My take on “Telefilm wants U.S. stars in Canadian movies”

See my script below CBC article:

 Telefilm wants U.S. stars in Canadian movies
Last Updated: Saturday, February 20, 2010 | 9:43 AM ET CBC News
Comments119Recommend30

Michel Roy, the head of Canada's federal film agency Telefilm, is urging the government to ease restrictions on allowing foreign stars to appear in publicly-funded movies.
Current tax rules require that the lead actor or the second lead be Canadian.
Michel Roy says he believes including more U.S. movie stars would help Canadian movies at the box office, especially the ones from English Canada, which accounted for only one per cent of box office receipts in the country last year.
"We just can't go on this way," Roy told CBC News, noting the industry in Quebec tends to be more dynamic while attracting a local audience, too.
"We need to make changes — in order to make those changes we will have to dare to do new things that at times might shock some people."
Roy understands some Canadians may question why their dollars are underwriting films with American stars but if the movies do well, they also give the Canadian talent more exposure.
Changes could be announced in weeks
Roy says Telefilm - which has plowed nearly a billion dollars into the domestic industry over the past decade - has been holding discussions with officials at Heritage Canada about relaxing restrictions on foreign stars.
Telefilm also wants to alter other guidelines to boost the number of co-productions, which have dropped dramatically in the past five years.
The changes could be announced in "a matter of weeks," Roy said.
"We're so advanced in these discussions and the reception has been very favourable."
Roy won't discuss the details of Telefilm's proposals and the minister of Heritage, James Moore, wasn't available to comment.

My reply to this story below:

NDN Aesthetics du La terre du cinema avec Anglo/Franco Hallucination USA Style.

(Working Title)

FADE IN:

EXT. HUSKY TOWER - DAY

An AMERICAN TYPE OILMAN is looking at Calgary with a gleam in his eyes. STEVEN, the PM holds an artificial CHIEF BONNET in his one hand, A Deed of PAPER in the other.

                                                            D.W.RUSH:

I'd like a cowboy hat with that oily Injun Steven!

After all The boys at the Alamo didn't kick ass those

mexicans because they were brownies, were they?

           STEVEN:

Well, I'll don't know Davy! Goliath there wants the

whole kitten ka boddal! Who writes our history anyway?

           D.W. RUSH:

The people in power, American, Canadian, what's the

difference. Those Dam Injuns don't recognize our

border anyway!

           STEVEN:

We tried to turn them into Settlers Davy!

           D.W. RUSH:

An American Actor would make up the difference.

One Canadian NDN actor would appease the Tribal

basterds, and an English Canadian Whitey can be

passed off as a northern cousin here to Goliath.

What do you think?

                                   STEVEN:

What about the BLACK Afro Americans and rabbit breeding Latinos? 

                                    D.W. RUSH:

On both sides of the border? ( The two whites laugh)

                                   STEVEN:

We can make our films like yours, who would  know the difference?

That way, the Hollywood Hallucination would stay the same

                       D.W.RUSH:

And the Canadian Film Wanna-be Americans can continue using

the Government money to create mediocre film stories based

on race funding!                                                            

                                   STEVEN:We don't want another James Youngdeer & Mona Darkfeather

                                   D.W. RUSH:

We can thank Neil Diamond for that! Brown Angelinas, Scary!

                                   STEVEN:

Telefilm says an American star would do wonders for the Canadian

film business. 

                                   D.W. RUSH:

Well, Annexation won't be a problem, culturally we are there already.

                                   STEVEN:

Sweet Cherry Wine Diamond?

                                   D.W.RUSH:

No. sign here!

At the end of the day, cultural appropriation is still evident

My response to Globe and Mail article below

 

"School board urges end to native-themed mascots

'Mock Indian' symbols trivialize aboriginal culture, Vancouver trustee says" from article at link below http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/school-board-urges-end-to-native-themed-mascots/article1469260/

At the end of the day, cultural appropriation is still evident, as the sound and images in the popular cultural realm of film, television, and sports is inundated with the constant references of idiomatic expressions from the dime novel days of the Modernist period.

`...Bit the dust,...the only good injun is a dead injun,... watch your back,.....once you leave the reservation, there is no turning back...`` etc etc.

I have heard these expressions more than once in my lifetime, and with a bit of research you will see how these expressions came to stay in the North American Lexicon library. To change the stereotyping, the cultural norms of two centuries is going to take more than school board recommendations and passage of levies or school board orders, it is going to take two to three generations of re-educating of the ruling classes children, and the restructuring of the educational, cultural, and political apparatuses of North America and any euro-colonial country affected by colonialism. It is going to take a re-education of the masses who strive on the sports competitions, and the audience participation jingles. It is going to take time and the disruption of sported related industries and the elimination of mascot related sports games and themes. It is going to take a total elimination of two centuries of colonial history and the re-education of the masses. Regardless of the rebuttals against changing the mascot's image or name, these moronic culture opinionators will never see beyond their point of view because of how invisible, the notion of ingrained systemic racism is embedded in the subconscious realm of popular culture literacy and how one sees what is normal or a way of life in this world. Not until we have a total disruption of the North American way of life will we see change or have an understanding of the old world view of colonialism and all its entrapments and entitlements.

The New Age of Indigenous Manufactured Consent

Eric Grey, TV producer and traditional artist sent out this news story from Zoe Blunt, a free lance journalist on Vancouver Island. My comments are after the published article:

 

VANCOUVER—It looked like the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee had everything sewn up tight: new venues built to order, ads from corporate sponsors, bylaws against ambush marketing, and smiling Indigenous people welcoming the world.

Now, the committee must be wondering whether it misjudged its First Nations "partners."

Hard on the heels of Indigenous protests during the Olympic Torch Relay, the Four Host First Nations (FHFN) surprised the province and its international partners with an announcement in January. Chief Bill Williams, chair of the FHFN, declared they will use the power of international media to shame the province into honouring its commitments to economic development.

Thomas Leonard, president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council, fired the first shot. In a letter to BC Forests Minister Pat Bell last December, he wrote, "The fact that your government and its federal partner are spending $3-9+ billion to stage the Winter Olympics is merely exacerbating the frustration and anger felt by our communities as they continue to be told that there is no money in the pot to address their situations, which, as you are fully aware, are of a most desperate nature."

Williams explained the consequences for ignoring the FHFN's ultimatum. "There's going to be some 14,000 media people running around [at the Olympics]," he told the Globe and Mail. "Some of them are already contacting us. They want to know, 'What's it like to be an Indian in today's world? How do you live?' We are going to start letting those reporters know the reality of the poverty we face."

The host nations—the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, and Lil'Wat Nation bands—signed partnership agreements with VANOC years ago, and until now, they've submitted to the demands of the international committee on everything from cutting old-growth forests to wearing faux regalia. Some, like Kwakwaka'wakw activist Gord Hill, have accused the FHFN of selling out, and cheaply.

Raising the price at this late date doesn't make it right, and Hill calls the latest move an "attempted cash grab" by "native sell-outs."

"What is truly hypocritical is for Williams to now raise the issue of Native poverty, or to express concerns about the social conditions for Native people, after several years collaborating with VANOC and the 2010 Olympics," Hill told The Dominion.

Indeed, with the Olympic spectacle upon us, Indigenous leaders have upped the ante. Thomas said, "Our communities are tired of being told there is no new funding available—and that they might have to make do with even less than they already have—and at the same time being told they should be excited about the 2010 Winter Olympics."

Thomas asked the province for an urgent meeting to resolve the issue, and said if steps aren't taken, "The FNFC and its member first nations will reluctantly, but without hesitation, take advantage of the intense international media interest that will be focused on BC before and during the Winter Olympics."

Along with his position as chair of the FHFN, Williams is vice-president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council. He said the province is overdue in funding $6.2 million for developing aboriginal forestry businesses. According to a press statement, similar commitments from Ottawa for $135 million for mountain pine beetle salvage and recovery were pledged years ago but never materialized. A second letter to Federal International Trade Minister Stockwell Day requested a meeting to discuss the long-overdue funding from Ottawa.

