Charmaine's perspective

Before I get to my exchanges with Charmaine Stick, of the Onion Lake Band, a woman who is fighting to force her band council to reveal what they are doing with the money they receive, I wanted to make a couple of points:

This morning, at my local YMCA, they were giving out free masks to anyone who wanted them -- be they Y members or not.  People were just driving up, getting a package of masks and driving off.  Hey, I bought mine at London Drugs!  Why is the Y giving them away?  This is all in aid of the fact that Calgary has enacted a bylaw that says all citizens out-and-about in public spaces must wear a mask.  That's a good thing, but I don't want to pay for them, thanks.

The other thing that pisses me off (there are always so many) is that summer students are on a campaign to make sure they don't have to write exams because they have been so traumatized by COVID.  They are lobbying to get a pass without an exam.  Bullsh-t to that, I say.  Happily, the province isn't buying.

But back to Ms. Stick.  A while ago, I blogged that I thought the elected chiefs should take precedence over the hereditary.  She vehemently disagreed.  She says band councils are illegitimate and were the creation of Indian and Northern Affairs designed solely to do the bidding of the federal government, which tried to impose its view of democracy onto the native way of governing.  She claims these chiefs have become very wealthy implementing government policies and programs and pocketing money for doing so.  There, we agree.

I sent her another message asking what happens when hereditary chiefs do not agree with the elected chiefs?  I also asked who gets the federal money sent every band's way?  Obviously, it must be the elected chiefs, which is why they get rich, but she wants to know what they are doing with the money.  She has mold issues in her home and has been trying for three years to get them fixed.  What has the band council done?  Nothing.

Frankly, in my opinion, she is being ignored and treated like a "squaw".  I would tell the elected chiefs that she is not a person to be trifled with.  I wanted to donate to her legal defence fund, but she tells me her bills have been paid.  Frankly, I am learning a lot from Charmaine Stick and I am honoured she continues to correspond with me.  I will report more on this file.