Survivors & Apology Scam Syndrome

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“Canada’s Holocaust” ?

Well, what a disgusting episode in Canadian history.

A bunch of sick “progressives” and do-gooders decided to “civilize” the poor “primitive” aboriginals.

They might have given some thought to the proverb that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but these sort of people aren’t interested in traditional conservative values.

So state schools were established. Homes were broken up. Children were institutionalized. A lot of decent, hard-working clerics and nuns and educators made sacrifices trying to help the poor natives, and a bunch of Proto-NAMBLA types prayed on young flesh and screwed up young minds in the practice of their “alternative lifestyles.” The same things happened as took place in the inhuman industrialized British and German societies at the same time, but without the benefit of centuries of tradition.

Now gangs of parasitical do-gooders — cut from the same cloth as those who established this system in the first place — are all lining up, passing the buck, shedding crocodile tears, and demanding that innocent tax-payers pay for others’ sins. And all the inevitable legal vultures and grievance-merchants make a killing.

Apology Scam Syndrome. ASS.

Beware of the residential schools propaganda machine

Don Sandberg, The Red Deer Advocate, 2008-06-13

Don Sandberg is an aboriginal policy fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, an independent, Winnipeg-based think tank. His mother attended a residential school.

Growing up in the northern community of Gillam, Man. in the 1950s and ’60s, I recall how sad it was each fall to see many of my friends boarding the train to return to residential school. The summers were fun-filled times and now we would not see them again until Christmas.

Those of us who stayed behind because we were not treaty Indians at the time, noticed a huge difference when these friends returned.

Most importantly, they could now skate circles around us at hockey games.

The secret? They had excellent coaches; we had none.

Their grasp of the English language also greatly improved as they used words far beyond our level at the time.

I visited a residential school in 1974, and as some students played a game of hockey against the teachers on the outdoor rink, I marvelled at their sports storage room filled with brand new skates and other hockey equipment.

Many of the teachers and staff were First Nations people from many reserves.

We must never forget the excellent staff, both aboriginal and others, who were there for all the right reasons and who have now been tarnished by all the negative stories.

I also recall the opening stages of the lawsuit against the federal government for compensation to former residential school students.

I was working and living on my reserve and witnessed the chief arrive from Winnipeg with a group of lawyers and their staff; we knew something big was in the air.

These lawyers went house to house seeking former residential school students, encouraging them to sign up for the class-action suit.

By now everyone was starting to smell the money – and it was promising to be huge. The lawyers stood to earn thousands of dollars for each student signed up.

The government announced that the legal fees could top $1 billion.

CBC news reported on Feb. 23, 2004, that the government had spent more on lawyers than on former residential school students who suffered physical and sexual abuse.

The government reported that it had already spent $200 million, mostly to lawyers, while only a fraction of that – $38-million – had gone to former students.

By some accounts we have not yet squeezed the last dollar out of the government, so expect the propaganda machine to keep on rolling – but be very careful about recognizing who may be guiding this propaganda machine to their own ends

The Residential School Money Pit

Abandonment of the residential schools model

In 1948, a joint committee of the Canadian Parliament found that, like the industrial schools before them, the residential schools had failed to achieve their objective of preparing Indian children to take their place in the labouring classes of Canadian society. The Committee recommended an end to the segregation of Indian children in residential schools, proposing that Indian children be educated alongside non-aboriginal children in provincial schools.

…

From the 1950s the policy of residential schooling was gradually abandoned, the remaining schools increasingly serving as part of the child welfare system for ‘orphans and children from disrupted homes’. Dismantling the residential school system took decades, as the churches mounted a determined opposition to each school closure. In 1969, the Canadian government ended its partnership with the churches and took over the running of the residential schools. Closures accelerated in the next decade, with only 12 remaining in 1979. From 1972, the government commenced the process of handing control of the residential schools to Indian communities; a process which was completed in 1986.

