Housing

Pavolo wrote:What the ruling I am reading is saying is they are being given the time to get there case together as they were saying they did not have the time to do this .

Really?

Glinter said the bands have known about Ottawa's plans for Kapyong since 2001 and Ottawa made efforts to consult First Nations. "They have done nothing to assert their claims," Glinter said. "Instead, they have basically sat on their rights until this point."

Pavolo wrote:They will not win this but the goverment will be forced to give them another carrot so in one way they do win .

How utterly pathetic and sad is this? Is this right? It borders on unethical and immoral. It is a frivolous lawsuit designed to extort money where none is due nor owed.

I believe the Metis actually have a more reliable claim to that particular stretch of land then the Natives. But even at that, it might be a little far out from their "territory"

My understanding is the Metis claimed downtown riverbank property. But I'm of Irish heritage so I think that makes me Metis. Where is my card?

its in the mail :

yeah thats why I said it was a stretch, their farms as per tradition extended 2 km back from the river and were very narrow, I doubt they were that far out, but it is possible.

Those strips of land extended from the Red I believe, and not the Assiniboine. (Some years ago I owned some that went from Rebeck Road to Waugh Road, seperated by the floodway....strange piece of land.)

Anyway, sorry to interupt....

yeah thats why I said I dont think it happened...I cant remember from the court case a while back exactly what was mapped and such..

As far as I know, nobody has a right to that piece of land, dispite what Pav old Chum says about it.

Uhh... the Government has a clear and present right to that land...

Yes. Other than the present owners of course.

Keep in mind that I've never even set foot in Canada and won't until next month (almost exact a month now, it's getting exciting), but I've read almost all of the posts on this forum so I'm getting the idea of what y'all is talking about.

First things first. You all know this. The North-American continent, specifically Newfoundland and Labrador, was discovered by an Icelander so Canada actually belongs to Iceland. Therefore, all you people have to buy me free beer when I arrive since I own 1/300.000 of Canada. You've been living in my country for centuries now and the least you can do is get me drunk!

Second, a question. How is education funded and conducted in First Nations reserves? I'm assuming that it's funded by the government just like anywhere else, but how is it conducted? Have there been realistic comparisons between education in reserves and elsewhere? I'm asking because I have this idea in my head that when minority groups find themselves either incapable of unwilling to improve their own societies from within, it's because of lack of education. Is it possible that educational levels in the reserves are way lower than average? 'Cause if that's the case, that should be the first thing to fix. It seems typical for education to be left out in the discussion on integrating the reserves into mainstream Canada.

That said, I've always found it a bit silly to cling on to traditions just for the sake of traditions. Think of Gimli, north of Winnipeg. They flag both the Canadian and Icelandic flags. They're all Canadians and are still proud of their heritage. No problem, no "reserves" or anything like that. It's silly, we shouldn't willfully drive a wedge between us.

Perhaps this story will put things in perspective.

Years ago a teacher at an inner city school with a large aboriginal enrollment was telling her class of the importance of coming to school on a regular basis. She was having a delinquency problem with many of the children being taken back to a Reserve for the smallest of ressons for a week or two, or whatever time it happened to be that the parent wanted.

She was stressing the importance of an education to get a good job.

A little girl in this third grade class said "Why do we need an education, my family doesn't work".

That was stold to me by the teacher that this happened to.

Wait... are there no schools on the reserves themselves?

Oh yes, there are.

Can't say what goes on in them, although there have been reports of teachers being assaulted and some going without being paid.

It may be that if you can't get a real teaching position, you teach at a Reserve for a while. That's my take anyway.

depends on the size of the reserve and the remoteness

some reserves send their kids away (especially for the higher grades) and pay for the kids to be billeted. Some areas have a live in school with dormitories that several reserves share.

While the various treaties acknowledge that a school will be built on every reserve, its just not always practical.

Well, I can only suggest that educational issues should be the first thing to address in First Nations issues. It's not about raising kids to get jobs. It's about humans being capable of dealing with various circumstances. I mean, let's just take domestic violence or food shortage as examples. Educated people lare much more likely to be able to deal with such issues than uneducated ones.

Not practical, you say. Well, not in the short-term of course. Education is never practical in the short-term. It takes a generation at least for improvements in education to kick in. But I'd say that this is the achilles' heel on trying to improve this sort of business. Without education we're basically dealing with barbarians, whether that's politically correct or not. Modern society is founded on education and I cannot stress enough, not just to get a job, but to be able to handle life in general. One of the extremely few good things about Iceland is the high level of education, as it's seen as a right, not a luxury, and it's not even about getting jobs. It's just about being able to handle life and be capable of acquiring more information later in life.

Just my two cents. I'm really surprised that this isn't a bigger issue. To me, it's more important to maintain free and good education than to pay for housing or police even health care. I honestly think education should become the primary concern on this issue.

1. Make sure that teachers that teach in reserves are not there just because they're incompetent. This can only be done by paying those teachers higher salaries than elsewhere, contradictory as it may sound to some.

2. Force children to go to school. It shouldn't even be an option, and parents taking their kids out of school for weeks at a time is bordering on rights violation in my not-so-humble opinion, since education in modern society is a right, not a luxury. Parents don't own their children, and I'm terribly sorry if some parent here is offended, but you don't own your children. The children shouldn't suffer their entire lives just because their parents were too dumb to understand the importance of education.

3. Maintain discipline in the classroom, with security guards if necessary.

Even if you disagree with these propositions, in my opinion, these problems are not going anywhere until education is sorted out. What you're telling me here is just a recipe for social problems and permanent inequality in terms of social status and opportunities.

And I repeat, I'm not talking about job training. I'm talking about general education; life training.

Does this make sense to anyone here?

helghig... you are preaching to the choir on this chat group...

Indeed.

But you're absolutely correct....on all points, imo.

The biggest problems faced on many reserves is the remoteness of the community and safety issues on the reserves. My guess is it is very difficult to recruit teachers to move to these community's.

We are affiliated with several school programs at my place of work and as we serve a predominantly aboriginal population, the whole school thing is quite incredulous. These are special programs with a very high teacher to student ratio. Attendance is unreal. I could never imagine my kids missing as much school as what I see happen here. Punctuality is non existent. I'm not in a position to comment on how the academics of these students compare to others, but based on just what I see regarding attendance, I can't see how it can be anywhere near comparable. I can only imagine what the situation must be like on some of the reserves.

@StNorberter. Keep up the good fight in the darkside... You likely won't win up against uber-radical left wingers such as northener and Shaynelle. But keep up the good fight.

BTW, I agree with you...

grumpy old man wrote:The biggest problems faced on many reserves is the remoteness of the community and safety issues on the reserves. My guess is it is very difficult to recruit teachers to move to these community's.

Yet another reason why such reserves ought to be shutdown and have the residents move to places where they can participate in society like anyone else - education & training leading to peeps become taxpayers and net contributors to the economy.