Missing Aboriginal Women and Missing Federal Funding

I'm simply passing this information along from the Facebook group, Proud to be a Member of That "Left-Wing Fringe Group" Called Women,* with the fervent hope that you will take action and write to your MPs, Minister Guergis and Mr. Harper. Our country has a very poor record when it comes to the treatment of aboriginal populations and aboriginal women have borne the brunt of this mistreatment.

Please help this group continue its work by making the Conservatives aware that we do care - about every person's rights and dignity.

Thank you.

{snip}

From Elizabeth Pickett, February 15 at 5:56pm

Minister of State for the Status of Women Helena Guergis has made several announcements over the last ten days with respect to small funding grants to various groups across Canada, particularly those encouraging and coordinating educational projects for women entrepreneurs fitting with SWC's theme Strong Women, Strong Canada. There has been no announcement about funding for the Sisters in Spirit initiative of the Native Women's Association of Canada. From the Winnipeg Free Press :

"We haven't heard anything," said Sisters in Spirit director Kate Rexe. "The government is silent on the issue."

With a grant of $5 million, Sisters in Spirit spent the last five years compiling a database of more than 520 women who have disappeared or been killed over the last 40 years. The group prepared tool kits for families and police to use when a woman goes missing and developed policies and programs to help stop the cycle of violence.

Rexe said the Sisters group is prepared to begin implementing policies and community programs aimed at three specific areas -- the justice system, child welfare and poverty. But that's been on hold for months because Ottawa won't say if it plans to keep funding the work.

"It's unbelievably frustrating," Rexe said. "We have all the knowledge, the momentum. We can actually start to implement change, but we don't even know if we can keep planning."

A year ago, Status of Women Minister Helena Guergis said she was working on extending the project. "I want you to know, I've already engaged in the process of what Sisters in Spirit Two would look like," Guergis said at the Status of Women committee meeting Feb. 12, 2009.

But a spokeswoman for Guergis would not say Friday whether funding for Sisters in Spirit is forthcoming, and said in an email Ottawa has asked NWAC to share its database with police.

Please support Canadian First Nations sisters in spirit and write, phone or fax Helena Guergis, the PM, opposition critics, opposition leaders and your MP demanding full funding for this critical initiative. First Nations women must be the leaders in resolving the national shame of missing and murdered Aboriginal women - they are our experts. The RCMP and provincial and local police have miserable track records with respect to these tragedies and must work in partnership with women to create effective strategies for their resolution.

PM Harper
Harper.S@parl.gc.ca

House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: 613-992-4211
Fax: 613-941-6900

Helena Guergis
Minister for Status of Women
guergh@parl.gc.ca

733 Confederation Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
Phone: 613-992-4224
Fax: 613 992-2164

Suzanne L. Clément
Deputy Head
suzanne.clement@nlrb.gov

Michael Ignatieff
IgnatM@parl.gc.ca

Anita Neville (Lib MP, Winnipeg South Central & party critic on SWC)
email@anitaneville.ca

Jack Layton
LaytoJ@parl.gc.ca

Irene Mathyssen (NDP MP, London-Fanshawe & party critic on SWC)
mathyi@parl.gc.ca

Libby Davies (NDP MP Vancouver East)
daviel@parl.gc.ca

Olivia Chow (NDP MP Trinity-Spadina)
chowo1c@parl.gc.ca

Nicole Demers (Bloc Québécois MP Laval & party critic on SWC)
DemerN@parl.gc.ca

Find Your Member of Parliament

{snip}

* The name of this group refers to a comment Mr. Harper made in a supposedly closed-door meeting in Thunder Bay where he commented on the cancellation of the Court Challenges program and proclaimed that they had shut down the influence of left-wing fringe groups. It's at 3:40 of the video though you might enjoy his bragging about the cancellation of universal daycare at about 3:30. Sadly, one of, if not the major beneficiary of the Court Challenges program had been the equity and rights of women through many cases. It was a major loss to equity in this country and it slipped right by, almost un-noticed and un-challenged. We might as well change it to the Minister of State Against the Status of Women

Aboriginal mass graves

I'm really, really trying to be apolitical. I'm really, really trying to keep my mouth shut...

... but I can't. Not when this keeps happening.

In my own country. I am so ashamed. Mass graves of children. Hundreds? Thousands?

Canada's Secret Shame.

