- Opinion - Canada: The Scrooge of 2008?

As a wealthy country we are neglecting our duty to those who need help both here and abroad

December 19, 2008

Lloyd Axworthy We all know the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. A miserly old man is confronted by the sorry reality that his life of so-called respectability actually hides a selfishness and indifference to the plight of others. Ultimately he tries to make amends. It's time for our own reality check. This season has brought depressing evidence that in 2008 Canada became Scrooge-like in its behaviour. Even with the recent economic downturn, Canadians continue to live in one of the wealthiest industrialized countries in the world with a historic reputation for leadership and multilateral co-operation on all sorts of global issues. It is, therefore, natural that we continue to sustain certain myths about Canada as a country that takes care of its most vulnerable citizens and that plays a leading and progressive role in international affairs. Not so! We like to believe that Canada is a country that invests in and protects its children, but in a recent UNICEF report comparing early childhood education and care in the 25 most affluent countries of the world we learn that Canada is tied for last place with Ireland, meeting only one of the 10 benchmarks that set minimum standards for securing the rights of children. Canada has a child poverty rate of more than 10 per cent, is failing to provide essential child health services, and has no national plan with a focus on disadvantaged groups. One need only compare our obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to the realities faced by aboriginal children in this country to see just how far we fall short of our commitment to protect the fundamental rights and inherent dignity of all children. In the midst of our affluence, it is estimated that 5 million Canadians live in poverty and more than 300,000 experience homelessness every year. We live in one of the top countries on the United Nations Human Development Index, a comprehensive measure of life expectancy, educational attainment and income. But when these indicators are applied solely to aboriginal Canadians, we fall somewhere between Samoa and the Dominican Republic. Many indigenous communities suffer from a chronic shortage of safe water and adequate housing. Fewer than 40 per cent of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students graduate from high school compared to nearly 90 per cent of the non-aboriginal population, and fewer than 10 per cent of aboriginal peoples between the ages of 25 and 34 have a university degree. And despite the glaring urgency of these basic deficiencies, Canada continues to be one of the only countries in the world that has not signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We are neither playing a constructive role on climate change, nor acting as good stewards for future generations. Canada was recently singled out as a "spoiler" in the negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland. At a time when President-elect Barack Obama is promising to put the United States back on the progressive side of climate change negotiations, it appears that Canada plans to follow the example of his predecessor by sabotaging concerted action to address the single most significant threat to global well-being in our time. Is Canada an exemplar for effective peacekeeping? Our troops are engaged in a deadly war in Afghanistan. We honour their sacrifice, but we must ask to what end? All reports point to a failure of strategy and tactics: Afghan civilians are increasingly unprotected, the poppy fields are flourishing, and the territory under Taliban control is expanding. Yet nothing is done to change our approach. We just hunker down, suffer casualties and wait to get out in 2011. In the meantime, we avoid UN humanitarian commitments. When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked us to play a larger peacekeeping role in the Congo, we said no, rejecting a chance to protect the vulnerable citizens of a beleaguered country where the systematic use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war is terrorizing tens of thousands of women and girls and destroying communities. We currently rank 52nd in the world for UN peacekeeping contributions (with only 175 Canadian personnel currently deployed), putting us behind countries such as Slovakia, Fiji and Togo. As the halfway mark for meeting the Millennium Development Goals passes, our foreign aid budget remains stuck at half of the UN target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income, a target Canada reaffirmed its commitment to in 2005 but has yet to set a timetable for achieving. And there is little in the way of focused efforts to deal with shared global issues such as endemic poverty, drug trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children. At the same time, we are becoming increasingly complicit in the sale of small arms around the world, nearly tripling our sales between 2000 and 2007, sometimes to nations with abysmal human rights records. In response to government secrecy and inadequate reporting on the export of these weapons, which serve to fuel violent conflict and war, the 2008 Small Arms Survey ranked Canada well below the United States, France and the United Kingdom on small arms trade transparency. In this interim period before Parliament resumes at the end of January there will be federal-provincial strategy meetings and budget consultations. Governments at all levels should use this time to think about how things can be turned around. The many myths about Canadian virtue and progressiveness do not have to remain fantasies. Perhaps this holiday season is a good time to wake up from our dream and, like Scrooge, begin to deal with the reality that we are not fulfilling our role to effectively regard the pain of others either at home or abroad.

Aboriginal leaders excluded from 'Museum for Human Rights' ceremony Aboriginal leaders say government excluded them from important international ceremony Posted By The Daily Graphic staff Updated 20 hours ago Aboriginal leaders in Manitoba say the government has insulted their people and their culture by excluding them from the sod turning ceremony of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at the Forks in Winnipeg Friday. While Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other national and provincial leaders broke ground on the museum, First Nations were not represented, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) said. "I am extremely disappointed that a museum devoted to educating the world about human rights, a museum built on traditional Treay One First Nation territory, would exclude the Treaty One Chiefs of Manitoba, AMC Grand Chief Ron Evans said. Evans also said appropriate ceremonial protocols were not followed during the event, which was disrespectful of First Nations people. At an assembly held at Dakota Tipi First Nation last fall, museum representatives told aboriginal leaders from Manitoba that First Nation history would be an integral part of the museum, the press release said. Aboriginal people from Canada voted to support the museum with the hope that their history could be told from their perspective, Evans said. The museum is to contain a wing devoted to First Nation history, as well as employment and training opportunities for aboriginals and tourism links to sites such as the Indian Residential School Museum of Canada being established at Long Plain First Nation's urban reserve just southwest of Portage la Prairie. "Unfortunately, the ceremony demonstrated not only a lack of knowledge of our culture but a lack of understanding of what the term consultation means," Evans said. "If this is how the organizers handle the sod-turning, then how will they handle the building of the First Nations wing of the museum?" In addition to Harper, the ceremony was attended by Minister of Canadian Heritage James Moore, Premier of Manitoba Gary Doer, Deputy Mayor of the City of Winnipeg Justin Swandel, Gail Asper and members of the Museum's Board of Trustees. The Daily Graphic newspaper and www.thedailygraphic.com will follow this story as it unfolds. news.dailygraphic@shawcable.com

Thoughts for a new year ...

The Indian Act: cradle to the grave policies

Posted By ERNIE SANDY

Posted 4 months ago

As an indigenous person of Canada, namely one of the first peoples of this continent, I pose this question to our readers: How am I different from you as a non-Native, legislatively speaking? The answer to that question and some of the shocking revelations are mentioned briefly in this article. The limited space for this column will only allow me to give you a snapshot of an otherwise complex story.

Without a doubt, one of the most racist pieces of legislation ever passed by the Canadian government in the late 1800's was the Indian Act. First, it's title is misleading, in that, it does not 'act' on behalf of First Nation (FN) peoples, quite the contrary, it spells out what cannot be done unless sanctioned by the federal government through the Department of Indian Affairs. Second, most readers may not have heard about the Indian Act, however, mention of Apartheid in South Africa will bring back images of genocide that flashed across the television screen in the 1980's.

A very short comparison of Canadian and South African history in reference to the oppression of its indigenous peoples will help put this story into perspective.

According to African history books, South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century. In North America, it was the English and French who laid claim to Aboriginal land through a series of very questionable documents called treaties. The discovery of diamonds in South Africa around 1900 resulted in an English invasion which sparked the Boer War.

The terrible irony of this conflict is that two foreign countries were fighting over land and resources that wasn't theirs to begin with. One can only summize that the motivation was greed and power and lust for domination.

Following independence from England, the Afrikaner National Party was looking for a model for oppression. That was when they learned how effective the Indian Act was in segregating one race of people from the rest of society by creating reservations and destroying theirs means of livelihood. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Indian Act has had, and to a greater extent, a direct social, economical, moral, and political impact on FN peoples of Canada. First Nation election are based on Indian Act rules and regulations that pit individuals against each other for seats on council.

