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Branch plants of U.S. automakers are seeking Canadian taxpayers to bail them out. However, why should Canadians prop up U.S. automobile companies like GM, that destroyed their own zero-emission EV1 Electric Car, in order to appease Oil Industry interests? But, the Canadians who work for these irresponsible U.S. branch plants should also not be abandoned, in our socially responsible inspired society.

This begs a critical question. Why not government in Canada, acting in behalf of Canadians, simply use any prospective billions of dollars in bail out money for these companies, to acquire shares in them. Canadians, like other countries of similar populations to Canada, can develop and operate its own made-in-Canada auto industry, that protects Canadians from irresponsible decision-making by American companies like GM.

Why should Companies that get into difficulty as a result of their own reckless negligence and callous disregard to Canadians, rely on a Canadians to bail them out? Should we as Canadians bail out companies that seek to move out jobs into places like China and Mexico, in order to exploit workers of those countries?

Canadians developed the Avro Arrow that was decades ahead of fighter jets that had been developed by the U.S. military. Canadians could similarly develop a car, free of the kind of cynical politics which now threatens the jobs of Canadian workers, and that also is destroying environment.

The mantra of “Economic Globalization” is an ideology to encourage Canadians to forgo their own national self-determination, and to in the process, sacrifice their quality-of-living to predatory capitalists who seek to control and run the planet.

Canada’s national interests in the automobile industry can be arguably better protected by the coming together of levels of government in Canada. Surely, the Canadian Automobile Workers, and other Canadians, may acquire shares in Canadian car manufacturing plants, toward their eventual public takeover.

This eventual new entity could be run like Canada’s West Jet, and other companies that encourage skateholding by employees. Perhaps this new entity could also be named after the Avro Arrow?

With the destruction of the Auto Pact by the crypto-fascistic World Trade Organization (WTO) the only way to ensure the continued emigration of vital manufacturing jobs in Canada, is through a take over of such branch plants, with head offices that make decisions insensitive to our vital national interests.

Recommended readings: The Proposed Canadian Automobile Transport and Arctic Climatic Protection Act: Toward an environmentally-sensitized and truly made-in-Canada car inspired by the Avro Arrow, by H. Raymond Samuels II ISBN: 189703623X.

by Peter Tremblay

As we are seeing more and more clearly everyday, Canada has always been a totalitarian for-profit enterprise even though it tries to masquerade as a democracy. Canada is a Euro colonial settler state that governs by passing race laws. Every now and then declarations of legal rights are made to make things look kosher. But when push comes to shove, these are ignored. Things are done at the point of a gun by open terror and genocide.

What information could the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service [CSIS] possibly be looking for in Mohawk communities? How many dogs we have running loose? How many rusted cars and old fridges are standing in our yards? We notice they don’t want to report on how bad our water is, or how corrupt the band council is or about the lack of funds for our education, medical care and housing. So what’s happening?

Whatever anyone says, CSIS covertly sneaking into our communities can’t be for “ national security”. We’ve never been a military threat to Canada. CSIS is coming in as an agent of confusion to “terrorize” us! What have we got that would scare anyone? Except, of course, for the truth. The land every Canadian stands on and all the resources in it belong to us. That’s why they’ re trying to brainwash us and the Canadian people.

Everyday we are seeing more cracks in the broken “democracy” called “Canada”. We Mohawks are targeted because we ask too many questions. We are always challenging their actions and asking them to prove the legality of what they’re doing. They want a “white” nation. The colonists associate “Indians” with a certain degeneracy of intellect, morals, self-restraint and political values. That was their excuse for stealing our resources.

Canada sets us up as targets because they want to divert attention away from their economic and social problems. They need someone to blame. They want the public to believe we are dangerous. Never mind that their government rakes in millions from cigarette taxes. They spin it as the murky world of “contraband”.

They make it sound like it’s a crime for us to support our families by legally selling tobacco.

Their border is functioning like an “apartheid wall”. Their border guards routinely harass us and even try to kill us when we try to travel on our territory. Canadian agencies refuse to investigate these criminal acts. All their police, the OPP, RCMP, Canadian Border Services Agency and the colonial Akwesasne Mohawk Police, claim it’s not their jurisdiction.

We are denied due process when they assault us. Two Mohawk women have been declared as “non-residents” of Canada in order to make them pay for the Crown’s defence in the law suit they filed against Canada for not investigating border brutality! [M. Mireille Tabib, Oct. 23, 2008, Kahentinetha & Katenies v. The Queen T-1309-08]. If Kahnawake and Akwesasne are not part of Canada, then why haven’t they removed the illegal border control at Akwesasne? On the one hand, they say Akwesasne is in Canada so they can put their border there. On the other hand, they’re saying it’s not so they can force us to pay thousands of dollars to make border guards accountable for the assaults and crimes against us. Canada has plans to build a great big international high tech border installation at Akwesasne. We don’t want it.

When three non-native people recently died in a botched border operation at the very same spot in Akwesasne, all those self same police services were stumbling all over each other to investigate. What’s the deal? The safety of ”white” people is precious? Ongwehonwe safety doesn’t matter?

Presently Cree elder, David Ahenakew, is on trial for the third time because of some ill-considered private comments he made about the Jewish genocide in World War II. Remember, he didn’t kill any Jews. When he served in the military, he took part in the operations that freed people and helped stop abuse. The genocide against our own people is generally ignored. Why the double standard? Why is he being prosecuted with so much vengeance when Canadian border guards can attempt murder with impunity?

These incidents just nibble at the internal conflicts raging within the colonial government apparatus. The Maher Arar and Omar Khadr cases, the extensive secret military exercises in November 2008 near so many Ongwehonwe communities, and so many other disturbing developments suggest that we are being prepared for totalitarianism or martial law. All it will take now is a pretext to bring it in. Another 9/11?

When the hierarchical colonial system is threatened, it resorts to “fratricide” to clean out its ranks. The higher ups become paranoid. They start getting rid of their underlings who they fear want to replace them or expose them. We certainly are not in these kinds of positions nor do we want to be. We’d rather stand back and watch the poisoning and beheadings going on in the palace, so to speak.

Canada is still trying to look calm while it screams hysterically from within. They don’t want people to smell the blood beforehand. To divert attention they’re looking for those with opinions different from theirs to start imprisoning and shutting them up.

The state is using slander and historical distortion to defame us and get the media to suppress discussion of the real issues. The current attempt to purge the Mohawks is based on false claims that we are likely to sabotage Canada. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve always stayed in our own boat according to the Two Row Wampum Accord. We have never committed any violence against Canada. In fact, we have defended Canada several times, going back to the War of 1812 right up to World War II. Of course, if our historic ally chooses to attack us, we will always defend ourselves.

