Here she goes again

I'm talking about 'Globe and Mail' columnist Tanya Talaga.  She's always raving on about some Indigenous issue or other and this time it's about the $47.8 billion -- yes billion!!! -- agreement they struck with the Federal Government to compensate families whose children were taken into care, but which is being held up by yet more lawsuits by native leaders for more.

The big question Talaga fails to mention is why they were taken into care in the first place?  She claims it was because of discrimination.  Nice try, but obviously it was because these children were being neglected or abused.  The State does not take children into care for no reason because it's very expensive.  

There are reasons they are removed from their homes, but Talaga never mentions them.  She just goes on about how the money needs to get to the children, which of course it never will.  It'll be scooped up by native leaders before it ever finds itself into a designated bank account.

Want to know the percentage of children in care who are Indigenous?  53 percent!  Yep, that's right, 53% of all children in care are natives, yet they comprise only eight percent of the total population.  In Manitoba it's 90%.  90 percent of all children in care in that province are native!  And what's the budget for this fiasco?  $23.3 billion, but they want another $47.8!!!  That's completely shocking.

But Talaga never reveals any of this because it would skew her story about how awful society is to native children.  No, Tanya, it's the parents themselves who are awful.  That's why the children are taken into care, often at birth.  

"More delays mean more lives harmed," said Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler.  Yes, harmed by their own parents and families, but no one -- save me -- will ever mention this inconvenient truth.

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Another Indigenous story revolves around the Mi'kmaw in Nova Scotia which has banned provincial officials, including the premier, from setting foot on its land.  The reason?  The band has a huge illegal cannabis industry it doesn't want anyone to disrupt.

Big illegal money in this crop on the reserve.

Here's a bulletin:  All reserve lands are Crown land.  They do not belong to the band, they belong to the Crown, i.e., the Federal government, but given over to the natives for their use.  They are not, however, owned by them.  So how can they ban federal and provincial officials from setting foot on the land they own?

They can't, but they are.  "The Nova Scotia Provincial Government has no jurisdiction on reserve lands," said one chief.  Ah, but they do, chief.  It's not your land, but once again no one dares mention this.  Except me.

We're being had.