Canada's forgotten minority

[RonD1120 58]

This is heartbreaking. The Attawapiskat First Nation in Ontario has had more than 100 suicides since September.

Current estimates in the U.S. state that 22 veterans per day commit suicide.

Why aren't our social programs working?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/canada-emergency-over-suicide-attempts/ar-BBrBhqe?ocid=spartandhp

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[SkyDekker 1,121]

RonD1120

This is heartbreaking. The Attawapiskat First Nation in Ontario has had more than 100 suicides since September.

Current estimates in the U.S. state that 22 veterans per day commit suicide.

Why aren't our social programs working?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/canada-emergency-over-suicide-attempts/ar-BBrBhqe?ocid=spartandhp

Completely different issues, which is probably why standard programs aren't working.

[normiss 622]

I didn't know you were Canadian.

[pchapman 261]

RonD1120

This is heartbreaking. The Attawapiskat First Nation in Ontario has had more than 100 suicides since September.

Only 1 person died in the 100+ attempts.

(At least that's what the Canadian news reports. Didn't dig deeper or check your link to see if MSN misreported or what.)

If it is a cry for help, things could be far worse.
But sarcastically, as for getting the job done, some people are pretty useless.

[normiss 622]

100 attempted is what I'm reading and hearing.

[kallend 1,623]

pchapman

Only 1 person died in the 100+ attempts.

Clearly they are in need of training.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[BIGUN 1,051]

kallend

***

Only 1 person died in the 100+ attempts.

Clearly they are in need of training.


Clearly, the most vile thing you've said in 14 years.

Quote

Reasons cited for the many suicide attempts are: overcrowding with 14 to 15 people living in one home; bullying at school, residential schools, physical, sexual and drug abuse Triggers include overcrowding, abuse

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[turtlespeed 212]

kallend

***

Only 1 person died in the 100+ attempts.

Clearly they are in need of training.

Classy!

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[DanG 1]

Kallend's comment was pretty bad, but so was pchapman's. Neither was funny.

- Dan G

[normiss 622]

Hey!

We in America treat blacks the same way.
What's the problem?

[headoverheels 291]

pchapman

Only 1 person died in the 100+ attempts.

..

If it is a cry for help, things could be far worse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gQjygG05N4

[nolhtairt 0]

pchapman

***This is heartbreaking. The Attawapiskat First Nation in Ontario has had more than 100 suicides since September.

Only 1 person died in the 100+ attempts.

(At least that's what the Canadian news reports. Didn't dig deeper or check your link to see if MSN misreported or what.)

If it is a cry for help, things could be far worse.
But sarcastically, as for getting the job done, some people are pretty useless.

So... clearly we're not the only nation whose indigenous people have had mental health issues, low life expectancy and high unemployment... I don't know what the suicide rate is for American Indians, but I'd bet it's higher than most ethnic groups here in the US.

So before any of you Canadians diss us for what happened to the Indians, look at your own history first. It may not be as bad, but the issues they're having is not much different today.

[headoverheels 291]

kallend

***

Only 1 person died in the 100+ attempts.

Clearly they are in need of job training.

[Phil1111 910]

Mark Milke: Crunching Attawapiskat’s numbers

By Mark Milke

Imagine two small Ontario towns. One is a reserve that blocks an outside investigation into its $31.2-million annual operating budget. That town, Attawapiskat First Nation, has 1,549 people on the reserve according to the last census.

Now imagine another town, a non-native one, where recent budget estimates peg its annual operating expenditures at $8.4-million. That’s the township of Atikokan, near Thunder Bay, with 3,293 people

Careful readers will notice that the larger town, Atikokan, has a much smaller operating budget than does Attawapiskat.

Where the money is spent is also curious. According to Attawapiskat’s latest budget documents, $11.2-million went to salaries, wages and employee benefits. That equates to $7,249 per reserve resident for compensation.

In contrast, according to the latest available estimates from Atikokan, that town spends just less than $3-million on salaries and benefits, or $904 per person.

That contrast might explain the resistance by some to a third-party investigation into the finances of Attawapiskat First Nation. After all, one might reasonably ask this question: given Atikokan spent $3-million on compensation for all city staff, why must Attawapiskat spend $11.2-million? That’s an $8.2-million difference, some of which could have paid for needed housing in the Attawapiskat reserve.