The violent and unfounded fantasies about us serve someone’s purpose. People get a chance to use lethal weapons when Canadian agencies send in cops and spies instead of talking with us on a straightforward and honest nation-to- nation basis. CSIS is Canada’s secret police look for demons and devils they can finger for purging. We’ve been told actions of this kind must have ministerial approval. Who is the prime sinister?

Canada is ruining its international image because of the abuse and needless suffering that it causes to all Ongwehonwe. Up to now they’ve kept a lot of their skeletons in the closet to make it easier for CSIS to set us up. CSIS defames us by playing on the active imagination of a gullible public. CSIS has been sent in to corrupt our “leadership”. They should know by now that we have none. Who is active in our Men’s Society? Who is the intelligentsia? [As if we aren’t all intelligent] They are trying to make us mistrust each other. They want to turn us into “fifth column” communities. They think they can get away with it because we are a minority. They figure no one will help us when we’re attacked.

The young and the vulnerable are targeted. When they’re snatched, the cops force them to “confess” to anything regardless of the truth. Some of their lines are: “Either you comply with us or we’ll charge you”. “How well do you know your community?” “Who are you related to?” “Someone told me this, is it true?” “Do what I say or I’ll break your arm”. Their old favourite, “Who are your leaders?” CSIS wants to have us charged with “counter revolutionary crimes” based on their racist colonial laws or those they intend to create.

Yes, we don’t like the colonial Canadian system as it has been shown to us.

We know that Canada thinks that our land, cultures, bodies and minds must be sacrificed for the colonists to remain dominant and for their system to continue to function. Canadian occupation of our land and the usurpation of our resources are illegal under international law. One of their frequent tricks is to get someone to invite us somewhere and then set up a “ disappearance”.

Rumour has it that now that we’ve been declared “insurgents” a secret military tribunal has been set up to try us. Bye bye habeas corpus! Is Canada getting dangerously edgy about having their “turf” stepped on by the real owners, us? Well, CSIS, you’ve been hung out on the clothesline to dry and your brown-laced underwear is flapping in the wind. What are you trying to prepare us for? The “final solution”? Genocide?

About the writers:

Iako’ha:kowa & MNN Staff – Mohawk Nation News. E-mail comments to kittoh@storm.ca, Katenies20@yahoo.com or kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal, LINK, or by cheque or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.

by Mohawk Nation News editorial staff

CP — Don’t look up! There’s a political crisis to the north!

That’s the warning comedian Jon Stewart had for his fellow Americans about Canada on his show “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” which aired late night on 8 December 2008. It seems Canada’s parliamentary crisis has not gone unnoticed by Stewart, who used our political brouhaha as the butt of jokes in a segment titled “Provinces In Peril: Indecision OH-EH?”

Stewart said Canadians are being presented with the greatest challenge since our “controversial decision to re-shape bacon.”

He spoke of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s move to suspend Parliament rather than face a non-confidence vote that could topple his government.

“Force him from office? You can do that?” Stewart half-whispered to the camera. “Because we’ve had no confidence in our guy for quite some time now. And he’s taking forever to leave.”

He said of Harper, “I mean, this guy… his approval rating is 46 per cent and they’re trying to kick him out. You know what we call a 46 per cent approval rating down here? President Clinton!”

Stewart went on to say that Harper dodged the vote by suspending Parliament, but he still had to endure the wrath of outraged Canadians who took to our “incredibly tidy streets.”

Stewart then showed video footage of a protester yelling, “what are you afraid of, sir?” at Harper. An incredulous Stewart mocked, “Sir? You’re heckling him, it’s not a job interview! Do you Canadians save all your obnoxious-ness for hockey games?”

Daily Show viewers were told of outgoing Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and the other opposition leaders getting together to sign a pact to hold a non-confidence vote on Monday, prompting Harper to head out into “either a hailstorm or some type of snow globe” to announce the decision to prorogue Parliament after meeting with the Governor General. Stewart then asked of Harper’s seemingly immobile hair, “what kind of magical creature’s hair doesn’t get messed up in a hailstorm?”

But what really seemed to stop Stewart in his tracks was the role of the Governor General being the Queen’s representative in Canada.

With that, he brought out various “senior correspondents” representing Canada, Britain and India, the latter of whom mocked Canada for still “running to mommy” - in reference to the Queen - whenever there’s a problem.

But Stewart mused why should Americans care anyway about what is going on politically in Canada. He pointed out Canada is not a nuclear state and our money is some sort of “Milton Bradley-based currency,” in an apparent reference to the colourful money found in the Monopoly board game.

And in an observation that seemed quite apropos to this particular show, Stewart also noted that Canada’s chief export “is jokes that they are the butt of.”

by Neena Chowdhury

Since when has working together become a bad thing? I recall learning that in kindergarten. I hope that is where the Prime Minister is heading during this “running scared” suspension of Parliament. Many countries around the world including Canada have a history and understanding of the benefits of working together in coalition governments. Historically, the British North American Act was an agreement similar to a coalition, between Britain and one of its colonies, Canada.

The Prime Minister has been proven to be hypocritical in his attach of the Liberal and the NDP coalition agreement with the Bloc Québécois. Most Canadians would hope that with a humiliation there comes an act of humility. The dilemma here is if humility is not part of your value system where is the humanity? Mr. Harper, where is your humanity?

The attacks of this partnership between Liberals, socialists and separatists included talks about English and French Canada. Duceppe listed conditions for Quebec’s support of a coalition government. These conditions go beyond that of the Federal Clarity Act that defines the conditions that would allow Quebec to secede from Canada.

The economic issues facing all Canadians in this recession go beyond record highs in unemployment but for many, poverty. For the average Canadian these two realities are hard to live with. For many First Nations peoples in Canada living in a recession has been a reality since contact. We First Nations peoples have learned to survive hardship in this land for thousands of years and we see it as a birth right to the land, long before contact up to today and beyond. In forming Canada’s Constitution agreements had to be made with the original inhabitants, the First Nations.

Therefore, by definition, these agreements and hundreds of treaties are in themselves the foundation of Canada’s first coalition. However, with so many treaties not being honoured, and the exclusion of First Nations peoples from all levels of Government since contact, Canada gets a failing grade in “effective coalition governance.”

With two recessions in the past 20 years and 4 world wars in this century alone it seems the current government and “modern man’s” system of governing needs fixing. One of its flaws is its exclusionary value system. With a Conservative despot method of leadership only reflects and confirms the inhuman values of politics today.