Hundreds of reserves across Canada are mired in abject poverty, and thousands make do without safe drinking water, housing, health care, employment and education. Conditions for Indigenous people have only deteriorated since Vancouver and Whistler won the Olympic bid, Hill said. "During this period, hundreds of Natives have been made homeless in Vancouver, subject to police violence and harassment; yet where were Mr. Williams, the Four Host First Nations and their Olympic toad Tewanee Joseph? Kissing the ass of corporations, government and Olympic officials," he charged.

Investing in forestry is a delicate issue for the Squamish and other First Nations who have fought to preserve the forests of their traditional territory from industrial clearcutting. But in many parts of the coast, unprecedented liquidation of old-growth and second-growth forests is underway, and raw log exports are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, unsettled Indigenous land claims languish in limbo.

Growing nations are desperate for jobs and economic development, and this is the trade-off they face. The Olympics represent development, but at the expense of traditional lands, foods, and wildlife.

Today, neither the province nor the chiefs are speaking to the media—likely because they are attempting to negotiate a truce. The chiefs are certainly aware that when provincial and federal governments are confronted by intractable First Nations threatening action, they often give in to the demands. That's how Indigenous activists have won substantial concessions in the past.

In this case, the FHFN demands are dwarfed by the scale of the Olympic money-pit. The province's $6.2 million debt to First Nations forestry amounts to one-tenth of one per cent of Olympic spending. Ottawa's contribution to pine-beetle salvage in First Nations communities would be a little over two per cent of the budget for the Games. Clearly, the host nations have the position and the leverage to negotiate sweeping changes. But what they stand to win by what some have called "selling out" appears to only be crumbs from the master's table.

Zoe Blunt is a journalism school dropout on Vancouver Island.

 

My comments

Two wrongs do not make a right Eric. I don't know what to say to this turnaround. Bill and his colleagues no doubt see the frustration we as first people experience, but kept their mouths in the trough long enough to see how dirty their faces were becoming. To save face is one thing, to wipe off the shit inside ones mouth is another matter. These are a sentiment of many a people, I am one of  them, as so much money is wasted on these facades of harmony, that the poorest  of the poor sink deeper into misery and the ones on top have so much of nothing they cannot take with them.

 

After this is all done with, will the protests and political posturing actually do anything? Our youth  on both sides of the mountain are continuously being harassed by the law, our most sick ones constantly jailed for "being" and our most marginalized preciousness , our women are getting lost on the streets for man's desire. How shameful can we paint Canada, when The Settler mentality is a global sickness, and the indigenous people are seen as a global nuisance getting in the way of progress and humankind's new technological gracing of our Mother Earth. Green Environmental Authentizing industries; created to cut down humankind's carbon dioxide emissions and what is truly indigenous and authentic through the legislative containment of worth and exchange.

 

If Olympicide continues its manufacturing of consent agenda; in the Capitalization of the Human Spirit through athlete and corporate transformation, then we as a an indigenous people are truly lost as Indigenous people. This is because of how some of our leaders lose their direction as a result of the evangelical meanderings of Corporate managers throwing security certificates at the ones who toe the line in dominant society. Financial buyouts in following a particular order of grace and verisimilitude of who we are as people. Humans in the oneness of the corporate bull next to their Creator. The Oneness carrying the Eye of The Pyramid, and In God We trust. Miigweech, all my relations!

 
 

May The Great Spirit guide our leaders to the right grace in these days of parallel worlds and cultures?

Fight and stand against the illusion they are painting before us

The fine line between fascism and democracy has been unveiled in the propaganda charade Vanoc is portraying in their media campaign. By including and doctoring the historic footage of the Nazi era Olympic newsreels show that the historical real, the spectacle real, and the erotic real of our performance as a global society is being subverted by Vanoc and the Olympic machine to devalue the past experiences of our human condition as irrelevant. So that they can de-politicize our current climate of dissent as a minor occurrence in lieu of their interpretation of the greatest event to ever define the human body this 21st century. The corporate and governmental elite have not changed since the modernist period or the contemporary period of cultural politics. IN this new age I call The Age of Technological authenticity, the mass propaganda machine of these two false entities of absolute evil is authenticating what is democratic and what is fascist in the minds of the populace mind. We as a people must fight and stand against the illusion they are painting before us and strip away the illusionary veils they broadcast on our technological tools! I write this article as a result of the story published in the National Post below

'Saluting' Nazi filmmaker a no-win for VANOC

At: http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/blogs/joeoconnor/2010/01/saluting-nazi-filmmaker-a-no-win-for-vanoc.html#socialcomments-submit

It has been raining on Cypress Mountain of late, causing some logistical headaches at the Olympic venue, but the latest dark cloud on the horizon appears on the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) website. 

 

"Lights Will Guide You Home" is a four-minute video celebrating the Olympic torch run. It also happens to include the work of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, whose biggest fan was a madman named Adolf Hitler. Riefenstahl was friends with the Nazi leader, and was a sometime propagandist for his National Socialist program. Her film "Triumph of the Will‚" about the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg in 1934, helped put Hitler on the international map. 

 

A few years later, Riefenstahl shot "Olympia," a movie about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler hoped to show the world his Aryan utopia. There is an ongoing debate about whether the film is a piece of propaganda or a non-partisan work of art. (Let's just assume it was a bit of both). 

 

One of Riefenstahl's most wondrous inventions in "Olympia" -- in addition to filming athletes in slow motion -- was the Olympic torch relay. She concocted the now well-worn ritual for her movie, and VANOC incorporated some of her scenes into its four-minute clip. 

 
 

Borrowing from a Nazi propagandist -- er, ah, cinematic genius -- is no crime. (Not crediting Riefenstahl's work, which would appear to be the case with VANOC, could be). But where VANOC may run afoul is in the editing applied to "Olympia."

 

In the original version, a torch runner enters a packed stadium with the flame held aloft. There is martial music playing and, just on the edge of the screen, a handful of individuals flashing the "Heil Hitler" salute. In the edited, made-in-Vancouver version, the Nazi salutes have been blacked out. (Coldplay has also replaced the drums and trumpets).

 

Had the salute been left alone, there would have been howls of protest, perhaps even a call for a federal inquiry. By blacking them out, VANOC is hiding a historic truth and paddling down a familiar Canadian river called Political Correctness. (Cut Riefenstahl altogether and it is self-censorship). Can anybody say: no-win situation?  

 

VANOC said in an email that they decided to include the controversial footage to maintain the historical accuracy of the video. 

 

"We weighed our choices as to whether to leave the Berlin 1936 relay footage out entirely, to alter it in order to depoliticize it, or to leave it in unaltered;  we chose the middle ground, in order to respect the relay¹s history while not highlighting the political environment of the

day," the statement said. "We weighed the decision carefully, as even though the Berlin 1936 Games footage lasts only a few seconds, we wanted to try and do the right thing to reflect the relay's past."

 

 

a

Walking around Salish territory during the new colonial guard of Olympia

Russell Wallace wrote a great response to articles in the various media outlets on the four host nations who are hosting the Olympics on their territory.

 

Russell, you will have protection around you from our ancestors, from our peers, and from our children, who will see who the real NDNs are in the next few weeks.

