Opinion: First Nations need more funding -- not 'accountability'

Tuesday, January 8, 2013  

"Chiefs across Canada are saying that the real lack of “accountability” lies in the Prime Minister’s Office and not at the level of individual first nation governments.

Indigenous people across Canada are owed well in excess of $100-billion, the immediate payment of which Prime Minister Stephen Harper refuses to make a national priority.

Canada’s first nations people live in crushing poverty because of the great wealth taken from them and their lands – and are sick and tired of it. First nations children have the highest rates of infant mortality, diabetes, malnutrition, alcoholism, drug dependency, abuse and incarceration of any children in Canada. These curable maladies are directly caused by poverty. The failure to immediately and effectively address these issues is a national embarrassment.

Poverty is usually and most effectively cured with money, not “accountability.”"

Get the Story:
Jeffrey Rath: Natives don’t need ‘accountability.’ Show us the money (The Globe and Mail 1/8)

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Winona LaDuke: Idle No More Movement sees worldwide support (1/3)
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Charles Trimble: A deadly time for our tribal allies in Canada (12/31)