Any country that excludes its indigenous peoples from their systems of government is a colonial country. Based on that continued exclusion in modern Canadian society the First Peoples National Party of Canada (FPNP) was formed. A handful of candidate ran in the last two federal elections. Since the forming of the First Peoples National Party in 2005, Canada’s First Nations Peoples finally see hope in a party willing to bring the First Nations voice to Parliament, a voice that has been ignored or silenced since Confederation.

The inclusion of the First Peoples National Party in a coalition government would enable the contribution of First Nations values, voices and perspectives. Let’s just image, if these values and perspective were included in the value system of government, since Confederation, Canada and the world might have been a more humane place.

Equally as suggestive, if many of the issues facing First Nations communities and First Nations peoples had been addressed by the government in the past, we would have solutions to problems facing all Canadians today. If working together is a good thing, let’s not begin again on the wrong foot by being exclusive of Canada’s First Nations.

Oh ya, the Iroquois Confederacy was a type of “coalition government” similar to many other confederacies in the Americas before contact. It was no surprise that the writers of the “American Declaration of Independence” based it on these Confederacies, pre-contact and existing systems of governance.

About the writer:

William Morin is the Eastern Director of the First Peoples National Party of Canada.

by William Morin

It took less than a week since the Harper government introduced an Economic and Fiscal Update to prompt a tremendous response from Canadians.

I believe most of us expected the government to address the serious economic issues that face this country. Instead, the Conservatives used the opportunity to attack federal public sector workers while providing none of the measures we need to get our economy back on track.

The Conservatives are either unable or unwilling to deal with our economic problems. They’ve made it clear they would rather play partisan games, roll- back wage increases in agreements negotiated in good faith and violate human rights such as the right to equal pay for work of equal value. They’re prepared to reduce equalization payments and sell off government assets. How will this improve our economic prospects?

In the recent election, only 37% of Canadians voted for the Conservatives. Over 60% of voters chose to support other parties. There is a responsible alternative to the lack of leadership shown by the Harper Conservatives and it’ s not another $300-million election. That’s an expense that Canada doesn’t need in the midst of the biggest financial crisis the country has seen in generations.

A coalition government would be a reasonable alternative and one that would be the most democratic and fiscally responsible way to make this Parliament work for Canadians. And the three opposition parties in the House of Commons have now signed an accord to work as a coalition government in the interests of Canadians.

This economic crisis is too urgent and important to ignore. Working people are the ones who will lose out if we don’t act now to protect people’s savings, homes and jobs. We need a government that will make Parliament work finding real solutions to today’s problems.

I urge you to join the growing number of people who are voicing their support for a coalition government.

You can send a message of support to your Member of Parliament at www. MakeParliamentWork.ca

About the writer:

John Gordon is the President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

by John Gordon

Parliament is prorogued. The government will fall. The January 27th budget will be the occasion. Parliament has no confidence in this government. A change of ministry without an election is valid and the issue is sufficient to allow it. But the session is over. One man rule will continue. Election 2009 is underway.

Harper’s disdain for parliament and democracy is the ballot question. Democracy and the economy will be the issues. Firing Flaherty may seem a way out for the neo Con minority. But Harper’s job is on the line. That Harper does not have a mandate to act as a majority and, given his negative campaign, perhaps not a mandate at all is to the point. One man rule is not democracy. Figure out where you want to put your signs.

by Brian Marlatt

The “Amero” has been talked about for many years now, but not too much in the mainstream media. The Cabal who control the global banking “pyramid” have been very busy making secret, illegal deals behind closed doors, to implement the North American Union. These are the same people who are charging the Canadian public $1000.00/man, woman and child, every year for interest on interest. This has been going on since 1974 when John Turner was finance minister. Jean Chrétien was the next Finance Minister and I will never forget seeing him on TV in 1975, saying “how do I know where the money went, I am just the finance minister” , when asked about the first deficit since the Bank of Canada Act was introduced.

The fact is every finance minister and prime minister, knows full well what is going on. All of the people are now starting to see it. In the bestseller book Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, he shows how the corporatocracy really works. Check this video link if you are not familiar with John’s work. LINK If you have not read his book, you should.

The finance minister has control of the creation of credit, according to the Bank of Canada Act. Since 1974 every finance minister is guilty of high treason for allowing the Bankers to print Canadian money and lend it back to the government, with interest charges. The Cabal probably send in the economic hitman to bribe the finance minister. Is this why it is never talked about? This is a perpetual debt scam that is being played on most “democratic” countries throughout the globe

With PM Harper pulling an old colonial law out of the drawer to stall parliament, he shows how Canada is still a colony run by the “corporatocracy”, not a constitutional democracy. This goes against any idea of consensus building and smells like a return to overt fascism. The colonial hierarchy is built on sand. It is starting to fall in, on it’s own weight. Canadians do not need a new currency, they need to start printing their own money again. Canada was much better when I was a child.

The “divide and conquer” strategy goes back to the first empire in Babylon. First they create a problem, only when the people demand it, they provide a solution for the problem they created. This dollar crash is also by design and they will offer the “Amero” as the solution. The real problem is fractional reserve banking because money is debt.

Many good people have sacrificed their lives to stand up to these tyrants, throughout history. People like Jesus, who went into the temple and exposed the moneychangers debt scam, he was killed days later. People like John F. Kennedy, who was going to abolish the Federal Reserve, he was killed just before he would accomplish that feat. There are many more great ones when you think about it.

Start printing your money again Canada, you will solve most of your problems. As former PM W. L. Mackenzie King stated many times.

Peace.

Editorial reference, LINK

by Thahoketoteh of Kanekota

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New Delhi on 3 December 2008, ostensibly to deliver U.S. condolences for the 173 people killed in the terrorist attacks that rocked Mumbai last week and express solidarity with the people of India.

This will likely be among the last major international initiatives launched by Rice, whose role in foisting the wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan on the American people and implementing the U.S. programs of torture and extraordinary rendition makes her an appropriate target for a war crimes indictment.

In the Middle East — where she is infamous for hailing the 2006 Israeli war that killed thousands of Lebanese civilians as the “birth pangs” of peace — protesters have frequently portrayed the American secretary of state as a vampire, her fangs dripping in blood.

This image serves as a fitting metaphor for her current foray into South Asia, where she is spearheading an attempt by Washington to exploit the blood of the innocent victims in Mumbai to promote the so- called “global war on terrorism” through which Washington pursues its geostrategic interests.

Speaking in New Delhi, Rice pointedly applied pressure on Pakistan, declaring that its government must “act with resolve and urgency and cooperate fully and transparently.” For its part, Pakistan has condemned the terror attacks and denied any involvement by its state agencies.

Rice suggested a nonexistent link between “Al Qaeda” and the Mumbai attacks, declaring, “This is clearly the kind of terror in which Al Qaeda participates.” She was later forced to backtrack on the remark, but still declared that those who attacked India’s commercial capital and those blamed for the 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington “move in the same circles.”

