Attawapiskat emergency debate to be held by MPs this evening

quizzical wrote:

wtf? stfu. the second you "but" you indicate fkn privilege and the reality you do want to take away from the gravity.

lol like omg , of course you see that quizzical

You always see FUCKIN MALE WHITE PRIVILAGE with some settler scum on the side in all my posts. If I agree with you I'm mansplainin and if I don't then I'm supporting some kind of abuse. I totally get it.

But 100+ attempts and 1 death?  I'm glad there isn't more deaths, which of course you won't believe because im a raging racist, but it sounds like there is more to the story I'd like to know.

Well, if someone were to try to take their own life by ingesting an entire bottle of aspirin, there's a pretty good chance they wouldn't succeed.  But we would still see it as a cry for help, yes?

I'm not really thinking of this in terms of whether these teens were any good at suicide so much as I'm wondering whether this is going to be just another opportunity for the government to nod solemnly and then basically do nothing.

Or perhaps we'll see a unanimous committment to sending an elite team of the best counsellors and therapists that money can buy, to help remote native teens deal more positively with the fact that their life is shit.

kropotkin1951 wrote:

Here is the importance that the Trudeau government puts on aboriginal issues. I would say it was shameful but it is exactly what I expected from Liberals so why bother they are by definition shameless.

Quote:

Here’s Where Trudeau Was During An Emergency Debate On Indigenous Suicide

While MPs were participating in an emergency debate on the Indigenous youth suicide crisis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was socializing with fellow Liberals at one of Ottawa’s swankiest restaurants. Trudeau, his senior advisors, and members of cabinet attended a former Liberal’s book launch Tuesday night at Beckta, a high-end restaurant a few blocks from Parliament.

They were there for the launch of Bill Graham’s political memoir. Graham served as foreign affairs and defence minister in the early 2000s, and later as interim leader of the Liberal party.

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien — who told reporters on the Hill earlier that day that the solution to the Attawapiskat suicide crisis might be to move the entire community — was also at the book launch.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/emmaloop/trudeau-was-at-a-liberal-book-launch-d...

 

 

INAC occupation in Toronto

Breaking news: Indigenous activists and allies, including members of Black Lives Matters, are occupying the Toronto office of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to focus attention on the urgent situation in Attawapiskat. Watch our video report from inside this ongoing direct action.

Occupy INAC focuses national attention on Attawapiskat

Ricochet has exclusive video reports from inside the occupation in Toronto

On Wednesday, Indigenous activists and their allies, including members of Black Lives Matter in Toronto, began an occupation at the INAC offices. Now in its second day, the #OccupyINAC action has inspired similar sit-ins at INAC offices in James Bay and Winnipeg. A solidarity rally is planned tonight outside the occupation at 25 St. Clair Ave E in Toronto, beginning at 6:30pm....

During suicide debate Justice Minister says it’s time for First Nations to shed Indian Act ‘shackles’

with video

Justice Minster Jody Wilson-Raybould said Tuesday the Trudeau Liberal government aims to “complete the unfinished business of Confederation” and replace the Indian Act with a “reconciliation framework” that would outlast the life of this administration.

Wilson-Raybould didn’t lead the government side in an emergency debate held late into the night which was triggered by a suicide crisis gripping the small fly-in community of Attawapiskat in Ontario’s James Bay region. Yet, her speech was the only one that revealed the extent of the historical vision the Trudeau government has when it comes to reshaping the relationship between the state and the original inhabitants on this land.

The Liberals aim to do nothing less than scrap the Indian Act. In its place the government wants to create a new relationship based on section 35 of the Constitution, which guarantees Aboriginal rights, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), according to Wilson-Raybould....

In a channelling of his colonialist "white paper" from his days as Trudeau Sr's "Indian Affairs" minister, Jean Chretien suggests maybe moving Attawapiskat. We need better solutions. A mental health emergency, as declared, is of course just a stop gap to head off more suicide attempts in the very short term. 

I don't normally link the National Post, but they've run an interesting piece on [url=http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/why-quebecs-cree-are-thriving-w... Quebec’s Cree are thriving while misery reigns across James Bay at Attawapiskat[/url]. Post readers caught up in Post ideology will simply point to the Quebec Cree's business ventures and issue a rousing call of "praise capitalism!" But there's more in that article worth noting. 

- the Quebec Cree are sending letters and cards to Attawapiskat. That's as good a blow against hopelessness and despair as professional mental health care services, perhaps.

