True ... underfunding the people to whom the funds were supposed to go in order to have top-of-the-line pickup trucks and toys for the powers that be and their chosen few until such a time that a new family gets the power to do the same thing
Attawapiskat gets attention!
- Thread starter JLM
- Start date
Are you really that stupid or just trolling again?
Free higher education, free medical and dental. No taxes. Oh wait that is not us that is the Indians.
I know this will catch me a red from Walter, but hell I've caught a few before. While we argue and dither about Attawapiskat, little if nothing is done to try and help the people there. I'm not a fan of the former Chief Spence, but that is hardly applicable to the fundamental need for the necessities of life and support in this northern community.
I have worked in communities such as this. Have delivered to one community that is on dry status. They live in poor conditions and like most communities who do not have proper housing or essentials the darker elements of society seem to thrive. Leave people in slum-like conditions and the criminal elements come forward.
Like communities in the NWT, you can not simply relocate them and let me tell you, that in these northern communities they are paying a hell of a lot more for things like milk and bread.
I know it's easy to throw up ones arms yell, "Until they open the books and conform to transparency the hell with them."
But folks, these are kids we are talking about, not crooks. Kids that are living in terrible conditions. Kids that were born into these conditions. These kids are Canadians, and we should do what we can to help them. If they means throwing a pile of money at this community in order to save kids from mass suicide, from drug abuse or to even just give them a chance, we should do that.
We have a moral responsibility here at home to take care of these young people.
I want to see accountability on the part of government and First Nations Chiefs, but I think we must take care of our own and by the very spirit of this nation they are the first Canadians.
Let's do something about this crisis and keep talking about the issues after it has passed.
I have worked in communities such as this. Have delivered to one community that is on dry status. They live in poor conditions and like most communities who do not have proper housing or essentials the darker elements of society seem to thrive. Leave people in slum-like conditions and the criminal elements come forward.
Like communities in the NWT, you can not simply relocate them and let me tell you, that in these northern communities they are paying a hell of a lot more for things like milk and bread.
I know it's easy to throw up ones arms yell, "Until they open the books and conform to transparency the hell with them."
But folks, these are kids we are talking about, not crooks. Kids that are living in terrible conditions. Kids that were born into these conditions. These kids are Canadians, and we should do what we can to help them. If they means throwing a pile of money at this community in order to save kids from mass suicide, from drug abuse or to even just give them a chance, we should do that.
We have a moral responsibility here at home to take care of these young people.
I want to see accountability on the part of government and First Nations Chiefs, but I think we must take care of our own and by the very spirit of this nation they are the first Canadians.
Let's do something about this crisis and keep talking about the issues after it has passed.
Gotta keep trying until we get it right..............can't let kids commit suicide!
I know this will catch me a red from Walter, but hell I've caught a few before. While we argue and dither about Attawapiskat, little if nothing is done to try and help the people there. I'm not a fan of the former Chief Spence, but that is hardly applicable to the fundamental need for the necessities of life and support in this northern community.
I have worked in communities such as this. Have delivered to one community that is on dry status. They live in poor conditions and like most communities who do not have proper housing or essentials the darker elements of society seem to thrive. Leave people in slum-like conditions and the criminal elements come forward.
Like communities in the NWT, you can not simply relocate them and let me tell you, that in these northern communities they are paying a hell of a lot more for things like milk and bread.
I know it's easy to throw up ones arms yell, "Until they open the books and conform to transparency the hell with them."
But folks, these are kids we are talking about, not crooks. Kids that are living in terrible conditions. Kids that were born into these conditions. These kids are Canadians, and we should do what we can to help them. If they means throwing a pile of money at this community in order to save kids from mass suicide, from drug abuse or to even just give them a chance, we should do that.
We have a moral responsibility here at home to take care of these young people.
I want to see accountability on the part of government and First Nations Chiefs, but I think we must take care of our own and by the very spirit of this nation they are the first Canadians.
Let's do something about this crisis and keep talking about the issues after it has passed.
