Quote:
Originally Posted by icecube
No, not necessarily. It does if you paint every chief with the same corrupt brush. There are many bands with balanced books and honest leadership. FN are not the only people out there who have corruption in their midst either.
Accountability is extremely important and must be addressed, nobody is arguing that. That shouldn't take away focus from other issues that need attention now.
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I don't think everyone is painting every chief with the same brush. There are a few bands such as the aforementioned Osoyoos Band that have done an extremely good job in developing themselves (their NK'MIP Canyon Desert Course is a great track, their resort is really nice and their vineyards produce some awesome wine) but this isn't the norm. A lot of these reserves are in absolutely deplorable condition and it's really very sad to see Canadians living in what can only be described as third world conditions.
While on the surface these other issues you speak of seem to be of greater importance however without appropriate standards of accountability in place the money put forth to combat them will continue to get diverted to "other areas" and the problems will persist.
The one thing that I really fail to grasp is that aboriginals aren't blind to the issues (a lot of native humor revolves around these corrupt band leaders) yet there doesn't seem to be a push to do anything about it. Instead of throwing these corrupt people in jail (see Enron Scandal, Madoff, Rajaratnam, etc) they make them the face of their movement (see Chieft Spence). It's really quite mind boggling.