We are the only members of Canadian society who have specific legislation designed to dictate every aspect of our lives, essentially from the time we are born to the time we die. For example, through a formula of inclusion and exclusion, a baby born into a First Nation can be classified as a non-native depending on the ancestral lineage; at the other end of the spectrum of life, an individual cannot be buried on a reserve where he lives if the community complies to the letter of the law. This latter part of the legislation has been ignored in most cases by the community for compassion reasons.

The Indian Act has been around for a long time. It was enacted in 1876 by the Parliament of Canada under the provisions of Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867. That section gives the federal government exclusive authority to laws in relation to "Indians and Lands Reserved for Indians". The Indian Act is administered by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in Ottawa and major cities across Canada.

Some of the highlights of the Indian Act's power, both present and in the past include, but not limited to, the following:

In 1881, an amendment was made to make officers of the Indian Department, including Indian Agents, legal justices of the peace that were able to enforce regulations at will. The following year they were granted the same legal power as magistrates. Further amendments prohibited the sale of farm products grown by Native peoples in Prairie Provinces without an appropriate permit from an Indian agent, became the law of the land. This prohibition is still to this day, 2008, included in the Indian Act.

Throughout this time until the late 1960's Indian Agents had dictorial powers over Chief and Council. But the shadows of Department of Indian Affairs still loom over First Nations across Canada. In 1905, an amendment was made by the federal government to allow aboriginal people to be removed from reserves near towns with more than 8,000 residents.

If the above wasn't enough, in 1911, changes were made in the Act to allow municipalities and companies to expropriate portions of reserves, without surrender. Further amendments allowed a judge to move an entire reserve away from a municipality.

With respect to customary selection of community leaders, an amendment in 1920 allowed the Department of Indian Affairs to ban hereditary rule of Chiefs. For thousands of years, leaders were chosen by consensus. It was at this time that the current election of two years terms became law.

Hundreds of thousand of acres of First Nations land was lost through a provision in 1918 that allowed the Superintendent-General to lease out uncultivated reserve lands to nonaboriginals.

This land was never returned, therefore, one could conclude that most farms and portions of municipalities today are essentially stolen First Nation lands.

When I read about people referring to us as poor little Indians, I encourage these individuals to learn more about Canadian history so they do not speak from ignorance.

Ernie Sandy is a educator who lives in Rama First Nation with his family.

What makes Canada special

Michael Ignatieff, National Post

Published: Saturday, December 20, 2008

- Copyright 2007 by Michael Ignatieff and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Reprinted with permission from House of Anansi Press. -

The world's deepest problem is not climate change or the supposed clash of civilizations or inequality between rich nations and poor ones -- as important as these problems are. The fundamental problem facing humanity is political: how to create stable political order among people of different religions, cultures and economic classes. As long as states can cohere as viable political communities, all their problems can be managed. But if they cannot maintain order and freedom, they cannot solve any of them.

Here, Canada has shown the way: maintaining freedom among peoples who value their differences yet desire to live as equals in a political community.

Being Canadian, we do not shout our achievement from the rooftops. We know we still have a long way to go before the achievement is complete. Many of our people do not share in the promise of Canadian life; many of our regions feel left out of our prosperity; our national unity is a permanent work-in-progress. But we know what we have to do. The rights enshrined in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms exhort us all to narrow the gap between the Canada we actually live in and the Canada we know we can build together.

Interim Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff listens to a question during a news conference in Ottawa, December 10, 2008. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Other countries have also managed to maintain successful political communities. What makes Canada's achievement distinctive? While all modern democracies protect rights, our system is special in the way it reconciles individual and group rights.

Both our provincial and federal charters protect group rights to language in order to guarantee the preservation of the French fact in North America. These charters also protect the treaty and Aboriginal rights of our First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples.

Reconciling group and individual rights is not easy. Canadians want both their equality recognized and their differences respected. They want to be acknowledged as equal individuals and as members of communities. Recognition of equality points one way; recognition of difference can point another. Moreover, while all communities in Canada should be equal, not all communities are the same. Aboriginal Canadians claim the status of first nations, in recognition of the fact that they maintained political order before European settlement. The Quebecois see themselves as a national group within Canada, in recognition of their distinctive language and history as a French colony.

There is no reason in principle why acknowledging the national character of certain communities in Canada should put the unity of the whole at risk. We have been working at reconciling these competing principles since Confederation, and while constitutional reconciliation of equality and difference remains elusive, our arguments have not broken up our country. Indeed, we have become a model for the world of how to balance majority and minority interests and how to maintain the unity of a complex federation.

Our vocation in the world is to help other countries deepen and develop their citizenship as we have deepened and developed our own. Just as we seek to promote "peace, order and good government" at home, we should seek to do the same abroad.

We have also established the most progressive political culture in the Americas. Our laws protect the equality rights of all Canadians regardless of sexual orientation, including rights to marriage. Our laws guarantee a woman's right to choose. The Canada Health Act commits the federal and provincial governments to guarantee equal rights of access to health for all citizens. Our constitution commits the federal government to use its authority and spending power to maintain rough equality of services among all regions and among all citizens.

There are some other distinguishing marks as well. Unlike the United States, Canada does not recognize a constitutional right to bear arms. Canada does not practise capital punishment. In these and other ways, our rights culture entrenches our national identity as a progressive people.

Maintaining these commitments is not easy. There is no stable political consensus in favour of them. It takes political leadership to articulate why these values matter, and why we need to make sacrifices in order to keep them flourishing. It is also the work of political leaders to hammer out compromises when the rights and interests of competing groups conflict. Active engagement in politics -- by citizens and by leaders -- is essential if we are to maintain our distinctiveness as a progressive people and to find the compromises that keep us together.

Jan. 10

The Iggy Book Club will reconvene in three weeks for a discussion of Blood and Belonging

© National Post 2008

WINTER SOLSTICE: Longest night, Sun returns Right now we are in the days of lighting up the darkness, with yule logs and candles and tinsel and greenery and bows, through today, the shortest day of the year, and tonight, Saturday night, the longest night of the year.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice occurs on Sunday December 21, 2008 at 7:04 AM EST and 12:04 UT (Universal Time).

Yule is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half.

Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, much celebration was to be had as the ancestors awaited the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth and made her to bear forth from seeds protected through the fall and winter in her womb. Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were "wassailed" with toasts of spiced cider.

After the longest night of the year, tonight, Saturday night, tomorrow the sun finally reappears and begins the journey through the light. Now that's worth celebrating! Happy solstice Canada! The light returns. yahoo!

Stop financing the big banks ... BANK INTIMATE! NAVIGATING TOWARD A FINANCIALLY INTIMATE WORLD ...

Are you still banking with a large corporate bank? [don't.]

The fastest way to kick-start the shift away from a centralized economy is to stop financing the big banks—and through them, the activities they are financing—and to switch your bank deposits to a well-managed, community bank or credit union. In fact, it's the single greatest point of leverage you have as a consumer.

http://solari.com/archive/banks/

Makes sense to me. Corporate banks are for corporations. Credit unions/community banks are for communities of people.

OH CANADA! Mind Control in Canada Medical fascism in Canada: This is old information (1997), but new facts to me, though I have heard allegations of such activities. The primacy of the Masons, Scottish Rite, Shriners, Mormons, Armed Forces in league with the CIA ... DEW line ... NORAD ... these facts are news to me. However, after learning the facts of the systematic abuse and deaths of thousands of children in Canada's 'Indian' Residential Schools, horrific as this 'ritual abuse and mind control' information is, it is a relief that it is at least public too. Now if only more Canadians would wake up in large numbers and realize that we have abdicated our responsibility for the safety of Canada's children, and our responsibility for Canada itself.

