Hi Friends
James Cameron noted director of such blockbuster films as Avatar, and Titanic has made his promised visit to the Alberta oil sands. Mr. Cameron is not just a very wealthy Hollywood director, but is also a green activist. He is well known as the guy who will bump up against convention, and speak openly about environmental issues, and this has not won him many friends. Yet I get the feeling he doesn't care what may be said about him personally, or more correctly, he has enough money that it affords him the luxury to not care.
I was surprised at the news coverage of the entire event. Though Fort Chipewyan is a small community of about one thousand people, Mr. Cameron's visit brought out the national media.
It was pointed out on nearly every news station that the community of Fort Chip enjoyed plenty of amenities, provided by the oil money earned in the Alberta oil sands. My question is, what does that have to do with their very real concerns for their community and their communities health? Why were the media wanting to point out the relative wealth of the community? I'd be willing to bet the others who have prospered from this blight on the planet are not themselves suffering the consequences of their oil recovery from the tar sands, and certainly not the same way as the community of Fort Chipewyan.
You can read more of James Cameron's interview here
Rich people with a conscience are not altogether a rarity. Rich people with a conscience as well as ability to articulate the issue in an intelligent manner is quite another thing. The people of Fort Chip seem to have happened upon just such an individual in Mr. Cameron.
Mr. Cameron for his part seems committed to this issue and is passionate enough about the planet to take it on. I"m hopeful for a better out come than what we were seeing before James Cameron's involvement.
regards Debra
Friday, October 1, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Getting tough on Crime /Canada style
Hi Friends
It was famously stated by Duncan Campbell Scott, at the inception of the Indian Act,..."I want to get rid of the Indian problem"(Head of Indian Affairs Canada 1913-1932)this could be characterized as a declaration of war on the Indigenous peoples here. It sure felt like that, too. Apartheid policies, and genocidal legislation were the order of the day.
We the Indigenous people of this country have had our hands full fighting for our very survival from that date to the present as this article clearly shows, it is an on going battle.
Given all the inequity that we currently face, this government has brought us even more adversity.
Under the guise of fighting crime, the Harper Conservatives have introduced a Truth in Sentencing Act or bill C-25 which targets the Aboriginal communities...
seems to me, to be by design, given the well known statistics as regards our over representation in prisons, and in the ranks of the impoverished.
Seems like our fiscally responsible Harper-Cons feel the need for such punitive actions given our ever increasing crime rates. Especially our burgeoning "unreported crime" as attested to by Stockwell Day in this nonsensical piece of drivel.
It would seem the Harper government is willing to bankrupt the country in this never ending quest to finish the job and eradicate the Indigenous people. A more honest approach or "final solution", might be just to enact legislation that would make it a crime to be Indigenous, and get it over with?
regards Debra
It was famously stated by Duncan Campbell Scott, at the inception of the Indian Act,..."I want to get rid of the Indian problem"(Head of Indian Affairs Canada 1913-1932)this could be characterized as a declaration of war on the Indigenous peoples here. It sure felt like that, too. Apartheid policies, and genocidal legislation were the order of the day.
We the Indigenous people of this country have had our hands full fighting for our very survival from that date to the present as this article clearly shows, it is an on going battle.
Given all the inequity that we currently face, this government has brought us even more adversity.
Under the guise of fighting crime, the Harper Conservatives have introduced a Truth in Sentencing Act or bill C-25 which targets the Aboriginal communities...
seems to me, to be by design, given the well known statistics as regards our over representation in prisons, and in the ranks of the impoverished.
Seems like our fiscally responsible Harper-Cons feel the need for such punitive actions given our ever increasing crime rates. Especially our burgeoning "unreported crime" as attested to by Stockwell Day in this nonsensical piece of drivel.
It would seem the Harper government is willing to bankrupt the country in this never ending quest to finish the job and eradicate the Indigenous people. A more honest approach or "final solution", might be just to enact legislation that would make it a crime to be Indigenous, and get it over with?
regards Debra
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
We all fell into this "Ring of Fire..."
