A Rift In First Nations Solitude...

Statistical anomaly: A prosperous First Nation


Sun Oct 31 2010

It’s the relative prosperity here that makes Rama both a statistical anomaly and a pariah among other First Nations.

How Much Of $2.4 Billion Goes To Reserves

ILLEGAL TOBACCO OUT OF CONTROL, CIGARETTE COMPANIES WARN

Follow Up

Strahl accused of hypocrisy, secrecy in drafting native reforms

Amid criticism, minister also wins kudos for anti-corruption measures

What Is There To Argue.....Maximum Sentencxe Under Criminal Code

Sentencing arguments for dad whose girls froze to death
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

ROSE VALLEY, Sask. — Lawyers are expected to wrap up sentencing arguments today in the case of a Saskatchewan man whose two young daughters froze to death.
A provincial court judge has already heard from elders in a sentencing circle that 25-year-old Christopher Pauchay should be spared prison time.
Pauchay’s defence lawyer agrees the man should serve a community sentence.
But the Crown, comparing the case to child abuse, wants Pauchay sentenced from 2 1/2 to five years in prison.
Pauchay left his home on the Yellow Quill reserve just over a year ago and lost his daughters as he stumbled drunk in the snow.
He has pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death.

Outrage over $100 fine for abandoned dog
by Andrew Chung
Mar 4, 2009 (11)

Michou the poodle was left inside a vehicle for 19 days in the freezing cold without food or water.

Any Change Would Be An Improvement

Secret documents reveal sweeping new rules for natives

The federal government is secretly planning an overhaul of the rules governing Canada's reserves that is far more sweeping than what Ottawa is telling Canada's chiefs and native leaders

I'm Sorry Mark But You Aren"t Going To Lay Another Guilt Trip On Me

I empathize with the plight of the Indian population but I have to ask where the billions of $$$ allocated EACH year to Indian affairs goes. Recently there was a story of a group of Indian student coming to Toronto pleading for an improvement of deplorable conditions of their schools and at the same time there was a story about millions being spent in Toronto providing housing for Indians living off the reserve. It would seem to me that possibly these $$$ should have been spent improving the reserve school.Where do the $$$ from casinos go? What about the $$$$ made from smuggling on reserves?

PART 1: Murder, abuse and Native injustice

By MARK BONOKOSKI, Sun Media

PART 1: Profiles of the urban Native

By MARK BONOKOSKI, Sun Media

PART 1: Culture clash

By MARK BONOKOSKI, Sun Media

Den Tandt is Right On The Mark.....

Money won't fix Native reserves

By MICHAEL DEN TANDT

Phil Fontaine, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is so right. And he's so wrong.

Fontaine says it's a national disgrace that, in 2008, 27,000 Canadian aboriginal kids are in state care; 40 reserves across Canada have no schools; 100 are under perpetual boil-water advisories; and many if not most offer a quality of life that is shockingly below that enjoyed by most other Canadian communities.

Right.

Fontaine says the vast majority of Canadians believe aboriginals should have more control over their own affairs, and a clear majority of us - more than 60% - think it's time for a radical redesign of the relationship between Canada and her First Nations.

Right.

Fontaine says it's a travesty none of the leaders of Canada's national parties are talking about aboriginal issues.

Right.

And Fontaine says the solution is a huge pile of money - "Kelowna-plus," as he puts it - that would exceed even the $5 billion offered by the Paul Martin government in 2005. Martin proposed to hugely increase spending within the current reserve system, with the goal of raising aboriginal living standards to those of other Canadians by 2015.

Wrong.

The reserve system in Canada is broken. The population of Canadian status, Metis and non-status Indians now is about 1.1 million. About half - and growing - live off reserve. Yet the lion's share of federal funding for Native people is still funnelled through reserves and controlled by their chiefs.

Though some reserves have negotiated self-government agreements that take them outside the Indian Act, most haven't. The Act is an explicitly racist document. It assumes aboriginal Canadians are not capable of managing their own affairs. It denies most aboriginal Canadians on reserves the right to private ownership of their homes. In Canada in 2008, the Indian Act is an abomination.

Reserves themselves are the problem.

Our current system, supported by an aboriginal political class that benefits from the status quo and an Ottawa political class too frightened to tackle real reform, is the problem.

It's About F*@^ing Time

Value-for-money audits for First Nations to begin

Updated Sun. Jun. 22 2008 4:32 PM ET

The Canadian Press

New value-for-money audits to better track how Indian Affairs spends billions of dollars will catch misappropriation, lax reporting and -- in rare cases -- fraud, says the minister in charge.

Chuck Strahl says most First Nations properly use federal cash, much of it paid to uphold historic treaties. But more stringent assessments of the roughly $6 billion that flows through his department each year will tighten accounting and give concerned band members answers, he said in an interview.

"I'm convinced that the overwhelming majority of First Nations do the best they can with the money they've got. You could debate whether the money is adequate or not,'' he added. "But there's the odd one out there, just like there always is in any public government ... that needs to be called to task.

"In extreme cases, of course, somebody could be taking money out of the till and not reporting it.''

Audit results "could be anything from an illegal action to simply a change in book-keeping requirements,'' Strahl said.

As of July 1, transfers to reserves for education, housing and other programs will contain a clause allowing Indian Affairs to later analyze whether they were well spent.

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