The Territories: Canada's Shame

[rubecube]

Yeah, I'm not sure what the solution to this is. Wouldn't traditional hunter/gatherers have moved once resources were depleted or sustaining a lifestyle became unmanageable? I guess the argument could be made that they could traditionally return to their ancestral grounds in the summer, but what's stopping that from happening now? If the land is undesirable then maybe make a deal with the Canadian government to protect it, and then look at relocating the community, but still allowing them some level of autonomy.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

Most Res's are like tiny municipalities with incredibly complicated issues, unlike other municipalities though, they hire from within their tiny populations and generally only hire from a few politically dominant families within the band so you end up with someone who would struggle to get a volunteer gig at big brother running the social services department.

A couple of years ago I got a native kid referred to my foster home who's aunt was his social worker, it was utterly inappropriate, in the regular system if there is any connection to a kids family they would transfer the file to another office, but within the res' government there is a casual acceptance of the band management and workers being unprofessional and unable to really do the jobs they are elected or hired for.

In a small community there may not be another social worker to transfer the file to. Also from my experience probably just about every woman that is somehow distantly related and from the right generation is an auntie.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

In a small community there may not be another social worker to transfer the file to. Also from my experience probably just about every woman that is somehow distantly related and from the right generation is an auntie.

North Vancouver is not a small community, the band could have, if they'd chosen too, transferred the file to provincial social services but that would have cost money. Point I was making is the band thought it better to keep the money and screw the kid over, he got an untrained (by provincial standards) family member instead of a professional, and this was a kid with complex issues.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Azure

This isn't really a 'reserve' we are talking about. There are lots of those in 'southern' Canada that have massive problems. We are talking about an even bigger issue.

These people are simply too far north to be able to really help them, and IMO if they insist on staying there and living their 'lifestyle', I would say they need to do it without constant government support.

Doesn't the government want them there in some capacity? With all the recent activity with icecaps melting and the northwest passage becoming feasible, Harper has been real gung ho about maintaining Canada's sovereignty up north, and maintaining active settlements up there seems to be a key part

[pseudoreality]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Doesn't the government want them there in some capacity? With all the recent activity with icecaps melting and the northwest passage becoming feasible, Harper has been real gung ho about maintaining Canada's sovereignty up north, and maintaining active settlements up there seems to be a key part

The Canadian Government took "Eskimos" from northern Quebec in the 1950s and dropped them off in the high arctic (Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord) so they claim the land. There has always been this desire to own the arctic and I don't see that going away.

I from the NWT and have traveled to most of the communities in the NWT and NU for work. Other than the social issues, i love it. There is no easy answer to fix the social issues, just failed experiments.