Here’s another contrast. In Atikokan, (for the fiscal year ending in December 2009), the mayor’s salary was $7,713 with travel expenses of $4,268. The total cost to taxpayers thus just less than $12,000. In fact, the total for salaries and expenses for Atikokan’s mayor and seven councillors was just $46,691.

On the Attawapiskat reserve (for the fiscal year ending in March 2010) the chief’s salary alone was $51,803. In total, salaries for Attawapiskat’s chief, deputy chief and 18 councillors that year amounted to $386,129. With $28,535 in expenses, the total cost to taxpayers was $414,664. In the next fiscal year, that cost jumped to $615,552 — a 48% increase.

The Attawapiskat-Atikokan comparison isn’t the only useful contrast. Consider other northern Canadian towns that are also not reserves. In 2010, the northern Alberta town of Athabasca, with a population of 2,575, had an operating budget of $5.5-million. It spent just over $1.6-million on wages and benefits for all city staff, council included, or $644 per Athabascan. The village of Valemount, B.C., with 1,018 people, has an annual operating budget of $3.2-million. It paid out $811,852 in compensation-related expenses, or $797 per capita.

If the City of Toronto spent as much on wages, salaries and benefits as Attawapiskat, Toronto’s remuneration bill would have been $20.1-billion in 2010, as opposed to $4.8-billion (and its curiously high $1,741 per capita figure).

Such comparisons should be recalled by everyone when Chief Shawn Atleo from the Assembly of First Nations, and Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence mount the rhetorical barricades and urge everyone to move on without “assigning blame,” which is a dodge. Or when they blame “colonialism.”

A lack of money isn’t the problem. Rather, it’s how that money is spent. With the exception of obvious short-term help for the people of Attawapiskat in winter — to make up for past monies that were spent on a large bureaucracy instead of housing — more money won’t solve anything.

Instead, a long-term strategy is needed with the following elements: accountability for money spent; eventual transfers directly to individual natives with money then taxed back for band services; and property rights for individual natives on reserves, which would help instill accountability, entrepreneurship and pride.

Lastly, realism is needed about the fact so many reserves are not economically viable. For the past two centuries, people around the world have moved from rural areas to the cities. Similarly, many people on reserves (mostly in rural areas) need to find their way close to educational, economic and social opportunities in proximity to major population centres, if not for themselves, then certainly for their kids. Such opportunities are why the majority of First Nations people, 57% of them, already choose to live off-reserve.

The challenge for politicians, native and non-native alike, is to remove existing incentives for people to stay on remote reserves, and to provide transitional help those same people move closer to opportunities.

National Post

Mark Milke is a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute and author of Life is Better in the Cities, which compares economic and social indicators on reserves with those of urban Canada.
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/mark-milke-crunching-attawapiskats-numbers

[RonD1120 58]

Phil1111

Mark Milke: Crunching Attawapiskat’s numbers

By Mark Milke

Imagine two small Ontario towns. One is a reserve that blocks an outside investigation into its $31.2-million annual operating budget. That town, Attawapiskat First Nation, has 1,549 people on the reserve according to the last census.

Now imagine another town, a non-native one, where recent budget estimates peg its annual operating expenditures at $8.4-million. That’s the township of Atikokan, near Thunder Bay, with 3,293 people

Careful readers will notice that the larger town, Atikokan, has a much smaller operating budget than does Attawapiskat.

Where the money is spent is also curious. According to Attawapiskat’s latest budget documents, $11.2-million went to salaries, wages and employee benefits. That equates to $7,249 per reserve resident for compensation.

In contrast, according to the latest available estimates from Atikokan, that town spends just less than $3-million on salaries and benefits, or $904 per person.

That contrast might explain the resistance by some to a third-party investigation into the finances of Attawapiskat First Nation. After all, one might reasonably ask this question: given Atikokan spent $3-million on compensation for all city staff, why must Attawapiskat spend $11.2-million? That’s an $8.2-million difference, some of which could have paid for needed housing in the Attawapiskat reserve.

Here’s another contrast. In Atikokan, (for the fiscal year ending in December 2009), the mayor’s salary was $7,713 with travel expenses of $4,268. The total cost to taxpayers thus just less than $12,000. In fact, the total for salaries and expenses for Atikokan’s mayor and seven councillors was just $46,691.

