Encountering the protest itself isn't designed to inform you of the issues, it's designed to raise awareness of the issues through media reports, press releases, and generally having it become part of the public discourse.
Fair enough, I guess I just find with these things (occupy was the same) that the signal to noise ratio gets washed out with so much "awareness" and very little information.
Fair enough, I guess I just find with these things (occupy was the same) that the signal to noise ratio gets washed out with so much "awareness" and very little information.
I agree. Mainstream media coverage does little to help though (mostly because it is often lazily written and not examined critically enough). There's lots of thoughtful writing on these topics but you have to look for it.
These reservations and the Indian Act are literally a suicide pact.
I think if the Native Chiefs and the Natives and the Federal Government were all honest with themselves they would look at the fact that a lot of these reservations are located where there will never be economic opportunities and they will never be sustainable and start finding a way to give incentives for Natives to either move to other reservations or leave the reservation system as a whole.
It might cost some extra money over the short term to do it, but in the long term it would probably be a solid investment.
I get the whole ancestral lands thing and the link to the area, but every human being has to choose between beliefs and survival.
That time is rapidly coming.
I think you are absolutely correct. But how to go about it is the question.
I think one option might be a land swap. Give them some land close to the larger centres so they can be included in mainstream Canada and have economic and social assimilation, but still some space so they can avoid outright cultural assimilation.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Yes I understand that but it could undermine environmental protection don't you agree? If this is scrapped, it will strip First Nations right to consultation to future projects, etc.
I have been involved in thousands of projects in Alberta at the planning stage. In every single one on crown land the natives have been consulted. (Any navigable water body is crown land)
If property owners want to sell, they should be allowed to sell. The fact that you don't think aboriginals deserve the same rights as other Canadians is incredibly appalling.
I am a bit offended as I thought I have laid out my position clearly here.
At the moment the land is owned by the band but held in trust by the federal government. I think it would be great if the band wanted to take control of their land, but if they don't want it we shouldn't force it on them. We also shouldn't be able to rip up existing contracts with the bands.
Most people on here seem to be stating that some of the bands have corrupt leadership. If title to the land is turned over to that leadership we may well see the extent of the corruption.
I think full ownership is the goal at some point in time, but many things have to be done first and the desire must come from the native community not outside.
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I think you are absolutely correct. But how to go about it is the question.
I think one option might be a land swap. Give them some land close to the larger centres so they can be included in mainstream Canada and have economic and social assimilation, but still some space so they can avoid outright cultural assimilation.
I wouldn't mind this as an idea, the question is, who would have to give up their land to facilitate the swap, and if we're bringing them off of barren land with no economic opportunity to something really fruitful how do you value the swap?
And would they be force to move away from what they perceive as ancestral land?
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
But is it really ancestral land? It's just that it would seem that most reserve land is not what would be claimed as ancestral lands, just what the government handed to them all those years ago.
I don't really know how to explain what is rattling around in my head. I'm sorry. Bad headache/sinus #### going on and it just isn't connecting the way I want it to.
This isn't a minor inconvenience like the occupy movement. Whether average Canadians like it or not, due to supreme court reinforced legal standing, Aboriginals do have the country by the shorthairs. The government could learn from industry that they cannot just steamroll through this situation (not that industry is perfect but they are coming around). For the future of Canada over the next 200 years, this issue is as important as Northern Sovereignty, if not more.
I haven't seen where this government has been steam rolling the natives.
If they were steamrolling on this issue Spence would be serving 5 years in prison for fraud and theft and the Police would be arresting the Idle No Mores when they blocked rail road lines.
And Harper would have had no interest in setting up a 100 million dollar literacy program, had housed sent out to Spences reserve and told them to stuff any meeting.
I understand and to an extent have sympathy for the Natives plight and would like to see it fixed. I have a lot of troubles with the Chiefs throwing their support behind Spence, same with the Idlers who are doing the same.
The Chiefs it feels like don't want the omnibus bill to go through because it will force transparency on them. the Idlers don't want the omnibus bill to go through because they don't understand it and they've bought into the propaganda of the powerful.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
But is it really ancestral land? It's just that it would seem that most reserve land is not what would be claimed as ancestral lands
It's as much ancestral land as if a modern European country tried claiming their current borders are their own ancestral land. In both cases the land has been invaded, abandoned, migrated out of, migrated in to, exchanged, conquered, and reconquered so many times that the original inhabitants are long extinct and forgotten.
They're not the first nations. They were just the people here when the Europeans came. Claiming otherwise is disingenuous.
One of my friends who is native put this on his facebook wall today:
"Tomorrow I am joining the "idle no more" movement. At 4am my alarm clock will ring and I will be idle no more. I will go to work to support my family and maybe expand my business, instead of demanding things given to me. What a weird concept..."
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I don't understand why the police are just allowing them to shut down major roads. If it was us non-native Canadians protesting and shutting down the road the police would be shooting tear gas and arresting everyone.
I don't understand why the police are just allowing them to shut down major roads. If it was us non-native Canadians protesting and shutting down the road the police would be shooting tear gas and arresting everyone.
For sure. It's always the soft touch with the Indians, while us whiteys struggle under the (jack)bootheel of The Man.
I don't understand why the police are just allowing them to shut down major roads. If it was us non-native Canadians protesting and shutting down the road the police would be shooting tear gas and arresting everyone.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
I don't understand why the police are just allowing them to shut down major roads. If it was us non-native Canadians protesting and shutting down the road the police would be shooting tear gas and arresting everyone.
It's a bit of a no win situation with the police.
If they do that, they will get lambasted by some outlets for being too tough (ex - Occupy protesters). If they're too soft, we get this.