- the Quebec Cree control local government, including health, education and economic development - whereas Northern Ontario Cree are at the whim of Ottawa bureaucrats

- suicide rates are lower in communities that have taken strong steps to protect and value their indigenous culture (and where Ottawa polciies have not made that challenging to impossible, as at Attawapiskat

- ditto for language preservation: Cree remains the language of 95% of Quebec Cree and is used in schools

- youth centres with social activities available

The article does not mention it, but Ontario might consider moving from emergency response to some of the measures in the [url=http://www.gcc.ca/issues/paixdesbraves.php]Paix des Braves[/url] in which Quebec devolves funds and the power to decide on how to use them to the Cree. It is a less colonialist approach and might offer some lessons for giving Northern Ontario Cree more control over Cree affairs. 

What can be done? 

Quote:

Coon Come says that if Canadians truly want an end to the tragic stories emerging from Attawapiskat and other reserves, the country has “to embark on a mission” to revive indigenous nationhood and create the conditions for indigenous cultures and languages to flourish and for indigenous people to manage their own affairs.

In other words, end the colonial relationship between Ottawa and indigenous communities. It is good that Judy Wilson Raybould is (more politely) saying this. I hope she can convince her cabinet colleagues to move towards true reconciliation - and decolonization. 

De Beers’ Colonial Plunder in Attawapiskat

In 1995, a report issued as part of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples called suicide “one of the most urgent problems facing aboriginal communities." 22 years later, Canada’s ongoing colonial project is still taking a staggering and gruesome toll on the health and lives of First Nations. In Attawapiskat, a community of close to 2,000, there were 11 suicide attempts last Saturday, on top of 100 suicide attempts since last September.

In response to such events there has been mobilization. In Toronto, Idle No More and Black Lives Matter have responded with an occupation of an Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada office; in Ottawa people are marching from Parliament Hill to INAC in Gatineau; while other INAC offices are being occupied in Winnipeg, Regina and James Bay.

But recent events in Attawapiskat are not simply a generalized response to decades and decades of Canadian colonialism - the specifics of Canadian colonialism in Attawapiskat are damning, too… Attawapiskat is 90km from the open-pit Victor Diamond Mine, where multinational diamond company De Beers, founded by the British imperialist and white supremacist Cecil Rhodes, has managed to work out an astonishingly preferential agreement to plunder the resource wealth of the Attawapiskat First Nation with the complicity of the Ontario and Canadian governments. The mine itself is on lands taken from Attawapiskat First Nation through an extension of Treaty 9 in 1930....

criminal.

swallow wrote:

Well, holy shit. So much for the problem being "no resource base." Also from the linked article:

Quote:

In 2015, investigative reporting by CBC found out that De Beer's had pulled $2.5 billion worth of diamonds from the Victor mine since opening, and was paying almost nothing in royalties. In 2014 alone, De Beers pulled $392 million of diamonds from Victor Lake mine but only paid the Ontario government $226 in royalties. The Cree Community of Attawapiskat received none of the (pitifully small) royalties.

$226? Pitiful. it probably costs way more to collect them. 

Official Statement From #OccupyINAC Winnipeg [from INAC office...

video

...

#OccupyINAC hour 60 update

video

I guess De Beers can no more change its propensity to plunder Indigenous peoples and their lands than the proverbial leopard can change her spots.

But this might be the focus of a campaign, about the lies behind "clean diamonds" from the North of Canada. De Beers was also a master of publicity, creating an association between diamonds and love and a desire for them even among "average consumers", not just the wealthy.

epaulo13 wrote:

..scroll down to this huff post page for more prices in attawapiskat.

Those prices seem to be on par with Northern Alberta and the oil-industry towns. The remote location mixed with the money being funneled into the town makes a classic case of supply and demand.

Quote:

The remote location mixed with the money being funneled into the town makes a classic case of supply and demand.

Perhaps you mean inflation?  Or just high prices?

How much of something there is is the "supply", and how badly people want it is the "demand", and neither are affected by an influx of currency.  If supply is low and demand is high, the price goes up, but necessarily stops at the price people will or can pay.  That said, if everyone in an oil industry town is wealthy, that could certainly lead to high market prices.

I don't think everyone being wealthy is so much of a problem in Attawapiskat, though.

..video

Ricochet - English

"This is beyond heartbreaking, this is not a tragedy. Let's call it what it really is: a continuation of genocide." Day five at #OccupyINAC, where occupiers want to know why PM Justin Trudeau, who is also the minister of youth, won't meet with the children of Attawapiskat.

epaulo13 wrote:

paladin1

..nothing personal but i'm not interested in debating with you the merits of this situation and the struggle surrounding it. i take my lead from first nations. my interest is in a meaningful resolution and seeing an end to the indian act. ultimately my interest is in seeing an end to colonialism. 

