First Nations Education - Money for Native Languages - You had me at "Tansi"

It looked shady. From a communications and media perspective it looked like someone wanted to bury the story. That was my immediate reaction to the news that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would be announcing the most significant changes to First Nations Education in almost 20 years.

The media would not say which school the announcement was going to be held. I was not sure how to interpret that as it concerns the Canadian media who take great pride in their inability to pronounce the names of First Nations. I was not sure if the whole operation was that clandestine if it was good old borderline racist Canadian broadcasting standards.

It was also likely that Prime Minister Harper and Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo wanted to avoid the possibility that the whole thing turned into another Idle No More spectacle as had befell former National Chief Phil Fontaine recently when he was out stumping for TransCanada and the Keystone Pipeline.

This story was buried of that there was no doubt. The announcement and press conference was on the same day as the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

The Olympics is one of those media black holes that can be predicted well in advance. Most media black holes require a star big enough to explode to swallow up all the eyes and ears, but that is impossible to predict. The opening of the Olympics is the one of those events guaranteed to swallow up all the light.

No one books a press conference on that day unless the least amount of media attention is their intention.

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I am suspicious and I am a critic. I have written some very critical comments about Stephen Harper and his conservative government and I will again. But I must commend this contribution to education.

It is important for people to remember that the most devastating wound to First Nations education came at the hands of Paul Martin, who as Finance Minister imposed a 2% cap on all funding including education in 1996. Over the decades since that policy; First Nations schools have fallen off the cliff in comparison to the funding of their provincial counterparts.

The cumulative effect of falling behind year after year in the nearly 20 years since created unconscionable gaps between funding per child in a First Nations school and the the rest of Canada's children. Lifting the cap to 4.5% is righting a historical wrong.

Once again, the conservative government actually provides some action when it comes to Native people; be it Mulroney's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and The Aboriginal Healing Foundation to Harper's Residential School Settlement, The Apology and now The First Nations Education Act.

One can argue the sincerity or intent of any of these but I know they are greater than anything I can think of from when the Liberals were in power. All I know is that they put the 2% cap on First Nations Education in 1996. Next to residential schools that has been the most damaging thing done to the education of Native children in modern history. Now it's gone.

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There is funding for culture and languages and that is a beautiful thing.

What can I say? There is money for languages, you had me at "Tansi".

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I know educators in communities and in urban centres. My brother works with Native children in urban education systems, my cousin is principal of our community school and has been building language curriculum along with local Cree speaking educators. Our neighbour across the snow field is a retired teacher and the first principal of our First Nations School. And on and on and on.

I heard stories from the pathfinders and leaders of First Nations education in Manitoba during a brief stint at the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre. If was without question the most impressive organization I had ever seen from the inside. I did interviews with many staff inspired me and awed me with their commitment and their love and their passion for education and most importantly for our children.

The challenge for our educators is to ensure that as much of the money makes it to the student level. The government has already built in their costs right off the top for the necessary level of bureaucracy they require which you can picture as Lego blocks swallowing up office space at the twin towers in Hull, PQ.

Then there is the shadowy netherworld of the consultants, advisers and experts that turn to money like sharks smelling blood in the water. You have to be mindful of them lest you fall victim to the same fate of the Old Man and the Sea.

Finally their is our own bureaucracies which is to each its own but is likely eating much more than it's share.

Just get as much of that dollar into the hands of our educators and watch amazing things happen.

Give them the resources and they will show you what a teacher can do.


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Let's Talk. Why are so many Canadians depressed?

"Let's Talk" about mental health.

It's about time after months of being bombarded by the media about depression and suicide.

If anything maybe we can get a break from those commercials after today. There's a bright spot. Those depression commercials are depressing. Holy Shit, I feel sad, every single time I watch that one with the lady that is all dressed up for work and she calls in sick.

That dude that is at home and his buddy can see him ignoring the phone through the picture window. Who is the sadder guy in that commercial. I think it's the guy who is outside and he doesn't have the balls to bang on the door and give his buddy a "What the Fuck, Man? I can SEE you!"

No, I am not going to make light of depression and act like people just need a good kick in the ass. Although some people need a good kick in the ass. I know depression. I know what it's like to obsess over ending it all. Day after day after day after day. I have lost friends and family to that lonely heartbreaking battle.

I remember the first great sadness in my life, black as Kubrick's monolith in my memory.  It was that period that followed the collapse of our newspaper, Nativebeat and lead to almost complete nervous breakdown. The heaviest of depression lasted about three years and has returned in smaller more manageable but no less black chunks in the years since.

I had a second great run of depression that coincided with a thirsty obsession during a soul sucking period of life in Our Nations Capital. I drank a million tears that were not mine. I drank a million tears and wondered why I couldn't stop crying. I dug deep for darkness and then cursed God for making me blind.

I survived the heaviest unknowable depression in silence and with support from powers also unknown.

My second bout of depression was handled by sobering up. I went to AA for a while and that helped. I don't go there these days since I still drink. I know, by sobering up, I mean, not drinking booze like people drink coffee.

I will drink now and then but rarely to get sad. But I can't say I will never again because sometimes you need to cry like a great big baby but most times you just end up acting like one.

I am a strong supporter of marijuana although I do not know what the practical applications are regarding mental health. I do know that it will put a smile on your face. I also know that Chronics are cranky.

I do not support the overwhelming acceptance of pharmaceuticals as the quintessential treatment for depression.

I hate to get all Ron L. Hubbard on people but blindly taking whatever pill is being pushed is foolish at best, when the pill is for your mind it can be dangerous.

If it works, it works. Do whatever needs to be doing. Take as much as you need it's your say but just remember to take a look at who is getting paid.

The Mental Health industry is booming and people driven campaigns like "Let's Talk" can be exploited to get more people hooked on more drugs and become lifetime consumers. That is the sad truth.

