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Don't Be Fooled By Chief Spence's Circus

Posted: 01/09/2013 5:23 pm
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Yan Roberts may very well say that "opinion is an emotion thing only," but thankfully, the majority of us observing the Chief Spence Circus actually give these developments some thought.

Yet when looking to Victoria Island (for that is where eyes are turned to now, not places like Attawapiskat) we apparently "risk the damage of becoming cynical [...] while looking for truths." Well, as difficult as it may be for Roberts to hear, how exactly are we not meant to be cynical when the supposed Martyr in Chief is as much to blame for the deplorable state of Indian reserves as the federal government?

When that Deloitte report was handed down from Harper Heaven on Monday -- you know, the lil' bit of paper that showed 81 per cent of transactions in Attawapiskat lacked proper documentation, and 61 per cent of had no documentation whatsoever -- the only peep to emanate from Spence's new home was "oh, the Conservatives are only trying to discredit us."

Well...yes. And why shouldn't they? The report demonstrates that -- for all the (justified) outrage of these Third World camps in a First World nation -- we ought to blame those who run certain reserves as much as we ought to blame those who run the country.

But of course, a view such as this one is too reasonable to put on a protest sign. Besides, how could anyone say anything bad about the leaders of the First Nations while one of them is bravely starving herself for her people? It seems no one can say anything at all, or even ask anything for that matter.

In the attempt to have an open dialogue regarding the state of the First Nations, Spence saw fit to bar the press from entering her holy shrine. She has guards outside! They stand tall and ask quasi-Sphinx-like questions: "Friend or Foe?" Natives are friends. The media are foes. Those who ask questions, who may be skeptical of she who clamours for better living conditions, but leaves boxes of aid unopened, are "foes." Those Liberals, like #JTru (a "hip" candidate vying for the leadership deserves a "hip" name and a hashtag to boot), for example, who offer non-statements such as "deeply moving," are "friends." The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs -- a gateway to an audience with the PM -- is a "foe."

And as mentioned earlier, all the attention is on that tee-pee. None of it is on the people who are suffering at the hands of the federal government and their now-Holy Chief. In fact, news crews are being told they are not allowed at Attawapiskat whatsoever! All eyes must be focused on the "suffering" Chief who is starving, barely surviving off water, fish broth, and medicinal teas. A Ghandi? Or someone doing a post-Christmas-feast cleanse?

Spence said she wouldn't stop the fast of solid food until she met with Harper. Harper agreed to meet her. She then said she would not eat until something "concrete" was done (a vague notion only Spence can define). But now that the Governor General -- the chap who symbolizes a symbol -- won't be attending the meeting Spence has crossed her arms over her chest and said loudly: "I won't go either." Hey, it's her party, and she can abstain if she wants to.

If Spence's intent were to change things for the better, wouldn't you think that having the man in charge of the country would be, well, enough? No, she wants all the pieces of the pie.

What we have here is a woman who bemoans the impoverished nature of her reserve while she is partly to blame for it; a woman who has the ability to make things better, but won't because not everyone has RSVP'd to her invitation. All the while, she allows those who have suffered, perhaps due to her own incompetence, to continue suffering.

What was once a justified pursuit to better the pitiful lives of the disenfranchised in First Nations communities has become a circus in which there is no possibility of dialogue unless every single demand is met.

These Indian reserves are like Third World nations within a First World country. Some of them, like Attawapiskat, are even run the same way: by leaders who are too caught up in their own media tornados to actually tend to their people and too egotistical to fix things unless everything is just right. Roberts is wrong; Spence is not a symbol to be admired. She oughtn't be a rallying point for this cause. She is but one of the myriad reasons why First Nation communities exist in the sad way that they do, and it's time for her to go.

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Yan Roberts may very well say that "opinion is an emotion thing only," but thankfully, the majority of us observing the Chief Spence Circus actually give these developments some thought. Yet when loo...
Yan Roberts may very well say that "opinion is an emotion thing only," but thankfully, the majority of us observing the Chief Spence Circus actually give these developments some thought. Yet when loo...
 
 
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Rayella Parr
0 Fans
01:13 AM on 01/15/2013
Its been made pretty clear that the undocumented transactions that you speak of were from before she was elected so why is it still repeatedly being brought up against her? And rightly so that the people of Attawapiskat do not want the Media on their reserve taking the focus off their chief and what shes trying to accomplish for them and possibly spinning stories in whatever direction that will make a headline and disrupting the reserve. Given your attitude I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't want the media there. She is there for a purpose and it is not to give interviews to the media it is to have a discussion with the government about change for her people..period...she is a Chief to be proud of and admired not many would stand up and risk their health for change.... you should be more respectful of those that do.
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Bianca Castafiore
13 Fans
01:26 PM on 01/12/2013
. . . and the debate is raised to a level just shy of perez hilton or sue-ann levy.
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Profitoverpeopleiswrong
0 Fans
02:41 PM on 01/11/2013
Question. Aren't they all elected public servants? Whether they be presidents, prime ministers, or chiefs. If you had a butler, or a maid, who was continuously messing things up, would you keep employing them? It is our own fault as a people that we keep letting them run roughshod over us. We are to blame because we turn the blind eye.
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Dave s Not Here
7 Fans
01:29 PM on 01/11/2013
You won't see any third world conditions where Spence and other chiefs live in Canada. I can't speak for the USA but, here in Canada, chiefs like Spence have been "taking care" of themselves, their families and their hangers-on for years with Canadian government funds. The only natives in Canada who are living in third world conditions are those who, for various reasons, are on the "outs" with the band management. Nepotism is rife.
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Sandra Currie
30 Fans
12:19 PM on 01/11/2013
Is there corruption in some First Nations leadship? Absolutely. Is Spence corrupt - hard to say, she's only be a chief for a year. Have the half baked, half assed strategies for "dealing with" the First Nations abysmal failures? For sure.
Everything I've done with First Nations people has been wildly successful, by their judgement, so why can't all those high priced Indian Affairs people and the politicians figure it out? This is not rocket science. But first of all, you have to deal with your racism before you get anywhere.