Hi Friends,
I watch news stories and try to predict the eventual out come. The news I'm about to relate began late last year or early this year, depending on your particular time frames.
The Marten Falls community was under great suffering and crying out for help: E Coli in the drinking water, teen suicides, extreme poverty, third-world living conditions - the usual northern reserve issues. But this insignificant (to the Ontario government) little community became quite significant, and a cause celeb. to that government very quickly when chromite was discovered on their territory.
In short order the community found themselves hosting surprise visits from the Northern Development minister bearing gifts of fruit baskets for this poor, impoverished lot. Kinda like the trade beads of days gone by!
Where unpotable water and extortionately high suicide rates before didn't stir the government's altruistic nature, the ring of fire (as was dubbed the chromite deposit) could and did.
Untold wealth was to be had by McGuinty's Liberal government of Ontario, if only they could get those pesky Aboriginals on side. Billions of dollars for the mining stakes for the largest chromite deposit ever found - to bad it is on Indigenous lands.
This, of course, would only be a minor set back for the McGuinty Liberals. The solution, for McGuinty, was to push Bill 191, a law that would abrogate treaty rights and allow the government to go about developing the north as they see fit. This would be in direct conflict with section 35 of the Constitution, which is there to protect Aboriginal and treaty rights for the Indigenous people of Canada.
I'll bet the strategy meeting went something like this:
"You know what would be fun? We could make our announcement on the anniversary of the declaration of Indigenous Peoples Act. I'll call Harper and maybe he can send that hang-around-the-fort-Indian, Burnoose out with the... "we the conservative party are still pondering the U.N. Indigenous peoples declaration and may (or may not) sign it at a later date"...announcement, and we can just slip our little announcement in there then too.
"Then while the Indians or Aboriginals (or whatever the hell they are calling themselves these days) are all up in arms over Harper's refusal to sign on to the U.N. declaration, they'll completely miss the connection between Bill 191 and the Chromite. It's a perfect plan!"
Maybe even played a few bars of that old Johnny Cash tune...Ring of Fire...
So it now looks like, to me, that it is once again time to defend our treaty rights. This time lets decide to define them as well. I get angry at the stop-gap measures and half-assed defenses usually settled for by our First Nations leadership, as happened with the taxation protests earlier this year. That our leaders left a large portion of their citizens, namely the off-reserve portion, only partially tax exempt (like partial citizens), left me and other off-reserve protesters righteously indignant. It is, after all, estimated that about 70% of most reserve populations live off reserve.
That kind of revolt resolution allows Canada to turn its smirking face to the world and look down its nose in scorn at the civil conflicts raging around the world because they have found a better way: pay just enough lip service and just enough in transfer payments to give the smallest glimmer of hope to the Indigenous people to quash any unrest.
We Indigenous peoples live on hope it would seem. The Transfer payments to the reserves have been capped since 1993. Soon, I predict, we will all be worth the five dollars per-head as set out in the original treaties. Yet, I'll bet the INAC Minister's salary isn't capped, nor their pension fund.
The fatal flaw in the plans of other colonizers is that giving nothing can only lead to unrest, civil war and extreme religious fanaticism. Evidently the message from our government to others is: Look to Canada and learn!
Hope, it would seem, has become these colonizers weapon of choice for keeping the civil peace.
Or at least that is the way it seems to me.
regards debra
I watch news stories and try to predict the eventual out come. The news I'm about to relate began late last year or early this year, depending on your particular time frames.
The Marten Falls community was under great suffering and crying out for help: E Coli in the drinking water, teen suicides, extreme poverty, third-world living conditions - the usual northern reserve issues. But this insignificant (to the Ontario government) little community became quite significant, and a cause celeb. to that government very quickly when chromite was discovered on their territory.
In short order the community found themselves hosting surprise visits from the Northern Development minister bearing gifts of fruit baskets for this poor, impoverished lot. Kinda like the trade beads of days gone by!
Where unpotable water and extortionately high suicide rates before didn't stir the government's altruistic nature, the ring of fire (as was dubbed the chromite deposit) could and did.
