Monday, March 07, 2016

New Help for Aboriginals?

I probably have written this earlier but Aboriginal people of Canada, the majority of them, don't live in a good condition. Apart from a small number of them who have good jobs either in private sector or governments, including their own assembly, the rest live in Third World conditions:
rundown houses on Reserves, wandering around the cities looking for change, bottles and cans, intoxicated, getting in to fights and often getting stabbed and killed, you name it. All bad things that you can imagine happens to these poor people.
Aboriginals have been in fight with the Federal Government over land, for decades. And these fights are over certain areas. Parliament Hill in Ottawa where the House of Commons is located is one of them! Can you imagine? This country has been established or confederated more than 148 years ago and they are still in fight with original settlers over land! And wasn't all the land belong to Aboriginal people? Why then they have claim over some?! Shouldn't they say: Hey! This is all my land. Get the hell out!
One of their claims have been over Castle Mountain area in Banff National Park. I have been in the area. Once I and The Lady did the wonderful hike of Rockbound Lake. The lake is actually located behind the Castle Mountain. The other time I had a walk in Johnston Canyon and then drove by and took a few photos. This claim has apparently settled recently. The Native people of area, the Siksika Nation agreed to receive $123 million to give up the claim they had over the land! So money resolved the problem but what percentage of this money is going to improve the standards of living of these people? And what percentage is going to be invested? There has been several stories of chiefs driving luxury trucks and living in mansions while their own people are deprived of the basics of living. This is in addition to violence towards Aboriginal women which has led to disappearance and murder or several of them. It is not the topic of this discussion though. These people have suffered a lot since the European settlers have stepped their foot on their sole. At one stage their children were separated from then put in special schools to learn the modern European lifestyle and language! 
Anyways money tempts everyone and this $123 million is lot of money. Considering the number of voter, 3444, I assume each person receives a share of over $35000 which is not bad for the families who are considered low-income, mostly. 
(Photo: Castle Mountain in Banff National Park. I took this photo in November of 2014 after my short walk in Johnston Canyon. I never had trouble with any Aboriginal when hiked in the area)

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