[MOVED] Lyle Bauer back in Manitoba - Politics, not football

[Mark H.]

The system as it is simply promotes a cycle of poverty and keeps natives on reserves reliant on the federal government to support them. The system is horribly broken. You can't talk about changing it because the natives aren't really interested in doing that because they are afraid they will get less than they are already guaranteed in their current treaties. The system was put in place when it was possible for people to live off the land but that doesn't happen anymore so it's an outdated system that can't easily be changed. 

 

It wasn't realistically possible to live off the land during that era - centuries of unsustainable fur trade had severely reduced everything except perhaps the fish.  In fact, some populations (beaver and white tail deer) are more plentiful today than they were in the 19th century. 

 

The reserve system was put into place with the promise that the natives would be taught how to farm - but they weren't.  Not only were they not properly taught, they were not given the proper implements.  Thus the system of handouts began...

 

Macdonald thought he could 'starve them out.' When that didn't work, they tried residential schools to assimilate them.  

 

It was a mess in the 19th century and it's still a mess today.  The reserves and the treaties never made any sense whatsoever.  The intentions of the government that created them were unethical at best.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

 

Lol... abolish the reserve system?? What exactly does that mean? What happens to the people on reserves? Force them into cities?

To live like the rest of us & maybe have to contribute to society. Oops, sorry. Racist comment.

So the government buys them all houses in the city? Is that how it works? They certainly won't have money from selling their reserve homes if we are abolishing reserves.

Ahhh, so maybe we just move them into the city but don't pay for their homes? I've always said the people of Canada could use more homeless citizens.

 

 

And thats part of the issue right?  Thats why this requires a major, generational solution.  Its why it isnt easy.  Its why you can walk downtown to any shelter or any hole-in-the-wall craphole bar and tell me the majority of the people in those locations?  Where's the culture there?  When there is spring flooding and thousands of aboriginals are air-lifted into Winnipeg hotels, what happens?  You get a business like Air Canada not wanting to be downtown anymore but no one is allowed to talk about that because it's racist.

 

We need a solution that likely requires MORE financial investment in the short term and a lot more real effort on the parts of all stakeholders.  But it HAS to be generational.  It has to be helping people that want the help and giving them a way to help themselves while slowly removing the "safety net" of the Reserve.

 

Think about this.  Go into any prison.  The justice system is racist because there are more aboriginals in prison then any other ethnicity.  Racist right?  There are real reasons for it.  If you could snap your fingers and remove every single criminal who suffers from FASD, the jails would look empty.  FASD is 100% preventable, has a HUGE impact on the aborigional population and the MAJORITY of people in prison suffer from some level of it.  And last I heard, the province only invested something like $10,000 into FASD education.

 

If the government decided to eliminate FASD and invested the money to do so, they'd recoup that investment many times over in subsequent generations.

 

That's just ONE part of a needed solution.

[The Unknown Poster]

 

The system as it is simply promotes a cycle of poverty and keeps natives on reserves reliant on the federal government to support them. The system is horribly broken. You can't talk about changing it because the natives aren't really interested in doing that because they are afraid they will get less than they are already guaranteed in their current treaties. The system was put in place when it was possible for people to live off the land but that doesn't happen anymore so it's an outdated system that can't easily be changed. 

 

It wasn't realistically possible to live off the land during that era - centuries of unsustainable fur trade had severely reduced everything except perhaps the fish.  In fact, some populations (beaver and white tail deer) are more plentiful today than they were in the 19th century. 

 

The reserve system was put into place with the promise that the natives would be taught how to farm - but they weren't.  Not only were they not properly taught, they were not given the proper implements.  Thus the system of handouts began...

 

Macdonald thought he could 'starve them out.' When that didn't work, they tried residential schools to assimilate them.  

 

It was a mess in the 19th century and it's still a mess today.  The reserves and the treaties never made any sense whatsoever.  The intentions of the government that created them were unethical at best.

 

Absolutely.  And you know what, I'm tired of apologizing for it.  Its time for us to settle debts and move on together.  Aboriginal people have no more right to the "land" then anyone else.  Its not the 1800's.  We should live up to our committments 100% and find a better way forward.

[Mark H.]

And the first step would be to acknowledge that there is plenty of blame to go around.