Re-printed from 'The Catholic Register'................
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Re-printed from 'The Catholic Register'................
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For anyone complaining about health care in Alberta, here's a bulletin: I just called SaveOn about flu shots for homebound folks because B had a fall and can't do stairs at the moment.
"Yes, we can come to you," said the pharmacist. And in less than 40 minutes, a charming pharmacist (she's also a swim buddy) showed up at the door and gave us both COVID and flu shots. Just like that!
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| All done and dusted for this season. |
How impressive!!
I had called Shoppers, because their website advertised this service in big, bold letters, but the pharmacist there had no clue what I was talking about? I actually had to direct him to the website that advertises it. "Oh, I didn't know we did that?" he said, adding that they don't offer off-site shots at all.
Duh! "Well, perhaps you need to let your owner know that it's on your site, but you don't actually offer it," I helpfully suggested.
That's when I called SaveOn and over she came. As I said, anyone who complains about health care needs to move to Ontario to encounter real health care conundra. That province is an unholy mess!
So, B and I have had our shots and it took less than an hour from phone call to jab.
p.s. Don't move here because it'll ruin what we have.
...who'll turn up on a service call. My computer wouldn't synch, so I called 'Cochrane Computers' and a guy named Tony popped over.
As I always do -- it's the old journalist in me -- I started interviewing him. "I'm from the Tobacco Plains Nation," he told me, a reserve in the East Kootenay valley which abuts onto Montana. Boy, did he sure know a lot about the Indigenous file -- including all the illegal (just my opinion) actions of chiefs across Canada.
We watched footage I had posted online about the Cowichan reserve, which showed a disgraceful dump with garbage strewn everywhere. He knew all about it, but then he showed me footage of Tobacco Plains and that was a different story. It was clean and beautiful.
We started talking money, my favourite subject on this file, and he knew a lot about that too -- including vast corruption, which he acknowledged exists everywhere. I referenced the 1969 White Paper, written by Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien. Remember that? It recommended all Indigenous leave their ghettos (the paper used that word back then) and integrate into Canadian society.
Well, at that all Hell broke loose! The chiefs called it "racist" and a move that would make their people the lesser equals of every other Canadian. The reality was that they refused to give up their perks. Tony agreed and assured me it was still happening today.
He also said, however, that he is the only native he knows who will speak honestly about the corruption. Our old friends Tanya Talaga and the always-hysterical Pam Palmeter, certainly aren't two of them. I am acquainted with a few status natives out here, who have left the reserve and are very successful, thanks to their moving. All say they can't say anything. So until the Indigenous themselves start speaking out, nothing will change.
When the White Paper was trod upon, an angry Pierre Trudeau told the chiefs, “Okay, then stay in your ghetto”. He withdrew the paper and initiated the Indigenous Policy, basically unchanged for the last fifty-plus years, namely: Send money and don't touch the Indian Act. As I have said, the chiefs claim they want to change the Act, but they don't.
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| The chiefs turned their backs on real reform. |
Pierre Trudeau got one thing wrong when he angrily told the chiefs that they could stay in their ghettos. The chiefs are not in ghettos at all. They enjoy generous tax-free-salaries and expense accounts. Life is good for them and for the many other people who feed off this system -- a system Indigenous leaders like William Wuttunee and Calvin Helin sardonically – but accurately – called “The Indian Industry”.
The question must still be asked: What if those chiefs in 1969 had at least agreed to consider Trudeau’s plan and work with him to address their legitimate concerns? Would we now live in a country where more indigenous people had integrated into the mainstream, while keeping those parts of their Indigenous identity that mattered most to them?
They didn't want any part of it, so we'll never know. But as I always say, it's all about money. So when Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak et al start raving about protecting pristine land, don't buy it.
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First it was the decimation of elvers (baby eels), now it's lobster. This is what is happening mainly in New Brunswick, where Fisheries officers just intercepted another 4,000 illegal live lobsters being shipped for sale out of province. They have been returned to the ocean.