I am so angry and I transform this anger into a thirst for justice.

And I will stand in solidarity on May 29th.

Chimo indeed.

Our Charter rights under threat?

Just in case you don't read this blog yourselves, I thought I'd share. thecourt.ca is run by Osgoode Hall students to keep track of what is happening with the Supreme Court of Canada - it's funky cool (well, for a law junkie).

This post is about section 24(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is the one that protects us from illegal search and seizure - the procurement of evidence in court by means that violate our rights. The author, D. Silva, contends that a couple of recent rulings by the Ontario Court of Appeals totally negate 24(2) in cases where a gun was found.

I realize that there is a gun problem, and yes, it would be nice if something could be done about it. However, I'm not sure I'm ready to sacrifice my Charter rights in order to be 'safer'. Actually, I'm pretty positive about that.

Of course, I feel pretty much the same way about a lot of the 'security measures' put in place to combat terrorism. For me, it boils down to the question of security - and what that means. It seems that we are trying to create a society where everyone is always safe all the time. The image I get in my head is of a society of people in bubbles - totally protected but totally isolated and looking pretty stupid with no real freedom.

Here is my own personal version of security:

There is no way that the state is ever going to be able to protect me from every nutjob out there who wants to hurt me. If someone wants to kill people, they will find a way. Harm done to a person that way is a violation of their rights, no question, and needs to be dealt with by the justice system - but we will never have a totally safe society. You can't produce a society with no risk if people are to have any freedoms.

BUT when the risk to my personal rights and liberty is posed by the state itself and has been made a part of the system - now that's scary.

The willingness of citizens to give up their rights and freedoms because they are scared is the biggest threat to my sense of security.

Section 24

Enforcement

1. Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.
2. Where, in proceedings under subsection (1), a court concludes that evidence was obtained in a manner that infringed or denied any rights or freedoms guaranteed by this Charter, the evidence shall be excluded if it is established that, having regard to all the circumstances, the admission of it in the proceedings would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

Cuba: really an island prison?

Here is my response to Theo Caldwell's column on Cuba and Canada's relationship and tourism to said country.

"Dear Theo, I look forward to reading your next article on the Chinese dictatorship and an equally strong exhortation to the Canadian public and government to not only sever trade relations but to also boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an act of appeasement that gives me the shivers.

Or, if not, here is my actual comment. I am disappointed, but sadly not surprised by Theo's article.

It is the venom with which Castro's regime is discussed by many ideologues (neoliberal, neocon) that I do not trust. If that level of vitriol were equally directed at other dictatorships I would find it easier to accept - it's the adjectives that get to me.

Generally, dictators who have allowed liberal market policies and have repressed ideologies that the ruling classes find offensive have been tolerated if not embraced. On the other hand, Castro has always been vilified and targeted. What I am trying to say is that ill treatment of one's populace has rarely been a criteria for trade policies and Canada has cozied up to regimes that are far worse than Castro's.

I'd just like to see the same standards applied across the board - not just to countries who are so resource poor that all they have to offer is a warm beach.

Having said that, I agree with you. Cuba is not at the top of my list for warm holidays. As a matter of fact, the whole "sunny holiday to desperately poor nations" obsession of Canadians leaves me cold."

I'm still reeling from the idea that I joined the forums at The Post, but one does what one must to join the conversation.

It makes me so sad...

To realize that I live in a world where people are treated like this (and, of course, much worse)...

This photo was taken way back on January 25th at the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

The crossing has since been re-opened in a more controlled way but not without a lot of violence. Plus, Israel is now thinking about building a border wall to separate itself from Egypt.

I really wanted to write something pithily observant here but anything would be too trite. It makes me glad I live in Canada.

I just want to remember how grateful I need to be.

One final, historical example of exclusion

Again from Hopgood's article, a few quotes on the project to assimilate 'the Indian' in the U.S. back in the 1800s and early 1900s.

The native peoples of America were considered to be like children by the governments in the U.S. during this time period. They were deemed incapable of taking care of their own land and behaving in a civilized manner, therefore, their lands were held in trust until they showed their capacity. Those who could pass the competency test were given "fee-simple titles to the land and thus citizenship during elaborate and heavily symbolic ceremonies conducted by the Indian Office:"

"The crowd would look on while their 'competent' brethren were summoned individually from inside the lodge. The candidates for land titles were dressed in traditional costume and armed with a bow and arrow. After ordering a candidate to shoot his arrow into the distance, the presiding officer... would announce 'You have shot your last arrow'. The arrowless archer would then return to the tipi and reemerge a few minutes later in 'civilized' dress. 'Take the handle of this plow', the government's man would say, 'this act means that you have chosen to live the life of the white man - and the white man lives by work' " (from Frederick E. Hoxie, A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate the Indians, 1880-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989: 180).

