How Bigoted Can A Person Get?

Actually suggesting that individuals and groups must take part in identifying and solving problems.........

Native Indians must do much more to help themselves

Barbara Yaffe
Vancouver Sun

Friday, June 15, 2007

The Harper government's initiative to speed up Indian land claims settlement is overdue, but represents but a small piece of a puzzle crying out for completion.

Canadians finally are acting as they should to bring due justice and economic redress to their aboriginal fellows. But the aboriginals themselves must do the rest, and a great deal remains to be achieved.

Only when leaders such as Phil Fontaine and Bill Wilson stand up and say as much will Canadians be able to look to a prospect of socioeconomic equality between Indians and non-Indians.

At present, Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and B.C. chief Wilson -- defeated by Fontaine last July for the top aboriginal job -- are trapped in a victim mindset.

The two men, both sixty-somethings, are failing to provide the sort of leadership that says, "let's start addressing our own problems as regards to substance abuse, educational attainment and band governance that too often is tainted by corruption and favouritism."