First presented on http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=304031584782&comments=

My Second follow up to Russell writings

 

Walking around Salish territory yesterday for the brief few hours showed me a small sense of the nightmare unfolding on Vancouver Streets. The schisms between band elected council aboriginals and traditionalists are ever increasing as non-aboriginals paint the line between what is authentic and what is not acceptable in North American society. Everyone favours the flavour of the month, the reality hero, and the all around ethnic talent hired to sooth the wary minds of the travelling masses as they travel from one settler village to another. The Settlers moved into Indigenous territory some year after the revolution down below the US/CDN border, the settler moved around the dominion sometimes after confederation. Both historical developments which changed who was the NDN and who became the NDN across the whole of the Americas. We as a people became the dispossessed and the Settlers became the new NDNs of North America taking our names of territories, lands and rivers and appropriating them as their own. If our leaders complained , they were caricaturized in the political cartoons, ridiculed in the commentaries of the times and always presented as children of the Great white Father in either colonial and imperialistic countries of the USA or Canada. As in the Queen of the Hawaiian people, or Louis Riel of the first provincial government of the now Manitoba territory. If we attempted to assert our sovereignty we were criminalized, killed or imprisoned and locked away, Oka 1990, Gustaferson (95).

Today with all the band council chiefs setup by the neo-colonial laws of a settler society built on racism, indifferences, and contempt for anything that was connected to the land or nature before their arrival; Vanoc and the corporations and governments paid for their protocol buy-off with paper money we cannot eat. They turned our images and our history into fantasy pictures of a contented people in a new world where we finally found what we were looking for after years of discontent and protest. Today, the new settler masses are going to eat up the new reality of contentment, and wonder why the aboriginals are complaining again, Nothing has changed except genocide which has changed its tools of persuasion and our children are the losers in this game we call life choices.

CBC News - World - Global fund created to reintegrate Taliban#socialcomments#socialcomments

CBC News - World - Global fund created to reintegrate Taliban#socialcomments#socialcomments

What's the saying my former wife said regarding Indigenous people being bought off by the system? Oh ya, "they pay you big money to shut up!" Sad but true as capitalist expansionist systems buy off indigenous people of all disciplines and occupations for a pretty song, meanwhile raping Mother Earth of her resources. NDNs in Canada were the terrorists long B4 911, the Oka Crisis and Gustaferson lake crisis. As long as we maintain our sovereignty over our traditional territory, governments and corporations will label us as saboteurs, provocateurs, terrorists and militant activists. The time is now to smash and destroy the politics of stone everywhere on Turtle Island. Destroy their monuments of excess and everything else will fall. It is no different here than it is over in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bali, Hawaii, America, New Zealand, or Australia. The capitalist pig dogs and fat cats of governments and corporations are everywhere they think can be in the name of progress and democracy. All in the name of controlling the natives. A real settler based form of neo-colonialism control. D. Morin, H. Trask and J. Armstrong are right in all their writings and thinkings!Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/01/28/afghanistan-conference.html#socialcomments#ixzz0dvgS09aX

CBC net story of: Prisoner who died needed help, ex-inmate says

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/01/25/blackwind-inquest-prison.html#socialcomments

sweepy wrote:Posted 2010/01/25
at 2:45 PM ET: Who cares. When are we going to stop making excuses for why people commit deplorable crimes. Once the crime has been committed sentence the criminal and throw all the resources towards the victim. Keep the scum locked up and keep law abiding citizens safe. If the jails fill up, build more. No more excuses. There are alot of people who have been victimized as children and do not go on to commit crimes. STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND GET THESE SCUMBAGS OFF THE STREET.

Sweepy!

You have no excuse for your callousness and black heart; No doubt, you have never experienced the genocidal practice against Canada's first people or a residential school. Everyone is a victim here, and it is our duty as children of our Creator to help the dispossessed, the incarcerated, the sick, and the meek. To turn a blind eye to the hopes of rescuing people from the darkness of this world is a grave sin of which you are guilty of. God help you to get the darkness out of your heart, your eyes and your mind. For it is you who needs help more than anyone these days.

 

Donald Morin, BA

An Indigenous Opinion on our Canadian and Albertan Education issues from a First nation Filmmaker/Performer and Educator

(Based on articles published in the Edmonton Journal January 23^rd, 2010)

As a First Nations Professional Filmmaker/Performer and Educator, born in Alberta but lived and worked the last 29 years in British Columbia, I recently returned to Alberta to be closer to family, and to begin work on my next project as a filmmaker and secure other work as cultural professional. I was appalled to read about the educational conditions pertaining to Northern Alberta's Indigenous Métis and First Nations children, not surprised by the band-aid solution offered by Alberta's education Minister Dave Hancock and resigned to apathy in reading the four sectional commentary articles in the Saturday January 23^rd weekend newspaper of The Edmonton Journal.

I am writing of the four sectional articles: 

• 
  
  "We see success in our kids" by Sarah O'Donnell
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  Desperate measures reflect deep problems by Paula Simon
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  SOUND OFF! Comments by Not the problem, Banana Republic, Sandy, James, Former Student, No friend of NSD, and In the woods
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  And the editorial comments of Dismissing school board good call:
  
  
  
  

But I must response to these authors in this weekend paper in their entirety because we are dealing with a bigger issue than what is being addressed by all the writers of these words. which in my opinion present colonial and neo-colonial attitudes, moronic responses, and autocratic reasoning purely because everyone except the former teachers and former students, are so removed from the territory. This is due to the literacy of the system, and how the Affirmative culture defines our relations in the everyday and what is seen as the normalization of the state and her occupants.

Throughout these articles I keep seeing references to the social , economic and cultural issues pertaining to Native and Non-Native relations, living conditions and of course the historical relationship of residential school issues that exist in this country. Yet no author outside of the writers who actually wrote David Hancock's name and refer to his political decision, make reference to the political issues which formed the crux of the social and economic and cultural issues outlined in all these writers words.

Everywhere it is termed as a social economical and cultural, but it is a political and historical issue because we are living in a settler state mentality of the divide and conquer mentality of the Manifest Destiny of Christendom, and how the Europeans who first travelled to the New world saw a land ripe for the taking of their resources and heathens and infidels ready for conversion to Christianity all in the name of the father, the son, the holy ghost and the holy spirit Amen!

This then brings us to the front page and all these articles which points away from the real problem which is the lack of Canada, her governments and her people from acknowledging and restoring the political and sovereignty of Canada's First People to it's proper place in relation to the settler based society of citizens and governments within Canadian society. We must be given our right to govern and look after our own people to help heal a people whose language, land, laws and customs where stolen from them, just like in the United States of America and the State of Hawaii, where Queen LiLil'uokalani royal government was overthrown by unscrupulous businessmen back by the US Military and where today the Hawaiians and American Natives face similar issues as of Canada's first people.

So why is attendance an issue, is it apathy from the parents or the children? After years of standing up for our rights as Canada's first people, we are still struggling and living in third world conditions. Parents and children give up on Canada and we stay in our comfort zone, where we can live as a family and not worry about the white system coming down on us as a family because we are not assimilated enough for their way of life. No one race on both sides of the cultural divide is not making sacrifices. Turnover for the teachers? Because they cannot buy their own home or land? Well, that is how our ancestors felt under the Indian Act, where we could not own land or hold giveaways or potlatches. It's back to that Settler mentality of ownership of something we have no control of anyway. We are all caretakers of Mother Earth, not owners.

Why do the parents duck away? Why would we want to see or trust white people again after years of broken treaties, lies, accusations, and all around hate by the white man because we were Indian and consider beneath everyone else. Years of racism does that to a person where we lose our sense of worth and simply stay in areas where we feel safe and with people we love. And the phone calls to the teachers, after years of inter-generational abuse, the residential schools, the fostering system, and difficulty in getting accepted as equals in this society, our parents, our grandparents are still hurting and distance in family relations because of the denial of our language and worth as a people, escaping from reality through alcohol, substance abuse, TV programming or just plain sleep as we live in our dream world. Then when it comes to the exams we are dealing with an archival system that is systemic and caters to the ruling ideology, not snare lines, trap lines or the simply forms of living off the land. A colonial system based on the settler's way of life in succeeding in dominant society and moving up the ladder. From the time the kids are born we must change the diapers of the ruling class, change the cultural, educational and political apparatuses of the ruling system so that the children of the ruling class know how to relate to different cultures instead of using stereotypical reasoning or historically defined judgement calls to define a native persons' role in life.

