Let me see, Minster Nault of Indian Affairs puts a little Indian Band into third party management but that’s because it has problems, not because he’s getting back at them for criticizing his administration.
And recently Indian Affairs denied that the $5 million that they cut to the Assembly of First Nations budget wasn’t due to their opposition to changes in the Indian Act. The Department of Indian Affairs have also denied that they were the ones to send a fax containing a resolution calling for the resignation of the National Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come. The two chiefs who are named as the first and seconder have denied having anything to do with the resolution.
Chiefs from across Canada told the Federal Government they would bring Canada to a standstill if they continued consultations over “governance.” Indian Affairs Minster Nault and National grand Chief Coon Come sat down and talked. Indian Affairs suspended the consultations for a 30-day cooling down period in which the AFN has to come up with some type of plan of action. Wasn’t the whole thing about too fast, too loose and whatever happened to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People’s Report?
Suicides on Indian Reserves in northern Ontario may surpass records. Nishnawbe-Aski Grand Chief Stan Bready pointed out that 28 of last year’s suicides were in the Minster’s riding.
Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s crying foul over a movie the Mi’kmaq people are showing around the world saying the beatings of Native fisheries was the “minimum force” they could use during the situations. One man was reportedly hit 20 times by one Officer because he was allegedly choking another officer. The video is called “Who Will Sing For Us?” and can be found on the internet. It received 1,400 hits within the first 24 hours.
I recall someone saying the Supreme Court of Canada isn’t as friendly towards Natives as it once was. There was even the discussion of a decision being seen as political rather the Rule of Law.
The Saskatchewan Justice Department has decided not to lay charges in the case of a young Native who froze to death. A witness saw that young man pushed into a police cruiser. The same police force was accused of dropping off a young Native man, who survived despite having his winter coat taken away from him. The RCMP are still investigating two more deaths.
The Federal Government is asking the U.S. to take it easy or exempt Quebec from the Soft Lumber Agreement fight. Doesn’t Quebec account for 11% of the world’s newsprint market making them third in the world? Aren’t they cutting trees in Eeyou Istchee in violation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement?
In North America someone has said that being a settler was risky business. These days it feels like payback time.
And in it all I think of the cyclic patterns of violence. For a while people have a love for all things Native and then it changes. Are those changes upon us? You gotta wonder.
