Canada’s shame, Part II
p2pnet news | Freedom:- “I don’t want others to go to school in portables that leak, windows don’t open, washroom doors don’t close and ceilings are cracked. This is not an atmosphere for learning.”
That’s Shannon Koostachin, a 13-year-old student living not in a third world country, but here in Canada.
She’s a member of an isolated Cree community at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River where it drains into James Bay in Northern Ontario.
And she used to be one of the forgotten children.
But not any more because P2P, People to People power, is helping her tell not only other Canadians, but the whole world, just how disgracefully the Canadian government is treating her and all the other local children.
She and her friends in Attawapiskat are entitled to exactly the same resources kids in other parts of Canada receive as a matter of routine
Instead, the conditions under which they’re expected to learn resemble those found only in the poorest of developing countries.
The Netnewsledger has NDP digital culture spokesman Charlie Angus saying there was an agreement signed between the government of Canada and Attawapiskat to build a new school.
“These children have not had a school for the past 7 years because a diesel spill contaminated the soil underneath JR Nakogee School over 25 years ago,” he states.
“Government after government and Minister after Minister, including Jim Prentice, said they would rectify the problem.
“Well here we are in 2008 and there’s no new school …….”
Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl (inset) should be blushing with shame. But he isn’t. Rather, he says, “the children will have to wait another 8 years (five in delay and three for building) before they can have a ‘real’ school,” according to Taking it Global, which continues >>>
The education of First Nation children in Northern Ontario is not a priority for the government.
But the children of Attawapiskat say different.
They are fighting for the right to go to a proper school and they are asking other students to help them.
“If you’re Canadian and you care, help by getting this on Slashdot, Digg, del.icio.us, Technorati, Stumbledupon, and anywhere else you can think of,” said p2pnet in April, adding >>>
Start a Facebook group.
This might be OK for the likes of him and Prentice, but it’s not OK by citzens of the digital 21st century.
Meanwhile, the battle to make sure the Attawapiskat kids get the same treatment as others in Canada is just beginning.
Next up? The launch of a Quebec Attawapiskat video campaign.
Stay tuned.
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May 25th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Our government is constantly supplying money to reserves and to the first nation people. Blame the Band members.
I am fed up with all the whining. I wish I could get a job and not pay any taxes and have the regular tax payers feed money back to my reserve so I could keep all my own money. Oh wait I’d rather not take advantage of any of the programs that are offered, not work, sit on my butt and whine that the government is at fault cause they don’t give us enough money.
What other nationality in Canada gets free education their whole life including university(free dorms) and when they are finished they never have to pay taxes on the money they earn.
Sorry I’m not sympathetic.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Coconut, did you know that for every dollar spent on First Nations people, between 60 to 80 cents is spend on non-native and native bureacracy. The majority of it paying non native bureacratic salaries. The annual indian affairs budget is roughly, when I last checked, was roughly 6 billion.
When schools are built, it’s non-native companies and employees that stand to benefit.
For taxation purposes, this is confined to on-reserve only. Salaries not earned on-reserve are subject to taxes payable like anyone else, regardless whether one is treaty exempt. As for free education, it’s a treaty right in exchange for the land Canada now enjoys. Or perhaps you’d care to give back the land ….