And all this comes back to the next article, "Desperate measures reflect deep problems by Paula Simon" Right away we are offered a perspective of hands on governance by Ed Stelmach's government with one governmental reference to health care and of course this educational directive by Hancock. Of course it smells of neo-colonial measures because we live in a settler's society where white people were given governance over the first people because of the Christendom factor in defining the new world. The Indian agent, the white politician and Dominion of Canada army coming in to overthrown Riel's provisional government because he was a half bred, today it is all the democratically elected natives and Métis fired and the education apparatuses is overseen by one government appointed appointee. (See Indian Agent).

Again we have colonial mindsets blinded by their sense of superiority on seeing the real cause of the problem which is a lack of a real and sound political relationship to Canada's first people and her provinces which should be based on a sovereign based relationship of nation to nation status as defined by our indigenous leaders, academics, and our artists. And supported by the UN Declaration of human rights and not based on this settler mentality of being conquered and under the thumbs of our colonial superiors, which is not seen because of Hancock "risky" broad sweep of fascist control. Simons is correct to say that it would be unfair to base this educational problem on the trustees, the problem is based on the whole notion of how the settler society defined native/non-native relations in Canada and the federal apartheid racist legislative policies of the federal and provincial governments of the past, present and no doubt future governance of this country.

And as far as the legal fight between the board and the Peavine Métis Settlement, that is a result of the divide and conquer mentality that exists in our communities because of the systemic racist governance of this country and the policies that divide us as a people as a means of control and containment on our reserves, settlements and squalor urban conditions. If we are painted as divided, then we are painted as unable to handle our own affairs of which is propagated in the media to show Canada's settler defined society that they are in control and we are not. But let's look at the Canadian and provincial governments and democratic society right now, and you will see how we are all divided and defined by a capitalist expansionist society that defines the success and failure of individuals through material and economic worth and not by the roles and dynamics of family relations and community relations which if is health and sound, we would not have these divided problems as a country.

Simons again hit the issue on the nail with the bringing up of the residential school issue. Harper's apology does nothing when it comes to putting food on the table and managing the cultural baggage we have as Canadians as we begin to examine the true cause of these social economic and political issues affecting native and Métis people and how all this relates to Canadian society. This educational dilemma is a small percentage of the problems that exist in Canada and her relationship with her first people. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission came off with its dismal start because of the Europeanization of its appointed professionals and justice professionals and how LaForme refuse to release his euro-centric defined notion of power to professionals in their own fields who felt that they were marginalized by patriarchal positioning and refuse to go along with LaForme's decisions and recommendations.

Today the TRC may have finalized all its appointed hired professionals through an euro-Canadian defined hiring process, but will these white ratified new appointees truly set aside their differences and seek what will address the demons of Canada's residential past or will their euro-Canadian defined education and professionalism get in the way of the common good, (which is the well being of our children, the healing of Canada's first people and the restitution of a people destroyed by a racist systemic country and its people) or will they allow the own sense of superiority and allocation of power be complacently defined by the constructs of the Affirmative Culture and the Status Quo? I await to see how many of the professionals in this country put themselves on a pedestal and use the media positioning of the issues affecting Canada for their own sense of self aggrandizement.

So where do our dear poor children fit in this malaise of discontent and ideological positioning by the writers in this media, popular media and governmental practice of controlling the masses and the normalization of the everyday? Well unfortunately for all parties involved, in the back seat of the hay wagons as the ones who know what's best for the children hum and haw over who is right and who is wrong. Instead of trusting our Creator's plan in the Great Mystery of life and putting all children at the first of the line of value and utilizing the notion of self sacrifice on all our parts as humans; so that we can grown as a one community, one humanity , as one global village under the guidance of the universal order of truth, sacrifice and trust in our heart where in the Great Scheme of life is where the Creator lives, not in our governments, our churches, our homes or our minds, but in our hearts. So we can live each day with honesty humility and respect instead of the capitalist notion of what defines success in dominant society and what defines our failures in society. The loss of our children's ability to realize their potential in life will be our biggest failure as we continue to play the blame game and use outdated colonial, draconian ideals to correct what is wrong with our cultural, educational and political apparatuses of this country and not use common sense to resolve the historical wrongs of this country and change the ideological condition of our society.

A society that continues to create divisions of race and saying we are the root of the problem because of choices and divided notions of place in society. I say again change the diapers of the ruling class which I interpret as change how the ruling class educates their children in how history has defined native and non-native relationships so that the child is not taught by the grandfather, the father and other family members that all native people are drunks and belong in jail or that those native brothers will never amount to anything. That was told to my brother and my late foster mother Ann Bilan of Alberta by a grade one teacher many years ago when we were adopted by the late Mr and Mrs Bilan from the Mundare orphanage. Well today, my twin brother is a prominent and respected criminal lawyer in Alberta helping Non-Native, Native and Métis people who have fallen in their walk on life's path.  I have had a successful career as an actor, modern dancer, performer, filmmaker and digital film teacher for native based education organizations, and I have not given up yet even though I joined the class action lawsuit against the Alberta Government for the abuse I experienced in 16 foster homes between 1 and 4 years old and the physical and sexual abuse I experienced as a ward of the crown.

So in closing, I come to the editorial page and the sound off, where the only sensible comment out of all those words from the writers is the former student who lived through the educational process of that district because he saw the problems from all parties due to his/her history of education and what the district is up against. He/she saw the totality of the problem because he survived and finished school and now looks back and perhaps sees the historical conditions of the native /non-native relationship and why no-one has the support to support the children. The politics of survival takes precedence as the parents struggle just to keep a roof over their head, keep food on the table as well as come to terms of the cultural baggage we all inherit as Canadians but keep putting our head in the sand. The teachers , one from Donnell's article commendably spent "at least 10,000 of her own money' to help the children, but like Hollywood throwing tons of money to resolve the cinematic problem, that analogue of using capital to resolve societal problems will not help either. Like the former student suggest, the grandiosity of the school division must be broken up and we all must get back to a simple way of life in terms of education and finding ways to help our children to feel good about themselves and their families, new ways of increasing the literacy of our children and not be afraid to use a small education base for each community and allocated all of societies resources to help all our children in distinct traditional and contemporary territories urban or non-urban areas and not be afraid t make sacrifices as a family, community, a territory and a nation to show the world that we are a one humanity and not divided by borders or the shades of our skin.

As far as the moronic comments pertaining to the important issue of education , for example the banana republic comments and James, their comments only show the systemic racist society that exists around us because Timbuktwo references and banana republic references are in themselves racist terms relation to the euro-centric relationship to geography and a euro centric reference to the tropical people and their relations to euro centric values of thought, geography , history and distance. The other comments are reasonable sensible and address important issues , but again these issues all relate to how the Affirmative culture defines history, culture education, church and state and our relationship as racial nations defined under the guise of the Manifest destiny, the settlers society rationalization and society's failure to look beyond their own backyard and judge all other nations with impunity of imperfection and on control of their own sense of reasoning, justice, governance , and knowing what is best for the natives of the new world!

No one wants to be accountable to history's role in defining our relations because we have been so far removed from the simple essence of life as one people and allow one people's definition of history and our order in the universe to define a country or series of countries because of a few old men or families of class distinction define what the Creator wanted through their creation of the Manifest Destiny and how they defined Christendom which turned all indigenous cultures from their mother tongue, land and language and gave us the dysfunctional relationship we have today based on greed, selfishness and a capitalist notion of what defines material success educational success, or in this case the failure of a system that has failed the essence of our survival our children. For the editorial to title his/her comments under the notion of Dismissing school board a good call, is deploring in the sense that this paper is not looking at the totality of the problem or root of the problem and fingering the trustees as dysfunctional but not looking beyond the educational apparatuses of this province and looking at the historical and political relationship of native and non-native relations. I left this province 29 years ago as a young "Indian "man because all red-neck Albertans saw "Indians" as drunk or in jail. Sadly to say the justice system still sees our troubled first nation's people in those stereotypical positions, and that is why so many of our people are incarcerated.