Can we bypass the tribal councils and just do what is right or will this not be politically correct? I hear what you are saying and agree but don't see a situation where it will actually work.
We need to first, deal with the crisis at hand. Then we need to fix this bureaucratic mess.
Will Trudeau do the latter? Will the Chiefs cry foul? Man, I don't know, but we need change.
Most of us have a rough idea what has to be done and to not do it because money has been squandered in the past is a cop out. These are human we are talking about. First thing to be done is to remove the people from the responsibility of handling the money and put someone else in charge. To paraphrase the P.M. this is 2016 and we can't be letting our own people die while we move heaven and earth rescuing aliens!
That is the common sense approach!
Sure would have been a lot easier to deal with the crisis at hand when the ice roads were navigable, a few months back. Whatever material aid going there now is going by air. Unless there is some breakthrough in inflatable shelters that we don't know about, there will be no housing fix until the next suicide season cones around. Isolation and the vastness of our country is a big part of the problem. The least expensive and most effective solution is to abandon the town and move the whole lot to a developed place where services can be administered properly and where living conditions can be monitored. There are hundreds of places like Attawapiskat scattered across the bush and muskeg. There is no way that they can all be viable. You want to live in the bush? You're hereby on your own.
The bureaucratic hurdles are numerous. In the recent past, the Chief and Council demanded that they be the ones that receive the funds and participate in the deployment of that cash... I can appreciate this demand, however, the bottom line is that the funds were not used efficiently and in some cases, not directed in any form to the purpose they were intended for (case in point, Spence's b/f was not able to account for approx $10 million).
While real people, families and especially children are paying a heavy price for this mismanagement and/or fraud, it is clear that with or without gvt funding, there are serious problems that are resulting in tragic circumstances. In my mind, it is perfectly clear that the real desire for change absolutely needs to come from within and if the locals are prepared to re-elect the same ineffective management, there is not very much that can be done within the confines of the existing system
Sadly, without any real consequences being applied to this mismanagement and/or fraud, nothing will change
This article written by author Joseph Boyden is worth a read. I know Joseph and aside from him being Internationally Bestselling Author, he is also a very measured well thought out individual.
The true tragedy of Attawapiskat
Award-winning author Joseph Boyden reflects on his love for places like Attawapiskat, and the desperate need for investment and education
Attawapiskat is a microcosm of intergenerational trauma.
If you don’t know what Attawapiskat is or if you’re not quite sure what intergenerational trauma means—or how they are married to each other—please allow me to explain.
Attawapiskat is an isolated northern Ontario Cree reserve on the west coast of James Bay. According to the last census taken in 2011, the on-reserve population is just over 1,500 souls. According to that census, more than a third of those souls are under age 19, and three-quarters are under the age of 35. That’s a very young population. It’s representative of a national trend: Canada’s fastest-growing population by far is its First Nations youth.
Attawapiskat has made a disproportionate amount of national news in the last decade, most often because of the deplorable living conditions as well as the suicide epidemics that sweep through and devastate the community. Perhaps Attawapiskat’s most famous daughter is Shannen Koostachin, a youth from the community turned national activist for Indigenous children’s rights to education in her fight to have an elementary school built on her reserve. Shannen tragically died in a car accident in 2010 while forced to attend high school off-reserve because hers doesn’t have one. Another well-known daughter of Attawapiskat is former Chief Theresa Spence, who helped propel the Idle No More movement when she embarked on a hunger strike to bring attention to First Nations’ grievances, and especially to deplorable living conditions in her community.
This week, Attawapiskat is back in the news after its chief and council were forced to declare a state of emergency. Eleven people in this community reportedly attempted suicide in a single night; 28 are reported to have tried in the month of March, and 100 attempts have been made in the last seven months.
I first flew into Attawapiskat 21 years ago, in the winter of 1995, as a professor of Aboriginal programmes with Northern College. I still remember vividly an older woman named Agnes who served as an officer in the tiny airport sheepishly rummaging through my luggage to make sure I wasn’t smuggling any alcohol into the community. It’s a dry reserve, where alcohol is banned. I’ll be honest: I’d considered sneaking a bottle of booze up to keep me warm at night during my first week-long stint there. But I was glad I hadn’t tried, as there’s no doubt this woman would have found it, this woman who turned out to be one of my students. Now that would have been embarrassing.
