a situation akin to Saddam-era Iraq: token elections and token opposition with only one possible outcome.
My Canada, the Canada of tolerance, openness, freedom, and respect of and love for democracy, died last night. It’s been handed over to a group that values bigotry, misogyny, power, fear and ignorance over the better aspirations of our species.
I’m hoping it is not all as bad as Neil prognosticates. The idea though that we have to count on Harper to moderate his policies in order to be reelected in four years seems to be a very weak check on the sort of destructive policies he champions. It is May 3, 2011 – We’ll revisit this post and see where we are in a couple of months.
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