More money

Apparently, the UN sent some flunky to Canada to write a report about how native women who married off-reserve should have their status restored, be compensated and handed more money.  Yep, the UN is horning in on the issue because that's what the UN does to justify its existence.

We give native billions every year, but again, not enough.  You know how many billions?  $20,500,000,000 is the overall budget for Indigenous and Crown affairs, another $1.4 billion on dental, vision and pharmaceutical (not required by treaties or constitution, by the way) and topped off with another $15 billion tossed in for good measure as compensation for forcibly educating them in residential, i.e., boarding, schools.  Do the math, that's a lot of money to deal with the country's 1.8 million natives.  But as usual, it's not enough.  Here was the headline today in 'The Globe and Mail':  "Indigenous women stripped of status should receive compensation:  UN official."

The Indian Act was amended in 1985 to allow native women to retain their status even if they marry off-reserve, but their demand is to now go back and restore the status of thousands of native women pre-1985 and give them more billions.  It should be noted that native men who married off-reserve did not lose their status and even after the passing of the 1985 bill, lineage still follows the male line, even though natives themselves trace their heritage through the maternal line.   

It's insane, but the UN "special rapporteur" on the rights of Indigenous peoples, some guy called Jose Cali Tzay -- credentials unknown, other than that he is a Mayan from Guatemala, thus with a personal axe to grind -- just wrapped up a "fact-finding" tour across Canada and has now declared that, "Canada must create a timely and accessible remedy to compensate women and their descendants made ineligible for status."

Tzay also called on the Canadian government to, "remove barriers to Indigenous self-governance and allow 'nations' their right to self-determination and to assert their own identity."  Self-governance they already have in spades.  No sane politician would dream of making any decision affecting natives without consulting ad-nauseum with every band, tribe or leader within a thousand-mile radius.  

But what Tzay doesn't realize is that, in the face of their cries to the contrary, natives do not want to touch one word in 'The Indian Act' because that is the mechanism by which the money flows.  That act isn't going anywhere.    

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Another headline that caught my eye the other day proclaimed Trudeau's intent to convene a "closed door probe" into election interference by the Chinese.  How can a "probe" be "closed door"?  It can't.  It's all moot, of course, because this issue isn't going away.  Never mind that he has promised to appoint a "special rapporteur" sometime soon to look into whether or not an official inquiry is required, it still won't go away.  Evidently, Trudeau has much to hide -- probably millions in election-donation fiddling -- but the public isn't buying his delay tactics and obfuscation.

Please Gawd let this be the issue that brings him down.  Oh ya, I forgot, the NDP has entered into an iron-clad agreement to support him, so it won't bring him down.  Why?  Because as Bob Fife said, "In the next election, the NDP is toast."

Please Gawd.............please.   

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Another sad story on a northern Indian reservation:

The headline says it all.  Apparently, the animals were "pets".  Did someone not feed them?  So, so sad.  It's also a crime and the parents should be charged with neglect of the dogs and murder of the innocent child.  A 10-year-old child also died in a house fire on another reservation the other day.  It just goes on and on.....