I was used to blackmail a British scientist. It started in a faculty building dining room setting and then I found myself, as a child, in bed with this older man who was crying, and there was a camera trained on the bed, and he been drugged, I had been drugged as well … and here I was a child, with of course no clothes on … he had no clothes on … and he was crying and crying about what was he going to tell his wife, what was he going to tell his wife … (that was actually the least of his worries really) ... there were three people standing at the end of the bed, men dressed in women’s clothes, and it had to do with one of the projects they were working on at that time, and this particular British researcher – it was essential that he become complicit in what they were going to carry out.

http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/radio/ckln16.htm Lynne Moss-Sharman, Thunder Bay, Ontario, 1997

Mind Control in Canada -- Press Release

Date: 97-03-15 09:58:43 EST

CKLN 88.1 FM [Toronto-Ryerson] radio series on Canadian involvement in U.S. CIA and military mind control programs and the links to ritual abuse.

Interviews with survivors, therapists, researchers, and writers regarding unethical mind control experiments carried out by Canada and the United States on Toronto radio station CKLN-FM 88.1 Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM.

On Sunday, March 16 at 9:30 AM the International Connections program will begin the radio series 'Mind Control In Canada.' Every Sunday morning 9:30-10:30 AM on CKLN-FM 88.1 for the following eight months will focus on different issues of military and government use of mind control with a focus on the Canadian involvement in the experimental programs including:

• The documented history of CIA/military mind control programs including the funding of projects at Canadian institutes across the country (Including the Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal).
• The military and intelligence uses of mind control including using the child victims for sexual blackmail, message delivery, information stealing, coercion and assassination.
• The use of Multiple Personality Disorder for mind control programming and the links to the MPD effects of ritual abuse, sexual abuse and severe trauma
• The public debate around recovered memories of abuse
• The nature of the mind control experiments from survivors' accounts

Interviews and Lectures Include:

Dr. Colin Ross -- proves that mind control has been used operationally since World War II in a lecture of the history of U.S. CIA and military mind control experiment programs.

Lynne Moss-Sharman -- survivor of mind control experimentation and ritual abuse as a child by CIA-funded doctors. Lynne describes electricity, drugging, brain implants, sexual abuse and other brutalities that were committed on her and other children and adults in Canada and United States. Also Interview

Ronald Howard Cohen -- survivor of abduction and severe drugging by CIA and military and subsequent harrassment in attempting to publish a book about his ordeal.

Valerie Wolf -- therapist of mind control survivors who gave testimony about mind control experiments in the 1995 US Presidential hearings on radiation experiments. Also see Lecture Presentation at Believe the Children Conference Chicago - April 1997 Interview with Valerie Wolf, M.S.W., therapist to trauma and mind control survivors

Dr. Connie Kristiansen, Carleton University -- feminist psychologist talks about the backlash against therapists working with abuse survivors.

Linda MacDonald -- survivor of Dr. Cameron's electroshock, drugging, forced sleep, and psychic driving 'treatment' at McGill University in Montreal and has successfully pursued compensation from the Canadian government.

Alex Constantine -- researcher, author of 'Psychic dictatorship in the USA' speaks about high-tech mind control technology and the legacy of damaged survivors it has created.

For more information contact:

CKLN-FM Radio 380 Victoria Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 1W7

Phone: (416) 595-5068 Fax: (416) 595-0226

Email - producer Wayne Morris: ckln@sac.ryerson.ca

COMPLETE SERIES OF TRANSCRIPTS HERE ... http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/radio/ckln-hm.htm Oh Canada ... ! All of these people know, and are brave enough to go public. How many more communities in Canada will step up?

We designed the conference so it was appropriate for both Native and non-Native agency workers. We had representation and participation from Beendigen, the Native women's shelter and now women's and men's counselling unit, and they work with children too; the Canadian Mental Health Association; the Children's Aid Society; Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons; the battered women's shelters here in Thunder Bay - and we actually received our direct sponsorship from Faye Peterson Transition House; representation from Confederation College; the Refugee and Immigrant Women's Office; Family Services Thunder Bay; Ojibway Family Services; Geraldton Mental Health Services; Hoshizaki House - a northwestern Ontario based shelter for battered women; the Indian Friendship Centre; Kenora Sexual Assault Centre; Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital; Lakehead Regional Family Centre; Lakehead University; the London Sexual Assault Centre; the Ojibway Tribal Family Services; Meno Bimahdzewin Child and Family Services; the Ottawa Sexual Assault Support Centre; Oakland Place - Women in Crisis, Algoma; People Allied for Change Through Empowerment, the psychiatric survivors advocacy group in Thunder Bay; the Plummer Hospital Sexual Assault Care Centre in Sault Ste. Marie; Thunder Bay Police; representation from Toronto Rape Crisis Centre; representation from the Wunnemin Health Council which is a band council service group from a reserve that is primarily Ojibway speaking. We had students who volunteered and participated from the Department of Social Work and Psychology, including post graduate, from Lakehead University. Students who volunteered from the Departments of Aboriginal Studies and Social Services at Confederation College. There was also registration from post-graduate studies in psychology from Carleton University and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

*** In many cases it literally is to carry information and to be used for blackmail purposes and to be used in pedophilia among high-ranking people who either have to be brought into the fold or reminded of their place in the hierarchy. There are certainly the assassin programs, that is a very hard one to come to grips with inside yourself when you start to remember exactly what your hands have been taught to do. For example, I know how to scalp someone three different ways. Not a Betty Crocker Little Homemakers Oven trick is it?

There are many instances ... and Jonestown always comes up ... and the experimentation at Walla Walla Prison ... there seem to have been some assassin programs produced at Oakridge Penetentiary here in Ontario in the late 1960's and early 1970's under a programming and LSD experiment conducted by Dr. Elliott Barker in that institution. He is still practicing in the Midland area today.

http://www.cpso.on.ca/docsearch/details.aspx?view=1&id=%2017084

Yes, I know. I worked at Penetanguishene Regional Mental Health Centre in the summer of 1971. As part of our 'orientation' program, we went up to "The Ridge" (Oak Ridge Penitentiary for the criminally insane) for an overview of their programs. If I recall correctly, we were told that there were 4 'active treatment' units, and 8 more units where there was no treatment at all, the 'untreatables', serial killers among them. I distinctly recall Dr. Elliott Barker talking to us about his research using LSD (which only elicited giggles back then ... it was 1971). I was disturbed by what he said, though: He said they were using LSD to see if some of the 'untreatable' inmates could be turned into people who were more "useful" for specific purposes. He said more about the types of "purposes" but I don't recall those details. Did he say they were being 'trained' as assassins? I don't recall, but I do recall a feeling that he was arrogantly saying things he likely should not have said - his "God" complex was apparent. I have since been told by other former staff, of Dr. Barker's fall from grace, involvement in questionable research, but not the details. He is known to be still practicing privately in the area, and people suspect still in the same 'program' - ie, creating CIA assasins. All of this is information about the 'underbelly' of Canada, the unseen evils, is incredibly disturbing to ordinary Canadians, who are highly skilled at blocking out ugly things they do not want to know about. In fact, most Canadians would simply say "I don't think I really wanted to know that.", and they mean it: They will not pursue it, because people who do are vilified as 'nutcases' and are socially isolated. Canadians are a nation of superficial believers in democracy and the 'goodness' of people, but generally very few of us do much to defend our democracy. We are content to allow the corporations to run Canada, though we never admit that is the case either ... because we would be called a 'nutcase' and socially isolated. My theory about that is this: The dominant contingent of early settlers to Canada were refugees from the Highland clearances in Scotland, and the potato famine in Ireland, both of which were a result of the 'land barons' clearing the land of peasant farmers to pursue factory farming, mining, logging, and other industries lucrative to them, by enclosing the 'commons'. Powerless to stop the genocides, we 'Celts' dealt with the impact of being forced off the land that sustained us, the land we held in common ('the commons') by 'putting it behind us ... moving on to a new life in a new land ...', and all those other 'stiff upper lip' platitudes that people are taught by ruling cabals (in Canada, Tories; in the US, Republicans) to teach the masses to repress their invasive trauma and prevent its close examination. Thus programmed by the aristocrats to 'forget the past and move on', and with the lure of land promised in the new world, Celt immigrants became the 'army' used by aristocrats to then clear the land in North America of its original inhabitants. To expose this is to be to be seen as a 'nutcase' who bites the hand that feeds us ... the 'new world order' ... Canada ... that IS us.