Let’s examine the origins of one of these “Concentration Camps”:

Chief Blue Quill (Sipîtakanep)

Chief Blue Quill was among the original four chiefs that banded together to form Saddle Lake as a result of signing Treaty Six. In 1880, Chief Blue Quill moved his band to Egg Lake (Whitford Lake now known as Andrew). In 1890, J. A. Mitchell, the Indian Agent, persuaded Chief Blue Quill to move back to the Saddle Lake reserve. Agent Mitchell promised that Blue Quills Band would have 30 acres of land broken for them at Saddle Lake, be given six cows, and compensation for the house a band member had built at their former location. Chief Blue Quill settled on the western end of Saddle Lake. The Chief was known as a compassionate man.

“There were two religions at that time – Protestant and Catholic,” Elder Stanley Redcrow stated to the St. Paul Journal. “The Catholics went to school at Lac La Biche, and my father was one of those guys. When they went there, they never came back until they were 16 years old. At that time, the road was very bad; all they could use were dog teams…So the people in Saddle Lake started to say they wanted to have a school at home.”

It happened quickly. The Federal Indian Department studied the school, and in 1898, moved it to the more populous Saddle Lake. Within a year, a pair of Oblate brothers had built and dedicated a church and school at Saddle Lake, with the help of the people. They called it Blue Quills, and the reasons, as Redcrow notes, are interesting.

“The government said they could build the school at a site, but when the Protestants saw those piles of lumber, they asked what we were doing. We said, ‘We’re going to build a school here.’ They said, ‘No, you’re not. After you pile the lumber we’ll put a match and burn it up.’ All four Saddle Lake Chiefs; Pakan, Onchaminahos, Blue Quill and Bears Ears, were of the Protestant faith. The Oblate fathers went to see Chief Blue Quill and told them they wanted to build a school. Alphonse Delver, a direct descendent stated that Blue Quill responded to the request affirmatively, “Yes, put it on my land. I’m thinking of the future of my grandchildren and the orphans.”

William Delver, son-in-law of the Chief, saw the future of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren whom he said would live during a time when, “kipimâcihonâwâw ka-wehcasin. kinehiyâwiwinâwâw wî-âyiman ka-miciminamihk. (Earning a living will be easy. Being Cree will be hard to hold.)”

In 1931, the school was moved to its present location, 5 kilometers west of the town of St. Paul, Alberta. Seventy years later, the brick building is still standing, the site of the 35^th year anniversary as a First Nations owned and operated College. Descendents of Chief Blue Quill are among the students and faculty at the college.

[Perhaps they should sue themselves...]
Now, according to Blue Quills College, the real reason that this First Nations band has suffered so much is actually because the alleged meteorite idol they worship was removed and is now imprisoned at the Syncrude Aboriginal Gallery.

papâmihâw asiniy <> The Flying Rock
Contributed by Stewart Steinhauer

Before the arrival of Western Europeans (môniyâwak), Indigenous societies were organized around spiritual beliefs. One such belief was about the spiritual laws guiding economic activity, in those days primarily hunting and gathering. On the Northern Plains, parts of present day Alberta and Saskatchewan, a site of worship was long established: papâmihâw asiniy, whom môniyâwak see as an iron meteorite, offered leadership and support for survival, particularly as a protector of the buffalo herds. At that time, the buffalo herds were significant as money is today, and both Cree and Blackfoot made annual journeys to visit papâmihâw asiniy to make offerings to give thanks.

With the arrival of rapacious môniyâwak, indigenous societies were subjected to a wide variety of ‘colonial’ tactics developed in the course of Western European conquest of the world. One such tactic was to send in lone Christian missionaries trained in Indigenous languages, sometimes using Indigenous people as ‘helpers’, to break whatever ‘pagan’ spiritual beliefs that may exist, in preparation for the transition to acceptance of môniyâwak ‘might and right’ (the right to claim ownership of the entire world, and the sheer overwhelming brutality to back up this claim).

