Underneath the ArriveCan scandal, questions swirl about Ottawa’s Indigenous procurement requirements - The Globe and Mail - "Passersby would never guess that the property is connected to a business that has received more than $100-million in federal spending. In corporate records, the home is the registered address for David Yeo, a former soldier who is now an entrepreneur and the founder of Dalian Enterprises Inc., one of the companies at the centre of a growing controversy over government contracting related to the ArriveCan mobile app. Mr. Yeo, a great-grandson of former Alderville First Nation Chief Robert Franklin, doesn’t actually live in the home. Locals say no one does. But it is one of Mr. Yeo’s ties to Alderville – neighbours say the residence has been in his family for years. These connections have allowed him to participate in the federal Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business, a program created to ensure Indigenous companies receive a portion of federal contracts and help their communities grow. The ArriveCan app, commissioned by the government to gather contact information and quarantine plans from people coming into Canada at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, attracted attention in late 2022 for its $54-million price tag. That initial scrutiny has morphed into something much larger... But the ArriveCan investigations have also raised questions about the PSIB, the program Mr. Yeo participated in. It has come under scrutiny for a feature that some critics say can be exploited: non-Indigenous businesses are allowed to receive federal contracts under the program, as long as they partner with Indigenous businesses in joint ventures. In those cases, the government requires that at least a third of the total value of the work be performed by an Indigenous company or Indigenous subcontractors... Dalian often works in tandem with Coradix Technology Consulting Ltd., a larger non-Indigenous company that has also been suspended because of the ArriveCan probes. For more than a decade, the two companies have won contract after contract through the PSIB joint venture program. Dalian has just two full-time employees. Coradix’s president told MPs at a hearing in the fall that his company had more than 40. Ottawa spends more than $15-billion a year on outsourcing. Since 2003, Dalian and Coradix have collectively been paid $635-million through federal contracts, according to the government’s public accounts. Of this total, $496-million was directed to Coradix, while Dalian received $139-million... But Mr. Yeo’s description doesn’t match what Indigenous business leaders say are broader objectives of the PSIB, which include producing an economic boost for Indigenous communities and workers. When pressed by MPs, Mr. Yeo was unable to tell them how many of the 20 subcontractors hired by Dalian to work on ArriveCan were Indigenous... In 2021, the federal government set itself an aggressive new target: Departments and agencies should ensure that, at a minimum, 5 per cent of the total value of contracts they issue go to Indigenous businesses. In effect, the government had significantly expanded the PSIB."
No one learnt from the flaws of the bumiputera policy, because indigenous people must be worshipped
Clearly, more indigenous people need to benefit from the gravy train, and the resulting continuing of cost ballooning will be a feature, not a bug
Chris Brunet on X - ".@uvic's Department of Physics and Astronomy is hiring three tenure-track positions at the rank of Assistant Professor You can only apply if you ''self-identify as Indigenous'' What does being Indigenous have to do with physics/astronomy research? Nothing. Nevertheless."
J.D. Haltigan, PhD 🏒👨💻 on X - "Indigenous folklore & knowledge is not science. That this needs to be said in 2024 is absolutely absurd."
Wilfred Reilly on X - "I once asked a Native "uncle" what he thought of the Old Magic. He said: "If it exists, it's a lot less powerful than gun-powder."
There's almost a sad glory to that quote. Imagine the last charge of the (Kiowa). 5,000 men are riding in close array - the dancing on horseback is over. All have the new steel tips on their lances, and their feathers and paint on. The Medicine Men have blessed the host. Eagle rides above them. They are invincible. The white ranks open: odd new machines come forward. They look like many far-shooter barrels attached to one metal plate. The word "Maxim" is written on the side of one. A curse?"
Cole Bring Plenty’s Tragic Death is Part the Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons
Cole Brings Plenty: US actor found dead two days after he was charged in domestic violence case - "The 27-year-old's body was discovered on Friday two days after he was charged with aggravated burglary, domestic battery and criminal restraint. An arrest warrant had been issued."
On Facebook there were people insinuating that he was killed in a hate crime
Meme - "NO ONE OWNS THE WATER
NO ONE OWNS THE LAND
NO ONE OWNS THE OCEANS
NO ONE OWNS THE SAND
THESE ARE GIVEN BY OUR MOTHER
THE PLANET PROVIDES FOR FREE
ONLY BY The HANDS OF THE GREEDY,
DOES THE EARTH REQUIRE A FEE."