http://www.canadastreetnews.com/ReptilianDECEPTION.htm The Times is not just any newspaper. It has been the voice of the British establishment for more than 100 years. Along with Chatham House (the RIIA) and Tavistock, it is a principal instrument of the cabal that governs England and most of the world. That cabal consists of Jewish central bankers and British (European and American) aristocracy united by money, marriage and a belief in the occult (Freemasonry.) ANTI-SEMITISM I object to the term "the Jews" when obviously we are talking about very rich and powerful Jews who have intermarried with rich and powerful Gentiles. Sid the tailor does not control the world. I do not control the world. We are talking about rich Jews who most other Jews wouldn't even recognize: they are Freemasons. They worship Lucifer and think God is evil. I represent that silent majority of average Jews, who have assimilated, and support the national interest. Rich Jews will want ordinary Jews to take the fall when opposition to their predatory agenda grows and anti-Semitism increases. Anti-Semitism never made any headway in Europe in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century until rich Jews decided to sponsor it. There is no way Hitler would have come to power without the backing of world finance. Hitler was Time Magazine "Man of the Year" in 1938. Stalin, another Freemason created by the Money Power, took the honor in 1939. Hey let's have a war!

Forced off the land: Scotland, North America 'This is almost like a spiritual quest for us'

Published Date: 16 December 2008

By Jim Gilchrist

FOR the American or Canadian of Scots descent, the archetypal ancestry is one of emigration from the "old country" to the New World, often involving being forced from ancestral lands. The Clearances and a sense of injustice may loom large in many a Scots-American's view of his or her lineage, yet there is a glaring paradox – many of these forced immigrants would pass on the pain, in their displacement of the original North American peoples.

The irony is far from lost on Sandra Muse, right, as she looks forward to coming to The Gathering from Canada next year, when she will visit the lands of her ancestors – some of them, that is. Muse, from Hamilton, Ontario, claims MacRae lineage but is also half Cherokee. A journalist who has worked mainly in Canadian radio but also edited a newspaper for the Six Nations Indian Reserve [www.tekanews.com], Muse is doing a PhD on English literature at Hamilton's McMaster university. Her dissertation is on Cherokee literature and she is also studying diasporas, giving her a unique standpoint from which to comment on the Scots-American phenomenon. "There is a tremendous irony there (in Scottish immigrants involved in the oppression of the First Nations]," says the 51-year-old, "and it happened in both Canada and the United States. A lot of soldiers in the Indian wars in the US, when the last of the Indians were being rounded up and put on reservations, were of Scottish descent." She also refers to Duncan Campbell Scott, a renowned Canadian poet but also a reviled head of the department of Indian Affairs between 1913 and 1932. He made it compulsory for native children to attend Residential Schools that, often amid appalling conditions, attempted to eradicate all traces of native culture and language. It was Scott who declared in 1920: "Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada not absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian Question." Muse goes on to contrast his attitude with the many Scots settlers who integrated and intermarried with the Cherokee people. "The Scots-Cherokee connection is very strong," she says, citing the famous John Ross, born in 1790, who, though only one-eighth Cherokee by descent, became principal chief of the Cherokee nation, as well as a charismatic politician and orator, deeply committed to his Native American heritage. Even Ross's eloquence could not prevent the mass "removal" – clearance all over again – of 18,000 Cherokees from Georgia to the official Indian Territory in Oklahoma in 1838, which became known as the "Trail of Tears" and on which Ross's wife was among an estimated 4,000 who died on the way. Other high-profile Scots-Cherokees range from Major John Ridge, a Cherokee officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, to Grammy-winning singer Rita Coolidge. Muse's own lineage is pretty well half-and-half, with some Irish and Dutch thrown in, she says. "My mother was a MacRae and we've been able to learn a great deal about her Scottish heritage. My great-great-great grandmother married in 1789 in North Carolina." North Carolina is where so many immigrant Scots arrived during the 18th and 19th centuries that it can now boast more citizens of Scots ancestry than the homeland itself. Muse grew up in Detroit, but came north to Canada after marrying a Mohawk, and has two children: "So they are also Mohawk, and Cayuga, and Cherokee, and some Irish… "I've been reading up on Scottish history, because I grew up not knowing about my Scottish heritage. It was only maybe five years ago I began going to Highland games here, especially the big ones at Fergus, Ontario – I'd always wanted to go but I'd been a single mother for many years, then a student, so didn't have a lot of time. At Fergus I marched in the clan parade two years ago wearing my buckskin dress with my MacRae tartan scarf and that got me quite a bit of attention." Quite apart from the Scots-Cherokee links through contact and intermarriage, Muse sees similarities between the two cultures in their rootedness in the land and in "warrior culture" of both native American and Gael. "Listening to some of the Scottish songs and their pride in battles and the people who were lost… there really is a close connection." She has been reading about the Scottish Enlightenment, and points to 18th-century Scots novelist Henry MacKenzie, best known for The Man of Feeling, but whose later work, The Man of the World, seems to have been influenced by Rousseau's theories of "the natural man" in extolling the virtues of the Cherokee as being "honesty, truth and savage nobleness", compared to those of the European. And she refers to Sir Walter Scott, who in his introduction to Ivanhoe, comments that barely 60 or 70 years had passed "since the whole north of Scotland was under a state of government nearly as simple and as patriarchal* as those of our good allies the Mohawks and Iroquois". "That's an area I'd really like to research some day," she says, "the role North American natives played in early Scottish literature." Muse has no overly romantic illusions about Scotland, which she'll visit for the first time next year as one of a party of 82 MacRaes, and agrees the Scottish diaspora can sometimes have unrealistic expectations. "I think many Scottish people in North America, who have never been in Scotland, expect to go there and find it the way it was in the past. My daughter said, 'I want to go with you and see all the men in kilts.' "I told her that wasn't realistic. I'm longing to come over and learn more, but I'm a realist, I'm not expecting to see lots of men in kilts." WHEN Bruce and Judy McRae lead a party of 82 New World MacRaes to Eilean Donan after The Gathering next summer, it will be their third visit to the castle, which has strong MacRae associations – and this time, they will renew their marriage vows there, 25 years after they first tied the knot. The couple, who live in Colorado, take their clan lineage very seriously: Bruce has backed up his genealogical research with DNA testing which, he claims, suggests distant ancestors of his were constables of Eilean Donan. He says: "When I got to around 30, I started thinking, 'Where did I come from, what is my family?'" So the computer specialist, now 58, started on the long journey back: "My father was born in Texas, his father in Mississippi. The more I traced back, the more I met other families, until I made it back to North Carolina, where the Highland MacRaes came to North America, during 1790-1810. I was so excited to feel I was a part of that, that they'd emigrated from another nation for a better life. I just felt tied to them and there was something inside me wanted to know more." McRae had his DNA tested and says he was within two or three markers of a man who also claims descent from the MacRae constables of Eilean Donan. He and Judy will encourage other members of their party at The Gathering to have DNA testing, "so we can start making some assumptions with good data". Judy claims no Scots blood but is even more passionate about the clan: "It really is important discovering your roots; we both feel it speaks to your identity. I believe it is because so many people that came here from Scotland were forced off the land. This is almost like a spiritual quest for us."

The full article contains 1293 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.