It is the sad truths that are connected to the larger miasma of depression and mental illness that has settled over Canada.

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I have said it before and I will say it again. If you aren't depressed you aren't paying attention.

There is a reason why and it's time for people to stand up

Throw open their windows and scream out,

"I am sad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."

It is time to speak up but not just acknowledge the pain but seek for the truth.

There is so much that is not right. So much that makes no sense. So much that we cannot speak about. The ghosts in the many rooms of the house we now live.The Overlook Hotel had nothing like this. This feeling that we are being driven blindly towards the cliff. At best buffalo and at worst lemming.

It is an assault on the minds of young people to teach them one thing while the awful truth lay bare before them. Revelation of the ongoing genocide that is the foundation of Canada and is reflected daily in actions of resource companies and official government policy is a stab to both the heart and mind.

They tear the truth from your heart and treat you like a fool
This is the journey to enlightenment for open minded Canadian youth

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I have found sanity and joy in ceremony and in life.
I greet the sun with smile and can hug a tree until I cry.
I am blessed I know and still at times the darkness comes
and doesn't let me go until he is done.

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Too much drinking and drugging
and hating and sulking have taken away
all you can give

Whatever it takes to get a smile on your face
If a prayer or a toke or a cry or a joke

There is only one thing I can say
The sun is shining today
And that's more
than a reason
to live

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Harper sings Hey Jude to join Bieber and Ford in destroying Canada's image around the world

A puffy, pasty and horribly, horribly out of tune Prime Minister Stephen Harper singing "Hey Jude" while Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visibly squirmed in the audience was the cherry on the cake of a week in which Rob Ford and Justin Bieber returned to the international spotlight to continue their own on-going destruction of Canada's image.

The Beatles song is connected to an incident in 1968 in which Paul McCartney painted "Hey Jude" on the window of the Apple Boutique. McCartney's actions created outrage in the local Jewish community with the window being smashed and some threatening violence on the Beatle. "Juden" is German for Jew and "Juden Raus" was painted on windows of Jewish businesses during the Holocaust. McCartney said he did not know of the association at the time and apologized as he did not mean any offense.

Why would Harper chose to sing this song at that time to that audience? It does not make any sense. Who is advising him? I know he sang the song before a large Jewish audience in Canada, but this is Israel. They treated Harper as statesmen of the highest order by inviting him to speak at the Knesset, a first for a Canadian Prime Minister. It won't be that speech that will be remembered, it will be this ignorant song choice.

Seriously? Is this the only song he can sing? You get the feeling of the precious little boy to whom no one can say "No".

If he knew that this was a song that could conjure up any anti-Semitic connotations why would he sing it. Was he drunk? That's what we would ask if he was just Stevie the mid level wonk.

So now he has returned home after his vacation. (No time to visit the troops.) He is surrounded with the obsequious as we do with all men of power.

The economy is in free fall and his government is mired in corruption traced like a thick film of rancid slime right back to him. Don't hold your breath thinking that things are going to change. The spoiled brat who was behaving in all the right ways to get what he wants has been telling the country to "suck it" ever since he got his majority election. Having acted out on the international stage will only make it worse at home.

Phil Fontaine gets greeting worthy of the Native Face of The Keystone Pipeline

I do not know the name of the President and CEO or the Founder or the Spokesperson or anyone who would represent the face of TransCanada.

I do know that TransCanada is the name of the company that is building the Keystone pipeline. I know the Keystone pipeline has become the literal line in the earth. The line that cannot be crossed. Not only for Native People but for non-Native people as well. That part is obvious.

What isn't so obvious is what former National Chief Phil Fontaine was thinking when he took on the role of "Native Face of the Keystone Pipeline". In the midst of a resurgent Native rights movement that has networked internationally through the Idle No More campaign, he should not have been surprised with the response he received in Winnipeg.

On January 23, Fontaine was making his first public appearance back home and his first major speech since becoming the Native Face of the Keystone Pipeline. Guess what happened? He was met with protest.

Yes, the images of the former National Chief being shouted down before having a chance to speak at the University of Winnipeg are embarrassing. It's Native people yelling at Native people and the whole thing looks like the climax of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe. With the accusations creating feelings of awkwardness and shame but no real damage. "You're as traditional as a tootsie roll," someone screamed out. Yeah, pretty embarrassing.

Nevertheless, I have to commend the people that stood up and took a public stance even though it would be seen as acting against one of their own. They were there because they had been compelled. This is the line in the earth.

We know Fontaine was there because he was getting paid. Winnipeg may be his home turf but the city also has the largest population of Native people in Canada and has hosted many Idle No More actions.

What happened seems predictable in hindsight and when results occur that are not surprising we usually consider the action planned.

Phil should have known. If he didn't know, that's a blemish on his character or his intelligence. People in TransCanada knew, that's why they got Fontaine on the payroll.

Before Fontaine became the Native Face of The Keystone Pipeline he was the most reasonable Native Leader of Our Time. Why deal with pesky or uppity when you can deal with reasonable? The image of the calm softspoken white haired Fontaine being challenged by a group of people with drums and facepaint dovetails into the classic Canadian stereotypes.

One one side the noble Indian and on the other side the pesky savage. It's the grand trope of western society. They never get tired of that one. In the battle for hearts and minds of the mainstream Canadian public; there is no doubt whom the majority will support.

If the line in the earth can be defined by the reasonable Fontaine on one side and the thuggish modern day savage on the other side that perception can only benefit TransCanada.

Why do I get the feeling that somewhere in TransCanada's communications' bunker people are smiling, laughing and high-fiving each other.

I like Phil. He seems to be a good man, but he's on the other side of line in this one and my gut is telling me that he is not just getting paid, he's getting played.