Unless you have been on holiday in the Himalayas without access to a cell phone, newspapers, computers, or television and radio signals, you have learned about the appalling living conditions in Attawapiskat. For some, even though this takes place in our Northern backyard, they are stunned by the enormity of it. For many of us it is shocking but not a shock. We know it is true.
We know in our heart of hearts that something is very wrong and we must find a way to alleviate the suffering. Still others have their own problems and wonder if these isolated First Nation communities have become the authors of their own misfortune egged on by the prime minister.
We all become the emotional fodder of competing political story lines, and media companies that know a good story when they see it.
What is impossible to deny is that this kind of poverty should not exist 100 miles from a billion-dollar diamond mine creating wealth for everyone but the people who live there. Yes, there are at least 100 band members working for De Beers and, yes, some money has come their way, but not much and not enough.
It’s complex. The truth, and most certainly the solution, doesn’t emerge from competing sound bites. The tortured history between Canada and its First Nations peoples is not new. It marks all of us from the debacle of the residential schools, to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission making its way across the country as we speak, itself subject to squabbles about funding.
It’s not just about money, although money has been a paralyzing force. It’s about nations. It’s about assimilation or the legitimate desire not to be.
It’s about rights and land disputes but mostly it is about seeing and experiencing the world and nature differently. Most people can survive poverty; it is surviving welfare that is impossible and that is what we have created.
I see hope in the battle for Attawapiskat, with enormous help from the brilliant and determined Charlie Angus, perhaps the most creative MP in the country. The community of Attawapiskat looked around their community and said “enough is enough.” They declared a state of emergency. This was no ordinary act. It is an act of defiance and, yes, desperation, but also an act of confidence and I might add a clearly well-planned and well-thought out piece of guerrilla theatre. What if you declare an emergency and nobody comes? Clearly they were ready to make sure people came. They didn’t know what would happen, but they had the courage to act knowing they would pin prick a government with a very thin skin that would make them pay. It didn’t take long. Within weeks the prime minister said all right we’ll help, but we’ll send in a third-party financial manager to take over your business affairs. He sought to immediately demonize the victim and control the storyline. That’s how he runs election campaigns. Reminds me of the Afghanistan court that suggested they wouldn’t send a rape victim to jail if she would marry her attacker.
And then what happened in Attawapiskat? They threw the poor suckers off their land. They will never be the same. They have found their voice, if not their solution, and the voice is more important.
Let’s put this in perspective. Peter Mackay, the minister of defence, thinks it is just fine to requisition a helicopter to fly him out of a fishing lodge, to fly him to an expensive government jet so he can fly to London, Ont. from Newfoundland to announce something. That’s before the laughable BS about it being an important opportunity to experience our country's search and rescue capability.
Peter Mackay needs a third-party financial manager. This is all just politics and it would be hysterical if it wasn’t so bloody serious. The irony is that Peter is thanking the lord for the problems in Attawapiskat. It got him off the front page.
If I was 20 and living in Attawapiskat and out of work and had access to the Internet, I would start a Facebook page called ThirdPartyFinanicalManager.com and invite people to submit their nominations for those in need. Rest assured Attawapiskat would be far down the list.