The man who wrote this article does not deserve a platform.
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Brian Wm Burnett
14 Fans
11:26 AM on 01/11/2013
One further point, If she evers loses the high paying job as Chief she could always run as a candidate for the Liberal Party.
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Brian Wm Burnett
14 Fans
11:24 AM on 01/11/2013
Seems to be a question of accountability here . Spence and her band council knew the results of the audit back in Sept. and said nothing in public.
To claim the release to the media somehow discredits the chief is nothing more than smoke and mirrors deceptionand fiscal miosmanagement.

And attempts to put a spin on it. Still doesn't change the facts that their bookkeeping and record keeping sucks..
Too high a standard to ask where public money is involved?
No wonder they were so resistant to a third party manager looking into and overseeing the finances back a couple of years ago now. Afraid of what would have been uncovered? Looks like it.
And now to back out of the meeting, like a child having a tantrum, after not getting everythong she wants?
Maybe she should go back to doing what she was ELECTED to DO and get down to the administration of the business of the reserve.
Oh yeah, if she actually did that then she wouldn't be in the media spotlight.

Seems her being the centre of things and in the spotlight is more important than the day to day work of being the Chief of the reserve and the people living there.
Try to extort a meeting with with the GG and the PM and when those conditions are not met she backs out of the meeting that she was on the liquid diet in the first place for.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
spinnerator
109 Fans
 
08:39 AM on 01/11/2013
Where are the voices of FN leaders who DON'T agree with Spence? They are out there. Where are the voices of FN leaders who've done well in their own reserves to make them successful even affluent? Spence is no better than Robert Mugabe in the way she treats her own people, denying them a voice and cutting them off from the outside. Hell that's just like the Soviet Bloc acted, to hide it's suffering residents from the rest of the world.
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procrustes13
507 Fans
09:12 PM on 01/10/2013
A resident right winger does as expected.
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jjreader
3 Fans
07:45 PM on 01/10/2013
I won't be fooled by racist, uninformed drivel either.
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Daniel Kyba
0 Fans
04:18 PM on 01/10/2013
There are two core rules when it comes to economic development:
1) Never overwhelm a capita deficient economy with unearned revenue, in this case the treaty endowments.
2) To limit sub-goal pursuits, all players within in a governance system must have equity in the operation, in this case corruption.
The constant infusion of unearned revenue crowds out the development of productive income creating institutions in favour of extractive ones; in other words, the sociological equivalent of a knife fight occurs as factions fight over the allocation of wealth rather than co-operating to create wealth which in turn becomes the foundation of a tax base.
The process of economic development follows a standard protocol:
a: As the means to productive wealth economises through education, innovation and technological change,
b: Formal institutional rules of governance change as well to economise the aforementioned changes,
c: Social rules, ethics and patterns of behaviour will also change to further economise the process.
By locking onto current treaty rights and the Indian Act then presuming that positive economic change will result is to turn this process on its head; the treaties and Act must be changed to reflect the realities of point a.
In the meantime, throwing money at the appalling issues facing the Aboriginal community in the long run exacerbates the problems and institutionalises an elite which at its worst uses the misery around them as a vector to demand more 'rights' and receive more money.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Peter Burgess1
37 Fans
03:09 PM on 01/10/2013
Circus or no circus First Nations people are owed $100 billion and have been for more than a decade now and no MP, no constituional lawyer, pretty much no official denies it. Instead they just waffle and delay and distract.
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cbroads
0 Fans
02:48 PM on 01/10/2013
I fully agree that Spence is not a great leader. She is too focussed on getting exactly what she wants rather than negotiating with the federal government for the benefit of her people. I also recognize that Attawapiskat is one of many struggling Aboriginal communities. That said, the writer is heavily biased. Stating that Spence is one of the reasons that "First Nation communities exist in the sad way they do" is not only an over generalization, but it is offensive and absurd. It is perspectives like this that only further suppress the First Nation people. Ultimately, for the "pitiful" lives of the Attawapiskat people and Aboriginals alike to improve it is cardinal that prejudices like this be washed away.
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mowich7
17 Fans
12:59 PM on 01/10/2013
"What we have here is a woman who bemoans the impoverished nature of her reserve while she is partly to blame for it; a woman who has the ability to make things better, but won't because not everyone has RSVP'd to her invitation. All the while, she allows those who have suffered, perhaps due to her own incompetence, to continue suffering."

Exactly. Great column, Daniel.
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SoakerCity
71 Fans
12:30 PM on 01/10/2013
This article really sums it up without pulling any punches. Nicely done, Mr. Portoraro.
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