Since no one owns it, it can't be "stolen"
Omission of reconciliation 'glaring' and 'alarming' in budget speech, First Nations leaders say - "A spokesperson for Freeland cited the 181 per cent increase in Indigenous spending since 2015, a key figure from the budget book itself, as a measure of the Liberals' commitment."
Nothing will ever be enough. Not even 6% of the federal budget dedicated to 5% of the population (excluding common spending). Virtue signalling is a doomed cause as it can never end and it leads to a death spiral
BLM activist tells officer ‘your law does not apply to me as an Aboriginal man’ during traffic stop - "Paul Silva, 26, was pulled over by police in Kempsey on the mid north coast earlier this year after he was seen allegedly using his mobile phone while driving. Mr Silva is the nephew of David Dungay Jr — who died in custody at Sydney’s Long Bail Jail in 2015 after screaming “I can’t breathe” as five guards pinned him on the floor — and has been involved in Black Lives Matter and Invasion Day protests... Mr Silva was one of the organisers of a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney in July 2020, controversially held during Covid. At the time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the decision “appalling” and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian demanded it be cancelled. Addressing the media about the pleas, Mr Silva claimed the Covid crisis was being used as “an excuse to silence us” and said the protest would “most definitely” go ahead."
No bodies found after spending $8 million searching for bodies at Kamloops Residential School - "The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations has confirmed significant spending to try and uncover the "heartbreaking truth" of potential unmarked graves at the Indian Residential School in Kamloops, BC. However, despite the allocation of $7.9 million for this purpose, no remains have been recovered, and there has been no public disclosure of how the funds were utilized, says Blacklock's Reporter. Carolane Gratton, spokesperson for the department, confirmed the allocation of $7.9 million for various endeavors including fieldwork, records searches, and securing the Residential School grounds... The lack of transparency regarding the allocation and utilization of funds, coupled with the absence of tangible progress in uncovering the truth about residential school burials, has raised concerns about accountability and the need for greater transparency in addressing the legacy of Residential Schools in Canada."
Auron MacIntyre on X - "The Canadian media and Justin Trudeau spread abject lies about mass graves in order to enact a pogrom against Christians which resulted in the burning of over 80 churches A mass religious hate crime perpetrated by the Canadian ruling class and no one has been held accountable"
Clearly, they didn't spend enough money to find the bodies that everyone Know are there. Time to criminalise residential school denialism and jail everyone who claims that it was a hoax, including the genocidal researchers who are hiding the bodies that they dig up! Also, asking how indigenous people spend the money they get is literally killing them
☦ on X - "Just a reminder, 68 churches were burned in Canada due to this massive example of fake news. Will Catholics, Anglicans, and Coptic Orthodox receive reparations for these costly lies?"
Jim McMurtry on X - "CBC 2021 - “215 children found buried”
CBC 2023 - “suspected unmarked graves”
CBC edited its way out of a false report that led to Canada calling itself genocidal. @CBC"
Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says
Residential school denialists tried to dig up suspected unmarked graves in Kamloops, B.C., report finds
Weird. I thought it was American newspapers that were to blame for calling them mass graves, and the Canadian media were not responsible at all
B.C. First Nation surveys school site as it hosts meeting on unmarked graves - "The Nadleh Whut'en Indian Band, whose territory is about 900 kilometres north of Vancouver, says surveyors are using ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry to detect anomalies at the site of the former Lejac Residential School that closed in 1976."
Time for a new moral panic over tree roots, and anyone who asks questions will be a Residential Schools Denier
Meme - Jonathan Kay @jonkay: "Toronto Star: “Canada is a killing field of colonial genocide” Also Toronto Star: The only people saying Canada is “broken” are “MAGA-style” rednecks"
"We are rising in strength and power - it's time to end the genocide of Indigenous women
Canada is a killing field of colonial genocide against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit peoples, who continue to die and disappear at horrifying rates."
Toronto Star @TorontoStar: "Pierre Poilievre's MAGA style refrain is wrong: Canada is bruised but not broken. Anyone can identify issues, but real solutions are much harder to come by. Anyone can tear things down. How does Poilievre propose to build Canada u..."
Wait till they're reminded who's killing indigenous women
Black Pope Vice on X - "There is very little evidence to suggest Australian Abos were violent tribes people afaik"
Mungo Manic on X - "Interpersonal and intertribal conflict was common in Australia. In a study of crania from southeast Australia, 58% of the females and 37% of the males had fractures, the majority of which were severely traumatic. Arm fractures were also common (from parrying blows)"
Chief says grave search at B.C. residential school brings things 'full circle' - "Ketlo said the survey at the site would involve ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry, as well as possible involvement from archeological teams. The whole process of locating possible graves, including talking to survivors about their memories of what happened, will likely take many years to complete."
