Politicians sparred in the House of Commons on Tuesday over the government's decision to cut off funding for an anti-smoking campaign aimed at First Nations and Inuit people, an effort that Conservative ministers suggested was wasteful and ineffective.
"They can't, certainly, believe that refusing to help aboriginal people stop smoking is in the interest of Conservative voters, " said Tina Keeper, Liberal MP for Churchill, arguing in question period that prevention of cancer and other ailments is cheaper than treatment.
"My question, again, is: Why is this government condemning First Nations and Inuit people in Canada to Third World health conditions?"
Dennis Bevington, the NDP member for Western Arctic, said the $10.8-million cut means "more aboriginal Canadians will get sick and die due to smoking." The were "no consultations, no debate," he said, calling the decision "another sign of just how arrogant and controlling this prime minister is at a time when this country has record surpluses."
from CBC News
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I know by this time, I shouldn't be surprised with the treatment of the Indigenous people, but COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
New northern mine worries natives - Great-grandmother arrested for joining blockade to stop 'threat'
Ethan Baron, The Province Published: Monday, September 11, 2006
A native great-grandmother has been arrested in a bid to stop B.C.'s first new metal mine in 10 years.
BCMetals Corp. believes the Red Chris mine in northern B.C. contains almost a million tonnes of copper and 1.2 million ounces of gold.
But Tahltan elder Lillian Moyer, 67, who was arrested Saturday, says the proposed open-pit operation south of Dease Lake would violate sacred ground, threaten traditional hunting land and ruin fisheries.
"The land means so much to our people," Moyer said yesterday. "We don't want to see any development up there because it is sacred land. I am doing what I can, with great feelings in my heart, to stick up for our rights and for the land, for the future generations of young children."
Members of the Tahltan set up a road blockade June 16 to keep BCMetals from driving heavy equipment through a fish-spawning creek. On Sept. 1, the company's application in B.C. Supreme Court for an injunction to remove the protesters was granted.
Moyer said she visited the blockade Friday night and learned that anyone arrested for violating the injunction would be prohibited from entering traditional hunting grounds on the Todagin Plateau, the site of the planned mine.
"I was listening to all this and I said, 'This doesn't sound right. Why are we being threatened about our own traditional land that we want to protect?'"
Natives spend a month a year camped on the plateau, hunting, Moyer said.
BCMetals president and CEO Ian Smith has said that "the Red Chris mine has received all necessary environmental approvals from federal and provincial authorities."
On July 4, the company said it had temporarily suspended movement of equipment to explore the Red Chris site because trout were spawning at a creek crossing on the access road.
On Saturday, when equipment crossed the creek after RCMP arrested Moyer, oil spilled into the creek.
"[This] oil spill is our worst nightmare coming true," said Rhoda Quock, chief of the Iskut band, part of the Tahltan Nation. "It shows what happens to our lands when development is rammed through."
BCMetals said the spill amounted to less than a half-litre of grease and other hydrocarbons, which washed off the drilling rig and escaped catchment booms.
The Iskut also worry that toxic copper dust will blow from the mine to their community 18 kilometres away, and that leachate from waste ore will contaminate drinking water and fish-bearing streams.
BCMetals expects the mine will produce 50,000 tonnes of copper and 75,000 ounces of gold annually for the first five years. At current prices, that's $440 million in copper and $51 million in gold.
A native great-grandmother has been arrested in a bid to stop B.C.'s first new metal mine in 10 years.
BCMetals Corp. believes the Red Chris mine in northern B.C. contains almost a million tonnes of copper and 1.2 million ounces of gold.
But Tahltan elder Lillian Moyer, 67, who was arrested Saturday, says the proposed open-pit operation south of Dease Lake would violate sacred ground, threaten traditional hunting land and ruin fisheries.
"The land means so much to our people," Moyer said yesterday. "We don't want to see any development up there because it is sacred land. I am doing what I can, with great feelings in my heart, to stick up for our rights and for the land, for the future generations of young children."
Members of the Tahltan set up a road blockade June 16 to keep BCMetals from driving heavy equipment through a fish-spawning creek. On Sept. 1, the company's application in B.C. Supreme Court for an injunction to remove the protesters was granted.
Moyer said she visited the blockade Friday night and learned that anyone arrested for violating the injunction would be prohibited from entering traditional hunting grounds on the Todagin Plateau, the site of the planned mine.
"I was listening to all this and I said, 'This doesn't sound right. Why are we being threatened about our own traditional land that we want to protect?'"
Natives spend a month a year camped on the plateau, hunting, Moyer said.
