Pulling back the curtain...

...we see a whole new perspective on Indigenous versus non-Indigenous income.  This is from 'The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy':

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"Public discussions about income disparities often assume systemic barriers are the primary explanation.

"But new research suggests the reality is more nuanced.

"A new report released today by the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy—What leads to indigenous success? Education, location, and a full-time career—examines key factors behind income differences between Indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians.

"Using recent Census data, the analysis finds that when like-to-like comparisons are made—accounting for hours worked, education levels, and location—income differences largely disappear.

"Key findings:

• In Canada’s five largest Census Metropolitan Areas—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau, and Calgary—the median employment income is roughly the same for Indigenous and non-indigenous people working full-time with the same level of education. 

• However, overall, Indigenous Canadians do earn less on average, with a median employment income of $36,400 annually, compared to $43,200 for non-indigenous Canadians. But once we account for education, geography, and how much someone works, the disparities disappear. 

• Of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, Indigenous Canadians actually earn more than their peers. But only 15 percent of Indigenous workers have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 33 percent of non-indigenous workers. 

• The median after-tax income for Indigenous Canadians is 29 percent higher for those who live off a reserve as compared to those who live on a reserve. 

• Half of Indigenous workers are employed full-time throughout the year, compared to over 54 percent of non-indigenous workers. 

"The findings point to practical drivers of economic success—education, workforce participation, and access to opportunity—not systemic racism, as the federal government claims.

"The full report, What leads to indigenous success? Education, location, and a full-time career, is now available at aristotlefoundation.org."

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I don't know if these comparisons include the billions in funding given the Indigenous every year.  If they don't, then this examination is very skewed because Indigenous income would be much higher that non-Indigenous.

Nevertheless, the Indigenous will continue to claim it's systemic racism.  That's their hard-wired narrative and don't you forget it.

Indigenous incomes may actually be larger than non-Indigenous.

"Irregularities"

That's what Indigenous Services Canada is calling a $28 million dollar boondoggle swindle in how the Saskatchewan Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) spent federal money.

Gee, what a shocker!  I have been raving about this for years.  A forensic audit has found that this money was ineligible because records were missing, shipping and bills of lading not delivered, customs declarations and proof of delivery were non-existent.  So where'd the money end up?  No one knows -- or if they do, they're not telling.

Folks, we all know that fraud on this file has been occurring forever, but because Justin Trudeau cancelled accountability, it just continues to run rampant.  Not all Indigenous leaders are guilty of this.  Clarence Louie, chief of the Osoyoos Band in B.C., for example, is someone I have a lot of respect for.  Rob Louie, who I assume is related to Chief Louie and is president of the Band Members Advocacy and Alliance Association of Canada, is demanding the matter be investigated by police.

"The forensic audit appears to show a reclassification of cheques and other suspicious financial transactions that would suggest fraud under section 266 of the Criminal Code of Canada," Louie wrote to FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron.  "There is still time for you to make things right.

Chief Rob Louie is smelling a large rat.  Good for him!

"The federal government is not the problem; the accounting firm that carried out the forensic audit is not the problem and white people are not the problem," he continued.  "The problem is that somewhere along the way, a culture of entitlement was created that needs to be rooted out of the FSIN immediately."

Mr. Louie has demanded the resignation of the FSIN executive and a public apology, among other remedial actions.

Amen Chief Louie!  What do you think will happen?  Mandy Gull-Masty is the minister of Indigenous Services and she's a Cree, so I'd wager nothing.

My blogs tell you that I am a Maclean-Hunter journalist, trained to pull back the curtain to find out who's involved and what's the agenda.  That's what I still do.  What I have found on this file was, that as usual, we're being had.

    

Ludicrous

I watched part of the NDP leadership convention, but only part of it because I could bear it no longer.  People were getting up on points of privilege and points of order, but not on substance.  No, they were complaining about incorrect gender identification and who missed his-her-they-their turn at the mic.  They were even complaining about the colour of the card they had been issued!  

When Lewis gave his victory speech, the only flag flying on the stage was the Palestinian one!  How could that be allowed?!  It was to weep, but they're irrelevant and will never gain power, so it doesn't matter a whit.

