Trudeau's UN Indigenous Rights Speech Rings Hollow at Home

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'can talk a really good game, but at the end of the day, he's not doing anything substantive to make any changes' for indigenous people in Canada, says Pamela Palmater of Ryerson University

[MalcH]

Just a pretty face for neoliberal policies.

[razxmnazx]

good game sister
i have the shield you have the spear
home for the win

[lastfirst]

Another Bill Clinton and Obama. What a tragedy.

[trippplefive]

with all those eloquent speeches, and people not paying attention, he'll be prime minister forever. imagine having Obama without term limits.

[yafaflores]

Justin Trudeau does believe and hold sacred human rights. Unlike what is happening in our world with certain leaders backing the bad vs the good

[questionade]

Trudeau rings hollow because he is hollow, a vacuous drama teacher with a pretty face and a famous dad, Canadian Royalty

[johnkilmartin]

It is odd you chose someone from a First Nation that performed a successful genocide on another First Nation and then colonized their land.

[DokisKalin]

Dr. Palmater does not actually know what replacing the Department of Indian Affairs really means. The Prime Minister's Office has given absolutely no detail. It could actually result in a massive downsizing in the Public Service which would be worse. She is ignorant about what work the Department really does. I would know I used to work there and I knew Pam personally.

[shushuyu]

Yep..you're the ones running the show now. You have no excuse now. The only people that can blame and shame you are the ones "watching" the show.

[paddleduck]

Maybe if you bag on Trudeau hard enough, you can end up with another Trump! Yeah, that'd be great. Worked great in the US.

[EasyZee]

So much of our tax dollars go to the indigenous community. The responsibility for poor living conditions is in most part a fault of the indigenous community for mismanagement of those funds. Yes, there have been horrible atrocities committed against Canada's Indigenous community in the past, like the crimes committed by the catholic church in residential schools.
But the issues facing the native community today are not the result of those atrocities.
Per student, more money goes toward students on the reserve than goes towards students in public schools.; $13, 524 for indigenous students, as opposed to $11, 646 per student, on average, in provincial public schools across Canada. So poor education outcomes is the result of mismanagement of money.
Health Canada spent almost $1.1 billion on supplementary benefits such as dental care, vision care and pharmaceutical drugs for First Nations and Inuit Canadians. Most other Canadians do not get that kind of coverage with our health care. We have to spend, out of our own pockets, for eye glasses and dental work and prescriptions.
The growth of per capita spending on first nations programs has outpaced the growth in general spending for everyone. Canada spends about $2000 more per capita, on a first nations person than it does on a Non First Nations person.

I disagree with Pamela Palmateer when she says in this interview the government is "trying to assimilate us and keep us in a state of chronic poverty", which is absurd. And it makes no sense. Being assimilated into society means you no longer live in poverty. Furthermore, as I stated above, we spend more per person on the native community than we do on other canadians.

At what point do first nations stop blaming all their woes on the government? Is poor education the governments fault when you get more funding per capita than most public schools? Is bad drinking water the governments fault when you refuse to get off the reserves which are located in isolated areas?
Seems Mrs. Palmateer wants to remain separate and sovereign from Canada, but at the same time reliant on Canada for funding. You can't have it both ways. Either you be sovereign and responsible for funding your own education and housing and drinking water and eyeglasses and dental work, or you assimilate into Canadian society like Europeans did, like East Indians did, like Asians did, like Carribeans and Africans did. They all maintain their own cultural heritages, but they are also a part of the Canadian community. They don't live on reserves, they don't demand to govern themselves and at the same time get funded by the government.
And before I get called all sorts of names from the outrage police. I work for a native indian guy. I've worked for him since 2012. He is a tv producer, one of the best I've worked with, and he agrees with me. He has assimilated into society, and he has not lost any of his culture or heritage. Just like my parents, who came from Croatia, have assimilated into canadian society, but they are still as croatian as they were before they came here in 1969. They are croatian and candian, both.