This process of "cultural suicide" was continued through institutional schooling which in the words of Captain Richard Henry Pratt aimed to "Kill the Indian in him and save the man" (David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1995: 212, 52).

"Education serves to both clean the slate and replace it with a new lesson" (Hopgood, 18). The trick is that back in the 1800s, the elites were open and proud of this mission - to replace the savage with the civilized, to create an individual who would be worthy of citizenship and participation in civil society. Today, this intention has had to remain part of the subtle background, elite members of a society can no longer openly proclaim their project to erase the savage and preserve the man but, instead, attempt this aim through the promotion of supposedly universal human rights.

Sigh.

Canada's Woeful Performance in Bali

Canada has twice been awarded the daily Fossil award by the Climate Action Network this week in Bali.

Understandable. Our government has embarrassed us in front of the world with their false concern about climate change. From one side they speak of Canada's commitments while from the other they work to sabotage the attempts by the rest of the world to actually do something. To do something now. Before 2020. Before the next election cycle. Our national short-sightedness is disheartening, to say the least.

Here is a link to sign a petition specifically for Harper and newspapers across Canada. Please sign and add your name to the (hopefully) huge list of people in Canada who actually care about our global reputation, not to mention the relatively minor issue of the catastrophic damage being caused by climate change.

I am stunned that people still vote conservative.

But I guess what really upsets me most is what the conservative position says about the character of Canadians. Are we really a nation that gives up so easily? My understanding is that when the Harper government took power they were faced with a difficult decision on what to do about Kyoto. After years of neglect by the Liberal governments - who pretended to care while doing basically nothing - it looked almost impossible for Canada to meet its commitments under the Kyoto agreement. I appreciate that.

But instead of saying "Gee, Canada's international reputation is on the line - we had better buckle down and do some pretty amazing things here to do the best we can to meet our national commitments. But it's okay, we know that Canadians are totally amazing and we can come together as a country and do what needs to be done."

They said, "Gee, Canada's international reputation is on the line - we had better back out of a legally binding agreement and postpone taking any action until long after our government's term will be over. That way we won't have to do anything and we'll be able to blame it on the Liberals."

Shame on them. And shame on us for letting them get away with it.

I believe that Canadians can do amazing things and that we can help lead the world - but we certainly won't with the government we have now.

It is time for a different type of politics.

A few more sites of interest:

David Suzuki (the Nature of Things) calls the government's spin on climate change "humiliating" and "ludicrous".

The former editor-in-chief of CBC news discusses the damage done by Canada's climate policy to our international reputation.

This is a report from CTV on Canada's performance (or lack of) at the conference so far.

The Fossil of the Day Award site.

Canada's Integrity = My Integrity

Here's the thing - I am passionate about Canada, I love being Canadian and I proudly identify myself as Canadian wherever I go.

Here's the problem - if Canada is my country (and as a democracy there is no way I can get out of taking responsibility for it and ownership of it) then when Canada does something that violates its integrity, it violates my integrity.

Well, I'm pretty partial to my integrity and I don't like having it screwed up by my government. (Shockingly, this is not a Kyoto tirade.)

And it is being screwed up, has been messed up and is increasingly being lost. Canada has the interesting distinction of being the country who has signed the most international agreements and is part of the most international organizations - that means that we are the world's most committed country to international relations.

So when we break our commitments, we lose integrity. Today I'm a little upset about our arms trade - did you know that we are in the Top 10 and possibly in the Top 5 of the world's largest arms suppliers. I say possibly because Canada has not kept accurate records and reporting for the last several years. Our transparency rating on arms sales is now placing us just above Iran. Seriously, how embarrassing.

The worst part is that the arms we do produce quite often end up being used by states against their own civilian populations. So now, not only do I live in a country that is a major arms supplier, I am also complicit in egregious state-committed human rights violations. Fabulous. That is a definite compromise of my integrity.

I am so not voting Liberal or Conservative.