On the Attawapiskat reserve (for the fiscal year ending in March 2010) the chief’s salary alone was $51,803. In total, salaries for Attawapiskat’s chief, deputy chief and 18 councillors that year amounted to $386,129. With $28,535 in expenses, the total cost to taxpayers was $414,664. In the next fiscal year, that cost jumped to $615,552 — a 48% increase.

The Attawapiskat-Atikokan comparison isn’t the only useful contrast. Consider other northern Canadian towns that are also not reserves. In 2010, the northern Alberta town of Athabasca, with a population of 2,575, had an operating budget of $5.5-million. It spent just over $1.6-million on wages and benefits for all city staff, council included, or $644 per Athabascan. The village of Valemount, B.C., with 1,018 people, has an annual operating budget of $3.2-million. It paid out $811,852 in compensation-related expenses, or $797 per capita.

If the City of Toronto spent as much on wages, salaries and benefits as Attawapiskat, Toronto’s remuneration bill would have been $20.1-billion in 2010, as opposed to $4.8-billion (and its curiously high $1,741 per capita figure).

Such comparisons should be recalled by everyone when Chief Shawn Atleo from the Assembly of First Nations, and Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence mount the rhetorical barricades and urge everyone to move on without “assigning blame,” which is a dodge. Or when they blame “colonialism.”

A lack of money isn’t the problem. Rather, it’s how that money is spent. With the exception of obvious short-term help for the people of Attawapiskat in winter — to make up for past monies that were spent on a large bureaucracy instead of housing — more money won’t solve anything.

Instead, a long-term strategy is needed with the following elements: accountability for money spent; eventual transfers directly to individual natives with money then taxed back for band services; and property rights for individual natives on reserves, which would help instill accountability, entrepreneurship and pride.

Lastly, realism is needed about the fact so many reserves are not economically viable. For the past two centuries, people around the world have moved from rural areas to the cities. Similarly, many people on reserves (mostly in rural areas) need to find their way close to educational, economic and social opportunities in proximity to major population centres, if not for themselves, then certainly for their kids. Such opportunities are why the majority of First Nations people, 57% of them, already choose to live off-reserve.

The challenge for politicians, native and non-native alike, is to remove existing incentives for people to stay on remote reserves, and to provide transitional help those same people move closer to opportunities.

National Post

Mark Milke is a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute and author of Life is Better in the Cities, which compares economic and social indicators on reserves with those of urban Canada.
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/mark-milke-crunching-attawapiskats-numbers

How does the Attawapiskat First Nation obtain their income? Is it from a government subsidy or self generated?

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[Phil1111 910]

IMO the problem with Attawapiskat and other isolated first nations is a complete lack of JOBS.

There is no year round road to the community. It and the other communities in the area have winter roads.Supplies to the community com via supply ships in the summer. Over 95% of all income in the community is welfare or government jobs. i.e. federal or provincial jobs supplying services to the community.

The problem arises because older natives have a traditional attachment to the land. Hunting and fishing traditions run strong. But aside from the odd job guiding US hunters there is no cash income from this. There is no commercial fishing, little fur income from trapping. No opportunity to earn a real income.

There are successful native First Nation communities. They have commercial fishing, mines close-by, or are close to sizeable Canadian population centers. Some have oil, mining, logging or other income from electrical power generating rights. But if the community has no real jobs it becomes a ghetto. Doomed to poverty, joblessness and despair.

This system is somewhat encouraged by Indian chiefs that get salaries and benefits that they themselves quantify. They reward their families and friends with the few administrative jobs. The average tribe... er Native community member gets the leftovers. Its encouraged by the Canadian Indian act that has financial incentives for the status quo.

Communities like this first need to be relocated. Just as other mining and resource based towns in Canada have been shut down and abandoned when the mine ran out of ore or became uneconomical. But leaving a community where people have lived for generations is very, very difficult. Fraught with huge difficulties.

" If the news of squalid housing conditions in the northwestern Ontario First Nations community of Attawapaskat sounds familiar, it should. Here are just a few of the other Canadian native reserves that have made similar headlines:

Pikangikum: This Ontario community has been cited as having the highest suicide rate in the world. At least 16 people committed suicide between 2006 and 2008, with five youth taking their own lives during a two-month stretch earlier this year. The reserve's only school has not been replaced since it was burned to the ground in June 2007. In October 2006, local health officials warned residents were at risk of developing serious diseases because the community lacked a proper water system.

