Finally

...someone else is speaking out about the ludicrous drain First Nations are making on the federal treasury.  Tom Flanagan, senior fellow of the Fraser Institute and a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, has just released a report about this scandal. 

Since 1974, Canada has forked out....wait for it...sit down....$5.7 billion to natives claiming some sort of "whatever".  And that does not include the regular transfers to reserves -- another $19 billion a year.  This was all part of a "specific claim" process set up in the seventies designed to redress historical grievances to be settled once and for all, but these stock claims have turned into a never-ending flow, writes Flanagan.  The specific claims process has become a perpetual motion machine, dragging in all sorts of retroactive issues that arose more than a century ago, when this doctrine had not even existed. 

"The first nations that get the money are simply those that can find a set of historical facts that fits conveniently into current legal frameworks," he writes.  Thank you the late Jim Prentice who, when the minister responsible in 2008, put "reforms" in place and created a separate 'Specific Claims Tribunal' for a 10-year period.  Repeatedly re-jigged to make it more favourable to first nations, the 10-year limit is now endless.

And have these payouts done anything to improve the lot of reserve natives?  Of course not.  In fact most claimants are not getting any money because their leaders keep it.  The US created such a claim system in 1946, but put a five-year time limit for filing claims and went out of business a long time ago.

Not so here.  You'd think that 44 years would have been enough time to review what had happened and pay out claims.  But no, after settling 450, the tribunal is still dealing with a growing backlog of approximately 400 cases, with another 130 currently in litigation.  It has to stop, but won't.  "The Assembly of First Nations won't like it," says Flanagan.  No, of course the AFN won't like it because it will finally stop a ceaseless flow of money into its coffers.  I know personally of one status native who brags about perpetuating the "injustices" he believes have been done with his children and grandchildren.  How are future generations going to get over it all and integrate?  They won't with this guy's attitude.

With this government, no one dares upset the natives.  In fact, yesterday I gagged as I listened to Indian Affairs Minister Jane Philpott go on about the plight of native children who comprise the majority of children taken into care.  She seems to think that money will change this.  It won't.

Hurl yourself into the real world Philpott.  Wake up.