http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/when-canada-used-hunger-to-clear-the-west/article13316877/
For more than a century, Canadians have been accustomed to reports of terrible housing conditions on reserves, unsafe drinking water, dismal educational outcomes and, at least in Western Canada, prison populations disproportionally stacked with aboriginal inmates. Aboriginal leaders and young people such as those who embraced the Idle No More movement have been calling for Canadians to fundamentally acknowledge the injustices and atrocities of the past and fix the problems that keep indigenous Canadians from living the same quality of life as their non-aboriginal neighbours.
For more than a century, Canadians have been accustomed to reports of terrible housing conditions on reserves, unsafe drinking water, dismal educational outcomes and, at least in Western Canada, prison populations disproportionally stacked with aboriginal inmates. Aboriginal leaders and young people such as those who embraced the Idle No More movement have been calling for Canadians to fundamentally acknowledge the injustices and atrocities of the past and fix the problems that keep indigenous Canadians from living the same quality of life as their non-aboriginal neighbours.
I spent eleven years living in the Indian and Eskimo villages of Alaska. It is a complex problem with no easy answer.
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard
I don't know what the answers are. One thing sure we have to listen to them, not just to their "leaders" who are busy profiting from the status quo.
DeleteI'm not so sure about leaders being stuck in the status quo by their choice, or being stuck there by a federal government. Ottawa is bound and determined to assimilate First Nations and others into the "mainstream" of Canadian living, come Hell or high water, or both.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, we have seen the formation of a second, national First Nations group, with different objectives than the Assembly of First Nations. I have no idea of what will become of either group, under the racial blitzkrieg of the federal government.
Blessings and Bear hugs!
Bears Noting
Life in the Urban Forest (poetry)
We don't want those we whipped living as well as we do.
ReplyDelete