Page 1 of 1

• Last Updated: 15 December 2008 7:39 PM
• Source: The Scotsman
• Location: Edinburgh
• Related Topics: Homecoming

________________________________________ *"patriarchal" ... Mohawk and 'Iroquois' societies are matriarchal.

Panel to pick new truth commission head 'Top-level' panel to pick new truth commission head: lawyer

1 hour ago

OTTAWA — Former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci is set to move on a streamlined process to choose the new head of the $60-million truth commission into abuse at native residential schools.

Sources close to closed-door negotiations say the embarrassing derailment of the key truth-telling forum should be ended and operations back on track by January.

The new head commissioner is expected to work with the two existing co-commissioners - not an expanded five-person panel as was promoted by some interests.

"The (selection) process has been agreed upon," said lawyer Pierre Baribeau, representing Catholic groups that once ran several of the now-defunct schools across Canada.

He is among lawyers working with facilitator Iacobucci to unravel a legal snarl created when Justice Harry LaForme quit as head commissioner Oct. 20.

A panel of "very high-level people" will preside over "a simplified process" to name LaForme's replacement, Baribeau said.

"Mr. Iacobucci has worked very hard, and I would say that almost everything is set up to bring this to a closure so that we're able to move on."

At stake is the much vaunted five-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to hear the good, bad and often harrowing stories of federal schools meant to "Christianize" native children.

Almost two months have passed since the forum was up-ended when LaForme, a judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal, suddenly resigned.

He accused his two co-commissioners of undermining his authority - something both Claudette Dumont-Smith, a native health care worker, and lawyer Jane Brewin Morley have denied.

Some native leaders have called for the two women to step aside to allow for a fresh start.

"We have no reason to believe that they committed any wrongdoing," Baribeau said. "They were trying to do their best in what they perceived to be the TRC mission."

LaForme was the unanimous choice for head commissioner in the initial selection process - meaning there's no short list of other candidates from which to choose, Baribeau said.

Those who will pick LaForme's replacement "are top-level people. And it will be helpful so that the parties and Mr. Iacobucci will be satisfied and the court will be satisfied," he said of the court-supervised settlement deal.

Any appointment is ultimately to be made by the government in consultation with the Assembly of First Nations.

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl has signalled the commission will be revamped "soon" after a rocky start since June 1.

"The government is fully committed to the successful implementation of the commission," he told a national meeting of chiefs last week.

Ottawa admitted 10 years ago that isolated kids - often forced from their homes - faced beatings and widespread sexual abuse in schools run by the Catholic, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches.

The truth commission was the cornerstone of a sweeping compensation package expected to top $4 billion. Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of all Canadians last June.

Seven national events are planned to hear from a broad range of about 80,000 surviving students who can also tell their stories in writing. The commission is to produce a comprehensive record on what the federal government has called a sad chapter in Canada's history.

Time is of the essence because hundreds of people waiting to share first-hand accounts are sick or elderly.

Finding someone to take on the job of leading a process that has been tarnished by chaos and criticized as ill-defined may not be easy. The successful candidate is widely expected to be aboriginal.

Names mentioned in legal circles include Murray Sinclair of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench, Leonard Mandamin of the Federal Court, and Mi'kmaq lawyer and negotiator Bernd Christmas of the Membertou band in Nova Scotia.

Sharon Thira, executive director of the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society, says former students are anxiously waiting.

"A lot of people are frustrated. They'd like to see things get going."

LaForme's resignation and the ensuing delay have cast a pall over a process already widely distrusted by former students, she said. "And the longer it goes on, the less faith people will have."

Thira cited a recent letter written by elders who work with her group.

"One of the things they asked was that the commission needs to acknowledge what's happened. They need to acknowledge the start that they've had and take responsibility for it. Because only in that way can they pave the road for people to start rebuilding some confidence in the commission."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h09v2wZggBf-r-u7vRL8wN5Ni_RQ

Hosted by

Copyright © 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Supreme Court upholds provinces' duty to consult Indigenous communities

From the Press Release below: "Frontenac [the mining company, Frontenac Ventures Corporation] argued that the Canadian mining industry could collapse if the Supreme Court did not overturn the Ontario Court of Appeal's "lenient" approach to Aboriginal blockades and injunctions.

The Supreme Court has now dismissed Frontenac's appeal, with costs."

_______________________

ARDOCH ALGONQUIN FIRST NATION (AAFNA) ARDOCH, ONTARIO CANADA K0H 1C0 613-479-5534 Honorary Chief: Harold Perry December 9, 2008 - For Immediate Release Supreme Court Upholds Decision Releasing Native Protesters Big Victory for Civil Rights In February, 2008 Justice Cunningham of the Ontario Superior Court sentenced Robert Lovelace, former Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, to 6 months in jail because he refused to end his peaceful protest against uranium exploration on Algonquin land. The government of Ontario had refused to consult with the Algonquins before approving the aggressive exploration program in eastern Ontario. In addition to jail, Lovelace was fined $25,000; his community was fined $10,000 and Chief Paula Sherman, $15,000. A few weeks after Lovelace was jailed, six leaders of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwg (KI) were sentenced on contempt charges for their peaceful opposition to drilling for platinum on their traditional lands in northern Ontario. Judge Cunningham ignored all of the arguments made by the Algonquins' lawyer on the need for the Court to enforce the government's obligation to consult. Cunningham said the only thing he was interested in was enforcing the rights of the mining company to blast and drill, and that he would jail any protesters who opposed the illegal exploration. On May 28, 2008 a three member panel, the Ontario Court of Appeal, overturned the sentences and freed Lovelace and the KI 6. In their decision the Court blamed Ontario's "sweeping" Mining Act, which allows mining companies to conduct aggressive exploration, including removing trees, blasting, drilling, trenching and the construction of roads on First Nations' land, without any consultations or environmental assessment. The Court also criticized the McGuinty government for ignoring repeated requests by the Algonquins for consultations and instead supporting the jailing of Mr. Lovelace and the punitive fines imposed on the community and its leaders. The Court of Appeal also expressed serious concern that Justice Cunningham ignored numerous Supreme Court decisions which require governments to consult with affected First Nation communities before approving industrial activities which could affect their rights. The Court said that Cunningham should have ensured that Ontario had consulted with the Algonquins before ordering them to end their protest and then jailing them when they continued to demand consultations in defiance of his injunction. The mining company, Frontenac Ventures Corporation, applied to the Supreme Court of Canada for leave (permission) to appeal, arguing that the Court of Appeal's decision amounts to a "license to blockade". Frontenac argued that the Canadian mining industry could collapse if the Supreme Court did not overturn the Ontario Court of Appeal's "lenient" approach to Aboriginal blockades and injunctions. The Supreme Court has now dismissed Frontenac's appeal, with costs.

"This is an important victory for civil rights and the rule of law" said Robert Lovelace.

"The government will no longer be able to ignore its legal responsibilities while we are jailed for trying to uphold the law. We will continue to resist uranium mining and exploration and we call on the government to finally begin consultations with us so that further conflict and litigation can be avoided. We do not understand why they continue to refuse to consult with us in spite of several court orders." Court of Appeal decision:

http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/decisions/search/en/OntarioCourtsSearch_VOpenFile.cfm?serverFilePath=D%3A%5CUsers%5COntario%20Courts%5Cwww%5Cdecisions%5C2008%5Cjuly%5C2008ONCA0534%2Ehtm

For more information, call: Robert Lovelace: (613) 532-2166 or Chris Reid (lawyer): (416) 629-3117.

----------------------- *If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this message, please retain this credit. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= UBCIC's Protecting Knowledge Conference site: http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/Resources/conferences/PK.htm

From: First Peoples Human Rights Coalition <info@firstpeoplesrights.org>

*****

Once again, the Supreme Court has upheld the right of Indigenous Peoples to be consulted about any proposed uses of their traditional lands, and to have their land rights accommodated, and it is also their right to say "No" to development.

