Posts Tagged ‘Indigenous’
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Taking ownership of their land
Monday, November 1st, 2010
Nov. 1, 2010
… our people have suffered from a credit crisis ever since the Indian Act was passed. That is a 140-year depression. This legislation will help to end that. It will allow members to earn equity and borrow against it. We will finally be able to take out mortgages and business loans on our own lands as easily as anyone else… If we choose, we can abandon the paternalistic practice of having lands held in trust and overcome the constraints of a 19th century Indian Act.
Tags: economy, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
An Indian Industry has emerged amid the wreckage of many Canadian reserves
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
Oct 30 2010
Relying on census data, Indian Affairs researchers have developed a “Community Well-Being Index” — a spreadsheet that gives every community, native and non-native alike, scores on education, employment, housing and income. Among the bottom 100 communities on that list, 96 are First Nations. Yet senior executives within Indian Affairs are loath to acknowledge what their own statisticians have discovered: that the gap between well-being on reserves and in the rest of Canada has been growing since 1996… As the disparity between the First Nations and the rest of Canada grows, so does this Indian industry built to combat it.
Tags: featured, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living
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A history of missteps [policy re: First Nations]
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
Oct 30 2010
Status Indians are falling further behind other Canadians in quality of life. The Star investigates the gap, which continues to grow along with the federal bureaucracy focused on Indian issues [This article provides a chronological summary of key points in Canadian policy dealing with indigenous peoples.]
Tags: Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Debates, Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa still failing to deal with First Nations’ Dilemmas
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
Oct 30 2010
… the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples — a 4,000 page document on Canada’s systemic mistreatment of its native peoples… made more than 400 recommendations… “The commission has given Canadians a challenge to turn their relationship with aboriginal peoples from a serious and growing problem into an asset,” a November 1996 Toronto Star editorial declared. “Just how we handle that challenge will say much about us as a nation.” Fourteen years and three prime ministers later, the five-volume report and most of its clarion calls to action remain unfulfilled.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living
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Tories get smart on native education
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Oct. 19, 2010
… many Canadians would be shocked to learn the legislation governing education on most reserves remains the Indian Act of 1867… The Indian Act’s provisions regarding education are completely obsolete, colonialist and an embarrassment to Canada,” said Michael Mendelson, senior scholar at the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, who has long advocated a First Nations Education Act to fill the legislative void… it seems the Conservative government is coming around to the idea.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
No full-day kindergarten for First Nations kids
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
October 11, 2010
First Nations children who attend schools on reserves are being left out of the province’s innovative all-day kindergarten plan…. First Nations students already face hurdles others students do not and are among the province’s most vulnerable children, education experts say… The investment required to support full day kindergarten programs on reserves need to come from the federal government, according to Erin Moroz, a spokesperson for Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
‘First Nations unfairly funded for basic services’
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
October 12, 2010
First Nation communities that have moved forward through negotiation or settlement to advance their own jurisdiction and responsibilities, are fully transparent, accountable and demonstrate a level of service that is yielding real results. These First Nation governments exercise full responsibility and have democratic participation rates in leadership and other processes that are far stronger than anywhere else in this country. If First Nation people are “furious” about anything, it’s the unfair funding in critical areas that directly affect the well-being of our children
Tags: Indigenous, participation, standard of living, youth
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Accountability on reserves
Saturday, October 9th, 2010
Oct. 9, 2010
The chiefs have no legal requirement to disclose their remuneration to Canadians. Even local natives have trouble jumping through the bureaucratic hoops necessary to find such information… But as we see it, the greatest threat to the image of First Nations people isn’t legislation aimed at bringing their communities into line with modern standards of good governance and transparency. Rather, it is the native leaders who, through their own AFN mouthpiece, cynically circle the wagons in defence of their cash and powers.
Tags: Indigenous
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Four sparks light aboriginal fires
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Sep 21 2010
Recent research suggests that four factors determine whether an aboriginal group is likely to adopt confrontational strategies against the Canadian state. The first is when aboriginal and non-aboriginal goals relating to indigenous-claimed lands and resources are highly divergent… Second, the nature, scope and frequency of intrusions on aboriginal lands matter… Third, indigenous groups mobilize when they feel that the Canadian political and legal systems are unlikely to be responsive to their needs…
Tags: Indigenous, participation, rights
Posted in Inclusion Debates, Social Security | No Comments »
An economic cancer
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
Sept. 18, 2010
… fully one in three cigarettes bought in Canada were contraband as of 2008–up from one in six just two years before… The state’s failure to tackle this problem makes it effectively complicit in the illegal tobacco trade… Effective immediately, it should enforce the law against illegal tobacco products, as well as lower tobacco taxes. In the long term, it should reform the Indian Act to empower aboriginal Canadians to start legitimate businesses instead of resorting to crime.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, Health, Indigenous, poverty
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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