Attawapiskat residents block road to northern Ontario diamond mine- Feb 5 2013

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by valo403

Well if that is the case they're likely going to be much more successful in having their voices heard and demands met if they succeed in turning off the flow of cash to the band. Confronting a corrupt chief isn't going to get you much, and it certainly isn't going to get you a national audience.

But that's not what this blockade is about.

They don't care where the money goes, they just want more of it

Its equivalent to shooting your dog because your cat stole your dinner

[redforever]

Some good info here.....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunde...eers-mine.html

[mykalberta]

Wow, mine has only 10 years useable life - very interesting, so only 5 more years of payments left.

Crazy.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

^In which case you would expect the Band to say "this action was not condoned or sanctioned by us", not "no comment".

I would expect that the people doing this simply have their own ideas as to what "their share" is.

'A representative of the Attawapiskat community could not be reached for comment.'

does not necessarily mean "No Comment" it means that someone was not able to be reached who was willing to comment. ie a message was left with some admin or secretary somewhere and who knows what happened then.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

But that's not what this blockade is about.

They don't care where the money goes, they just want more of it

Its equivalent to shooting your dog because your cat stole your dinner

I don't see it as that.

From this article:

“For those people that are working, they seem to have money, they can feed their families,” said Jackie Hookimaw-Witt, who often comes forward to talk about problems the community faces. “But it's only a certain percentage that are working.”

She said she would like to see more of the money Attawapiskat receives go to social programs.

It seems they are trying to put pressure on the band leadership, by disrupting the fund that they are getting, to encourage them to spend it better.

Still seems like a back-asswards way of doing it, but maybe the only way to get corrupt people to listen is to threaten to take away the golden goose?

You know what they need? A good PR company, with press releases and stuff.

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by Rathji

'A representative of the Attawapiskat community could not be reached for comment.'

does not necessarily mean "No Comment" it means that someone was not able to be reached who was willing to comment. ie a message was left with some admin or secretary somewhere and who knows what happened then.

They're obviously aware of it and if they wanted to distance themselves from it they could do so easily. Apparently there is no desire to do so. Band leadership is not necessarily involved, it's true, but you'd think if they weren't they'd make that clear.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

But that's not what this blockade is about.

They don't care where the money goes, they just want more of it

Its equivalent to shooting your dog because your cat stole your dinner

Do we know that? The post I responded to was discussing the possibility that this is about money not getting distributed within the tribe.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I don't see it as that.

From this article:



It seems they are trying to put pressure on the band leadership, by disrupting the fund that they are getting, to encourage them to spend it better.

Still seems like a back-asswards way of doing it, but maybe the only way to get corrupt people to listen is to threaten to take away the golden goose?

You know what they need? A good PR company, with press releases and stuff.

I was hoping that when Spence returned that it would lead to the other band Councillors asking some harsh questions, but then I remember that they are all her friends and confidences and family members.

The analogy that I made of killing the dog because the cat stole the cheese is pretty close to right.

By blockading the mine road, they're actually not calling attention to the problems with band leadership, it comes across as blaming the mining company.

Its not up to the mining company to decide how the money is spent, its up to them to cut the check, so your right in a way but I'll go a step further as protests not only are they punishing the wrong target, but they're not even forcing exposure to the real problem on that reserve.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I was hoping that when Spence returned that it would lead to the other band Councillors asking some harsh questions, but then I remember that they are all her friends and confidences and family members.

The analogy that I made of killing the dog because the cat stole the cheese is pretty close to right.

By blockading the mine road, they're actually not calling attention to the problems with band leadership, it comes across as blaming the mining company.

Its not up to the mining company to decide how the money is spent, its up to them to cut the check, so your right in a way but I'll go a step further as protests not only are they punishing the wrong target, but they're not even forcing exposure to the real problem on that reserve.

That's not the point. The point is to create a choke point where you can obtain leverage, and cutting off the tap sure as hell does that.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

^In which case you would expect the Band to say "this action was not condoned or sanctioned by us", not "no comment".

I would expect that the people doing this simply have their own ideas as to what "their share" is.

Too many politics within the band for that too happen. That kind of a statement would be the band taking a stand on the side of the diamond mine and against its own members. The optics of that are horrible. Not going to happen.