In Ontario, this legal battle played out between Frontenac Ventures (uranium prospecting company) and the Ardoch Algonquins in eastern Ontario, in the context of mining, the most powerful industry in Canada with the most invasive rights. The Mining Act gives prospectors (speculators) the right to option and stake rural land ... any land, private or 'public', Indigenous or not, yours or mine ... damaging and destroying natural habitat, backyards, contaminating entire watersheds, etc. Homeowners and Indigenous Peoples alike had no recourse to stop this.

Now Indigenous Peoples can legally stop the destruction of their traditional lands. They can block exploration, construction, etc. that is occurring without their agreement. An injunction against them cannot be granted, as in the past, (notably, Caledonia) if the Crown has not fulfilled its duty to consult with them about the land use.

A ruling of the Supreme Court is law in Canada, and applies to other similar situations where either Aboriginal title ('land claims') or Aboriginal rights (traditional Indigenous lands) may apply. RECAP: What does this court decision mean for Six Nations and Brantford? Today's news release, the Supreme Court dismissing Frontenac Venture's appeal, has direct application to Six Nations and Brantford. In my understanding, Six Nations Confederacy people have prevented several housing/industrial developments in Brantford, on land that is currently either under claim with title to be negotiated with the federal government, or is traditional Six Nations land where they hold Aboriginal rights. Federal negotiations are currently in progress on 28 Six Nations claims, with an offer for one (Welland Canal lands) currently on the table. Negotiation of the Brantford claims will not occur any time soon: The average time for the federal government to settle one simple specific claim (like the Welland Canal) is 10 years; complex, comprehensive claims, like Six Nations overriding claim to the Haldimand Tract, typically take at least 30 years. Thus, federal negotiations provide no solution for the current development issues in between Brantford and Six Nations. The provincial government issues approvals for development at the request of municipalities. The Ontario provincial government and bureaucracy studiously ignore both existing land claims for Aboriginal title, and Aboriginal rights on traditional Indigenous lands, thus evading the clear and repeated rulings of the Supreme Court that the province must consult with Indigenous Nations prior to issuing any land use approvals:

2005

http://www.lawsonlundell.com/resources/TheCrownsDuty.pdf

Recent case law from the Supreme Court of Canada (Haida and Taku) has confirmed that the Crown has a duty to consult, and if necessary, accommodate Aboriginal interests when it has knowledge, real or constructive, of the potential existence of an Aboriginal right or title and contemplates conduct that might adversely affect it.

Ontario has not consulted, but blunders ahead with development in violation of Canadian law. Many Canadians I have spoken to about this situation are in disbelief at this blatant flaunting of the law by our provincial governments. Canadians have blind faith that our governments obey the law, as we are all expected to do. It is almost unbelievable to us that the Ontario government would risk dissension, confrontation and violence this way, but in fact, this is exactly what our provincial government is doing: 'Caledonia' could have been prevented if Ontario had consulted before issuing development approval for Douglas Creek Estates. Because of this undeserved 'blind faith' of Canadians, our governments are running rampant over the rights of Indigenous Peoples, while convincing the public that it is the Indigenous Peoples blockading developments who are disobeying the law. Not so: Indigenous Peoples preventing development are in fact upholding Canadian law, demanding that the province "consult, and accommodate" their rights, as the Supreme Court has ordered. In May 2008, the City of Brantford requested an injunction from the court to stop Six Nations from blocking construction. The judge in Ontario Superior Court in Brantford adjourned the injunction hearing (to a later date), but imposed terms amounting to an injunction:

http://www.canlii.org/eliisa/highlight.do?language=en&searchTitle=Ontario+-+Superior+Court+of+Justice&path=/en/on/onsc/doc/2008/2008canlii30282/2008canlii30282.html

Pending the return of the motion for an interlocutory injunction pending trial, the defendants are ordered to cease and desist from blocking, interfering or in any way obstructing development/construction related activities on the lands set out in Schedule A to the Notice of Motion including blocking access to development sites, standing in front of machinery/equipment or otherwise interfering with such machinery's/equipment's operation or in any way threatening or intimidating workers at the development sites.

While waiting for the permanent injunction hearing to be held, Six Nations people continued to block the developments, on one occasion confronted by cement trucks trying to push past them. Police made arrests, based on the 'temporary' injunction. Confederacy Chiefs and Council toured the lands in question to make their intentions clear. Police have continued to arrest Six Nations people on and near these sites, though developers have pulled out and development appears to be at a standstill. In July 2008, the Ontario Court of Appeal (OCA) ruled on the similar case regarding the legality of Frontenac Ventures injunction against of the Ardoch Algonquins:

http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca/decisions/2008/july/2008ONCA0534.pdf

[48] Where a requested injunction is intended to create "a protest-free zone" for contentious private activity that affects asserted aboriginal or treaty rights, the court must be very careful to ensure that, in the context of the dispute before it, the Crown has fully and faithfully discharged its duty to consult with the affected First Nations: see Julia E. Lawn, "The John Doe Injunction in Mass Protest Cases" (1998) 56 U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 101. The court must further be satisfied that every effort has been exhausted to obtain a negotiated or legislated solution to the dispute before it. Good faith on both sides is required in this process: Haida Nation, p. 532.

To emphasize, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that before granting an injunction against Aboriginal people ...

"the court must ... ensure that ... the Crown has fully and faithfully discharged its duty to consult". Frontenac Ventures appealed this OCA ruling to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has now upheld the above ruling. The Crown in Ontario has not consulted with Six Nations about any of the developments that it already approved in Brantford. In fact, Dalton McGuinty specifically told developers in the Haldimand Tract not to consult with Six Nations, although many were quite willing to negotiate agreements with the Confederacy, and some already did. The implication of this most recent Supreme Court ruling for Six Nations and Brantford is this: When the injunction hearing resumes in Brantford (Dec 22-23) it is clear that the court must dismiss the City's injunction request. No doubt the court will also 'remind' Ontario that they must consult with Six Nations before issuing any development approvals in the Haldimand Tract. The police will no longer have any responsibility, any ability to detain, stop, arrest Six Nations people who are blocking development. In other words, the implications for development in the Haldimand Tract may be monumental. The implications for Six Nations are pure victory, total vindication of what they have been saying all along: Development within six miles of the Grand River cannot proceed unless the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy agrees. The court hearing for the City of Brantford's request for injunction against Six Nations is scheduled for Dec 22-23 (to be confirmed) in Brantford Superior Court. In other news about "duty to consult" ... http://www.theenergynews.com/news/cp_article.php?storyid=4051 EDMONTON _ An aboriginal band has threatened the very basis of Alberta's oilsands industry by filing a court challenge to the province's system of granting land tenure. ... "It is deeply troubling to our First Nation that Alberta has granted these tenures within our traditional lands and set the stage for exploration and potentially massive oilsands production without any consultation with our First Nation before the grants of tenure." --- Canada's economy is entirely dependent on resources taken from traditional Indigenous land, without consultation, without accommodation, without compensation, without consent, and without any 'good faith' on Canada's part. The Supreme Court of Canada no longer allows this. Canada's police cannot stop Indigenous Peoples from blocking development, mining, logging ... I've thought for a long time that Canada has to face the truth. I can't see how our governments can ignore it now. Economics dictates that agreement must be sought, rights must be respected, and peace and rule of law must be restored. Throughout our history Canada has always used force ... violence ... incarceration ... to squash Indigenous demands for justice, justice now far too long dismissed, denigrated, denied. The Supreme Court has just closed the door on Canada's use of force against Indigenous Peoples upholding their land rights, because they are breaking no laws. granny

Education: Aboriginal School Boards ... imposed without consultation?

In the opinion of the National Post ..

Native chiefs would rather blame Ottawa than change

New Strahl plan has potential, if given the chance

John Ivison, National Post Published: Thursday, December 11, 2008

OTTAWA -Jamie Wilson is the 40-year-old director of education for the Opaskwayak Educational Authority, near Le Pas in Manitoba. He has three university degrees, used to be a U. S. Army Ranger and is one of the new generation of can-do aboriginal leaders who recognize that not all the failures of Canada's relationship with its First Nations can be laid at Ottawa's door.

