Food for Thought

Hi Friends
I attended a HST rally in Toronto yesterday, along with several other First Nations members and Chiefs and spokespersons from the various communities. The mood was, over all hopeful yet there was also an air of frustration.
Shawn Brant of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, spoke very forcefully about the frustrations we all feel over the ignoring of our issues. He reminded us about our missing and murdered aboriginal women and the needless loss of yet another young woman's life, when her three calls to 911 were ot responded to. The contaminated drinking water in several of our communities, and CAS removing the children from our communities in yet another sixties type sweep. He also spoke of this governments apology to the residential school survivors, and then the cancellation of the funding for the restorative healing programs needed by those very individuals.
His point and I agree, is we can go on ad nausium over the various ways that our rights have been trampled, and questioned why we think we will be treated any more differently this time. He asked when is it time for us to stop being polite?

Kudos to the Government of Canada for their winning of the public relations wars. You only have to read the comments section of any of the daily papers to see how well they have vilified our people and negated our issues. That is, whenever any of these mainstream papers deem any of our many efforts, to be heard as news worthy.
The only time these media outlets seem willing to print aboriginal stories, it would seem, is if they are either salacious, or wanton enough to further denigrate the aboriginal people.

The imposition of this HST or any other tax on the Indigenous people is pure tyranny, and nothing more than, more colonialist thinking on the parts of the Federal and Provincial governments of this country. Even the most biased among you must recognize that your very wealth has been made, through the exploitation of our resources, and on the backs of the Indigenous people that they continue to try to eradicate. They claim no colonialist policies, yet history says otherwise. They apologize for thier past treatment, yet they continue to mistreat us. They promise to partner with us in good governance yet they ignore us.
While the governments co-conspire against us with this latest attempt at taxation,(all the while assuring us they agree with the First Nations and are firmly on side) but, claim that it is really up to the other government to waive this tax in this case.
Akwesasne offers yet another way. There are after all always other options.
a viable plan, if adopted Maybe what the First Nations should be looking for is a persuasive and powerful public relations firm.
Or is it time, as has been suggested, for us to quit being so polite!

EDIT: The viable solution referred to in this link was the Akwesasne reserve has offered to partner with the government and implement a swipe card (pilot program) option (that, they will pay for, in an effort to keep the point of sales exemption in place for the First Nations ) if the Government of Canada is interested in pursuing this option.
Regards, Debra

A revisit of Minamata disease

Hi Friends
I've posted before about the effects of Minamata in the Grassy Narrows community.(Post Tilted: Then and Now) This is my up-date. It sickens me to have to say that not much has been done nor does it look like, will ever be done for this community. Even the compensation for these victims is heart breaking. Were you one of the few judged to be effected and thusly able to get compensation that is.
Like the the climate deniers of today and the tobacco companies of yester-year the Canadian government has found pseudo scientific evidence to refute the claims of the victims. My question is who are they consulting? Not Dr.Masazumi Harada for sure. He is THE expert on mercury poisoning who came from Minamata Japan 35 years ago to aid the residents of the two reserves, and is back today to stand up for them once again. Dr. Masazumi Harada has sited the cumulative effects of mercury poisoning, passed from mother to fetus as a possible culprit for the high mercury readings in the youngest victims. All of the first diagnosed sufferers have since passed away.
yet Primeare Mcguinty is asking for further studies Does this sound like perhaps more of the same.
This in the year of the G8 summit here in Canada, where our Prime Minister has put child/ maternal health on the agenda.
Now I don't have anything against the mothers and children of the third world, and anything that the richer nations can do to ease their plight I'm all for,..but, Canada...can we please,...pleease...pleeease clean up our own back yard first?
Our northern Nations and staggering under massive tuberculosis rates,not to mention that diabetes is three to five times higher in aboriginal communities and heart disease is one and a half times more prevalent, leading to shortened life expectancy and a poorer quality of life. These are the medical concerns of the Indigenous leaders and of course the mothers in these underserviced communities.
Then, of course, there are all the left over ills of the colonization legacy that Mr. Harper so eloquently apologized for in 2008.
My only other question is; when is enough,... enough?

regards Debra