When you need to continue to milk the moral panic, but are scared you won't find anything
Jonathan Kay on X - "Danish story on Canada’s 2021 social panic surrounding 215 (as yet undiscovered) unmarked graves has gone viral, & now translated into Dutch & English. Europeans can’t believe we didn’t confirm the graves before exhibiting collective national hysteria"
B.C.'s land reforms treat non-Indigenous people like uninvited guests - "a senior cabinet minister in B.C.’s NDP government commented that, when it comes to First Nations, “our approach to natural-resource development must be done in collaboration and partnership with the rightful owners of the land.” This perspective flies in the face of former Supreme Court chief justice Antonio Lamer’s observation in the landmark Delgamuukw decision that “we are all here to stay.” Despite this, it has recently been reflected in a number of initiatives advanced by the province of B.C. In January, the B.C. government proposed amendments to the Land Act to allow the province to enter into agreements with individual First Nations to make decisions over public lands. These agreements could cover substantial amounts of B.C. territory, as 95 per cent of the province has been claimed as unceded traditional territory. However, on these lands, there is an absence of a democratic relationship between Indigenous governments and non-Indigenous British Columbians, who comprise about 94 per cent of the population. The Land Act amendments were paused in February following public outcry. Another example is B.C.’s Haida Agreement, signed in April, which recognizes Aboriginal title over the million-hectare archipelago known as Haida Gwaii. The agreement, approved in a referendum held only for Haida Nation voters (despite the fact that half of the affected residents are non-Haida), raises significant concerns over private property rights and the constraints it places on future governments’ ability to act in the public interest. Premier David Eby has nonetheless expressed his eagerness to replicate this agreement across B.C. The province also recently announced it would exclude the public from the highly popular Joffre Lakes Provincial Park for weeks during peak season, formalizing the previous year’s unilateral closure by allowing Indigenous-only access for extended periods of time (presumably on an annual basis). This decision could be replicated in provincial parks throughout B.C. if other Indigenous groups ask for similar accommodations. If reconciliation is to be successful, it is essential that Indigenous interests and the public interest be considered and represented at every stage. And yet, the B.C. government has repeatedly shut the public out of the process, which will only result in a backlash that Indigenous communities themselves do not deserve. This has already occurred on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, where the province’s decision-making power over private docks has been effectively delegated to the local First Nation, again without a democratic relationship between that decision-making body and the affected public. Just last week, the local residents’ association announced it was filing proceedings in the B.C. Supreme Court after being sidelined during two years of negotiations between the government and the First Nation. The Land Act amendments, the Haida Agreement, the Joffre Lakes Provincial Park closure and the dock management plan on the Sunshine Coast all go far beyond what Canada’s constitution requires in terms of Indigenous accommodation. All are marked by a notable lack of real engagement with the public, and all lack any meaningful attempt to balance the broader public interest with Indigenous interests. With nearly all of B.C.’s land claimed as unceded traditional territory by one or more of its 200-plus Indigenous groups, each of these initiatives on its own would set a problematic precedent. Taken together, they reflect the logical conclusion of years of land acknowledgements that have divided British Columbians into ancestry-defined camps of “owners” and “guests” with unequal claims to the land they all call home."
It's racist to treat some people like immigrants with fewer rights, unless left wingers want to worship "indigenous" peoples
White Man Has Talk With Indian About Disposition of Native Land - YouTube - "Sitting Bull : You must take them out of our lands.
Col. Nelson Miles : What precisely are your lands?
Sitting Bull : These are the where my people lived before you whites first came.
Col. Nelson Miles : I don't understand. We whites were not your first enemies. Why don't you demand back the land in Minnesota where the Chippewa and others forced you from years before?
Sitting Bull : The Black Hills are a sacred given to my people by Wakan Tanka.
Col. Nelson Miles : How very convenient to cloak your claims in spiritualism. And what would you say to the Mormons and others who believe that their God has given to them Indian lands in the West?
Sitting Bull : I would say they should listen to Wakan Tanka.