If the editorial board says we need the tools to navigate the cycle of poverty, despair and hopelessness, then I say those words are simply saying the system has no intention of Canada's first people of leaving that cycle of worthlessness that was bestowed in every Native child in Canadian history who was affected by the racist assimilation and apprehension polices of Canadian society. All legislation supported by the Canadian people each governing part of history and still exists today.

We as Albertans and Canadians must all make self sacrifices for the sake of our future, our precious children. We are up against a enormous beast, (popular mass culture) which devalues our human relations and family values as inferior to the plastic and digitize imagery of corporate and Hollywood imagination monsters all creating works based on profit, violence and the destruction of the human spirit and our potential as being one with the Great Mystery of Life and our Creator.

It is time to grab the bull by the horn and as the editorial writers say that [the government]... won't tolerate the status quo...' but it is quite another thing to change the status quo of a racist society and create an action plan that will work, and not be doomed for failure because a select few are not willing to sacrifice monetary worth or ideological success or control for the well being of our communities, our children and our children's children which is all our future. I will not doubt have to publish this in my DAM blog because perhaps my ideas and opinions are too radical for a contemporary province like Alberta or nation like Canada to handle. After all, I wrote this for our children who will inherit what is left of our dying planet Miigweech, O'Siem, Miigweech, thank you, all my relations

Accredited Buskers ? Donald Morin's response to this notion during the Olympics as I have buskered hundreds of times in my life as an artist

Sent to <searchgrads-list@vancouvercommunity.net>, an artist training facility I attended in 2003, which was created by The Vancouver Alliance for art and culture to help artist become self-sufficient and marketable.

 

Well with Cavelle's wonderful comments, I hope she is fully acknowledged for her fine irony in this reply. As she is a respected artist , I enjoyed my visit with her  a couple of years ago as she explored possible work   ideas with me at a time in my life when I was searching  for work in my career and she invited me over for a chat.  A fine artist, who now presents very interesting perspectives on  the work we do as artist, and this  comment on accredited buskers is another fine example of her use of irony,  subtle wit, and  a critical perspective of   a time on Vancouver's civil life where, entertainment for the masses takes a new low.

 
 

Just as Gustave Corbert created works in a duly noted exhibit of his work during a time of commercialization, she should as well create an avenue or venue to work in critical parrellel to the crass ventures out there attempting to cash in on the Olympic beast coming into town during the month of Feb and beyond. Next these cash greedy adventurists can put out a calling for accredited homeless people, who can sing and dance too? Cavelle, good work on pulling out the stops in examining another example of an Olympic scheme designed by "another group" wanting to promote art and culture alongside the belly of the beast.

 
 

With a word such as "accredited", the Olympic committee, Vanoc or Van art, whatever these groups or organizations want to call  themselves these days, they are putting themselves on a pedestal to idealize  the notion of a perfect world, a perfect street, perfect entertainment, perfect athletes and perfect cultural politics and a big lie of being an example of the quintessence of  urbanization  on  a international, national, and local level of cultural  consumption for the moronic culture, the masses and anyone else who is caught up in the biggest lie  in Vancouver since expo roll into town. Where after that charade, the richest Asian capitalist came in after the expo lie and bought up Salish Territory for a song. Look at that area now. no better than  the streets next to it, as it is sandwiched between DTES, China town, main street, and the tracks and streets between the rich and the poor.

 
 

No wonder Vanoc is scrambling because there is no snow on Cypress, because Karma is coming back on their lies and use of words to spread the illusion of excellence in promoting the human spirit in all its grandeur! (Right next to the homeless, the sick and mentally suffering, and dispossessed shoved in the dark corner of urbanization where no one can see them.  We tend to forget that first there was the spirit of the word before anything in this universe that was created. That is why we must choose our words carefully, because it is through the spirit of the word that ideas manifest into being creations of good use and consumption as opposed to be words of lies and accusations, disrespected, demonize and left ethereal in the universe to rot and fester

 

I am so glad I moved to Edmonton, so I do not have to see the lies and machinations of golden calves shining on the dirty streets of British Columbia for the entire world to see. Some people will see me moving away from this as an example of running away from the problem, but I seen it as moving to be closer to my family members which is where community starts from, and then we can continue on to help bigger communities in a time of great need in the world...  Hy Hy, O'Siem, Gila Kesla, Miigweech, all my relations

 
 

Filmmaker/Artist

 
 

 
 

Donald Morin, BA
seen at
http://www.facebook.com/donald.a.morin,
http://www.google.com/profiles/donaldmorin,
http://damorin.multiply.com,
http://spaces.msn.com/members/DAMaNDN4MEDIA4ARTS/,
http://www.youtube.com/Willy2Frencheater,
http://myspace.com/donaldmorin, &
http://d_a_m.blogspot.com/

GET OVER YOUR RACISM AS YOU SAY GET OVER OUR GENOCIDE

This blog is written in response to the comments posted to a CBC article at this link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/01/05/north-ahf-funding.html

So for those 2 say to move on, get over, I would say you R callous, & one-sided in your thinking. If we were really to examine the actions required 2 resolve this historical travesty, this lineage of genocide against us, Canada's 1st people, then we should as "Canadians" bring the Canadian Government and her people 2 trial 4 genocide. Bring the Canadian Government 2 court 2 charge them 4 removing the child, family, community & nations from their land, culture, language, & family. Tribal custom usage based on persons ability 2 connect 2 the land, their language & culture. Once the government removes those variables, U kill a people, destroy their connect 2 their mother tongue & take away their worth through attrition. By forcing them in2 residential schools, orphanages, reform schools, & isolated areas of barren land where disease, dysfunctionality, & abuse growths & festers due 2 the inability of a people 2 support themselves and become productive members of a collective society. With Canada's 1st people, representing a very small percentage of the Canadian population, why do Canada's first people represent over 65 percent of the federal and provincial jai population? Why do the majority of Canadians still see us Native people as drunks, losers, or just in jail? It's a 2 way street here, if these naysayers say that the intergenerational sorrows that continue to destroy us as a people must stop, then I say the intergenerational racist attitudes against us as a people must stop too. Stop recalling the racist attitudes taught to U racists by your parents, your grandparents, & your society's apparatuses of education, culture, & power 2 stop disseminating information that still positions Canada's 1st people below all others in this country. Get over it

CBC News - Saskatchewan - Riders GM Tillman won't have criminal record

CBC News - Saskatchewan - Riders GM Tillman won't have criminal record

Ya, I wonder if they would do the same for a First Nations Person in this sick racist society. I am sick of these white thrash homeboys getitng away with crimes of their desire while our people who were victims of genocidal abuse and pursuasion are charged to the full extent of the law! Casterate all these honkies , especially him

Happy New Year Worlders

WIsh I was there! Wish you were here, Wish The son was everywhere, Happy New


Year here there and everywhere to my enemies, to my friends, to my lovers, to my

haters, to all of our children, let us start the year with honesty, humility,

and respect..HNY2U-All
 
May all your happiness, love and fortunes arrive at your doorstep, bank account, and in your home

