Dear Readers;
This letter we received just about sums it up perfectly;
You should not Idle any More. You should spend your time constructively getting educated, fixing your homes, becoming entrepreneurs or getting jobs and not protesting, stopping traffic and trains and asking for handouts for which you refuse to be accountable. You want independence, then demonstrate that you can be responsible, independent contributors to society.
L. Lauzon
London
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Anthony Furey
This is a crucial time for First Nations leaders. They’ve got the public’s attention. They must use it or they will lose it.
One of the more telling parts of the Ipsos poll is that 60% of people now think First Nations’ are responsible for their own problems.
It’s one of those ideas the public sphere wants to discuss but knows it’s taboo — mostly for fear of being labelled racist.
But there are common sense points to make: Reserve problems persist despite ample finances; their lack of property rights and lousy accounting and elections standards are the Indian Act status quo that people like Palmater strangely fight to maintain; many reserves are isolated, some far from jobs — most of us would pack up and move in search of opportunity.
The onus isn’t on Canadians to stop asking probing questions.
It’s on First Nations to answer them — for their own benefit.
Canadians shouldn’t feel bad for wanting answers about Spence’s finances.
Unless this changes — and resistance to scrutiny must stop — you can bet public support will fall further.
