Jack Layton

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Even in his death he has left a message of hope.
Jack and his party really stood up for our people. Pat Martin, Charlie Angus, Jean Crowder have all been champions of clean water, justice for families of missing and murdered aboriginal women, residential school survivors, equal eduction opportunities and so much more.

I have been crying all morning. We'll miss you Jack.

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New TV show - for "bloggers, tweebs and political junkies"

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I've been watching tweets go around this week for a new show that says it's for "bloggers, tweebs and political junkies." Apparently, starting viewers do an vote online to decide which politicians get interviewed on the show, and they interview the politician later using questions viewers send in. Not sure if they will be interviewing Senators or just MPs, but you know who we'd vote for at Crazy Bitches R US. lol. And BOY OH BOY do we have questions! Anyways here's a video for anyone curious to check it out.

The idea reminds me a little of that show What's Trending which only airs online at the CBS site.

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Madjashin nin dada, William Commanda

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First Nations grieve loss of William Commanda
William Commanda, Elder, role model, and spiritual leader to Aboriginal people, died August 2 in his home in the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation reserve near Maniwaki, Quebec. More...
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Kit anamikon Mani mweeckineckagoian kitcitwa onciciiwewin kije Manito ki mamawiitim, kakina endatciwatc ikwewak kin awacamenj ki kitcitwawinigo, gaie kitcitwawina Jesos ka anicinabewiitsotc kiiaiwing. Kitcitwa Mani , kije Manito wekwisisimatc gaganotmawicinam neta patatiagn, nongom gaie wi nipoiang gaganotamawicinam. Kekona ki ingi.

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Dreaming big: Canadian self-government must be preceded by reforms.

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The Calgary Herald’s idea that international governments should negotiate with Canada as one government to another, rather than returning Canada to colonial status where the country can benefit from the benevolent direction of a more transparent, fiscally responsible mother country, suffers from the twin flaws of naïveté and vagueness.

The Herald’s yearning to see Canada maintain sovereignty is understandable. It is even justified.

But so far sovereignty has been bogged down in an elephantine bureaucracy in which fiscal accountability often appears to be ephemeral. Individual initiative gets smothered under the leaden weight of policies, procedures and dust-covered rules.

Many admit that the Constitution also needs revamping, updating and streamlining –whether that means scrapping the Senate, or finally sending these partisan appointees to the people for election.

However, with all due respect to, and sympathy for, the Calgary Herald’s position that Canadians should continue to be self-governing, long-standing problems in Canadian politics must be resolved before Canadians are ready to assume the mantle of an equal-status governance with other democracies.

Foremost among those sticky issues is accountability. Too many instances of corruption among elected leaders has been well-documented – for example the sponsorship scandal, the Conservative in- and-out election funding scheme, and breaches of the MPs’ ethic code. Or how about with rampant nepotism – the federal government refusing to release documents to Parliament, twice shutting down Parliament when it was politically inconvenient to the governing party, and impeding its citizens ability to find information through the access-to-information system.

There’s also evidence of resulting intimidation in the hierarchies governing system, both within the party and government departments – such as communications becoming so centralized in the PMO that one needs permission to put out a press release on wildlife.

Such intimidation is used vis-à-vis elements of the public that are out of favour with the government – for example recent back-to-work legislation saw a crown corporation lock out its employees so that federal politicians could screw with their salaries before legislating the lockouts back to work.

There has been a lack of transparency and accountability for the use of public money, not only as expressed in the examples above but visible in the situations in which MPs and senators maintain perks like sumptuous pensions benefits at the tax payer’s expense, all the while arguing that ordinary Joe Taxpayer does not deserve the same. MPs make $157,000 a year, Minister’s earn $233,247 a salary paid through the taxes of constituents, most of who earn less than their political leaders. Some constituents are even living in overcrowded, bed-bug ridden houses.

In the case of Minister John Duncan, the First Nations people he’s hired to benefit live under boil-water advisories or with no running water at all. Despite having thousands of bureaucrats with offices in every province and territory in Canada sucking at the public teat to solve problems like these, Duncan seems all to content to shrug and pass the buck onto chiefs, while few people outside the aboriginal community ever question just how much cash all those bureaucrats are sucking up to maintain a broken system.

Moreover, individual Canadians have not been successful in dealing with the political problems in their system. They re-elected the Liberals in 2004 after the Auditor General released evidence of corruption under the sponsorship program, and more recently Canadians returned a Conservative government to power, this time with majority power, after the party was found in contempt of Parliament.

