indians – mackaycartoons

Wednesday June 3, 2015

June 2, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 3, 2015

Canada’s residential schools cultural genocide, Truth and Reconciliation commission says

The residential schools that removed aboriginal children from their homes, subjecting many of them to substandard education, malnutrition, abuse, illness and even death was a key part of a government-led policy that amounted to cultural genocide, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concludes.

“These measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as distinct peoples and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will,” says the 381-page summary of its final report released Tuesday in Ottawa.

“The Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources,” says the report.

The heart-wrenching and damning report is the culmination of a six-year examination of the history and legacy of residential schools — largely operated by churches and funded by the Canadian government — that saw 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children come through their doors for more than a century.

The exercise has been “a difficult, inspiring and very painful journey for all of us,” said Justice Murray Sinclair, Canada’s first aboriginal justice and the commission’s chairman.

“The residential school experience is clearly one of the darkest most troubling chapters in our collective history,” Sinclair told a packed news conference Tuesday in Ottawa.

“In the period from Confederation until the decision to close residential schools was taken in this country in 1969, Canada clearly participated in a period of cultural genocide.”

Through the testimony of residential school survivors, former staff, church and government officials and archival documents, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission pieced together a horrifying history that, despite its ripple effects, has been repeatedly dismissed or ignored.

It also describes how the legacy of residential schools continues, not only through the direct effect that generations of institutionalization and abuse has had on survivors and their families, but how it is manifested in racism, systemic discrimination and poverty, as well as dying indigenous languages. (Source: Toronto Star)

Saturday July 20, 2013

July 20, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 20, 2013

JT stokes the flames of native grievances

According to Justin Trudeau, it’s Stephen Harper’s fault that a group of native leaders is threatening to set up a rival organization to the Assembly of First Nations.

“One of the things that this current Conservative government has done very well, because of its lack of movement on those issues, has been encouraging a splintering and a division within First Nations communities,” the Liberal leader said.

“There is a deliberate attempt to pick and choose whoever is willing to sign on the dotted line first rather than work with all people,” the Liberal leader said.

“It’s obviously in this government’s playbook to try and divide people as much as possible rather than work together.”

Mr. Harper is having a busy summer in terms of being blamed for things. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, while insisting he wasn’t blaming the Tories, held them responsible for the disaster at Lac Megantic in Quebec.

“The Conservatives have failed to protect the public in key areas such as maritime search and rescue, such as food inspection, and such as railway. Because when you start cutting the budgets for railway inspections, you’re not taking care of public protection,” he said in a CBC interview. To CTV, he said the accident was “another case where government is cutting in the wrong area.’”
The didn’t do it, you see, it was just their fault. (Source: The National Post)

Monday, January 21, 2013

January 21, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday, January 21, 2013

The demonizing and destabilization of Shawn Atleo

As he rode to a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper last Friday, Shawn Atleo’s Blackberry buzzed.

“Since you have decided to betray me, all I ask of you now is to help carry my cold dead body off this island,’’ the text message said.

It was sent in the name of Chief Theresa Spence, but those who saw the text believe it came from someone else in her circle on Victoria Island.

But they were certain about one thing — the timing, moments before he went into one of the most important meetings of his life, was meant to destabilize the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations and undermine his efforts at a meeting which many in his organization fiercely opposed.

The missive distilled two vicious strains coursing through the internal fighting at the AFN — the threats and intimidation under which its leadership is functioning, and the growing sense from some that the Attawapiskat chief, now entering day 38 of a liquid diet with the temperature dipping to -27C here, is being used as a pawn in an internal political struggle.

To attend last week’s meeting Atleo already had to leave his Ottawa office from a back door to get out of a building with angry chiefs trying to blockade him inside.

He would have to enter the Langevin Block for the meeting through a back door for the same reason.

There have been no shortage of charges, countercharges and denials within the organization over the past weeks and the truth in this saga is often elusive. (Source: Toronto Star)

Saturday December 10, 2011

December 11, 2011 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 10, 2011

Some Attawapiskat residents at odds with chief

Some residents of Attawapiskat First Nations support the government’s plan to put the reserve under third-party management, a move strongly opposed by the chief and band council.

“I think it would be a good thing. We need to clean up our financial crisis here in Attawapiskat because it’s been like this too long now,” Greg Shisheesh, a former deputy chief of the reserve, told CBC News in a phone interview.

“I was happy to hear the federal government was stepping in to clean the mess up.”

2011-2015

Shisheesh, who said he has lived on the reserve all his life, said he believes a forensic audit should be conducted on a number of organizations on the reserve, including the band office and economic development office.

“If our leaders have nothing to hide, by all means do it.”

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has vehemently rejected the imposition of a third-party manager.

“She says that and she didn’t even ask the whole community what we thought about it. She never asked us,” Shisheesh said. “The way the chief and council operate is totally opposite. They decide and then bring it to us after.”

Spence also said on Monday she will use the courts if necessary to resist the imposition of a third-party manager.

Martha Sutherland, a tribe elder, told CBC News she is frustrated with the reserve leadership.

“We want to hear what the Indian Affairs has to say, the third party, and we want to meet with them so we can voice our concerns.” (Source: CBC News)

Friday December 2, 2011

December 2, 2011 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 2, 2011

The real shame of Attawapiskat

After seeing the images of Attawapiskat First Nation beamed around the country in recent days, a viewer could hardly be blamed for not believing that they were looking at a part of Canada, or that the people enduring this travesty are their aboriginal neighbours. Plywood walls, plastic-covered windows, 20 people sharing a two-bedroom house, a one-burner hot plate to cook for a whole family, lack of insulation, plumbing or electricity – the scene is tragic and heartbreaking.

But the people of such remote reserves have been living in a dire situation for a long time. The real shame of Attawapiskat is that the people who knew these conditions existed never told Canadians about them. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives knew. Shawn Atleo’s Assembly of First Nations knew. But it has taken a tragedy to reveal the stark truth.

It’s Mr. Atleo’s job as AFN national chief to know if his people are living under deplorable conditions. Each elected chief in the assembly has a responsibility to let him know. It’s then his responsibility to tell Canada about it and demand action.

In turn, the federal government has the responsibility to act. The job of an aboriginal affairs minister includes informing government when people are suffering. With that knowledge, it’s the responsibility of a prime minister to inform Canadians and tell us what the government intends to do about it.

Mr. Atleo failed to show leadership long ago. I’ve been a journalist since 1979, and I know how easy it is to craft a press release, hold a news conference and inform the public. But you have to want to do it. You have to want to confront wrong and demand change. I wonder if having his budget depend on a cozy relationship with the government prevents him from doing that. (Source: Globe & Mail)