Cut Money To Health for Aboriginals (Apprently their Healthy enough)

Aboriginal communities require an enormous amount of aid. We known for many many years that aboriginal communities have one of the highest rates of poverty and have very high rates of health problems. Bob Rae hit the right nail on the head when he said Attawapiskat is our third world.

"We talk a lot about the Third World, we talk about Haiti, we talk about poverty in other parts of the world," he said. "This is our Third World. It's right here at home. These are our fellow citizens."

Governments have for years haven't done much for the aboriginal communities. Harper unfortunately has no excuse to continue this inaction. The National Aboriginal Health Organization has been told the government will not be funding the 4.4 million dollars to this organization. 4.4 million. To put that in prospective the elimination of the penny is going to save the government 11 million. Also the F35 contracts cost 15-25 billion.

I think this shows the priorities of our Conservative government. they are willing to do almost anything imaginable to balance the budget from eliminating trivial things like the penny to eliminating funding to a first nations group that is of no doubt requires much more money then just a minor 4 million, but when you talk about fighter jets or Corporate tax cuts money isn't an object all of a sudden. Fiscally responsible NO! Morally responsible Hell NO!    

Read More here

Endorsing UN First Nations Rights

The Tories have endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, three years after it passed the General Assembly. Back then, not only did we not vote for it, Canada voted against it! And us being one of the countries in the world that usually takes pride in our Aboriginal culture. It's still better late than never. The life of First Nations in reserves is far from being the best and there are problems which need to be tackled. What we will see now is if the Conservatives will act on the signing of the Declaration. Probably not, because the agreement is non-binding and it's an easy way to gain popularity without doing anything.

Canada has finally endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Harper government announced the endorsement Friday after a meeting between Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, John McNee, and the president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Tories endorse UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples (theprovince.com)
• Canada endorses indigenous rights declaration (cbc.ca)

First Nations Salaries Must be Public

A Conservative MP has introduced a private members bill that will ensure that the salaries of First Nations chiefs and councillors be made public, just like all other public officials across Canada. I actually agree with the goal of this bill. Canadians should be able to know how much their representatives are being paid and what public money is being spent on. However, this is not a replacement for the other actions that must be taken in First Nation communities. This would mean better access to education among other things. This is a good step forward, but it shouldn't distract from the actual problems in First Nation communities.

OTTAWA — A Conservative private member's bill proposes the salaries and expenses paid to First Nations chiefs and councillors should be publicly disclosed like those of all other elected representatives in Canada.

Saskatoon MP Kelly Block said if passed, her bill, introduced Friday, would result in greater "accountability and transparency" by making public all forms of remuneration paid to First Nations chiefs and councillors through federal government funds.

Read more at the Calgary Herald.