How do they expect to be taken seriously when all they whine about is gender and other related nonsense?!  So, they elected Avi Lewis as leader.  No surprise there, but I'm sorry to break it to you, Canada is not ready for a Jewish prime minister.

Canada is also not ready for a prime minister who promises to faze out all fossil fuels and find new jobs for sector workers.  What?!  There are no other jobs, buddy.  Get ahold of yourself!

Current NDP leader Lewis, on his way to defeat.

This is in no way a racist comment, but Canadians are basically small-c conservative; they don't want a member of a closed sect, cult or religion running the country and the Jewish community is a closed one, as are the Mormon, Muslim and Jehovah Witnesses sects, i.e., cults.  JFK almost lost the Democratic Party leadership because he was Catholic, another perceived cult back then.  So, it's not gonna work for Canada.

Then again, neither do they want a woman.  Remember Kim Campbell's disastrous tenure?  How long did it last, five months?  Then she was thrown out on her a-s in an election, which saw the Conservatives reduced to two seats.  Let's face it, she was no Margaret Thatcher.

Same thing happened to Larry Grossman, when he tried to become premier of Ontario.  Ontario is -- or was then -- a very conservative province à la John Robarts.  And just ask Bernie Saunders in the U.S. how his religion figured into his defeat.  Just ask Elizabeth Warren what happened to her hysterical and strident campaign.  

So, now the NDP are facing complete destruction.  Good riddance, is all I can say.  Government-run grocery stores, are you kidding!?  But all radical leftists, like Lewis, are personally rich, so they can afford to be idealogues.  Must be nice.

  

Ruining lives and livliehoods

That's what is going on in Lytton, or in what used to be Lytton.  Five years ago, wildfires raged through the town, effectively destroying it, but the re-building has been an almost bigger fiasco.

Lytton, still in ruins.

In fact, there is barely any re-building happening because the whole thing had to align with the 2019 Declaration Act, which protects native rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) -- a disasterous approach which is ruining lives and destroying livliehoods because the local indigenous people are standing in the way of construction in case someone unearths a bow and arrow or a feather.

The B.C. government is also to blame because it put the whole process in the hands of Lytton's manager and meagre staff, instead of under the guidance of professional engineers and planners.  No, premier John Horgan, in his infinite "wisdom", decided it would be better to have the traumatized manager and six other inexperienced staff run the operation.  The fact that none had any expertise in such matters was of no consequence whatsoever.

That's when it all fell to pieces.  Horgan walked away in 2022 and David Eby -- an NDP lunatic, in my opinion -- took over.  He merely replaced Horgan without an election and has ensured the town remains stuck in the mess five years on.  I mean, G-d forbid someone finds a peace pipe or part of a wigwam!

The ineptitude of the town burghers and the local indigenous, under the protection of UNDRIP, are the main stumbling blocks because during the site preparation process, a few artifacts were unearthed, which gave the Nlaka'pamux people the authority to order an archeological examination of the entire area.  

They stopped the entire process.  Nothing is being done.

What has all this cost?  Well, initial estimates were that it would cost $5.1 million for debris removal and soil remediation.  But, true to form, that ballooned to $16.7 million within months.  Now?  B.C. has handed Lytton more than $60 million -- with absolutely no accounting for the funds doled out.

What artifacts have been unearthed?  Well, no one knows because, well......no one knows because, well......no one is accountable.  I mean, archeologists have to take their time.  Just ask those still unearthing tombs in Egypt, which Howard Carter started in 1922.  It's still going on!

The fault lies with with a government that couldn't be bothered to put people and expertise on the ground right after the fire who could truly help Lytton re-build.  

What a crime for the people who lived there.  It didn't have to be this way, but with Eby in charge, it will be.

 

Are they that paranoid?

I'm talking about the hysteria over an English statement put out by Air Canada President Michael Rousseau.  Horror of horror, it was in English (with French translation, but apparently that doesn't count)!

The guy may have a French name, but he's English.  Correct me if I'm wrong -- and apparently all the hysterics in the media would say I am -- but the last time I checked, Air Canada is no longer a crown corporation, so was not under federal bilingual rules.  English is one of our official languages; it's also the language of international air traffic and business -- even in France.

I bet if the message had been in French only, no one would have batted an eye.  Get my drift?