If there is a connection between the Mumbai attacks and those of September 11 it is to be found in the American response. Seven months after the planes flew into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Rice described those tragic events as “an enormous opportunity” to “create a new balance of power.” Washington now sees a similar opportunity arising from the carnage in India to pursue its interests in South Asia.

While Rice was in New Delhi, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, was in Islamabad, exerting pressure on Pakistan’s eight-month-old civilian government and on the country’s military commanders.

Mullen echoed Rice’s statements in New Delhi, calling on the government of President Asif Ali Zardari to “investigate aggressively any and all possible ties to groups based in Pakistan.” The admiral went further, however, declaring that the Pakistani government had “to take more, and more concerted, action against militant extremists elsewhere in the country.”

This last reference was clearly a demand that the Pakistani military intensify its operations in Waziristan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and other territories bordering Afghanistan, which have provided support to Afghan forces battling against the seven-year-old U.S. occupation. The American military has carried out its own repeated attacks in the area, killing Pakistani civilians in missile strikes as well as commando assaults.

It is apparent that Washington sees in the Mumbai events an opportunity to bully Pakistan into more effectively doing its bidding in support of the war in Afghanistan, or, should that fail, to justify the escalation of its own intervention.

Significant in this regard was a column published in the Washington Post on 2 December 2008 by Robert Kagan, a leading proponent of the Iraq war with close ties to the Bush administration. Kagan called for forming an international force to invade Pakistan and “root out terrorist camps in Kashmir as well as in the tribal areas.”

In arguing for such a military intervention, Kagan declared that it “would be useful for the United States, Europe and other nations to begin establishing the principle that Pakistan and other states that harbor terrorists should not take their sovereignty for granted. In the 21st century, sovereign rights need to be earned.”

Such a move “to internationalize the response” to the Mumbai attack, Kagan argues, “would have the advantage of preventing a direct military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”

Finally, he asserts that this kind of intervention is necessary because the U.S. has the “obligation to demonstrate to the Indian people that we take attacks on them as seriously as we take attacks on ourselves.”

Thus, the attempt to connect 9/11 with Mumbai and the full implications of this amalgam are spelled out quite clearly. As with the attacks of 2001, the terrorist acts in India are seen as the pretext for a new war of aggression and justification for riding roughshod over the sovereignty of a historically oppressed nation.

The military confrontation between India and Pakistan against which Kagan warns has been made all the more probable by U.S. imperialism’s interventions in the region.

For U.S. strategic interests, such a war poses a serious threat in that Pakistan would likely withdraw troops it now has deployed on its western border with Afghanistan and move them east towards India, leaving the border region and the key lines of supply for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan unprotected.

For humanity, such a war poses the danger of a nuclear conflagration and the deaths of millions.

This crisis is unfolding barely six weeks before Barack Obama is to be sworn in as the next president of the United States. Here as elsewhere, there are indications that a “seamless transition” can be anticipated. Obama has repeatedly indicated that a top priority of his administration will be the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, along with its extension into Pakistan itself.

At his press conference last Monday introducing his national security team, Obama fully embraced the language of the “War on Terrorism,” indicating that he will use similar cynical justifications for U.S. aggression as those employed under George W. Bush.

by Bill Van Auken

The current economic reconstruction/bail-out packages which have been announced by the U. S. Congress are unlikely to generate the needed economic remedies. That is because the proposals have neglected to recognize that a program which is aimed at leading to expansion in the quality-of-life citizens, is much different kettle of fish from one that is aimed at promoting and reinforcing slavery to capitalism. Indeed, to put large sums of public money into a private banking system (that had been the author of its own economic troubles), merely reinforces the underlying problems that grow out of slavery to capitalism.

The proposed economic reconstruction/bail-out programs, essentially continue to completely overlook the fact that how successful economic development policy in the society has been, is not shown by the level of money income which people secure. Instead, the proposed programs continue the false view that the focus of government policy must be reinforcing the profits that corporations and the banking system are respectively able to make; at the same time that there is an indifference to the type of economic rot where the access of members of the society to components in behalf of their quality-of-living ignored.

It is the impacts of economic initiatives on how people are able to live, which show economic development outcomes. As a result, the economic development success from government economic reconstruction/bail-out packages, will be the eventually forthcoming changes in financially measured gross national product. Rather, it will be the mixes of outcomes (as time-use opportunities) to which people gain access, in their aim to secure enhanced quality-of-living from the economic management of their time, their resources, and their efforts.

That is because, substantively, where the prevailing system of formal and informal education has not already brainwashed them, humans as Conscious mind-guided entities aim to secure an awareness of informed participation in the remainder of the environment which houses their existence. That is why the success of their time-linked economic management efforts is not shown by the prevailing levels of commerce.

It is therefore my aim to point to the background and to the initiatives on which the Congress needs to focus, if its primary concern enhancement of the quality-of-living of the members of the society, rather than returning profitability to the banking system, and to large corporations.

The overall picture

For starters, it is necessary to recognize persons, as being sentient mind-guided entities. Furthermore, they respectively look upon themselves as being contributing parts of the societies in which they live.

However, the prevailing system of formal and informal education in respective western societies has conditioned them to focus on themselves as primarily being respective entities who are contributing to the tapestry of profit generation and financial earnings from their alternative mixes of choices of effort and time commitment that arise in the society.

Meanwhile, in testimonial to the path of human evolution, when persons make choices among alternatives to commit their effort and their resources, they also intuitively seek to reinforce their material survival, as well as to secure a mind-guided fulfilment.

It is these evolutionary achievements at which persons aim, to which they aim to give content in the quality-of-living to which they respectively seek to gain access. Additionally, the mix of capabilities that persons seek, are those which will enable them to access critical levels of services/attainments in behalf of their needs for food, clothing, shelter, health-care, security of person and property, and entertainment. They also seek opportunities to increase the verifiable understanding that they have about how their natural environment operates, and about how they may blend with its evolution.

Meanwhile, an environment of economic management which aims to reinforce slavery to capitalism, is one where its primary concern is to foster generation of outcomes that accompany buoyant commerce, as a result of items that persons and corporate entities have been “persuaded” to sell or to purchase.

A commitment to promoting or to fostering quality-of-life, (as the information-guided accommodation of persons to the evolution of their natural enhancement) is not a priority in a society that operates under slavery to capitalism. That is because this system of governance, is usually under the direction of persons that have been conditioned to focus primarily on accessible short term private financial quantity values. They end up overlooking features that are critical to human survival, and instead, concentrate on the financial results that can be generated to themselves and to their constituencies, from exploitation of the environment and of people.