Untold wealth was to be had by McGuinty's Liberal government of Ontario, if only they could get those pesky Aboriginals on side. Billions of dollars for the mining stakes for the largest chromite deposit ever found - to bad it is on Indigenous lands.
This, of course, would only be a minor set back for the McGuinty Liberals. The solution, for McGuinty, was to push Bill 191, a law that would abrogate treaty rights and allow the government to go about developing the north as they see fit. This would be in direct conflict with section 35 of the Constitution, which is there to protect Aboriginal and treaty rights for the Indigenous people of Canada.
I'll bet the strategy meeting went something like this:
"You know what would be fun? We could make our announcement on the anniversary of the declaration of Indigenous Peoples Act. I'll call Harper and maybe he can send that hang-around-the-fort-Indian, Burnoose out with the... "we the conservative party are still pondering the U.N. Indigenous peoples declaration and may (or may not) sign it at a later date"...announcement, and we can just slip our little announcement in there then too.
"Then while the Indians or Aboriginals (or whatever the hell they are calling themselves these days) are all up in arms over Harper's refusal to sign on to the U.N. declaration, they'll completely miss the connection between Bill 191 and the Chromite. It's a perfect plan!"
Maybe even played a few bars of that old Johnny Cash tune...Ring of Fire...
So it now looks like, to me, that it is once again time to defend our treaty rights. This time lets decide to define them as well. I get angry at the stop-gap measures and half-assed defenses usually settled for by our First Nations leadership, as happened with the taxation protests earlier this year. That our leaders left a large portion of their citizens, namely the off-reserve portion, only partially tax exempt (like partial citizens), left me and other off-reserve protesters righteously indignant. It is, after all, estimated that about 70% of most reserve populations live off reserve.
That kind of revolt resolution allows Canada to turn its smirking face to the world and look down its nose in scorn at the civil conflicts raging around the world because they have found a better way: pay just enough lip service and just enough in transfer payments to give the smallest glimmer of hope to the Indigenous people to quash any unrest.
We Indigenous peoples live on hope it would seem. The Transfer payments to the reserves have been capped since 1993. Soon, I predict, we will all be worth the five dollars per-head as set out in the original treaties. Yet, I'll bet the INAC Minister's salary isn't capped, nor their pension fund.
The fatal flaw in the plans of other colonizers is that giving nothing can only lead to unrest, civil war and extreme religious fanaticism. Evidently the message from our government to others is: Look to Canada and learn!
Hope, it would seem, has become these colonizers weapon of choice for keeping the civil peace.
Or at least that is the way it seems to me.
regards debra
Thursday, September 2, 2010
I am Canadian (Red and White) History
Hi Friends
I have in the past blogged about my mother, and today I feel compelled to blog about my father.
My father's, father was one of England's "home children."
These were poor or orphaned children sent out of U.K to their colonies as indentured labourers. A child migration scheme endorsed by evangelical philanthropist Thomas Barnardo and Scottish evangelical Christian Annie McPherson.
Initially the home children were homeless children, but before long many children were admitted reluctantly by widows, or widowers, and in some cases relatives too poor to keep them. My grandfather was one of the latter.
His mother had been hospitalized and his father was too poor and thus, unable to keep his three children.
In Canada at the time, immigration fell under the umbrella of Agriculture, and that agency willingly promoted the child migration scheme by offering two pounds sterling for every child exported to this country.
My grandfather landed on Canadian soil at the tender age of nine with his younger brother James aged six at the time. Their only sister aged twelve, was sent to another country, never to be united with her brothers again.
William and James were sold to a homesteading family in northern Ontario. Here it was expected for them to work themselves out of servitude, which my grandfather eventually did, but James died tragically in a boating accident at the age of seventeen.
They had been abused and beaten mercilessly by their first guardian who eventually gave them over to another farmer, for a price. They fared much better in their second arrangement, they both slept in the barn with the livestock, and though young were expected to pull their weight around the farm.
After James' death, William paid his guardian out for his freedom, and moved into his new wife's family farm, where my father was born: they named him James. My father, and I in turn have a son named James.