But no, the French media and the Quebec government lost their minds and went insane.  Pundits were all over the air waves rending their garments and gnashing their teeth in risible displays of outrage and the premier demanded his resignation.  Legault probably wants Rousseau's head on a stick!  

Legault calling for Rousseau's head.

Never mind the tragic death of the two young pilots, both in their thirties.  No, never mind that, that's nothing.  The crime is the fact that the English president of Air Canada issued a statement of sympathy in English.  Rousseau was in a mad rush to get to the crash site, which he appropriately deemed more important than waiting around for someone to work up French cue cards.

Carney was disgracefully right in the thick of it, complaining along.  What do you think would have happened if the message had been in French, with English subtitles?  Nothing.  Think about that for a minute.

There was also the impending by-election in Terrebonne that had to be paramount.  So, French, French and French were the watchwords here.  To put an election above decent humanity is appalling, but that's what the Liberals did. 

It's absolutely preposterous.

That's the level of paranoia francophones apparently have over their precious French language in this country.  It overrides even death.  Shockingly, the 'Globe and Mail's front page ran with the story as it's lead headline.

If it weren't so tragic, it would be funny.  Frankly, I wonder how the families of those young men feel with no one talking about their children; apparently that's an annoying sidebar.  It's only the language the president used that so mightily offends.  I'd be furious that no one ran stories about my child's background and career in such a tragedy.

The French lost the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759 and the French have been pouting ever since.  The British, in their misplaced magnanimity, bent over backwards to accommodate the losing party by making French an official language and giving control of provincial education to the Catholic Church.  Ridiculously, we've been bending over backwards to accommodate them ever since.

The British prevailed.

I'm sick of it.

   

What's the issue?

Why is this so difficult?  The principle of the division of Church and State must apply when anyone is dispensing a public service because the public must not know the religion of a public servant when accessing such a service.  Plain and simple.  This does, of course, not apply to those who work in the private sector; only the public.

Two different things that must be kept separate.

Naturally, religious groups are hysterically up-in-arms, charging the government with discrimination and all manner of nefarious intentions.  No, people.  It's just separation of Church and State and I wholly embrace it.

But it's going to the Supreme Court anyway.  Look the principle up, if you don't get it. The separation of church and state is:

"A legal and philosophical doctrine that prevents the government from establishing a state religion which favours one faith.  This wall of separation ensures religious freedom and secular governance."  How much clearer can it be?

When I worked at the Public Service Commission, senior management committee would spend hours debating whether public servants could put up lawn signs during election campaigns.  It was ludicrous.  They could not, but Edgar Gallant, then-commissioner, couldn't wrap his thick head around it.  

Anyway, the debate rages and the only people benefiting are the lawyers.

I have blogged this countless times, but it still rears its unnecessary head.  Oh well, it will give Richard Wagner and his gang something to chew on.  Going to post an old blog about this because it still applies.  (See above)  

Can't get one anymore

I'm talking about a great, old-fashioned club sandwich.  When was the last time you found an edible variety on any menu?  For me, the absolute best club sandwich I have ever eaten was at the 'Miss Cornwall' restaurant in Cornwall, Ontario.  

It was spectacular!  Ordinary white bread stuffed with real chicken, real cheddar, ordinary bacon, lettuce and tomato -- all smeared with plain mayonnaise.  So delicious I still remember it with my mouth watering 20-odd years on!

If you order one anywhere today you'll get ciabatta bread, fake chicken and aioli mayo.  Ridiculous.  I also can't stand cilantro and arugula -- all favourites with today's chefs.  They put that sh-t on everything!  Why?!

"You can't speak to a chef," I said to one waitress a while ago, while asking for plain Hellman's.  Because you can't.  They know everything and to h-ll with the customer.  They just can't be spoken to.  

I googled the 'Miss Cornwall' and found it closed.  It was huge and tacky and perfect!

Here it is in all its glorious tackiness.

The fact of the matter is that you can't get good food anywhere these days.  It's all ruined with silliness.  Wait, I take that back.  You can still get a great club at 'The Texas Gate' hotel here in Cochrane.  They also have liver and onions on the menu, so I order either when we go.  It's another tacky, perfect spot on the main drag.

Here is another great spot to get ordinary food.

So, if you're ever in Cochrane, stop in at the last remaining restaurant for ordinary food.  Sigh...........