Read the Whole Article
The true tragedy of Attawapiskat
Award-winning author Joseph Boyden reflects on his love for places like Attawapiskat, and the desperate need for investment and education
Attawapiskat is a microcosm of intergenerational trauma.
If you don’t know what Attawapiskat is or if you’re not quite sure what intergenerational trauma means—or how they are married to each other—please allow me to explain.
Attawapiskat is an isolated northern Ontario Cree reserve on the west coast of James Bay. According to the last census taken in 2011, the on-reserve population is just over 1,500 souls. According to that census, more than a third of those souls are under age 19, and three-quarters are under the age of 35. That’s a very young population. It’s representative of a national trend: Canada’s fastest-growing population by far is its First Nations youth.
Attawapiskat has made a disproportionate amount of national news in the last decade, most often because of the deplorable living conditions as well as the suicide epidemics that sweep through and devastate the community. Perhaps Attawapiskat’s most famous daughter is Shannen Koostachin, a youth from the community turned national activist for Indigenous children’s rights to education in her fight to have an elementary school built on her reserve. Shannen tragically died in a car accident in 2010 while forced to attend high school off-reserve because hers doesn’t have one. Another well-known daughter of Attawapiskat is former Chief Theresa Spence, who helped propel the Idle No More movement when she embarked on a hunger strike to bring attention to First Nations’ grievances, and especially to deplorable living conditions in her community.
This week, Attawapiskat is back in the news after its chief and council were forced to declare a state of emergency. Eleven people in this community reportedly attempted suicide in a single night; 28 are reported to have tried in the month of March, and 100 attempts have been made in the last seven months.
I first flew into Attawapiskat 21 years ago, in the winter of 1995, as a professor of Aboriginal programmes with Northern College. I still remember vividly an older woman named Agnes who served as an officer in the tiny airport sheepishly rummaging through my luggage to make sure I wasn’t smuggling any alcohol into the community. It’s a dry reserve, where alcohol is banned. I’ll be honest: I’d considered sneaking a bottle of booze up to keep me warm at night during my first week-long stint there. But I was glad I hadn’t tried, as there’s no doubt this woman would have found it, this woman who turned out to be one of my students. Now that would have been embarrassing.
Read the Whole Article
It's the crooks who are largely responsible for those conditions not improving-should we give more money to the crooks hoping all will be well?
Because we both know it won't-ever.
You stupid POS, ask the folks who lived in sod shacks on the prairie for many years, ask the trappers, fishermen and loggers who toughed it out and won and gave you what you have. Who helped them, other than the natives? Many of the winners were natives with some gumpsion also, they just do not brag about it. Luckily for them there were no fools like you around.
It's not f**king rocket science - you DON'T put crooks in charge of the money, if money is what has you so worried! There's more important things in life than money. This is an era where people are willing to squander a $million for a roof over their head! We are spending $tens of thousands today just to provide mobility for immobile people.
If 62 of the richest people on earth has as much wealth as the bottom half of the planet. Let them help these people. Let billion dollar corp. help these people. Why do I, a middle class tax payer have to help these people, when I'm constantly performing economical wizardry to keep all my bills payed?
Why is it that I owe these people anything?
why do I have a moral responcibility, to help these people?
Dose the 62 richest people on earth have a moral responcibility?
Do the 62 richest people on earth who could give half of their wealth and still be the richest people on earth have any moral responcibility?
Or only dickheads that will work their *** off t'il the day they die like me have a moral responcibility ?
Why is it that I owe these people anything?
why do I have a moral responcibility, to help these people?
Dose the 62 richest people on earth have a moral responcibility?
Do the 62 richest people on earth who could give half of their wealth and still be the richest people on earth have any moral responcibility?
Or only dickheads that will work their *** off t'il the day they die like me have a moral responcibility ?