To find out more about the home children and child migration here is a site.
http://www.cic.gc.ca./english/multiculturalism/homechild/index.asp
You can also read about this on wikipedia
Knowing of the home child phenomenon, add in the residential school fiasco,...and can it be surmised that the true savages are the people who would do this to children.
regards Debra
I have in the past blogged about my mother, and today I feel compelled to blog about my father.
My father's, father was one of England's "home children."
These were poor or orphaned children sent out of U.K to their colonies as indentured labourers. A child migration scheme endorsed by evangelical philanthropist Thomas Barnardo and Scottish evangelical Christian Annie McPherson.
Initially the home children were homeless children, but before long many children were admitted reluctantly by widows, or widowers, and in some cases relatives too poor to keep them. My grandfather was one of the latter.
His mother had been hospitalized and his father was too poor and thus, unable to keep his three children.
In Canada at the time, immigration fell under the umbrella of Agriculture, and that agency willingly promoted the child migration scheme by offering two pounds sterling for every child exported to this country.
My grandfather landed on Canadian soil at the tender age of nine with his younger brother James aged six at the time. Their only sister aged twelve, was sent to another country, never to be united with her brothers again.
William and James were sold to a homesteading family in northern Ontario. Here it was expected for them to work themselves out of servitude, which my grandfather eventually did, but James died tragically in a boating accident at the age of seventeen.
They had been abused and beaten mercilessly by their first guardian who eventually gave them over to another farmer, for a price. They fared much better in their second arrangement, they both slept in the barn with the livestock, and though young were expected to pull their weight around the farm.
After James' death, William paid his guardian out for his freedom, and moved into his new wife's family farm, where my father was born: they named him James. My father, and I in turn have a son named James.
To find out more about the home children and child migration here is a site.
http://www.cic.gc.ca./english/multiculturalism/homechild/index.asp
You can also read about this on wikipedia
Knowing of the home child phenomenon, add in the residential school fiasco,...and can it be surmised that the true savages are the people who would do this to children.
regards Debra
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Run Home
Hi Friends
This being the last week for campaigning I find myself drained but hopeful of getting my message out to the electorate.
It is a simple one. Though we are not your neighbours, we are still your community. We are the foot soldiers on the outside of the borders of our reserves engaging the dominate culture in dialouge around our issues. We are the ones out on the protest lines, marching for the recognition of our treaty rights, or protesting the removal of our children out of the communities, and in some cases handing out coffee and sandwiches to our less fortunate, First Nations people.
Some are from communities with aide programs for the community members, but not for them. Why leave your outside citizens vulnerable and unsupported?
During this election I was assured over and over again, that there is no divide. "Your address doesn't make any difference and you are a community member". Nice words, but what actions have been taken to show this?
In many other reserve communities the Chiefs have already welcomed the second generation cut off onto their band lists. It is a recognized done deal since Sharon McIvor won her case, and rather than await an edict from INAC to begin, they have taken the initiative and gone ahead with doing just that, and welcoming their own back into the fold. There are no transfer payments for these new members that these communities will be getting right away. The money will have to be sorted out later...It's just the right thing to do! "These are our citizens/members and they have waited long enough", seems to be the sentiment in these communities.My own sons are waiting to be welcomed to my community, along with about 200 others.
McIvor won her case in 2009, and the Canadian Government was given till April 2010 to amend the Indian Act. Canada then asked for an extension till July 6th 2010 and then till January 31st 2011, both extensions given.
The point is the Canadian Government has to do this, it is a Supreme Court ruling, and all reserves and their leadership know this, and some have acted...while still others wait.
Why?
I find the leadership is quite practiced at hiding their lack of action behind the Indian Act. This is not the case here, the Indian Act will be amended, and as I've said other Nations have taken it upon themselves to get on with the job of amending their own band lists.
My only other question then is this, "Is it fear of Indian Act retribution or is it Indian Agent thinking that has hampered my Nation and its leaders from acting?"
regards Debra
This being the last week for campaigning I find myself drained but hopeful of getting my message out to the electorate.