The U. S. Congress therefore faces the challenge to decide which of those two economic development emphases (higher quality-of-living, or higher levels of aggregate commerce) that it is prepared to foster with its offered economic recovery/bail-out packages. However, a matter of mind-set is involved in the emphasis that will be promoted. Therefore, in facing the decision between choice of type of offered economic reconstruction/bail-out packages, resolution does not comprise a simplistic step of merely aiming to promote alternative mixes of production and distribution of flows of critical commercial outputs/services that will become cranked out. That is because the judgements that persons make about quality-of-life to which they have access, has its roots in the sentience in which we participate. It therefore has evolutionary roots in our cosmic existence as mind-guided entities that are aiming to pursue a preferred pattern of living as material survival.

This cosmic roots to the mind-guided appraisals that humans as sentient entities make about the economic management results from their choice making, emerges from a number of sources. In the first place, over the period of physical and mental maturation of humans, the joint impact of sentience and of cosmic mind, leads persons to recognize themselves as being mortal. Persons are also led to recognize that their lives consist of the operations in which they engage, or to which they commit their time for living (that is, themselves).

In acceptance of themselves as mind-guided entities, those persons who do not also accept themselves as being merely an empty random event in reality, begin frame mind-guided targets in their path of living, which they want their efforts to yield.

The economic reconstruction/bail-out packages that the U. S. Congress and its affiliated apparachnicks are setting out to frame, need to explicitly recognize that money-centred outcomes are neither the only nor the most important features that are in play. Program offerings and proposals must therefore accommodate to the reality that, (living-centred) time-use management priorities are at the base of the economic management strategies in which humans engage.

If the proposed economic recovery/bail-out programs are not designed primarily to promote slavery to capitalism, the forthcoming outcomes must therefore also be appraised in terms of what the impacts on the time-use opportunities of persons will be. In particular, the appraisals of forthcoming outcomes from the proposed economic reconstruction/bail-out packages, must be mindful that Conscious mind-guided persons are not merely aiming to achieve higher employment incomes. Rather, they are aiming to achieve (for themselves and for their heirs), a path of living as time-use opportunities, that they will be able to judge as being meaningful and worthwhile.

A Background to the Needed Revised Focus

Consider that, where brain deterioration or brain malfunction has not set in, people make economic decisions on the basis of an underlying understanding as to what their living is all about. Meanwhile, over their evolution (and long before the invention of money), humans have guided their actions by the understanding which they have framed as to what their living is all about.

Over the process of maturing, normal human beings frame an understanding of their reality, and of the opportunities for survival that it promises.

Historically, persons have drawn on that framed understanding, to make economic management choices regarding how and where they will commit their time. Therefore, where programs of formal and informal education have not been used to condition/brain-wash persons to focus overwhelmingly on financial-equivalent results, persons are likely to rank potential outcomes from their time and effort commitments, on the basis of the expected quality-of-life results on the living that they do.

In contrast, in a society where economic development is guided by slavery to capitalism, persons will be conditioned by the system of formal and informal education, to use expected private net financial-equivalent results to rank the potential outcomes from their effort and time commitments. As a result, whereas the society that aims to generate quality-of-life enhancement will use impacts on people to judge the appropriateness of potential economic results, the type of society that promotes slavery to capitalism, will make judgements about the results from economic development, on the basis of impacts on financial balance sheets.

Historically, prior to the ascendancy of the political emphasis that has been given to capitalism, humans have normally construed the economizing that they do, in terms of the results on the living that they do. As humans formed themselves into complex societies, they invented money as an implement/device to accommodate the necessary trade which accompanied division of labour.

However, although outputs are now expressed in net financial-equivalent terms, persons, as mortal entities (in contrast with corporations), draw on the background of time-use, as living, when they appraise economic outcomes. Therefore, it is what is happening in the lives of people (as time commitment options that they face), rather than what is happening to the balance sheet of banks or of large corporations, that should occupy the central focus of the achievement, at which the economic recovery/bail-out packages that the U. S. Congress proposes, must aim to deliver.

It follows, therefore, that notwithstanding the (statistically supported) tome about how “money matters”, that Milton Friedman presented in his Monetary History of the United States, the apparachnicks and their political masters, who are constructing the prevailing economic recovery/bail-out packages, need to focus on promoting the flow of services that will enhance the quality-of-survival of persons.

In spite of the rule system that operates under slavery to capitalism, the following must also be accommodated. As humans allow the guidance of mind to help them frame to frame their time-usage path (to an enhanced quality-of-survival/living), money, or control over money, should neither be seen (nor accommodated) as the economic task-master, that must be assigned the unquestioned right to orchestrate or to guide the resource management choices that become accessible to participating humans in the society.

That is because the overall economic management in any society (where slavery to capitalism has not been awarded the status of being a veritable religion), must be made in awareness of the critical fact that substantively, respective humans (as Conscious mind-guided entities), economize on how they commit (the allocation of) their time for living. By way of the mix of outcomes to which those time allocations lead, persons aim to secure preferred quality features to their forthcoming survival. Respectively, they seek to access and to manipulate technical features and components, toward securing their access to food, clothing, shelter, health-care, entertainment, security of person and property, and verifiable information about how their natural environment operates. However, they also aim at outcomes/opportunities in support of an informed bonding of themselves with existence as sentient beings.

The political and economic management directorate of any society, needs to bear in mind that the desire of persons (as mortal entities), is to secure a higher quality-of-living and to ultimately secure Human Development. Persons frame that target, out of the impact of sentience, and out of the junctions with cosmic mind that they have respectively evolved. The result is that, among the impacts that humans seek to experience or to generate (in concert with their time commitment interactions on their path to enhanced quality-of-living), are mutuality and empathy (rather than exploitation) with each other and with the natural environment.

Economic recovery programs that aim to promote Human Development, as the outcome from knowledge-guided time-use choices (that Conscious persons make), are invited to draw on the insights of the material which was elaborated in the book, Horace Carby-Samuels: Quality-of-Living and Human Development as the Outcome from Economic Progress; (Ottawa, Canada, Agora Cosmopolitan, 2007, ISBN 1897036353).

In contrast, with its emphasis on the achievement of private financial gain, slavery to capitalism legitimates and also promotes self-centredness, and also exploitation of other persons and of the natural environment. Arguably, therefore, if the operating banking system is not facilitating and complementing the access of persons to the technical components, that are in support of the mixes of opportunities in the mind-guided survival at which they aim, that banking system is essentially dysfunctional (in quality-of-living terms).