BCMetals president and CEO Ian Smith has said that "the Red Chris mine has received all necessary environmental approvals from federal and provincial authorities."
On July 4, the company said it had temporarily suspended movement of equipment to explore the Red Chris site because trout were spawning at a creek crossing on the access road.
On Saturday, when equipment crossed the creek after RCMP arrested Moyer, oil spilled into the creek.
"[This] oil spill is our worst nightmare coming true," said Rhoda Quock, chief of the Iskut band, part of the Tahltan Nation. "It shows what happens to our lands when development is rammed through."
BCMetals said the spill amounted to less than a half-litre of grease and other hydrocarbons, which washed off the drilling rig and escaped catchment booms.
The Iskut also worry that toxic copper dust will blow from the mine to their community 18 kilometres away, and that leachate from waste ore will contaminate drinking water and fish-bearing streams.
BCMetals expects the mine will produce 50,000 tonnes of copper and 75,000 ounces of gold annually for the first five years. At current prices, that's $440 million in copper and $51 million in gold.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Today is September 11, 100 years since Gandhi officially started the non-violent peace movement, 80 years since the British empire set the boundaries between Israel and Palestine to bring about the current conditions today, 35 years since a CIA backed coup put Pinochet in power in Chile starting the slaugter of some 50,000 people, and a mere 5 years since the only known terror attack in the United States, the downing of the WTC's.
I only want to comment on the blinders, because here in the United States, the only act of terror known is what happened in New York on September 11, 2001.
How about February 26, 1856, the Wiyot Massacre in Humboldt Bay?
How about December 29, 1890, Wounded Knee?
How about the dates I can't remember like the slaughter of the Moro's by the U.S. in the Phillipines during the Spanish American War?
How about the bombing of the bomb shelter in the city whose name I forgot during the '91 Gulf War?
But no! These and SO many other dates are ignored or completely forgotten because in the eyes of America, nothing was an act of terror until the WTC came down. Not even what the World Trade Organization does to societies around the world compares in American eyes to the acts of planes being flown into American buildings on American soil. Now...in American eyes...it is terror.
Ward Churchill stated in his lectures about how the Dutch colonized Manhattan Island, allegedly buying it from the Indians there with some trinkets, although the Indians just considered it rent and figured them to be OK. The Dutch decided to put an end to their "Persistent Indian Problem," and slaughtered the Indians on the other side of the island. The Indians weren't exactly sure what was happening and thus didn't put up much of a fight, not being used to warfare where MASS SLAUGHTER is the norm. The Dutch, being so surprised by their victory, cut the heads off of all of their victims to take them back to their leaders as proof of their victory and loyalty. To celebrate, they played soccer with the heads of their victims...all in great fun, of course. Not like the Indians were really human beings. Anyway, Ward says that that little soccer game happened right where the WTC buildings once stood.
Interesting, huh? I don't know the date of that slaughter, either.
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Posted from Pudgy Indian
http://www.pudgyindian.blogspot.com/
I only want to comment on the blinders, because here in the United States, the only act of terror known is what happened in New York on September 11, 2001.
How about February 26, 1856, the Wiyot Massacre in Humboldt Bay?
How about December 29, 1890, Wounded Knee?
How about the dates I can't remember like the slaughter of the Moro's by the U.S. in the Phillipines during the Spanish American War?
How about the bombing of the bomb shelter in the city whose name I forgot during the '91 Gulf War?
But no! These and SO many other dates are ignored or completely forgotten because in the eyes of America, nothing was an act of terror until the WTC came down. Not even what the World Trade Organization does to societies around the world compares in American eyes to the acts of planes being flown into American buildings on American soil. Now...in American eyes...it is terror.
Ward Churchill stated in his lectures about how the Dutch colonized Manhattan Island, allegedly buying it from the Indians there with some trinkets, although the Indians just considered it rent and figured them to be OK. The Dutch decided to put an end to their "Persistent Indian Problem," and slaughtered the Indians on the other side of the island. The Indians weren't exactly sure what was happening and thus didn't put up much of a fight, not being used to warfare where MASS SLAUGHTER is the norm. The Dutch, being so surprised by their victory, cut the heads off of all of their victims to take them back to their leaders as proof of their victory and loyalty. To celebrate, they played soccer with the heads of their victims...all in great fun, of course. Not like the Indians were really human beings. Anyway, Ward says that that little soccer game happened right where the WTC buildings once stood.
Interesting, huh? I don't know the date of that slaughter, either.