Ballad of Norm Bullion Video by Donald_Morin - MySpace Video

Ballad of Norm Bullion Video by Donald_Morin - MySpace Video

#the+music+died?cid=rsstgam

#the+music+died?cid=rsstgam

Getting closer to the Beast, part deux
Well, I saw things like this coming as we moved closer to the beastI would say as in my DAM blog, identify the 2010 Olympic sell-outs, shame them for buying out for the big bucks, shame them for forgetting the less fortunate people of the world, of the Downtown Eastside. Tell them to contribute more than the minimal requirements the VANOCKIANS are doing now. [VANOC says one thing, their actions tell another. They say and publicize that they are contributing to the community as they say when they are giving jobs to residents of the Downtown Eastside, but in reality, they pick who they want to use to publicize their so-called good will, and leave the most vulnerable and most desperate ones in the alleys and jails, hypocrites who prophesize good will, but use clandestine secrecy to promote their real agenda, which in my opinion is the aggrandizement of the self and their greedy egos and pocket books.
So, shave off the edge of the capitalist, and use those remnants and your work to help the ones, time forgot, the ones 2010 Olympics use to aggrandize themselves along the edge of media falsidity. Remind the sell-out artist to use the grand stage to shake up the status quo, do not be afraid of VANOC and their propaganda, and remember my quote "Aboriginal art in the Age of Technological Authenticity" as opposed to Walter Benjamin's quote The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. [Where the 21st century world believers of the Olympic beast use technology to authenticate and politicize what is indigenous to nature, and the quintessence of the human body, and whereas the world believers of the 20th. century used art as a means of reproducing a political means.] So this VANOC symphonic proposed lie which was rightly refused by the artist of the Symphony, is another indication that the 2010 Olympics is still caught up in the old world thought of containment and control instead of embracing the Great Spirit's essence of what the human body can be in maintaining the quintessence of the human body and spirit...So, we R getting closer 2 the Beast and it is scary. They will use illusions, transparent idols, and Olympic bric a brac 2 buy u ...off. Like Inuit artist/filmmaker ex-Wife Laila Hansen of Greenland said, they pay you big $ 2 SHUTUP! Good call Vancouver Symphony, you saw through the transparent veil of the 2010 Olympic illusion. O'Seim, Miigweech, Gila Kesla, all my relations!
Respectfully
Donald Morin, baFilmmaker/Performer/Educator

Getting Closer to the Beast

Identify the 2010 Olympic sellouts, shame them for buying out for the big bucks, shame them for forgetting the less fortunate people of the world, of the Downtown Eastside. tell them to contribute more than the minimal requirements the VANOC-KIANS are doing now. Shave off the edge of the capitalist, and use those remnants and your work to help the ones, time forgot, the ones 2010 Olympics use to aggrandize themselves along the edge of media fasidity. Remind the sellout artist to use the grand stage to shake up the status quo, Do not be afraid of VANOC and their propaganda, Remember my quote "Aboriginal art in the Age of Technological Authenticity" as opposed to Walter Benjamin's quote The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. We R getting closer 2 the Beast and it is scary. They will use illusions, transparent idols, and olympic bric a brac 2 buy u ...off. Like Inuit artist/filmmaker ex-Wife Laila Hansen of Greenland said, they pay you big $ 2 SHUTUP

Support The UMAYC youth centers

I would say, support the centres; very much so, give them the support they need and deserve. From my experience with teaching some of the Coast Salish Youth and Indigenous urban youth in filmmaking, I learned so much from their innocence, their desire for social and political change, and their desire to leave a legacy for future generations. As some say Architecture is politics in Stone. Our Indigenous youth today have the ability to transform Nature's resources into a social and cultural tool for changing the "diapers of the ruling class", through their activism, through their traditional and political/cultural creations, and through our support. As a survivor of the 60s scoop, my mother tongue came from the Queens institutions of the day, and they have tried to define me every day as the historical, stereotypical unban ndn, no matter how much education we obtained as we developed ourselves as fighters against the systemic racist values of the day. Many of our relations did not make it to today to be able write our comments for the world facers to see and read.

Their written history is in the statistical archives of a colonial born country that left our people behind to die on the streets, in the desolate areas of territory, and from the drug/alcohol stained veins of our cancer infested bodies living in a cancer infested world. Our youth know our people from all sides of history, the spectacle and the body. The human body in its many forms can build these Centres, because there is a dire need and urgency to build and utilize these centres as cultural/spiritual/educational grounding and healing place to help heal a troubled world. Miigweech, all my relations and give them the money they need to begin this great journey we can all share to our children.


Go to facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166709714366 and join today, tonight, don't think about tomorrow cause it does not happen then, life happens now!

Dreams from Hera’s Temple on Salish Land

From the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera to the 2,600 years and more years Salish People have been on their territory, culture is re-ignited in every generation, in every dream and this flame is the beginning of something new to many, is the beginning of something un-liked by others. From watching the ceremonies and listening to the "dignitaries", it was appreciative to hear the acknowledgement to the people of the Salish Territory, From the Olympics' Furlong to the Mayors and the premier; then they introduce the PM Harper. He does his salutations to all, but when it comes to the first people of this continent, there is no mention of territory, only acknowledgment of race, "our aboriginal guests", so the Olympics may be intended to represent the best of the Human Spirit, the torch represents the best of the Human Spirit, and then the cauldron is to be lit for our global human family, but it only takes one with his political schemers to use a choice of words to define who holds the allocation of power in this country.

 

Yet, do these unabashed media portrayals of pride, determination, success, and futurist winnings help the less fortunate of our society on a daily basis. Does all the money spent each day on the physical, economical intellectual and technological devices to allow us to watch, read, and listen to this Olympic Dream Story feed, support or love: the ones who have nothing, the ones who live in the alleys, roach and sick infested houses of the countries? Does the money for these games and how the money is spent in covering, celebrating, hosting these games; help the families in the welfare slums of our territory as the flame dies in their hearts. Each of our four nations ask the hosting indigenous territory for permission to land, show their cultural strength and rightly representations of cultural protocol, but does pomp and ceremony help the starving child/man /person/who lives on stolen unceded territory, as bravados shows our class distinction, and the new pan-Indian canoes. We are still the dime store Indian as we are moved by digital dreams and the high dreams of social change. You are not speaking for me, Mister rep. of the four nations. Miigweech, wound a knee, break a leg, merde, here in "Canada"! Not!

Thunder Bay mom wants answers after teacher's aide chops off son's hair

Check this story out!
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/05/21/thunder-bay-hair.html

This is clearly an assault on a vulnerable child and a personal attack on the values of a first nation’s child, his family, their cultural and spiritual heritage, and an unfortunate reminder of the conditions that other native children experienced in residential schools, orphanages, and foster homes. Where a euro-centric validation of what constitute humans defined the affirmative culture and what constitutes family, churches, laws, states, and the orders of society, whereupon theses supposed care takers of our children called them infidels, heathens and savages, and cut their hair to kill the "Indian in the Child" After 500 and some years of worthlessness, of not worthy of "being" We first people of this continent survived your systems assaults against our being, but we lost much as so many of our people lost their sense of worth, their self-esteem, self factualization, and were positioned to skid row alleys, bars, unemployment, and barely secure low paying jobs, Fighting constantly in life to survive the racism, bigotry, physical attacks for the length of my hair, the colour of my skin and for me simply being Indian. This narrative included me as a baby, infant, child, teenager , man, and now a much older university educated man who had to work four times as hard to survive the tricks and weapons of the white person and his/her system of control and containment. Sue the assistant, the school the whole dam system for this assault on this vulnerable child. Miigweech, all my relations.