It is a simple one. Though we are not your neighbours, we are still your community. We are the foot soldiers on the outside of the borders of our reserves engaging the dominate culture in dialouge around our issues. We are the ones out on the protest lines, marching for the recognition of our treaty rights, or protesting the removal of our children out of the communities, and in some cases handing out coffee and sandwiches to our less fortunate, First Nations people.
Some are from communities with aide programs for the community members, but not for them. Why leave your outside citizens vulnerable and unsupported?
During this election I was assured over and over again, that there is no divide. "Your address doesn't make any difference and you are a community member". Nice words, but what actions have been taken to show this?
In many other reserve communities the Chiefs have already welcomed the second generation cut off onto their band lists. It is a recognized done deal since Sharon McIvor won her case, and rather than await an edict from INAC to begin, they have taken the initiative and gone ahead with doing just that, and welcoming their own back into the fold. There are no transfer payments for these new members that these communities will be getting right away. The money will have to be sorted out later...It's just the right thing to do! "These are our citizens/members and they have waited long enough", seems to be the sentiment in these communities.My own sons are waiting to be welcomed to my community, along with about 200 others.
McIvor won her case in 2009, and the Canadian Government was given till April 2010 to amend the Indian Act. Canada then asked for an extension till July 6th 2010 and then till January 31st 2011, both extensions given.
The point is the Canadian Government has to do this, it is a Supreme Court ruling, and all reserves and their leadership know this, and some have acted...while still others wait.
Why?
I find the leadership is quite practiced at hiding their lack of action behind the Indian Act. This is not the case here, the Indian Act will be amended, and as I've said other Nations have taken it upon themselves to get on with the job of amending their own band lists.
My only other question then is this, "Is it fear of Indian Act retribution or is it Indian Agent thinking that has hampered my Nation and its leaders from acting?"
regards Debra
Friday, August 13, 2010
Indian Act Rules, tales from Campaign Trail...
Hi Friends
Well as you know I have offered myself for public service to my community, after being nominated, and then seconded...I talked over this amazing turn of events with my husband and sons. Having a budget of zero dollars to mount a run for office, and a distance between my home and the reserve...it was unanimously decided "If you want to,...".
This being decided, I was now ready to take up the challenge.
That first hurdle having been gotten over, it was time for me to introduce myself to the broader community for their scrutiny. I, being a stranger in their midst, claiming kinship with them was in for a hard sell.
I have in the past volunteered in my community, and of course I have run this blog, plus was active both on line and in person, protesting the HST here in Ontario, so I wasn't a complete stranger after all.
The first most astonishing thing I found out about was that the "Indian Act" rules of politics is that an individual can (and some do) run for the position of chief and councilor at the same time!
To me this is like being the back-catcher and the pitcher for the same baseball team, at the same time.
All well and good, I guess, but what happens if you get elected for both?
They (INAC) have thought of that. Should the candidate prove to be popular enough to be elected to both positions, they are not expected to forfeit one for the other, but can (and do) hold these positions, simultaneously. The only proviso is they must declare which one they are holding before the start of any meeting.
This was all explained to me by the Electoral Officer.
I was/am astounded. Democracy as practiced on this Continent was ours...The American constitution was inspired by the Six Nations Confederacy. We all know it, Government of the people, by the people , for the people,
an end to tyrannical monarch rule...
So my question is this! Can things change for the First Nations communities when they are forced to live under such tyranny as is imposed on us by the draconian Indian Act? Have we lost the Utopian ideals of our glorious past? Is it any wonder to you that so many of our Indian Act elected chiefs have no caring or feel for the people they are supposedly leading?
I don't know the answers to these questions. But a good start would be for our Nations to began in earnest to craft their own constitutions, and citizenships codes, and take the power into their own hands and out of Ottawa's once and for all. True Nations with in the Nation of Canada.Then we can get back to our old ways, the noble ways of our ancestors, starting with true democratic governments as was enjoyed in our glorious past.
regards debra
Well as you know I have offered myself for public service to my community, after being nominated, and then seconded...I talked over this amazing turn of events with my husband and sons. Having a budget of zero dollars to mount a run for office, and a distance between my home and the reserve...it was unanimously decided "If you want to,...".
