Who's going to pay for it?

That's a rhetorical question for one of the most one-sided, unrealistic, biased columnists to ever hit a newspaper:  Tanya Talaga.

In yesterday's Globe, she waxed on about how first nations should be given sole control over child welfare legislation affecting native children.  "We have the right to make our own laws to protect our own children," she lamented.

Problem is, when native children are taken out of the their homes because of neglect or abuse and taken in under the Native Kinship Program by extended family, statistics show that outcomes for these vulnerable kids are dire.  Remember, the parents abusing their own kids were raised by the very grandparents or aunts and uncles with whom the kids are being placed! 

How can that work?  Where do you think the abusive parents got their values and child "care" practices?

Cree toddler Serenity.

Remember the case of little Serenity, a native toddler who was found physically abused and starved in her own home and given to her grandparents under the above-kinship program?  (See "They wanted it", May 25, 2017)  They also abused and starved her, but this time to death.  

Naturally, the parents blamed 'the system', but never took any responsibility for why she was in care in the first place.  There's a reason native children compose only eight percent of the total population, but make up 53.8 percent of those in care.  Let that sink in.  

The numbers don't lie and those are very sad numbers.  The total budget for Indigenous Services is $16.5 billion.  Billion!!  For child and family Indigenous services alone, the budget is $542 million, so anyone in the Native Kinship Program gets LOTS of money to take these kids in.  As usual, they blame "colonialism" and "chronic under-funding".  

Underfunding?!  Check the numbers.  Time for natives to ask their own leadership where the money is going.  Oh wait, I forgot, Trudeau cancelled the Accountability Act and chiefs are now refusing to release any numbers to their band members.  Can you spell "fraud"?

Talaga claims that, "We can make our own laws concerning our kids."  If that's so, why are so many Indigenous children and youth committing suicide in despair? 

"It's time for Canadian governments to respect the inherent Indigenous right to self-governance.  Taking care of our children extends beyond courtrooms.  But unfortunately, it appears that the courts are the only thing Canada seems to listen to," she complains. 

Talaga never mentions who'll be paying for it all, because, as I said, that's rhetorical.  Her credibility is skewed because she isn't really fully native; she's half Polish and was raised in downtown Toronto -- not on a reserve where she might have gained direct, plausible, on-site experience.  

And I marvel at the fact that she never, ever gives statistics, data or numbers to support her positions.  When I was toiling away at Maclean Hunter as an editor, anything I wrote had to be backed up by facts and proof.  Talaga's position seems to be, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind's made up."

As you can deduce, I have no time for her.