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| Illegal lobster harvest by the Indigenous in New Brunswick. |
The problem is dishonesty, flagrant law breaking and, of course, money.
The Indigenous are permitted to harvest eels and lobster out-of-season, but only if they are being used for ceremonial purposes or food for their own households and not to sell. Naturally, that's being ignored. I mean, how many households need 4,000 lobsters?! And who uses lobster or elvers in ceremonies?!
(I blogged the illegal elvers harvest, see "Still at it", July 4th, 2025)
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I have been following the Ottawa mayoralty race and I am amazed that Mark Sutcliffe has the nerve to run again. Any stroll down Rideau, Elgin or Bank Streets will tell you that it is a disgrace to any city, let alone a capital. There are bums, drunks and drug users everywhere shooting up, urinating and defecating in broad daylight!
What does the guy do, besides swan around parties getting his picture taken? When I was a child, my Mother used to take me shopping to Freiman's and Ogilvie's and it was a real treat. Now, I wouldn't let my grandchildren near any of them.
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A word about the Quebec election. The PQ has won, but with only 28% of the vote, it's hard to figure out why? I guess it's the first-past-the-post system, but it may be time to change that.
I love the way the new premier, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, promises he will only focus on Quebec and work towards separation. Separation won't happen and all the polls tell you that because Quebec has an historical habit of threatening separation, but never does.
Why? Because last year they received $13.9 billion in transfer payments, or 51% of all the equalization money. Guess who gives most of that? Alberta, that's who! So, Paul, you had better look outside your borders and show a little respect for this province.
But he won't. Truly pathetic.
"They need more money." That's what a young Indigenous server told me when we were eating lunch at a Calgary restaurant.
This is typical of the ignorance of natives everywhere. Last year alone, Indigenous were handed $33 billion, BILLION, for a total population of 1.8 million souls. "Have you been to Morley lately?" I asked this young lady. Morley is a reserve on the Trans Canada between Calgary and Banff about 50 kms from here and it's a complete dump.
Part of the Stoney Nakoda "Nation", its elected leaders gave themselves hefty 20 percent raises of $3.3 million in salaries alone -- twice what they billed last year. However, figures are unclear because the overall total of $34 million appears in a handy, undefined line item called “other expenses.”
That's a lot of "other expenses". According to Wikipedia, "...Revenues for the band west of Calgary were significantly larger than expected in the fiscal year ending March 31 at $108 million, but Morley still posted a larger-than-forecast deficit of nearly $17 million, according to numbers released under the 'First Nations Financial Transparency Act'.
So, they don't need more money. What Indigenous people like our server need to ask themselves is, "What are our leaders doing with the money?" As I said, they don't need more of it, but that's the ubiquitous default narrative.
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| This is Morley, just down the road. The leaders gave themselves hefty raises, but no one knows where the $34 million went?? |
I don't care what Carney and Smith say about a new pipeline to the West coast, it ain't gonna happen. Carney has no intention of approving one and I think, although she knows that, Smith has to say it'll happen to satisfy her base and claim she's getting it done. Smith wants a pipeline, but knows Carney will block it with unreachable conditions. He's so cynical.
Such conditions are vast, such as getting private-sector buy in before it begins construction -- which won't happen. And then, of course, the Indigenous have already chimed in saying they'll oppose it. That was a given.
Carney's also given a year for the 'Major Projects Office' to approve it, after he's taken 18 months to even put it on the table.
So no, it's not gonna happen and everyone knows it except the cloth heads who keep blindly supporting Carney. Watch Elie Cantin Natel interview Georgeanne Burke on YouTube for the latter's analysis about Carney and his supporters.
For a country as rich in raw materials as Canada, it's a sin we can't get anything done to get our riches to eager markets.
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| The phantom pipeline that won't materialize. |