Catholic Church Pope and A Chief, Our Survivors, Elders and others

"About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families to attend the schools from as early as the 19th century to 1996."
The pope says some words as our people listen.
Chief Fontaine says , It's a "very significant statement..." .I disagree. As one colleague of mine says in our song, "...I don't need no apology from you...!"
Restitution and Proper compensation for the sexual and physical abuse, and much more for the murdered missing native children..
As for the all you racist people on this site who make fun of our Chief, Elders and others, shame on you all! . Your ignorance and lack of respect will be your downfall!
As for teh above statistics "About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families to attend the schools from as early as the 19th century to 1996."
Whose initiative is devaluing our worth in words and numbers again? After the burning of church and school records, , and the abuse of governmental and societal power, I would estimate a much much larger set of children apprehended from their families.
Shame on Canada, in the past, present and future. Shame

Donald Morin, ba

Prentice defends oilsands following National Geographic article

I just produced and co-hosted my radio show last night in Vancouver with three folks from Indigenous communnity, who aired thier concerns for thie communities affected by these tar sands. For Prentice to defend the practices fo this evil industry shows he, the oil industry or the government does not care about our health, our land, our water, or our air of which we all share. These tar sands, these new developments for the benefit of corporations and the wealthy has to be stopped or we and our future generatons are all dommed to death and misery.
Donald Morin, producer of When Spirit whispers on Coop Radio, Vancouver, 102.7 every wednesday night at 11pm

First Nations community struggling with the death of another child

First Nations community struggling with the death of another child
2-month-old child died last November at Yellow Quill reserve
Last Updated: Thursday, January 8, 2009 1:31 PM CT Comments0Recommend3
CBC News
The Yellow Quill First Nation, still coping with the freezing deaths of two toddlers a year ago, is now in the grips of another tragedy involving a child.RCMP confirmed Wednesday that on Nov. 29 they received a call about a baby who was not breathing. Police said the two-month-old boy could not be revived.Police are investigating and a coroner is also looking into the case. An autopsy has been ordered.Meanwhile, a social worker on the reserve has raised concerns about the safety of children in the community.Margaret Roper told CBC News that the latest death is not being discussed openly."This one, I think, was kind of, you know, … swept under the rug," Roper said. "It just seems so weird because, who's here to protect our children?"The results of the autopsy are expected to be available in February.The Yellow Quill First Nation is about 270 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon and has an on-reserve population of 900.My response posted along Web Story
My heart goes out to the community of YellowQuill, The parents of this late baby, and for the soul of this little child of our Creator. B 4 anyone begins their diatribe about the issues of this poor child's death, let us not forget how Canada's 1st. People where pushed into a position of containment, dependency, legislative apartheid, and left with useless parcels of land to live their lives in despondency and worthlessness for just "being". Why the death of this child was not acknowledged is tragic, but when assimilative social mechanisms like foster care, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, and residential schools are utilized to kill the "Indian" In the child, we as a society are left with the aftermath of a failed colonial system which perpetuated genocide against our people merely because of the colour of our skin, our cultural and hereditary systems, and because we as a 1st people had the best land and resources when the "settlers came to town" to find the Canadian Dream. To acquire said lands and resources, the governments and churches of the day did their best to assimilate the "Indian" into society, residential schools, forbidding to speak their language, distanciation of former residential students from their family and relatives, 2 the denial of acceptance by the general population of Canada as "Indian" attempted to move to urban centres to find work or a standard of living similar to the euro-centric Canadians who settled into a country which was once part of our first people's ancestors. Needless to say, systemic racism grew larger and more insidious as grandparents passed on the racist views of their forefathers to their children and their children's children because of us simple "being". How did this affect our families, our notion of bringing up our children and providing a future to them? Well not very good as we look back at the statistics of Canadian History, U take away a language, a family, a culture, a land, and pushed them into a racist society of devious Indian Agents, uncaring social workers, and a racist population, bent on using any means of persuasion to subdue the "Indian through alcohol, racist laws, and arbitrary beatings and violence, then what does the Native individual take back to his people; Shame, worthlessness, violence, incest, and no sense of value to oneself because the assimilation and apprehension policies of Canadian Society worked in killing the "Indian' in Canadian society and Canadian History.
Donald Morin, ba

'Top-level' panel to pick new truth commission head: lawyer

In response to CBC story December 15th, 2008 0n their website!
Good Day: Wound A Knee on the national stage, as you Canadian pundits banter out your informed/un-informed rants and raves! I certainly hope we as a global family can move forward each new day with honesty, humility, and respect. Now if only our government’s leaders can begin each day like that, then maybe we can heal the present, so we can prepare for the future. The Past is what it is, and apologies and compensation means nothing if the ignorant and the racist ignore the truth, honesty, and humility of themselves, and what was taught to them and their ancestors to make them think what they live, say and speak contains some sense of irrational truth.
As a first nations man, abused sexual and physically as a child under foster care, I am disappointed that the Alberta government is appealing the class action lawsuit launched against Alberta for Native and Métis Children abused as Wards of The Crown! Yet, I must believe that attitudes will change and the governments and churches, and Canadians responsible for the abuse against Canada’s First People's children will accept and acknowledge their complicity and involvement , and help healing the inter-generational problems that exist due to colonialism, and feuding of governing legislative ruling parties. I may not agree with how this appointment will happen, or that these two women from the original IRSS agreement are still on the board, but hopefully these women can begin each day with honest, humility, and respect, and not allow their ego get in the way of the common good. that goes for me too

the first ministers will... [had ]been a major cause of ongoing native poverty.

"the first ministers will ultimately end the turf war between federal and provincial governments that has been a major cause of ongoing native poverty."

Tell us something we don't know!

Brother of slain aboriginal protester gets Order of Ontario

"Sam George, the brother of an aboriginal protester killed by an Ontario police officer at Ipperwash Provincial Park, has been given the province's highest honour.
He received the Order of Ontario in a ceremony on Thursday at the Lieutenant Governor's Suite of the Ontario legislature for his work following the death of his brother, Dudley George..."

AllforEquality wrote:Posted 2008/11/20at 5:35 PM ET Booooooooo Bad Decision. This man is no hero and neither was his brother.



AllforEquality YOur abject denial of The Ontario Governnment decesion to honor our aboriginal activist is racist, shows your ignorance, and shows why Canadians like you do not deserve to be part of this great aboriginal land, which was systemically built on the colonial aspirations of previous governments, racist corporations, and the many colonial settlers who had no regard for first nations people which is stil evident today with systemic comments like your Sincerely, Donald Morin, ba Salish Terrtory

John (Johnny) Brian Altinger

John (Johnny) Brian Altinger

I was shocked to see his picture in the news Nov 3rd as I was getting ready for work. I immediately copied his name email my son and asked if he was the man he knew. I worked as I normally do, trying to keep some sense of normalcy in my life. Dorian emailed back and confirmed my inquiry. I met John 1998 when my son Dorian, John and their other friend Shawn. Three young men moving to Edmonton to find their fame and fortune.
The only reason I remember Mr. Altinger was he was polite, respectful and going on a journey with my son, who was leaving the nest so to say at the time. I met John again around 2002, then again at my son's wedding 2006. Good man and I am saddened by his death. To see his picture and actually remember a man I met three times in his relative short life shows just how close we are all connected on this fragile planet. A body is space just as fragile as John's body in this space we live in. My condolences to his family, his friends, and co-workers who had the opportunity to know this gentleman. May the Creator help his family in this time and loss and we as his collective neighbour and human family must remember he is our loss as one in a society, and the society that raise him and the perpetrator of his tragic demise
Miigweech, all my relations

The Apology

It has been a few days since Stephen Harper spokes his legislative words of compassion, mercy and grace with respect to our people. Yesterday I was angry, today I was angry, I thought I was okay , working , doing what I had to do to work, rest, play, and everything else in between. Yet the slight mis interpretation of life, people, and the system, I raant and rave the injustices of this "white world"!.

From "Rio Island to the Great Spirit, I search for grace and our Creator of our times. Was I angry at Canada and its history regarding us NDNs. I cried like many as they spoke those words of asking for forgiveness, mercy, and what happened to us as children. God`s children hating and killing our children!. Kill the NDN in the child was a truism to me as us little indians working in the child slavery homes of foster parenting.

From my years as child, I cried and cried. Crybaby I was called when I was one , after that all I did was cry as I was shuffled through out the 16 foster homes of hell! Hate was an emotion I knew too well! Locked in rooms , pissing and shitting on the floor and in pails and boxes. I only know the dirty child NDN they made me be! Some fifty some years later I still remember the hate and the anger at me as i cried and long gone from my mother, and family. Get over it, they say!.. I`ll think about it as I take your children away from you forever! But then a young blonde man came to me as I scream out to people around. I understand your anger, I know your pain, You don`t realize who I am!...Was he an angel of grace, mercy, Oh I am a fool crying over you!