The problem is that much of the aboriginal leadership is still in the hands of people who are so caught up in complaining about the shortcomings of the federal government that Ottawa gets blamed for everything except the weather. "It's frustrating to be caught up in it," Mr. Wilson said.

Everyone agrees that reforming aboriginal education policies is crucial, not just for the well-being of native people, but also because this country is likely to suffer chronic labour shortages when the Baby Boom generation starts to retire. And everyone, including Chuck Strahl, the Indian Affairs Minister, agrees that the current situation -- in which schools are usually run by local bands that have neither the expertise nor the resources to do it well -- is not working. Only four out of 10 aboriginal Canadians between the ages of 25 and 44 have a high school diploma, compared to nine out of 10 non-native Canadians.

But that's where the consensus ends. The government wants to roll out a plan that sees individual band schools grouped into aboriginal-run boards working with provincial governments and aboriginal organizations. This approach was pioneered in British Columbia and New Brunswick.

Yesterday, the Assembly of First Nations made clear it wants nothing to do with that idea.

Last week, unnoticed amid the mayhem on Parliament Hill, the government introduced two programs it hopes will lay the foundations for long-term reform of First Nations education: the education partnerships program and the First Nation student success program, to be financed with $268-million that was earmarked in the last budget. The partnerships initiative offers funding to First Nations that negotiate an education agreement with Ottawa and their respective provinces. The student success plan makes money available for schools that introduce a plan to improve education outcomes and then submit to learning assessments and performance measurement.

Under the new system, native-run school boards would be involved in professional development of teachers, curriculum development and centralized procurement.

Funding remains an issue. Fairness demands that the federal government fund the First Nations school system to the same level as the provinces fund non-native boards -- something that is currently not the case. Ottawa funded the average native student $6,916 in 2006-7, according to their own figures. The provincial average in that year, according to Statistics Canada, was $8,165. That masks even bigger funding gaps in provinces such as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where the gap is close to $3,000 a year.

Mr. Strahl hopes to sell native leaders on his plan today at a special meeting of the AFN in Ottawa. But the chiefs have already signalled their opposition. They met to discuss education at a special assembly yesterday and rejected the government's new program proposals out of hand.

Chief Tyrone McNeil, a member of the chiefs committee on education from British Columbia, said the Minister had "dictated" the new policy, without consultation with chiefs.

"Any new program needs to support current successes," he said. When it was put to him that the government believed the B. C. model was a success and this is why it was rolling it out elsewhere, he said Mr. Strahl was taking a model developed by First Nations and "forcing it on other regions."

This is typical of the myopic leadership that has helped keep Canada's aboriginal population in a vicious circle of poverty and hopelessness the chiefs claim can be broken only by more federal cash.

Many band chiefs across Canada do not want to lose control of their schools -- or, more particularly, the funding that flows to them from the federal government, which would be redirected to the new aboriginal-run education authorities under the government's scheme.

Fortunately, leaders such as Mr. Wilson are emerging -- people who argue that the situation is so dire it requires major structural reform. For Mr. Wilson, it is no longer about who controls education. "We fought hard for that control," he said, "but now we need to take responsibility."

The Strahl plan has potential, in Mr. Wilson's opinion. He would like to see some of the suggestions codified in law -- for example, a new piece of legislation that set national standards for aboriginal education in areas such as the number of school days, teacher qualification requirements and rules of school boards.

"There is a very real need for First Nations Education Act. We need to build a system," Mr. Wilson said. Crucially, he said, the argument needs to move beyond the issue of control and focus on responsibility.

"Unsuccessful schools have one thing in common--everyone blames each other. The Grade 4 teacher blames the Grade 2 teacher; the teachers blame the parents; and so on. No one takes responsibility. In successful schools, everyone takes responsibility for education outcomes," he said.

So far, the response from the chiefs has been sadly lacking. This is tragic because it is their ideas and leadership that will be the prime mover in lifting their people out of poverty, not the size of the cheque they receive from Ottawa.

jivison@nationalpost.com

Mr Ivison misses the point: Neither the "ideas and leadership" of the chiefs nor of any others in Aboriginal communities have been sought.

It is appalling that INAC is trying to unilaterally impose an education program without any input from teachers nor from parents whose children will be affected.

I get it. There are funds available to be distributed. The truth is out: Aboriginal education is underfunded in comparison to public education. That must be corrected.

The strings attached are intended to create a necessity to focus on results ... desired outcomes for students. I think there is something useful there, but it must allow for local curriculum, locally defined outcomes, locally developed assessment, local decisions about allocation of funds, etc., and somehow I don't think that's how Strahl/Harper sees it.

The unilateral imposition of a rigid program making rigid demands is self-defeating. It may be time to offer the program as an option for local choice. However, Harper is not known for his understanding of human reactions, and often shoots himself in the foot this way, as he has now yet again, with lack of consultation.

All people want is to be involved in the problem-solving planning process, rather than having so-called 'solutions' imposed from Ottawa.

g

Alta. aboriginals file court challenge to province's oilsands leasing system

2 hours ago

EDMONTON — An aboriginal band has threatened the very basis of Alberta's oilsands industry by filing a court challenge to the province's system of granting land tenure.

A notice filed Wednesday in Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation claims that a series of oilsands permits the provincial government sold to Shell Canada and other companies are invalid.

Selling off rights to explore the land without consulting area aboriginals breached the Crown's duty to consult, say legal documents prepared by the First Nation.

"(Alberta) breached the duty to consult the (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation) by failing to consult the ACFN, adequately or at all, prior to granting the challenged tenures," the document reads.

The First Nation is asking the court to either quash the permits or order the companies to stop further development until consultation has occurred.

"It's a big question," said Monique Ross, a researcher at the University of Calgary's Institute of Resource Law. "(The government) would have to revisit the way they deal with the industry."

The Alberta government has long argued that, because no actual development occurs when an exploration permit is sold, no consultation is necessary. Alberta Energy regulations specifically state that consultation does not take place before such rights are granted.

But the notice argues that when permits are sold, companies are obliged to begin work on them within a certain time or risk losing them.

"One of the goals of Alberta's oilsands tenure system is to ensure that oilsands tenures are in the hands of those who are committed to developing them," the notice says.

"Because oilsands tenures confer upon the company the exclusive rights to win, work, recover and remove the oilsands deposits, government decision-makers are effectively compelled to authorize the tenure holder to exercise those rights.

"The challenged tenures represent critical strategic planning decisions taken in contemplation of and to facilitate activities which adversely affect the treaty rights of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. Accordingly, (Alberta) was charged with a duty to consult with the ACFN prior to issuing the challenged tenures."

The tenures were sold in 2007 and 2006 to Shell Canada, Standard Land Company, Saskatoon Assets Inc. and Canadian Coastal Resources. All are within 20 kilometres of the band's reserve.

Ross points out that the Supreme Court has compelled British Columbia to consult with area aboriginal groups in advance of allocating forestry tenure.

"The principle is that governments have to make themselves aware of the existence of rights and how those rights may be impacted by the allocation of mineral rights," she said.

"It's not enough to consult at the stage when forestry activities are occurring. You have to consult at the stage of reallocations.

"It's at that stage when key decisions are being taken in anticipation of actual decisions on the ground."

The First Nation points out that the land in question is extensively hunted, trapped and fished by the members of the band.

"Parts of our traditional lands have been completely changed by industry," writes Chief Allan Adam in an affidavit.

"These lands were once hunting and trapping grounds, but now they are covered by oil and gas wells and blanketed by seismic lines roads and pipelines."

Adam said the band is particularly concerned about an area near the reserve called the Richardson backcountry, which is important for both hunting and spiritual practices. He wrote the provincial government has repeatedly granted oilsands exploration permits in the area despite the band's concerns.