Yet, the revival of the banking system, which accompanies the Congressionally promoted economic reconstruction/bail-out package, is primarily aimed to promote the generation and/or the reinforcement of the profitability of the commerce-centred banking system. Arguably, therefore, in an environment where the quality-of-life attainment of persons is a priority, economic recovery/bail-out packages that aim to promote the revival of that type of banking system is of questionable societal value. Another feature of that type of banking system is that, one can expect that in its lending initiatives, the natural environment will be accommodated as being merely a domain which houses technical resources that in the name of entrepreneurship, “hustlers” may manipulate together with people, toward the generation of private financial profit.

Congress will therefore need to require that economic recovery packages may not be restricted to being supportive of formal and informal education programs, where members of the society are primarily conditioned to function in various profit-supportive roles (such as employees, customers, borrowers, and members of a public that can be bamboozled by advertising which is based on legitimated half truths).

Meanwhile, in their commitment to achieving the Human Development, and an evolution of their Consciousness, persons also seek to gain enhanced access to understanding and also to verifiable knowledge. Therefore, if persons are to secure enhanced opportunities for Human Development as one of the outcomes from proposed economic recovery packages (that aim to foster quality-of-life enhancement), The U. S. Congress (as well as other governments) will need to give due attention to the extent to which prevailing programs of formal and informal education make a priority out of cultivating and enhancing the capacity of persons to understand.

Undoubtedly, the knowledge-base which persons bring to what they are doing, is a critical feature in their ability to make informed choices as well as to execute understanding-guided living. A government which is committed to fostering quality-of-life enhancement, will therefore need to ensure that systematic barriers to knowledge acquisition by persons, are not put in place. At the same time, that government must also ensure that the prevailing system of formal and informal education and knowledge delivery, is not primed to condition people to overlook their heritage of mind, (because that is the heritage which frames the features which persons will select to give quality to the pattern of living at which they aim).

Governments will also be called upon to address additional matters, regarding the rules system which governs how the resource base of the society becomes available to deliver to persons the critical services in behalf of their access to quality-of-life enhancement.

In contrast, where slavery to capitalism is the economic development target, persons are primed by the system of formal and informal education, to look upon themselves as being fulfilled, in terms of how successful they have been, in chasing after the private acquisition of money. In that context, persons are primed/conditioned to see the achievement from their time and effort commitment, as being (rationally) validated by the level of financial-equivalent results that they have garnered, (from the market exploitation with which their efforts are associated, and therefore from the commercial-equivalent results).

Indeed, a most telling and most pernicious example which portrays the glorification of the financial focus, (and which also embodies the oversight of human values in the process of development appraisal), originated out of the University of Chicago in 1962 (under the initiation of T. W. Schultz, and his intellectual protégé Gary Becker).

In their presentation, which was highly acclaimed (by politicians and economists alike), Schultz and also Becker, argued the premiere capitalist enslavement proposition. Its substance is that, the critical exercise out of which the achievement of private as well as aggregate economic development is forthcoming, is (statistically) revealed in the enhancement in financial-equivalent output that arises in concert with the cultivation and the function of persons as being earnings-centred implements. Schultz then coined the (now widely used) term human capital, which was then taken up by Becker.

This term “human capital” was used to describe persons, (as human economic agents) who had been conditioned and manipulated by the western system of education, socialization, and on-the-job training, to behave consistent with the primacy of a private financial emphasis on their part.

Since that time, western societies have extensively propagandized the human capital focus. In their programs of formal and informal education and socialization, these western societies have therefore concentrated on strategies to make their citizens better money and profit generating implements, (who operate as competitors with each other and with produced machinery as well).

Implements, of course, do not have quality-of-life needs. Neither will it be necessary to train them to have considerations regarding community, nor regarding the expression of either mutuality or of empathy. These are not features that will arise between them (as implements). Therefore, where slavery to capitalism dominates,(as per the human capital emphasis), the imputation is that in economic reconstruction/bail-out packages, (and also in the economic development policy and programs of governments), any concentration on the generation quality-of-life results may therefore be legitimately abandoned, in favour of a concentration on the generation of higher levels of market-measured financial-equivalent output.

Meanwhile, governments that aim to promote quality-of-life enhancement can also draw on statistical data (not now being collected) to determine the extent to which prevailing aggregate economic development programming is enabling persons to access critical mixes of services in behalf of that outcome. At the same time, the economic analysts that work for governments, have a doorway to move their focus away from performance appraisals that are based on capitalist enslavement. However, to do so they will need to return to the insights on economic performance appraisal, which the English neo-classical economist Alfred Marshall had provided.

Marshall had pointed out that when persons judge the jobs which they will select, they normally go beyond what the money-wage data show. He pointed to the presence of what he called “real income” components (not an inflation-adjusted price level feature), which enter into appraisals that persons make about the yield from work and employment. He stressed real income, as being what we are describing here as a measurable living-centred achievement, that respective persons secure from their time and effort commitments.

Based on that insight by Alfred Marshall, the extent to which economic reconstruction and bank bail-out packages cause people to be “making money” again, is a dubious indicator of the substantive contribution to economic development performance which these Congress supported packages may have provided. Instead, because persons are seeking to have access to outcomes that enable them to meet their quality-of-life requirements, appropriate results will show up in the presence of social infrastructure which facilitate their access to mixes of services that will deliver adequate levels of food, clothing, shelter, health-care, security of person and of property, entertainment, and access to verifiable information-guided knowledge.

An analytical focus on the delivery of a people and associated living-centred achievement context, (such as that to which Alfred Marshall had alluded), was elaborated by Horace Carby-Samuels, in his book entitled Quality-of-Living and Human development as the Outcome from Economic Progress; (Ottawa, Canada, Agora Cosmopolitan, 2007, ISBN 1897036353).

Meanwhile, the overall message here is that citizens need to remind Congress that the institutional economic responsibilities that governments have, are not limited to ensuring that matters operate consistent with relationships which make a banking system profitable. Rather, governments also have the responsibilities to ensure that the system which is in place, operates with integrity to complement the enhancement in the access of persons to the wherewithal out of which quality-of-living of people is forthcoming.

The effectiveness of the economic reconstruction/bail-out packages which Congress has put forward, must therefore also be judged in terns of what impact these initiatives are likely to have on the living-centred real economy, where persons budget how they allocate their time for survival.

Yet, the indications are that, currently, the prevailing western governments appear to be quite content to provide the institutional background that complements capitalist enslavement.

Recall, for example, that it was the very legitimate attempt of capitalist mortgage brokers to make a profit (even though out of questionable financial transactions), together with the normal profit-centred attempts of banks to generate income out of trade in commercial paper; which led to the current economic malaise.

It is therefore not an appropriate economic remedy strategy for Congress to throw in more currency toward re-capitalizing the banks (so that they can generate more profitable commercial paper), while at the same time the system of economic performance appraisal continues to ignore the extent to which the quality-of-life achievements at which persons aim, are also being serviced.

