There you have a success, but still against all odd, having to succeed in spite of laws in our favour.
There you have a success, but still against all odd, having to succeed in spite of laws in our favour.
The West Bank band made their money by leasing off all of their reserve to multi national corporations. They are claiming New Denver as part of their territory (Sinixt territory) so they can move their people to the west Kootenays to live as very little is left on their reserve that is habitable and they want to lease that off too. The chief if filthy rich but his people have to move off reserve. Yup, sounds like he has learned well from his white masters.
Look at the stuff he's accomplished or trying to accomplish:
Chief Robert Louie
A few example quotes:
"
Throughout his past terms in office as Chief of Westbank First Nation, Mr. Louie has achieved significant accomplishments including:
We'd accomplished all of this for English and French Canadians by the 1960s, because we had the power of government behind us. They're just now implementing this, albeit to a lesser degree owing to lack of support from the Feds.
- Approved the self-government agreement with Canada
- Passed and implemented the WFN Land Code
- Build and Operated Grizzly Wood Products
- Completed the expansion of IR#10 water system
- Installed IR#10 sewage system
- Initiated the WFN Economic Development Commission
- Revamped the WFN Administration
- Re-introduced Okanagan Language Program in School District #23
- Structured a long term community forest license with B.C.
- Entered into continuing negotiations with the province on the Okanagan Lake Bridge and Westside Road interchanges "
Had we had a just system of government, his grandfather would have accomplished most of this.
Gerry and Captain Morgan, let me ask a question.
According to the following study, Canada subsidizes French and English to the tune of at least 2.4 billion dollars yearly:
Federal and provincial bilingualism requirements cost Canadian taxpayers $2.4 billion annually; provinces spend $900 million to provide dual-language services | Fraser Institute
If you are a First Nation living off reserve, you're paying the taxes towards this. Yet how much of your tax money would go towards your languages and your cultures?
Some provinces also allow one's tax money to go to separate Catholic schools. But if you are an indigenous Canadian living off reserve, you do not get to have your taxes go towards a school that respects your own spiritual traditions.
Of course you can choose to stay on reserve, but then because treaties aren't honoured, schools are so underfunded that some indigenous kids today are still leaving home to go to high school off reserve, very much as they had to leave home to go to residential school.
The list goes on.
So, do you agree with special language privileges for French and English? Do you agree with special privileges for Catholics but not indigenous spirituality off reserve?
Also, any company exploiting natural resources pays taxes to the federal and provincial governments, and usually not first nations, which means that all those resources too go towards subsidizing our slanted system.
T Yup, sounds like he has learned well from his white masters.
Why haven't the other bands done the same? Why are so many still living in poverty, like the westbank band was before Cheif Louis?
That's what you don't get, he didn't wait for the feds to do anything for him, he did it himself for his people. A lot of other Bands don't like him because he tells it like it is. He calls them lazy. He tells them that they shouldn't "expect" anything from anyone else. He tells them to get off their asses and do something about their situation instead of expecting someone else to do it for them.
French and English are Canada's official languages, period. The Catholic School system is written into the agreements for when those provinces entered into Confederation. Suck it up buttercup. Don't like it, move somewhere else.
And the Catholic School system did more than just get special rights in the constitution. It also got a sweet deal with the Federal Government to participate in the residential school system. Do you defend all of this?
Take a look at West Bank.
What about the West Bank?
No not a witch hunt a
search for justice.
I heard it was closer to 1 billion.Why are we so intent on holding on to our privileges when we know the blood that was shed for this (in the residential schools alone, 50,000 dead under their care is now considered a highly conservative estimate, and it was not ancient history; people alive today witnesses of these murders).
Take a look at West Bank.
What about the West Bank?
Had me wondering, too, gerry. I mean Westbank, BC is Westbank, BC, not West Bank and the only West Bank I know is in the ME.
Wonder what he has to say about the whiteeyes that choose to stay in poverty.No, not against all odds. I can guarantee though that YOU wouldn't like what their Chief has to say about the other FN's that "choose" to stay in poverty.
The West Bank band made their money by leasing off all of their reserve to multi national corporations. They are claiming New Denver as part of their territory (Sinixt territory) so they can move their people to the west Kootenays to live as very little is left on their reserve that is habitable and they want to lease that off too. The chief if filthy rich but his people have to move off reserve. Yup, sounds like he has learned well from his white masters.
The Catholic School systems in Ontario and Alberta participated in the Residential Schools? You have proof of this?
BS. The Westbank area is more habitable than the Oliver/Osoyoos area (if it were not for the lakes it would be desert whereas there are quite a few lakes around Westbank) and yet Clarence Louis and his band have used the resources there to develop a pretty good outfit.The West Bank band made their money by leasing off all of their reserve to multi national corporations. They are claiming New Denver as part of their territory (Sinixt territory) so they can move their people to the west Kootenays to live as very little is left on their reserve that is habitable and they want to lease that off too. The chief if filthy rich but his people have to move off reserve. Yup, sounds like he has learned well from his white masters.
Westbank is in the middle of the Okanagan right across the lake from Kelowna. It's an area where the tourist traffic stampedes to.He may or may not be right. Westbank may or may not have been in a lucky location economically, etc. I don't know.
BS. The Westbank area is more habitable than the Oliver/Osoyoos area (if it were not for the lakes it would be desert whereas there are quite a few lakes around Westbank) and yet Clarence Louis and his band have used the resources there to develop a pretty good outfit.
Westbank is in the middle of the Okanagan right across the lake from Kelowna. It's an area where the tourist traffic stampedes to.
Used to be some logging in the Okanagan but I have a suspicion that the last Dipper gov't here pretty much killed it. That pretty much leaves the valley as a tourist mecca.
Oh come on. It's the same Church, no?
The same Church ran both, but the Catholic School system in the provinces had nothing to do with the residential schools. I REALLY wish you would research what you spout off about before putting finger to keyboard. Educate yourself...... maybe go to....what was it...... Sweden?..... and avail yourself of THEIR voucher system.
I'd gone through the separate school system Gerryh, and guess what. I'd never heard of the residential school system in school. Ashamed of history?