"It is deeply troubling to our First Nation that Alberta has granted these tenures within our traditional lands and set the stage for exploration and potentially massive oilsands production without any consultation with our First Nation before the grants of tenure."

A preliminary date for the first hearing on the motion has been set for Jan. 13 in Edmonton.

Michael Ignatieff: What's he about? I'm sure there are others like me for whom Michael Ignatieff seems to have arrived so suddenly on the Canadian political scene and now so suddenly he's set to be the next PM! Who is this guy? If he hasn't been here, if he hasn't asked us, how does he have any clue what Canadians want or need? And of course ... with his parachute still virtually flapping in the breeze ... one wonders 'who are his handlers? who parachuted him in? why?' And my personal beef ... Considering that he doesn't know us but seeks to represent us ... ALL of us ... Why was Michael Ignatieff pushing, pressuring to be 'annointed' without any input from any sector of Canadians? To me, that's a dangerous sign that Michael Ignatieff doesn't know or care ... and doesn't feel he has to pay attention to what Canadians think. Does he somehow have it all tied up so tight that it really doesn't matter to him what we think? So who is he? Who are his handlers? Who are his supporters? What does he stand for? Who does he work for? I have no answers, but here are some places to start looking for clues: http://www.mcgill.ca/files/beatty/Ignatieff-Lecture-01-10-05.pdf http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/12/10/218518.aspx

Barriere Lake: Quebec judge jails Algonquin Chief 2 months for peaceful protest FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Quebec judge imprisons Algonquin Chief for two months for peaceful protest: Crown asks for one year to send "clear message" to impoverished community Kitiganik/Rapid Lake, Algonquin Territory / - On Thursday December 4th a Quebec judge sentenced Barriere Lake Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway to forty-five days in jail, in addition to fifteen already served in pre-trial detention, for participating in peaceful blockades intended to draw attention to violations of Barriere Lake's rights by the Canadian and Quebec governments. Barriere Lake has been demanding that Canada and Quebec honour signed agreements and that Canada appoint an observer to witness and respect the outcome of a new leadership selection in accordance with Barriere Lake's Customary Governance Code. "It's shameful that the government of Quebec would rather throw me in jail than fulfill their legal obligations by implementing signed agreements," said Acting Chief Nottaway, a father of six who passed his twenty-eighth birthday in jail last Thursday. "Meanwhile, the Government of Canada continues to interfere in our internal affairs while trying to wash its hands of responsibility for this situation." Nottaway was charged with three counts of mischief and breach of conditions stemming from March blockades on Barriere Lake's access road and a November blockade on highway 117 outside the community's reserve in Northern Quebec. Another blockade in October was violently dismantled by Quebec riot police, who used tear-gas on a crowd that included Elders, youth, and children. More than 40 members of the community of 450 have been charged for these actions. "Quebec has now joined the company of Ontario, which put the leaders of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation behind bars for peaceful protest. It seems like the provinces' preferred method for dealing with our rights is to use the police and the courts to punish us until we forget about them," said Marylynn Poucachiche, a community spokesperson who was arrested during the November blockade. Crown Attorney France Deschamps asked Judge Jules Barriere for a sentence of 12 months, saying a "clear message" was required "to make sure Nottaway has no desire to do this again, and to discourage the group – because his supporters are waiting to hear what happens here." Judge Barriere noted that the Crown's request was "partly illegal," as 6 months is the maximum possible sentence for summary convictions. But he agreed with Deschamps that a prison sentence was necessary, saying it was "important to pass a clear message to the community." "The only message the Canadian and Quebec governments are sending is that they are willing to criminalize our community and split apart our families in order to avoid implementing precedent-setting agreements and respecting our leadership customs," added Nottaway. Barriere Lake wants Canada and Quebec to uphold signed agreements, dating back to the 1991 Trilateral Agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Canada has been in breach of the agreement since 2001. Quebec signed a complementary Bilateral agreement in 1998, but has stalled despite the 2006 recommendations of two former Quebec Cabinet Ministers, Quebec special representative John Ciaccia and Barriere Lake special representative Clifford Lincoln, that the agreement be implemented. On March 10th, 2008, the Canadian government rescinded recognition of Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway and his Council and recognized individuals from a minority faction whom the Barriere Lake Elder's Council says were not selected in accordance with their Customary Governance Code. On March 2nd and 3rd, community members had set up blockades on their access road to prevent members of this minority faction from entering the reservation, anticipating the Canadian government would try to illegally interfere in Barriere Lake's internal customary governance for the third time in 12 years. In 2007, Quebec Superior Court Judge Rejean Paul issued a report that concluded that the current faction recognized by the federal government was a "small minority" that "didn't respect the Customary Governance Code" in an alleged leadership selection in 2006 [1]. The federal government recognized this minority faction after they conducted another alleged leadership selection in January 2008, even though an observer's report the government relied on stated there was no "guarantee" that the Customary Governance Code was respected [2]. The Algonquin Nation Secretariat, the Tribal Council representing three Algonquin communities including Barriere Lake, continues to recognize and work with Customary Chief Benjamin Nottaway and his Council.

*****

Media Contacts:

Norman Matchewan, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 – 435 – 2171

Marylynn Poucachiche, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 - 435 - 2113

Notes

[1] http://web.resist.ca/~barrierelakesolidarity/resources/Rapport_du_Juge_Paul-versionANGLAISEcomplete.doc, pg 26-27

[2] http://web.resist.ca/~barrierelakesolidarity/resources/Riel_Translation_Letter_2.doc , pg 2

Collectif de Solidarité Lac Barrière ******************************************* www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com 514.398.7432

- Canada -

A Very Polite Genocide

BY Alison Fleming December 08, 2008 15:12

Editorial Rating:

To Dec 21. Tues-Sat 8pm; Sun mat 2:30pm. $18-$25; Sun PWYC; students at door $15, groups of 10 or more $10/ticket. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street. 416-975-8555. www.artsexy.ca.

Falen Johnson, who plays the pivotal character of Josie Pichette in Native Earth Performing Arts’ premiere of playwright Melanie J. Murray’s A Very Polite Genocide, points out that we treat Canada’s residential schools as recorded history, something we put in a box and regard from afar. Josie herself embodies this distance at the beginning of the play as she delivers a formal academic presentation to her Aboriginal studies class while privately agonizing over the ramifications of her recent discovery that she herself is of Aboriginal heritage.

As Josie searches for her roots, her family members, particularly her broken and rootless uncle Robbie, she demonstrates that the wounds created by separation and abuse never go away. Murray wisely leaves Josie’s own mother conspicuously absent from the narrative by constructing her as nothing more than a voice at the other end of a telephone. Her silence leaves a broken link between generations.

Director Yvette Nolan makes both the time-shifting between generations and the play’s magic-realism work purposefully. A minimal set featuring bare branches and poignant archival photographs, and the faded colours of Anna Treusch’s costumes effectively create a reality made of emotion and memory rather than one rooted in a specific place and time. Even though the device of interweaving the threads of many stories together does eventually work, it’s choppy at first. A few longer anchoring scenes would have set a more stable groundwork earlier on, although we do get some halfway through.

Paula Jean Prudat does a fine job of playing Josie’s grandmother Mary as a vivacious and defiant young woman who becomes increasingly bereft as the residential school system’s poisonous legacy infects her husband and robs her of her children. Also noteworthy is Waawaate Fobister’s assured handling two very different roles: Rougarou, a nightmarish trickster/werewolf, and a resilient prostitute who functions as an unlikely voice of hope.

A Very Polite Genocide definitely has a point to make, but at times it needlessly articulates the frustration and sorrow that the audience is feeling anyway, which results in an emotional pitch that seems a bit too tortured. Given the subject matter, though, this may be unavoidable: as Josie’s grandfather Elder Martin (Paul Chaput) warns us, “If I open up, I’ll pour my guts out all over the floor.”