Bear in mind, also, that in their normal capitalist-directed business operations, banks turn debt, into money, through their normal lending operations, where they primarily emphasize investments which promise to yield appropriately high levels of financial profit. The current government recapitalization of banks, is therefore primarily aimed at promoting a flow of activities which will accompany the profit earnings of the banking system.

If the economic reconstruction/bail out programs which Congress has created, financed long term results, (such as programs of formal and informal education that promote mutuality, empathy, and preservation of the natural environment; and also fostered infrastructure which aim to enhance the access of persons to opportunities for an information-guided high quality-of-living), they will be defensible in both economic and moral survival terms.

by Horace Carby-Samuels

Our local Dominion (in Pickering) just got Metro-fied. They did some minor renovations (more like rearranging the displays and changing the sign out front), but the biggest change we saw was in pricing. Everything was higher overall, and not by insignificant amounts either. Crumpets and bagels that used to be around 99 cents to $1.29 a bag were priced at closer to $2, bags of frozen french fries that used to be in the $2.00 range were going for over $3…. Dominion used to include free packets of Renee’s Gourmet salad dressing if you bought their house salads (1 packet if you bought the small size, 2 for the medium, 3 for the large). Not anymore, the free dressing sign has been replaced with one that reads “Don’t forget the salad dressing!” with the packets priced at 39 cents each.

This is the closest supermarket to our house and we generally went there for convenience only (pick up a few things we need right away, and save our big shopping for Sam’s Club, No Frills, etc). But if the biggest change Metro has made other than rearranging everything is to hike prices 25-50%, I think the nearby Independent (which is cleaner, less crowded, and often has cheaper prices than the Loblaws) has just earned a much larger chunk of our business. Heard a lot of grumbling among fellow shoppers at the checkout lines…. What are they doing, trying to charge Quebec prices in Southern Ontario?

Sample of other comments:

My current duet is the SLM and Sobey’s. Sobey’s has Kerr Farms beef for roughly 3/4 of the price it sells at Whiteveen and will cut to order. For that alone I would go to Sobey’s it’s such a good hook. — Googs, November 2008

Metro has had these stores for over a year, and has made gradual changes before the innocuous revamps. Artisinal breads including P. Moisson is the major one, but mostly they have taken over without major changes. This is leadership by blandishment, and management by bean counting. I expected better. — Jayt90, November 2008

I went last Sunday [9 November 2008] to the Metro at Bloor/ Spadina for a few items (bad timing, I know) and the crowd and the narrow aisles made it impossible to manuver. I’d rather go to Sobey’s with their unpleasant, unknowlegable staff and higher prices just to avoid the insanity. — Ttckitty, November 2008

Metro may wish to consider “converting” their Metro stores back into Dominion, before the apparent arrogance of their original rebranding causes them to end up in serious financial problems, like Circuit City in the United States (or other supermarket chains that like Canada Safeway, Steinberg’s and Maxi Plus that were victimized by their own apparent arrogance). Dominion Supermarkets was founded 1919 in southern Ontario.

The decision to summarily end this Canadian tradition, in favour of Metro’s corporate name symbolizes an apparent corporate culture of shortsightedness that disrespects community civic identities, and apparently also basic standards.

Editorial reference, LINK

by Text Squared, Chowhound writer

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, attacked historians who called Pius “Hitler’s pope.” Haaretz.com reports that the Holocaust era Pope that supported Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany could be canonized by the Vatican.

It is somewhat notable that on 10 July 2007, the Vatican issued a document restating its belief that the Catholic Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ, that is being viewed by other Christian faith as further expression of bigotry..

The 16-page document had been prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a doctrinal watchdog that Pope Benedict used to head.

Formulated as five questions and answers, the document is titled “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.”

It says although Orthodox churches are true churches, they are defective because they do not recognize the primacy of the Pope.

“It follows that these separated churches and communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation,” it said.

The document adds that Protestant denominations — called Christian Communities born out of the Reformation — are not true churches, but ecclesial communities.

“These ecclesial communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood … cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense,” it said.

The document is similar to one written in 2000 by the Pope — who was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time — that sparked an angry reaction from Protestant groups.

“I suspect there will be some reactions that are rather passionate,” said Raphaela Schmid, Director of the Becket Institute, a group that advocates religious freedom. “I hope they will not be angry because we all try to understand about each other.”

The document was issued by Benedict’s successor in doctrinal matters, Cardinal William Levada, and endorsed by the Pope, said Reuters.

The decree came days after liberal Catholic and Jewish groups spoke out against the Pope’s move to authorize the wider use of a traditional Latin mass.

The Tridentine mass includes a prayer for the conversion of Jews. Its use was restricted following the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.

Editorial reference, LINK

Special to The Canadian

What is this First Nations compulsion to keep talking about agreements that are hundreds of years old? Why can’t they just forget all this treaty garbage and why do they continue to insist on being treated special, with special rights and benefits, and specific laws just for them?

Why don’t they just adjust, adapt, “fit in”, go to work and be like everybody else?

These are questions I hear Canadians all across the country ask.

Well, I can tell you that most First Nations in this country are more than ready to forget the treaties, including all the unfulfilled promises. All Canadians have to do is give them their land back. They are ready when Canada is ready.

Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? We’ll get back to that later. First, let’s look at some history to put it all into context.

Sacred Contracts to Some, But not to Others

Over the past five centuries, over 500 treaties and military pacts have been signed between the British and Canadian Crowns, as well as many First Nations in Canada.

The treaties – contracts, really – are considered sacred by the First Nations that entered into them. Unfortunately, our federal government doesn’t feel the same way. All of these contracts have been dishonoured in a variety of forms.

Treaty 11, signed in 1921 to cover the Northwest Territories, was never implemented. Our government decided which terms of the treaty were to be fulfilled and which parts would simply be ignored. Many discrepancies exist due to a misinterpretation of what the First Nations initially said and what actually found its way into the documents.

Many First Nations lawsuits are before the courts in their efforts to have the government honour promises made when the treaties were signed.

Today, about 80 per cent of Canada’s land mass is covered by treaties, historically numbered treaties and the comprehensive land claims settlements sometimes referred to as modern treaties.

Other claims cover most of British Columbia, parts of Quebec, three unsettled tracts of land in the Yukon and, of course, the Deh Cho lands of the Northwest Territories. The B.C. Treaty Commission began it’s work 18 years ago, has cost many 10’s of millions with very little measurable outcomes and most agree this system is a complete failure in making treaty with the 50 or so groups in negotiations. I suggest the hundreds of lawyers involved have no incentive to reach conclusion and closure.

Specific Land Claims are well over 900 today and when we calculate the total costs of resolving all the claims our governments are looking at a $15 Billion liability.