In 1866, a Methodist missionary, George McDougall, in his own personal crusade to help indigenous people, decided, in a bold act, to remove papâmihâw asiniy, knowing full well the effect that this action would have on both Cree and Blackfoot. As the shock wave moved through indigenous society, fears of the dire predictions associated with moving papâmihâw asiniy began to circulate (war, famine, disease), and within 10 years, had all come to pass. By 1876, the indigenous economy and a major portion of indigenous populations had been destroyed and the fates of the survivors sealed through Treaties and the Indian Act (1876).

With the destruction (genocide) of the ‘great living library’ inherent to oral traditions, accurate views of papâmihâw asiniy are hard to find. However, 135 years later, papâmihâw asiniy still exists, held in captivity by successors to the Methodists of that era. Currently, ‘on loan’ to Syncrude Aboriginal Gallery, official ‘ownership’ still resides with the United Church’s University of Victoria located in Toronto, Ontario.

In 1999, papâmihâw asiniy initiated an effort to have himself repatriated to the descendents of the indigenous peoples he had been taken from. Blue Quills First Nations College, representing the 7 Cree bands in the region, and in consultation with all other interested First Nations people, including the Blackfoot/Blood Repatriation Committee, has been negotiating steadfastly for a peaceful resolution to this long-standing historical injustice. The return of papâmihâw asiniy could usher in a new era of self determination, bringing back our spiritual relationship with economy and ecology. In the future, the Indian Act must go, but it will be up to us, as First Nations people, to design and implement the new political and social structures that govern our lives. Perhaps in the future, we will assist the country of Canada in replacing their current ‘worship of money’ system with a 21st century version of the elegant governance systems we once enjoyed.

An Interview With Stanley Redcrow:

The Saskatchewan Indian: Feb. 1972, v03 n02 p08 & 09

http://www.sicc.sk.ca/saskindian/a72feb08.htm

Recently members of the Prince Albert Urban Indians visited Blue Quills Residential School at Saint Paul, Alberta. Blue Quills is unique in that it is the only residential school controlled and run by the Indian people themselves. Stanley Redcrow, the chairman of the Blue Quills Education Council, worked for the school for 19 years as a maintenance man and boys’ supervisor. In the summer of 1969 he received national prominence as he led people from the surrounding reserves to occupy the school and have it brought under their control. The following interview was taken at Blue Quills School by a reporter from the Saskatchewan Indian traveling with the Prince Albert Urban Indians.

Sask. Indian: Mr. Redcrow, tell us a little bit about how you people got to control the school like you do now.

Mr. Redcrow: In 1967 we had a district white school committee meeting at Lac La Biche which is about 70 miles north from here. At that time the Superintendent of Schools was Danny Daniels, he told us that Indian schools were going to be phased out. After that we started talking amongst ourselves and we were not going to let the schools be closed down. We had some people working here at Blue Quills School, just two Indian men and two Indian ladies The rest of them were white people, most of them French people. One day I asked Father, who was the Administrator Principal, if he could hire some Indian people and he said they were not qualified. I didn’t say anything afterwards but I told some of my friends that we should get to work, have some meetings and try and get some people to work here at Blue Quills School. So we asked Father to have a meeting with us and he said the same thing that Indian people were not qualified and that they would not be able to do the work. However we continued having meetings and when Indian people understood what we were trying to do, they came along with us with the idea of taking the School over and running it ourselves. Then the Indian Association of Alberta, the President and members came along with us and we had the meetings with them. Finally we had the whole district which we call the Saddle Lake-Athabasca District, comprising of about 6,000 people. There are 11 or 12 reserves. These reserves are Saddle Lake, Kehewin, Goodfish Lake, Frog Lake, Cold Lake, Beaver Lake, Fort Chipewyan, Fort McKay, Fort McMurray, Anzac and Janvier. These people came along with us and we has a big meeting one day. We said we’re going to stage a sit-in and we did. It was in July 12th and we had a sit-in. We did not adjourn the meeting; we had meetings every day and finally we decided we should call the Minister of Indian’ Affairs and Northern Development, Minister Jean Chretien. We sent some telegrams to him asking him to have a meeting with us but he did not come. He sent two of his Ministers, Robinson and Bergevan and we had meetings with them but they did not give us the answers so we sent them back to Ottawa. We told them to go back and tell Mr. Chretien to come down and have a meeting with us but he did not come. Two weeks afterwards he sent these two people back, Robinson and Bergevan and we had a meeting again with them, this time with a bigger crowd. We had about 500 people. We put them in the middle and we had placards which read: “Indians control School”, “We want Blue Quills” and everything like that. The young people helped us and some old people also came along. We even had one person who was about 100 years old at the time and she was very interested.