Constance Lake: This reserve near Cochrane, Ont., issued a plea to the federal government in 2010 after Ottawa announced it was cutting shipments of bottled water to the community. Community members say their water is unsafe to drink and they depend on outside assistance.

Eabametoong First Nation: Rising crime rates and rampant drug use prompted a state of emergency in this northern Ontario community in November 2010. The federal and provincial government sent resources for 24-hour policing.

Cross Lake: Manitoba's second-largest reserve, located 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg, declared a state of emergency in July 2006 when its nursing station was shut down indefinitely. Community members said they were in a state of medical crisis due to lack of adequate health care resources and said people were dying while en route to the nearest medical facility three hours away.

Kashechewan: This fly-in community in northwestern Ontario was evacuated three times between 2005 and 2006 due to water contamination, poor housing and repeated flooding. The federal government has promised to relocate the community to higher ground, a project it says will take at least a decade.

Sheshatshiu/Davis Inlet: These neighbouring Innu communities near Goose Bay in Labrador made national headlines due to an epidemic of alcoholism and drug use, particularly among youth. Davis Inlet was relocated and renamed Natuashish in 2002, and an alcohol ban was narrowly implemented in 2008. Both communities, however, complained of a housing shortage as recently as February 2011."
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/29/northern-ontario-aboriginal-communities-attawapiskat_n_1119308.html

[CanuckInUSA 0]

Phil1111

IMO the problem with Attawapiskat and other isolated first nations is a complete lack of JOBS.

It's not about money. Canada gives billions and billions and billions of dollars every year to First Nations and yet the average aboriginal person living on the reserves lives in poverty only seen in the 3rd world. So where does all that money go? I could go on and on about the corruption. But what's the point. Clearly the leadership of the Federal Government nor the leadership of the First Nations feel that they need to be accountable to the aboriginals living on the reserves. The lack of jobs is just a side effect.

The real problem is the out of date and racist Indian Act.

Want to fix the problem with Canada's First Nations? Do away with the Indian Act. The best thing a young aboriginal person can do for themselves is get off of the reserve and join the rest of us in the real world. Yes that does mean being responsible for your own actions. But it also means bringing pride and purpose back into one's life instead of being a ward of the welfare state. But that's not the message they are being sold nor is that the message that the countless elites who earn big money working in the Indian Welfare Industry as well the MSM wants to champion.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[Phil1111 910]

CanuckInUSA

***IMO the problem with Attawapiskat and other isolated first nations is a complete lack of JOBS.

It's not about money. Canada gives billions and billions and billions of dollars every year to First Nations and yet the average aboriginal person living on the reserves lives in poverty only seen in the 3rd world. So where does all that money go? I could go on and on about the corruption. But what's the point. Clearly the leadership of the Federal Government nor the leadership of the First Nations feel that they need to be accountable to the aboriginals living on the reserves. The lack of jobs is just a side effect.

The real problem is the out of date and racist Indian Act.

Want to fix the problem with Canada's First Nations? Do away with the Indian Act. The best thing a young aboriginal person can do for themselves is get off of the reserve and join the rest of us in the real world. Yes that does mean being responsible for your own actions. But it also means bringing pride and purpose back into one's life instead of being a ward of the welfare state. But that's not the message they are being sold nor is that the message that the countless elites who earn big money working in the Indian Welfare Industry as well the MSM wants to champion.

Completely agree. But a job is not all about money. If the figures in the quote above are correct every man, women and child on Attawapiskat receive $20,142 a year ($31.2 million and 1,549 residents). The residents are crammed into about 300 houses. With cash average income $16,160 per person.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/first-nations-housing-in-dire-need-of-overhaul-1.981227

A real job is independence, an opportunity to get ahead and feel pride. Currently 57% of natives live off reserves. Its those communities that insist on living on the teat of the Indian industry and Indian act that create these ghettos.

BTW the federal government have chosen to fly three "health care professionals" into the community to solve the attempted suicide problem. That means three months from now the whole reserve should be on anti-depressants. That should fix the problem.