Col. Nelson Miles : No matter what your legends say, you didn't sprout from the plains like the spring grasses. And you didn't coalesce out of the ether. You came out of the Minnesota woodlands armed to the teeth and set upon your fellow man. You massacred the Kiowa, the Omaha, the Ponca, the Oto and the Pawnee without mercy. And yet you claim the Black Hills as a private preserve bequeathed to you by the Great Spirit.
Sitting Bull : And who gave us the guns and powder to kill our enemies? And who traded weapons to the Chippewa and others who drove us from our home?
Col. Nelson Miles : Chief Sitting Bull, the proposition that you were a peaceable people before the appearance of the white man is the most fanciful legend of all. You were killing each other for hundreds of moons before the first white stepped foot on this continent. You conquered those tribes, lusting for their game and their lands, just as we have now conquered you for no less noble a cause."
College lecturer claims 'no laws' against homosexuality, abortion 'before White people': 'Seek help' | Fox News - "Freelance journalist and University of Colorado Denver lecturer Simon Moya-Smith insisted that laws against homosexuality and abortions did not exist among Indigenous people "before White people." The Columbia Journalism alum suggested that White people were the ones who introduced efforts against homosexuality and abortion after invading Indigenous peoples’ land. "Before white people came to this land, there were no jails, no homelessness, no laws against homosexuality or abortion. For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples emphasized health, housing, freedom to love who you love and the fact that we need Mother Earth. She doesn’t need us," Moya-Smith tweeted."
Native American leader denounces Indigenous festival by ‘made-up group’: 'Wouldn't be caught dead' - "An Indigenous festival taking place this week in Quebec, Canada, was condemned by the leader of a Native American group who alleged that the event was an affront. Dylan Whiteduck, the chief of Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg, accused the Native Alliance of Quebec, the event's organizers, of not actually being Native Americans. Whiteduck accused the event's organizers of distributing fake cards to people who are not Native American and argued that the group is doing more harm than good... "The event taking place on our unceded lands is inappropriate and unacceptable," the letter continued. "This is cultural appropriation," Whiteduck warned. Whiteduck was first invited to speak at the event but declined. In his tweet, he labeled the group "wannabes.""
New poll shows 7 in 10 leftists think Native American tribes lived in peace and harmony - "the Skeptic Research Center released a report titled “Are ‘White People’ Morally Deviant?” It asked people about “the impact of European settlers,” the ability of racial minorities to succeed in America, and “whether it’s shameful to be white.” Likely the most striking finding was that, among those who are “very liberal,” 71.2% agreed with the statement, “Prior to the arrival of the European settlers, Native American/ Indigenous tribes lived in peace and harmony.” This result was the highest among ideological groups and likely constitutes a type of orthodoxy in far-left circles. This finding is interesting for two reasons. First, it is interesting that the most ascendant political tribe among young people, the “progressives” or the “very liberal,” holds a belief that is so at odds with the historical record. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker pointed out in 2007: “Contra leftist anthropologists who celebrate the noble savage, quantitative body counts — such as the proportion of prehistoric skeletons with ax marks and embedded arrowheads or the proportion of men in a contemporary foraging tribe who die at the hands of other men — suggest that pre-state societies were far more violent than our own.” Importantly, the relevant distinction between people today and Native American tribes is not racial but rather the structure of society (pre-state versus state). This is consistent with Thomas Hobbes’s observation that absent a structured society, “the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” The second reason this finding is interesting is because of what it says about leftists’ view of the United States. People of all political persuasions often profess certain beliefs when asked, not because they have a real opinion on it but because they can presume what is correct merely by considering the question’s implications with respect to their other political priorities. In this case, the fact that so many who are “very liberal” assumed this was the proper answer for them tells us that they look at the U.S. as a uniquely bad actor in world history, a nuisance in world affairs. The assumption is that absent the U.S., the world is a good, peaceful place and that the problems in the world can largely be attributed to unnecessary, power-grabbing actions by large powers like the U.S. Traces of this worldview can be found in conversations related to everything from foreign affairs to policing. When one person professes this belief, we can call them wrong. When this belief becomes normal, it has dire implications. And where did any of this come from? The Skeptic Research Center’s founder, Michael Shermer, has an idea. He wrote, “Since most people do not study archaeology or read books about the history of violence their attitudes & beliefs come from cultural/social beliefs so these generational differences reflect what people have learned in school, picked up from pop culture, etc.” This hypothesis certainly resonates with my personal experience in high school history, in which the teacher had a preoccupation with “debunking” the “lies” that conventional historians tell. The issue, of course, is that in trying to reframe the entirety of American history such that it becomes primarily oppositional, truth is often sacrificed in the process."