Supreme Court Position

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that original Aboriginal title exists on land where no treaties have yet been made. These negotiations have been going on for many decades.

Progress has been painstakingly slow and has cost taxpayers – you and me – hundreds of millions of dollars. This continues to bring great uncertainty about encumbrances on the Crown’s title and levels of Aboriginal jurisdictions. The only way to get rid of this original Aboriginal title is to make treaty, but there continues to be much disagreement about this point as well.

Of the 690,000 registered status Indians who are also registered “band” members, only 50 per cent are considered treaty Indians because of the geographic location of their home reserves. If your home reserve is located in an area of land that is part of a treaty, then you are considered treaty and are eligible to receive treaty benefits and have the treaty rights agreed to in the original treaty.

If, on the other hand, you are a registered member of a reserve that is not located on land covered by a treaty (the other 50 per cent), then you are a non-treaty registered Indian. You can still be a status Indian because you are on the Indian registry maintained by the Department of Indian Affairs.

How are we doing so far? I know – the terminology can get confusing and that is exactly the way our federal government wants it to stay.

Now, if you happen to be a “treaty Indian”, you receive whatever treaty benefits the government chooses to give you. If you happen to be a non-treaty Indian, meaning your community did not make treaty with the federal Crown, the government has decided to give you the same benefits as those that did make treaties, but not the annual cheque.

What huge amount of cash does that entitle you to as a treaty Indian? Twenty grand a year? Two thousand bucks? Not even close.

Treaty cheques come in at the paltry lump sum of $5 a year – sometimes just $2 or $3 – and this figure has not changed in a century or more since the treaties were signed. (By the way, the governments won’t send it in the mail, either – you have to go back to your home reserve and pick it up.)

Some people might wonder why non-treaty Indians receive treaty benefits (but not that $5 cheque). Well, apparently the government decided at some point to put selected treaty benefits under the Indian Act, which governs the lives of most First Nations people. Therefore, all registered Indians are eligible to receive these treaty benefits whether they are treaty or not. When I asked why, the federal government representatives told me to “expedite administration” and this decision only costs us $3 billion a year ..hmmmm!

Back to the Land

Now, let’s get back to how we started this – the part about giving the land back.

Wait a minute, you say. Canada can’t return the land to First Nations. It’s not practical and makes no sense. There was no “conquering” done in Canada On one hand Canadians are saying forget the treaties, then they say we want all the land and resources and forget our contract obligations. Does that mean Canadians want their cake and eat it too?

But this has nothing to do with reason, logic or fairness.

It wouldn’t be so difficult to comprehend if the government actually honoured the contracts and fulfilled its treaty obligations. For many decades now, the Supreme Court of Canada has been insisting that our federal government live up to its promises and behave “honourably” and that it is liable for choices and actions, past and present. There has been much effort to restore the honour of the crown. Apparently this hasn’t worked, as there seems to be great resistance to the concept. Does that mean when we say “Honourable Member of Parliament” that that is a true oxymoron.

Today in Canada, the ability to hunt, fish and gather are considered rights for Aboriginal people. We also know that 80 per cent of our country’s land allows for treaty rights, while the other 20 per cent is covered by original Aboriginal title.

But understanding what these rights are, whom they belong to and where these rights can be applied is a daunting and at times onerous task. Most provincial governments and corporate leaders in Canada are making an honest effort to learn about these rights, because they know infringement, without the full informed consent of these Aboriginal rights holders is now against the law and has been proven very costly indeed.

Some Aboriginal groups have Aboriginal rights, but don’t have treaty rights – such as the nation’s Métis citizens, who share a mixed-blood heritage with early European settlers, voyageurs and fur-traders. Their Aboriginal rights are on par with First Nation Aboriginal rights – and one does not want to ignore any potential Aboriginal rights holders.

First Nations people also have treaty rights on top of their Aboriginal rights, and many have original Aboriginal title as well.

It’s a complicated scenario rooted in centuries of misunderstanding – misunderstanding that Canadians are only now beginning to grasp.

My Rights and Yours

I would like to clarify that I am an Aboriginal person, but not a First Nation person. Nor am I an Inuit person. All Canadian Aboriginal people are Canadian citizens, although know of some who don’t want to be. They don’t actually have any place to ”go back home” if they don’t like it.

First Nations people actually became Canadian citizens in 1960, but Métis have always been considered Canadian citizens.

Most Canadians tell me they believe we are all equal under the rule of law in Canada. Our federal Constitution, our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and our laws protect my rights as a Canadian citizen, same as you.

However, since I am an Aboriginal, I do hold Aboriginal rights, while 95 per cent of other Canadians don’t.

Could this mean that I am a citizen-plus? Am I now more equal than other non-Aboriginal Canadians? How does that make Canadians feel about have less rights than Aboriginal people? A First Nations person with treaty rights would be even more equal than I am, and might therefore be considered a citizen-plus-plus.

It is important to me that non-Aboriginal Canadians see me as their equal under the law, not their “more equal.” I choose not to exercise any of my Aboriginal rights, so I can be as equal a Canadian as the rest of you.

Whenever many Aboriginal people say they want to be equal to all Canadians, they are not saying they are willing to forfeit any of their rights or benefits. But they do want to enjoy the same standards of living as the average Canadian.

Under “special” current laws, legislation and policy, this is all but impossible. Aboriginal people in Canada are subject to all the same laws as every other Canadians; however there are all these other laws that apply to them that do not apply to non-Aboriginal Canadians. Some times it is difficult trying to be equal.

How does one go about getting equal?

When the Aboriginal demographics show that the Aboriginal peoples standard of living is the same as the average Canadian, then I predict most Aboriginal people will kiss their special laws – such as the widely loathed federal Indian Act – goodbye. It is interesting to note that as the numbers of registered status Indians leaving the reserves increases yearly, they are already forfeiting access and use of many of their rights.

Canadians have an international reputation as honest fair-minded people and expect our governments to treat Aboriginal people with kindness, compassion and fair play.

Unfortunately that is simply not happening.

They can’t wait any longer for the demographics to change or catch up to them. They are seeking equality right now in most urban centres; however, equality is an elusive dream for most.

My circumstances allow me to choose not to take advantage of my Aboriginal rights because I don’t need them. I choose not to participate in race-based laws because I have this choice. I want to be equal with my fellow citizens – not more equal – and it is vitally important to me that my fellow citizens know that.

But it’s just as important that we all understand the reasons why many Aboriginals have not done the same. I hope this column and the ones that follow are helping shed some light on this complex set of circumstances.

by Robert Laboucane

About the writer:

Robert Laboucane is the President, Ripple Effects Ltd., LINK