No problem Epaulo13, I appreciate your candor.  I'll do my best to remember not to quote you in replies and such.

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Quote:

The remote location mixed with the money being funneled into the town makes a classic case of supply and demand.

Perhaps you mean inflation?  Or just high prices?

How much of something there is is the "supply", and how badly people want it is the "demand", and neither are affected by an influx of currency.  If supply is low and demand is high, the price goes up, but necessarily stops at the price people will or can pay.  That said, if everyone in an oil industry town is wealthy, that could certainly lead to high market prices.

I don't think everyone being wealthy is so much of a problem in Attawapiskat, though.

Maybe I'm using the wrong terminology.  There is a demand for those basic living supplies so companies sell (supply) it at inflated prices because they know they can get away with charging it.  you make an excellent point about the price stopping at what people will or can pay.   I know *I* can't afford $40 a package toilet paper or those other high prices and neither could most of the members here but somehow companies are getting away with charging it and the residents there don't have the benefit of the oil industry. 

They DO have that diamond mind but it seems like the town is getting a paltry amount of what is being made from the mine. I've read they get like 2-4 million dollars a year from it, and I believe I read it goes to the government first or something.  One of my first stops would be to figure out what the hell went on with that diamond mine deal and reneotiate.

.

I've read Alex Hundert was present at the protest.

Statement from Vancouver #Occupy INAC

Indigenous children, mothers and families and allies are occupying INAC offices in vancouver, coast salish territories. in solidarity with the youth of Attawapiskat and their demands and needs. Drop by, we are here at 1138 Melville street, 6th floor

..an important read

Jean Chrétien, St. Anne’s and the ‘straight highway’ to Attawapiskat’s suicide crisis

In 1968, when Jean Chrétien was Indian Affairs minister, he received a hand-written letter raising concerns about the “prejudicial” treatment of First Nation children at St. Anne’s Indian residential school, an institution that would eventually become notorious for the magnitude of abuse inflicted on students there, including the use of a homemade electric chair.

Children from Attawapiskat, the Cree community along Ontario’s James Bay coast, which Chrétien suggested last week should consider relocation, attended St. Anne’s along with those from the neighbouring communities like Kashechewan and Fort Albany, where the school was located.

For years the federal government, including under Chrétien’s administration, along with the Catholic Church tried to suppress the breadth of the abuse at St. Anne’s, triggering court battles that continues to this day....

#GroundZeroINACtoronto will be issuing a press release tomorrow, Thursday, April 21 at 4 pm in front of the INAC building at 25 St Clair Ave East.

The Youth of Attawapiskat have let us know that they are satisfied with the meeting that took place on Monday with Federal MP's and the Regional Director of INAC.

The time has come for us to go back to our families and loved ones, and to come out and thank our supporters. Without you, this week of awareness that has spread across the land may never have happend.

This is just the beginning as First Nations continuing to win hearts and minds across Turtle Island.

We want to thank Black Lives Matter, No One Is Illegal, Idle No More, the Mohawk Warrior Society, and especially all Grass Roots Community members, and the amazing support from those who donated time & energy, prayers & medicines, delicious home cooked meals, and love.

You held down the outside of the building and kept us in a good way. This would not have happened with out you.

Communities from across Turtle Island have stepped up and joined the #OccupyINAC movement to call attention to the suicide crisis and conditions in northern communities.

It is now time for us at #GroundZeroINAC to support them and their issues.

We are issuing a call out for all singers, drummers and dancers to join us in this celebration.

Occupy INAC Victory Rally and Press Conference

Monday, April 25 at 10:30 AM

Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs 1183 Melville

Vancouver, British Columbia

Speakers include Council of Mothers and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip

Ten Indigenous mothers, children, youth and one father occupied INAC offices from Monday April 18th to Saturday April 23rd. For six continuous days, our families lived in the lobby of INAC offices, with no access to the outside, taking a strong stand for youth and future generations.

quote:

We, the Council of Mothers occupying INAC office in Vancouver, are also demanding that funding for Indigenous languages and Cultural Connections for Aboriginal Youth is re-established.

We confirmed a meeting with both Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett and Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly to discuss these demands and ended our occupation on Saturday April 23, 2016.

According to Nuxalk and Onodaga mother Jerrilyn Webster “We had to occupy INAC offices because the voices of our young people are not being heard. There is an urgency for young people in our communities. Because of Canada’s colonial baggage, Indigenous languages and cultures and not being prioritized by the government.”

“The meeting we have secured to discuss funding for Indigenous languages and Cultural Connections for Aboriginal Youth is a victory. But we know this is not about one meeting, we need long-term commitment and accountability from this government,” Webster further states.