Regarding Globe and Mail article and comments about Aboriginal highschool dropout rates

As long as we share the notion that we all have the ability to realize our potential, anything is possible, even for me, a Métis who survived the physical/sexual abuse of the fostering system of the 60s scoop, & the worthlessness that was bestowed on EVERY NATIVE &f METIS CHILD who was forced into the residential schools, fostering systems, abusive priests, nuns, social workers, foster parents, policing people, & all others who felt that they were above & better than native people because of their heritage, class background, colour of their skin, etc. As a media teacher, I always instill in my aboriginal students to realize their potential in life instead of settling with the status quo. It is a fight because racism is still a problem today even in 2007. I still struggle, it is life as we know it; our Creator gave us life to learn, from our mistakes, achievements, & failure. Who said it was going to be easy. Our native & Métis youth struggle because racism in the school system is evident, & carry on from the systemic history of colonialism & how colonialism is instilled in the education teachings, the family structure from grandparents to parents to the child, because of the old way of thinking. As long as we change the thinking & mindset of the old school elders of the colonial system, the education teachings, the family structure from grandparents to parents to the child, & critique the racist literature, & history books, then we can remove the barriers that are not conducive to the potential of our youth. Such problems do not come from the notion of some of the racist & stupid comments noted to this article, but from the mindset that derived from the racism that is subconsciously shared to others or directly taught due to bigotry & superiority over others because of either because they work, pay taxes, & they are entitled to share their uneducated view to others. Tolerance, peace, compassion, & love all others. I can learn & change too.

More comments on Harpers position regarding UN declaration

Violet, some people call it communism that is your opinion. Others see it differently, reading your comments; it appears that you would embrace the notion of capitalism entirely regardless if your ideals are helping propagate the notion of profiting from rape mother earth and her resources, leaving nothing for your descendents, your unborn relatives, and anyone else that will inherit the leftovers of a capitalist expansion system. No doubt, you seem relatively balanced as a person, but democracy in this country under your ideals will only implode an already self=destructing government bent on its self pompous positioning on the world stage. You are so worried about your taxes paying for reserve living costs, but you don't mention the fiduciary relationship this CDN government has to Canada's First People. BECAUSE the ancestors of Canada's first people gave up their land in lieu of what was offered in the treaties, the Canadian Government has a legal responsibility to our ancestor’s descendants, so get use to that! Race politics is insidious, but such ideals are needed to give native people and people of colour some leverage in obtaining some sense of opportunities and freedom in this country, Canada and BC have an obligation to settle the relationship between the provincial government and all the unceded territory BC first nations legally own, but no-one mentions how the land was outright stolen from the First People of this area. Maybe, if you were more knowledgeable of the exactness of Canada’s sordid relationship to Canada's First People, then perhaps others will not see you as one of this boards G and M nay Sayers. All my relations

Another Comment on PM signals Canada unlikely to back UN declaration

Gran2006 skipper, Miigweech 4 your comments, The UN Declaration was handed to me during the United Church Conference on the residential School Settlement Agreement issues in June 06. My colleague residential School Survivor Gunargie O'Sullivan and I broadcasted deconstructive reviews of the IRSSA and the confusing, and obscured hidden data in the agreement & subsequential media releases since April 07 on Coop Radio's When Spirits Whispers. The government, its lawyers, advisors & its courts have decided to settle with respect to their decision to not acknowledge their guilt and complicity in initiating cultural genocide against a people so they can take control of the land & its resources. Nothing has changed as of then, & the CDN government knows it is in an illegal position regarding the notion of landownership, title, aboriginal rights & their fears now are governing their lack of accepting the UN declaration, and Canada's relationship to International law parameters. Everyone these days has an opinion on native/non-native relations, & I am no different. Sure at times I fall and fail in my ideals, but then I was taught to be like the white man, get educated like the white man, & live like the white man, but if we as native people decide to asset our ideals as a cultural sovereign people, others begin their escalated critical review of our actions, intentions and economic initiatives. You are right regarding “Let's not blame Harper...regardless of who is in power." Nevertheless, Harper is too ultra conservative for my likings, and perhaps it is time the people of this country form a new political party to take on the conservatives, Liberals, Parti Quebecois, NDP, Greens & Others.. I an not talking about fringe lunatic parties like the Marijuana Party, but a party which is based on egalitarian reform, non-capitalistic development and an equal division of power, economics, & natural resources. Idealistic, even some natives will disagree with me.

Commet on PM signaling Canada unlikely to back UN declaration

nYu non-indigenous folks may very well agree or disagre with Harpers stance, debate the ideological framework of Canada's government to the UN, BUT NEVERTHELESS, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE have been forced into a position of placid acceptance of the democratic initiatives circulating in the free world today. Where freedom comes at the cost of living in abject poverty, abysmal living conditions on the reserve and in the urban centres, and demographically separated by class division real estate allocations , financial buy-offs for the aboriginal intellectuals and economic developers, and others who see the "NDN" below their cultural worth due to the historical conditions which shaped this Country, and the euro centric descendants who were told to contain the NDNS straight down from their grandparents, to the blue blood elite who run the financial and political halls of power. Harper is only an extension of the status quo and should be eliminated. eradicated, disposed of and striped of any form of decision making, humiliated in from of the aboriginal residential school survivors, like we were in front of the nuns, the police, the judges, and teachers, when we did not fit into their assimilation plans and policies. The only thing that will teach the people in power anything about equality or fairness is the blade of a guillotine coming down to their neck. A cultural revolution is in order for Canada, so let’s just do that, okay?

Main stream Media and the IRSSA August 20th deadline

There is an Overall sense of MEDIA censorship to alternative first nations views regarding the Indian Residential School Sttlement Opting Out Deadline and its connection to the contemporary issues of our time. As a native filmmakers, artists, and radio producers, my colleague Gunargie O'Sullivan and I have constantly shared information to Canadians about the complex issues pertaining to the residential school deadline today (Aug 20th., 2007). We understand and respect that Elders and others have a choice to settle with the defendants in this suit. Yet after much study , debate, many of us recognize that the settlement and propaganda campaign was flawed, deceptful and the opting out portion of this settlment was hidden with layers of newspeak to confuse all who take it upon themselves to study this nine court approved series of public documents. Apathy and limited comprehension by the media, has created a false sense of potential closure to the "NDN" problem, and that the setlement will heal Canada to heal. That notion is so far from the truth, it is the same old trickery the governments and churchs used time and time again since contact. aboriginal residential school survivors, and their understanding of the issues surrounding the IRSSA and the opt out or settle clause. Even today, I discussed the deadline with one native woman by Coop radio She understood the issues, but was too high to do anything.

Colleagues, it is tiring as we deconstruct the idealogy of Canada with art and politics. Disheartening as we see less and less people in the media caring about the tragedy of the most dis-possessed people, Canada's First people and how trickery and red tape is used by ideologues, lawyers, and government servants designed to contain and maintain the status quo. We must provide and dessiminate alternative perspectives on the issues of our times. How does the MEDIA and her their hired hands expect to know Canada without supporting the first nations artists and people who volunteer, collect and research others ways of Seeing in this world we call a global village? Do you expect us to stay in the age of feathers, ink and rawhide? Or with trinkets and beads. Is the MEDIA and their people so short sighted that they can not see beyond their place of priviledge as responsible community members? Perhaps its time to throw out the old and bring in the new? Do we all have to wait again for the okay from the Great White Chief in Ottawa? No matter how arms length we position ourselves from government policies, initiatives, clandestine meetings and manoeuvring, there will always be some subversive directive in the background monitoring the politics, media, events, words and times of the everyday.

I have more pressing issues to look at regarding the most dispossessed Canada's First People of this country than my pitful needs. Meanwhile the politicians in Ottawa will pronounce their grand schemes and dreams, while Canada's First People get @#$(W by the colonial mindset of people who think we should settle with life and what others think is best for them.

IN our numerous attempts to show the alternative aspects of the IRSSA data, the main stream media and others ignored the truth and published the propaganda that is utilizing the new pursuasive tools of genocide! Miigweech, all my relations!