Even a plurality of very conservative people at least somewhat agree with this lie (mirror)
Off the Reservation: The Navajo Nation’s LGBT Refugees — Queer Majority - "The Navajo Nation is big. The Navajo, or “Diné” as they call themselves, are the largest Native American tribe by population, depending on how you count (just shy of Wyoming), and the largest reservation by land area (about the size of West Virginia). That comes with some historical baggage: a death march, internment camps, and a treaty that made them the only native peoples in the US to truly reclaim their land. To say that the Navajo have had to fight against second-class citizenship is an understatement. You have to first be considered human to be in any class at all. That’s not hyperbole. Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca, for example, had to argue in court in 1879 that he was legally a person. It’s only been about 100 years since Indians (or, as we say, NDNs — in-dee-ins) received US citizenship. That was 1924. As a reminder, former slaves in the US got citizenship in 1868. The Navajo Nation has overcome many challenges, and as a people, they have truly seen a tough few centuries. Getting where they are today was no small feat. But there is another legal underclass within their midst: LGBT Navajos. These are native people who, in modern times, may enjoy more rights outside the reservation than on their own lands. For example, gay and bisexual Navajos looking to marry someone of the same sex need not apply. We now have tribal members essentially leaving their homes as equal-rights-refugees — driven off their land first by outsiders and now driven away once again from inside. Tribal lands aren’t U.S. states. Tribes are generally considered sovereign nations, although the specifics get complicated in ways we don’t have space to cover in detail here. Suffice it to say that the 2015 Supreme Court ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges that enshrined marriage equality nationwide doesn’t apply. The Navajo in particular not only passed a ban on same-sex marriage, but after it was vetoed by the tribal president, the council overrode his veto. The sponsor of the bill, then council delegate Larry Anderson, said, in his best impersonation of the Christian right, that the purpose of the ban was to “promote strong families and strong family values, not discriminate.”... The resistance to legalizing same-sex marriage among the indigenous population has not been confined to any one place or people. It’s a problem several tribes have faced, though most have overcome it. The Cherokee reversed their ban in 2016. The Chickasaw followed even more recently, as have others. The Navajo are still holding out... One woman was abused by her partner but was ignored by police, despite the fact that they were both police officers themselves. Another person grew up in a transient family being sexually abused as a child and turning to drugs and alcohol as an adult, before getting sober and working in AIDS outreach. There’s the person who was raped weekly at school until they found refuge in a non-native family. And just picture the layered trauma of not only being repeatedly raped as a young man but standing up in a room full of strangers and recounting it in detail, including the deafening silence of school administrators not giving a shit... “When analyzed from this perspective, the traditional Navajo marriage and the analysis of collective and individual rights, there is no violation of a person’s rights with the Diné Marriage Act.”... As with most Native American issues, the wider American public seems neither to notice nor care about the treatment of LGBT people on reservations and tribal lands. The first order of business, then, is for more people to know what’s happening and to give a shit. We — those who at least claim to support individual freedom and personal autonomy — either have sincerely held values or we don’t. I know it feels somehow wrong and uncomfortable to hold people who have suffered so much to the “Western” standards of their historical oppressors. The recognition that native peoples have endured grievous historical wrongs whose scars they still live with is the compulsion of empathy. It is also the compulsion of empathy to recognize self-harm. As Carl Slater said, “This is a public health issue. And we just have so many young people who don’t believe that they have a future on the reservation.” Kicked off your land and then kicked off again."
Time to blame whitey
Of course, we have the usual absolutist thinking, like claiming that because abuse happens in heterosexual families means we shouldn't promote them
If you care about uncomfortable facts about native trauma, that's racist. Better to not give a shit than be painted as a bigot
Meme - halle @hallejwrites: *eclipse* "full totality! last about 3 minutes!"
poppycat says fr...: "hey idk if you know this but"
Genie @lettersfromjuno: "The Navajo people are asking that you post warnings before posting eclipse pictures as it disrupts their prayers/rituals btw! They can't see the moon rn"
Meme - sabrina @bnnygrlz: "did not know this until now so am deleting my untagged eclipse photos sry to anyone may have affected /gen"
Meme - Ukrainian George Floyd @f....: "I posted a bunch of eclipse photos in Navajo sub communities. Thanks for letting me know!"
Genie @lettersfromjuno: "I hope you feel better about yourself"
Jessie @Dawnofpanda89: "Report that tweet it's targeted harassment fr"