This being decided, I was now ready to take up the challenge.
That first hurdle having been gotten over, it was time for me to introduce myself to the broader community for their scrutiny. I, being a stranger in their midst, claiming kinship with them was in for a hard sell.
I have in the past volunteered in my community, and of course I have run this blog, plus was active both on line and in person, protesting the HST here in Ontario, so I wasn't a complete stranger after all.
The first most astonishing thing I found out about was that the "Indian Act" rules of politics is that an individual can (and some do) run for the position of chief and councilor at the same time!
To me this is like being the back-catcher and the pitcher for the same baseball team, at the same time.
All well and good, I guess, but what happens if you get elected for both?
They (INAC) have thought of that. Should the candidate prove to be popular enough to be elected to both positions, they are not expected to forfeit one for the other, but can (and do) hold these positions, simultaneously. The only proviso is they must declare which one they are holding before the start of any meeting.
This was all explained to me by the Electoral Officer.
I was/am astounded. Democracy as practiced on this Continent was ours...The American constitution was inspired by the Six Nations Confederacy. We all know it, Government of the people, by the people , for the people,
an end to tyrannical monarch rule...
So my question is this! Can things change for the First Nations communities when they are forced to live under such tyranny as is imposed on us by the draconian Indian Act? Have we lost the Utopian ideals of our glorious past? Is it any wonder to you that so many of our Indian Act elected chiefs have no caring or feel for the people they are supposedly leading?
I don't know the answers to these questions. But a good start would be for our Nations to began in earnest to craft their own constitutions, and citizenships codes, and take the power into their own hands and out of Ottawa's once and for all. True Nations with in the Nation of Canada.Then we can get back to our old ways, the noble ways of our ancestors, starting with true democratic governments as was enjoyed in our glorious past.
regards debra
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Elections In Indian Country
Hi Friends
I have in the past blogged about the lack of representation for us the off reserve community. I am also of the philosophy that you can only effect change from with-in...and now as the Rama reserve is finally allowing off reserve candidates I have been nominated, and have excepted the challenge.
This is proving to be a some what monumental task that I have set myself, as the campaigning time is very short: six weeks to be exact, and the off reserve residents list incomplete.
Six short weeks to get my name out in the community as well as to find many of our off reserve members and ask them for their support. I find our people are like the fluff of the dandelion...scattered by the wind.
My hope in running is of course to first win a mandate, and then to voice the concerns of the reserve members who too long have been ignored by those elected to serve them. I can look with fresh eyes at our problems and work with the others on council to try to address these common issues.
I won't insult any ones intelligence by offering immediate remedies to our many problems. I can however and do promise to work for you...as public servants are supposed to. Any one from my home reserve of Rama or a friend of Rama resident living off I'd be grateful if you'd pass along my message and lets start to build a new relationship together.
Regards Debra
Debra Stawnyczy
Uniting the community
I have in the past blogged about the lack of representation for us the off reserve community. I am also of the philosophy that you can only effect change from with-in...and now as the Rama reserve is finally allowing off reserve candidates I have been nominated, and have excepted the challenge.
This is proving to be a some what monumental task that I have set myself, as the campaigning time is very short: six weeks to be exact, and the off reserve residents list incomplete.
Six short weeks to get my name out in the community as well as to find many of our off reserve members and ask them for their support. I find our people are like the fluff of the dandelion...scattered by the wind.
My hope in running is of course to first win a mandate, and then to voice the concerns of the reserve members who too long have been ignored by those elected to serve them. I can look with fresh eyes at our problems and work with the others on council to try to address these common issues.
I won't insult any ones intelligence by offering immediate remedies to our many problems. I can however and do promise to work for you...as public servants are supposed to. Any one from my home reserve of Rama or a friend of Rama resident living off I'd be grateful if you'd pass along my message and lets start to build a new relationship together.
Regards Debra
Debra Stawnyczy
Uniting the community
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