------------
Posted from Pudgy Indian
http://www.pudgyindian.blogspot.com/
Monday, September 11, 2006
Need Métis Veterans Memorial Pictures please
"I have been working with Dale Haggerty with the Michif Metis Museum for quite a few years and the museum is working on improving the website and what I have installed is a Métis memorial veterans page...I need pictures of the veterans that have passed, their names date of birth and passing, so we can honor are veterans so they won't be forgotten in memorial....if you can email them and I also have a Métis memorial page for those Métis people who have also passed that has done a lot for our community. We are just installing this page as a temporary site until it gets transferred to its own permanent page. I'll send you the page so far...let me know what you think...still under construction.
I also need veterans that have been doing events also that are still alive...it’s not all about memorials...and events...update too. Or if you know someone who can send to me...I really appreciate it.
http://www.whiteskycloud.com/michifmetismuseum.html soon the Michif Metis Museum will have its own .org
Thanks from Derrick Whiteskycloud"
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If anyone can help Derrick with this....
I also need veterans that have been doing events also that are still alive...it’s not all about memorials...and events...update too. Or if you know someone who can send to me...I really appreciate it.
http://www.whiteskycloud.com/michifmetismuseum.html soon the Michif Metis Museum will have its own .org
Thanks from Derrick Whiteskycloud"
-------------------------
If anyone can help Derrick with this....
Friday, September 08, 2006
Caledonia Standoff threatens to heat up again
Residents frustrated with slow pace of negotiations over land rights
ALEX DOBROTA, from the Globe and Mail
As the warm summer days dwindle, so does the patience of many residents in Caledonia, where a six-month-long native standoff threatens to erupt into violence once again.
Many townsfolk who lived through a summer of flare-ups will send their children to an elementary school that borders a development site sitting on land the occupiers claim was taken from them unlawfully by the Crown.
The local school board has postponed plans to build a wooden wall between a schoolyard and the occupied land.
The site is at the centre of a battle over land rights that started when some members of the Six Nations reserve set up barricades blocking the road into the development on Feb. 28. A court order evicting them has not been enforced. In June, the province bought out the developer for $12.3-million.
--------------------------------
This article continues for quite a bit more, hot air just flying everywhere in the article. What it doesn't mention is that the government paid mediator is getting $1300.00 a DAY, plus expenses & travel. So instead of talking about how much money us natives are costing, maybe start looking at their own in house costs. I could make suggests about what $1300 a day should supply, but most my thoughts are less then tactful.
----------------------
Here is part of the article about Jane Stewarts fees.
-----------------------
Caledonia tab may hit $300,000
By Marissa NelsonThe Hamilton Spectator(Aug 30, 2006)
Jane Stewart is being paid $1,300 a day to be the province's negotiator in talks aimed at solving the land dispute in Caledonia.
And the 11-month pact between the former Liberal minister and Ontario says her total pay can reach $300,000.
She can also charge up to $30,000 in expenses.
The agreement, which runs from May 5, 2006, to March 31, 2007, says she also will be paid for half her travel time.
------------------------
Why aren't people more upset about this? what aren't we posting this on every site, in every editorial!
ALEX DOBROTA, from the Globe and Mail
As the warm summer days dwindle, so does the patience of many residents in Caledonia, where a six-month-long native standoff threatens to erupt into violence once again.
Many townsfolk who lived through a summer of flare-ups will send their children to an elementary school that borders a development site sitting on land the occupiers claim was taken from them unlawfully by the Crown.
The local school board has postponed plans to build a wooden wall between a schoolyard and the occupied land.
The site is at the centre of a battle over land rights that started when some members of the Six Nations reserve set up barricades blocking the road into the development on Feb. 28. A court order evicting them has not been enforced. In June, the province bought out the developer for $12.3-million.
--------------------------------
This article continues for quite a bit more, hot air just flying everywhere in the article. What it doesn't mention is that the government paid mediator is getting $1300.00 a DAY, plus expenses & travel. So instead of talking about how much money us natives are costing, maybe start looking at their own in house costs. I could make suggests about what $1300 a day should supply, but most my thoughts are less then tactful.
----------------------
Here is part of the article about Jane Stewarts fees.
-----------------------
Caledonia tab may hit $300,000
By Marissa NelsonThe Hamilton Spectator(Aug 30, 2006)
Jane Stewart is being paid $1,300 a day to be the province's negotiator in talks aimed at solving the land dispute in Caledonia.
And the 11-month pact between the former Liberal minister and Ontario says her total pay can reach $300,000.
She can also charge up to $30,000 in expenses.
The agreement, which runs from May 5, 2006, to March 31, 2007, says she also will be paid for half her travel time.
------------------------
Why aren't people more upset about this? what aren't we posting this on every site, in every editorial!
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