Nor are Canadians effective at dealing with social problems in their own towns either: we see instances of substance abuse, and domestic violence, and recessions and seasonal cycles of unemployment that dampen entrepreneurial opportunities and job creation. Let’s remember that not every province enjoys the geographical luck of Ontario, which has enabled it to get into the business of manufacturing, sales. There are still parts of the country where people can only find work half the year and spend the other have on the dole. When will we admit that “have not” provinces are simply a drain on Canada’s purse strings and not sustainable or viable?

Furthermore, the federal government parties do not truly represent Canadian Citizens, for party leaders are elected only by party members; ordinary citizens do not directly elect a Prime Minister.

Also, the diverse needs of Canadians, scattered across this vast land, do not make for a comfortable one-size-fits-all model of governance. This is why we’ve seen cries for separatism and inclusion in the form of regionalized federal parties from both Quebec and the Prairies.

The Calgary Herald is a dreamer, and without dreams, nothing would happen. But the Calgary Herald must first address the staggering number of problems in the federal political system, and seek aid from other countries who know better than to re-elect leaders that have been caught playing hard and fast with the rules of democracy. The Calgary Herald must as well as clarify what a workable governance model looks like, addressing issues like Senate reform, Quebec separatism and western alienation, before Canada can become a government on par with other democracies.

The above is a tongue-in-cheek parody of very condescending commentary that appeared in the Calgary Herald. For fun your can read their original article about First Nations Self Government here.

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Thoughts on Specific Land Claims

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A few points about specific land claims in light of the “take-it-or leave it offers” the federal government is planning to offer 60+ First Nations.
Minister John Duncan released a statement saying that “Negotiations continue to be Canada's first choice for resolving specific claims and we are working with First Nations to that end.” He added “However, First Nations can now opt to refer their claims to the Tribunal for a binding decision if three years of negotiations do not result in a final settlement.”

It’s that last statement that’s troublesome. One can hardly call going to the tribunal an option when the feds have walked away from the table. I’m wondering how many of the 60 plus claims are over the Tribunal’s $150 million dollar limit. Of course there is still the option to go to court. At least the lawyers will be happy.

Liberal Indian Affairs Critic Carolyn Bennett has called on the government to negotiate in good faith with First Nations, proving that moral clarity comes easier to those in opposition.

When in power under Chretien, the Liberals pulled the rug out from under the Assembly of First Nations on specific claims. INAC and the AFN had a joint working group and agreed to set up an independent tribunal, which could evaluate the value of a claim and compel the government to pay within specific deadlines. However, the bill the Liberals put forward held to none of these principles. The legislation let the Minister of Indian Affairs appoint and remove commissioners, had no timelines (meaning claims could be delayed indefinitely) and capped compensation at $7 million. The legislation passed, despite outcries from First Nations citizens across Canada.

To give Paul Martin his due, he never enabled the legislation. Of course he never fixed it either. That was left to Jim Prentice.

Politics are full of fickle friends and shifting (or shifty) ethics.

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An anonymous poster wrote to CrazyBitchesRus the following: “…no seems to have noticed that NWAC has laid off all the Sisters In Spirit staff. The NWAC SIS department is closed with only an acting director there to write the final report.” Apologies. We have noticed. You're right, we should have posted. Here's what's been happening and how folks can continue to support families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, who have been abandoned by government as well as native leaders.

Background: Since the 1980s more than 500 Indigenous women in Canada have gone missing or been murdered, half of these cases have never been solved. The issue was first raised by Amnesty International in 2004, and for a time the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) championed the issue, under their Sister’s in Spirit campaign.

In the 2010 budget the federal government promised 10 million dollars would be set aside to address violence against Indigenous women. Precious little of that money is actually going where it can help. The lion’s share of the $10M went to the RCMP to set up a national police support centre for missing persons and unidentified remains by 2013. The centre will become the third branch of the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, but it will NOT have a separate section dedicated for Aboriginal women.

$1.8 M over three years went to NWAC for “public education” – essentially to teach Indigenous women how to avoid violence (blaming the victims are we?). But it was a deal signed with the devil, because in order to get the cash NWAC had to agree never to dump the term “Sister’s in Spirit" and promise to stay away from vigils and advocacy. They also have to dump the database they had been keeping to collect the names and other information about missing and murdered Indigenous women. There is no other database like it. No one else in Canada collects this information, and as we can see from the RCMP they don't plan to. All evidence points to the fact that Indigenous women are at higher risk, no one is addressing the factors that put them at high risk of violence, and the families that NWAC once brought together for their past campaigns have been abandoned.

Despite government attempts to squash the Sisters in spirit movement, families of missing and murdered women have bound together and have continued to hold vigils. They have a fund-raising event coming up in Ottawa on Friday April 29. Details are below, including contact info and they also have a site on facebook. It shoudl be a good event. If your in Ottawa turn out to do what you can.

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Not much for attack ads but I love this.

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