[riggerrob 558]

Part of the problem is stratification within native society.
Most of my rant is based on visits to the Musqueum Reservation (on the edge of Vancouver) and insights from my (white) aunt who lives on land leased from the Musquem Band.
The chief and his/her family will always live in the best house and drive the best car. So if a young guy makes beaucoup bucks in the oil patch and drives a fancy, jacked up Cadillac pick-up truck, the band chief needs a fancier car and buys it with band funds.

Native society is highly stratified.
The best and brightest study at university to become doctors and engineers. The best and brightest pursue careers and integrate with mainstream society.
The second brightest natives become lawyers.
The third brightest group get administrative jobs with the band council.
The majority become welders and plumbers and accountants and school teachers and integrate with the mainstream economy.
The least bright stay on reservation and live off money doled out by the federal government.

So only the band chief's family and the poorest natives remain on reservations. Sly band members prey upon weak band members.

[riggerrob 558]

Ambitious Aboriginal academics who fail algebra - and cannot stand the sight of blood - study law.
Then they base their careers in class action law suits, or treaty negotiations or inquiries into missing aboriginal women, or poor drunken Indians living on Vancouver's downtown east side, etc.

For example, Britsh Columbia Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown recently ruled that one law firm (Crawford Class Action Service) owed Ottawa "more than $800,000 in unnecessary and unreasonable legal fees." Crawford's investigation lasted 2 years.

The class-action lawsuit was about aboriginal children suffering physical, sexual and psychological abuse in residential schools.

Even more ridiculous was that the Judge also ruled that the law firm assigned to investigate the excess (Bronstein) had over-charged the federal gov't $1.25 for excess fees!

Lawyers grow fat off class-action lawsuits while the poorest of Indians starve.
How does that make lawyers any different than the slum landlords, drug-pushers and poverty-pimps who prey on drunken Indians living in DTES?

[Phil1111 910]

riggerrob

Ambitious Aboriginal academics who fail algebra - and cannot stand the sight of blood - study law.
Then they base their careers in class action law suits, or treaty negotiations or inquiries into missing aboriginal women, or poor drunken Indians living on Vancouver's downtown east side, etc.

For example, Britsh Columbia Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown recently ruled that one law firm (Crawford Class Action Service) owed Ottawa "more than $800,000 in unnecessary and unreasonable legal fees." Crawford's investigation lasted 2 years.

The class-action lawsuit was about aboriginal children suffering physical, sexual and psychological abuse in residential schools.

Even more ridiculous was that the Judge also ruled that the law firm assigned to investigate the excess (Bronstein) had over-charged the federal gov't $1.25 for excess fees!

Lawyers grow fat off class-action lawsuits while the poorest of Indians starve.
How does that make lawyers any different than the slum landlords, drug-pushers and poverty-pimps who prey on drunken Indians living in DTES?

Somewhat WRONG.

Overbilling by lawyers is the standard procedure of the industry. Most use software for billing that assists in this endeavor. One that I dealt with had .25 hour billing for the receipt of any letter or any phone call. Receipt of a single tax record(a one page receipt) for which his assistant was doing the work generated a bill from the lawyer of over $80.

Its conceivable for a lawyer to bill over 24 hours in a single day using this scam.

When the entire affair was over you can go through a "taxation" of a lawyers bill. After taxation of one lawyers bill every single item I bought to the taxation officers attention was reduced, not once did the lawyer win the argument and the MINIMUM amount that that item of the bill was reduced was 24%.

This is how lawyers go golfing during weekdays and still manage to generate 3000 billable hours a year.

"The federal government is suing a Saskatchewan law firm, alleging lawyers fraudulently overbilled for their work with survivors of Indian residential schools.

In a statement of claim filed this week in Regina, the government says a 2014 audit report shows the Merchant Law Group claimed tens of millions of dollars in work time entries that were “intentionally inflated, duplicated or simply fabricated.”

The suit alleges that some individual lawyers billed for more than 24 hours of work in a single day.

Entries were also backdated, some by years, it says."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ottawa-sues-law-firm-for-alleged-legal-fee-fraud-in-residential-schools-case/article22731017/

Here the irony is natives first got screwed by the injustices of the Indian schools travesty and then got screwed again by lawyers. But since non-natives get it from lawyers why should they be treated differently?