Anyway these people didn’t want to give us the answer “yes”. They were beating around the bush and so I told them, I said “It’s no use for you people to have a meeting with us. If you want to pay. the cost, we will bring 25 people and we’ll meet with Mr. Chretien in Ottawa.” They said no, only 5 of you people should come but I said “no”. You make up your mind, we’ll give you just a few minutes so they started talking to each other and they said OK bring your 25 people. So then we went to Ottawa and we had a meeting with Chretien. They didn’t want to stay with us very long because they had another meeting somewhere else and he went away. We had a meeting with the Ministers but nothing came out so we stayed there and we told them we going to stay there till we got an answer. The next day, we had another meeting with him, this time we didn’t want to let him go out until he finally made up his mind to say “yes”. This time he said “OK” we’ll make the agreement and we had these people do the writing. We were not satisfied with the agreement and we told him. He helped to change this agreement. We want to have it written just the way we want it, so they went back and again they brought us another agreement but it wasn’t the way we wanted it. So we told them again that we didn’t want the agreement. They went back once more and this time, they brought a different agreement. The agreement is as follows: “Dear Mr. Redcrow: This is to confirm my discussions with you and members of the Blue Quills Native Education Council on July 31, 1970, at which time I agreed to the preparation of an agreement or agreements covering the transfer of the operation of the residence and the classrooms at Blue Quills School to the Blue Quills Native Education Council.

My Staff will meet with your representatives to work out the details of this agreement which will provide the framework to overcome educational problems at Blue Quills. The agreements will be completed as soon as possible and will allow for the immediate transfer of operations upon signing. The end target date for the completion of these agreements will be January 1, 1971 for the residence and July 1, 1971 for the school. From now on and until the agreements are signed my staff will involve the Council in all significant decisions affecting both the residence and the school.

The Federal government will support the administration of both the residence and school financially at the budgetary level already determined for the 197O-71 fiscal year and my staff will consult with you regarding your proposed budget for the 1971-72 fiscal year. In addition, I will give immediate and serious considerations to the Council’s request for additional funds to hold board meetings and to cover training programs and legal services for the current year.

The contracts covering both the administration of the residence and the school will, of course, be subject to normal governmental approval and control.

I want to assure you that my department stands ready to provide you with all the assistance we can to ensure the success of this project. Signed: Jean Chretien”

This is the agreement that was made when we came back from Ottawa, the sit-in was over, the people went home and then we started hiring the staff.

Sask. Indian: Did you hire all the staff including teachers and supervisors and right down to the cleaning woman and cooks?

Mr. Redcrow: Yes, we hired everyone of them. We had permission to hire the teachers also. So we did. And also the other workers, too, we hired them all.

Sask. Indian: Did you make any changes as far as the curriculum went and the teaching of Indian Culture?

Mr. Redcrow: Yes we made a lot of changes. There was no Indian language taught at this school. Right away I told the people to start teaching the cree language, reading and writing and also different ways of doing things to improve the Indian situation that is say, making moccasins, and bead work and all kinds of things like that. They are doing that now and the children are very happy.

Sask. Indian: I understand you have a cree teacher here, Mrs. Roseanna Houle, from nearby Saddle Lake Reserve. Perhaps you can tell us a little bit about her class and how she teaches the children.

Mr. Redcrow: She started with the alphabets and it took her a little while before she could make the kids understand what she was trying to do but of course she’s talented to teach the cree language and she just goes ahead like a real teacher and she’s doing a very good job. Some of them didn’t even know how to speak Cree, their own language and now they are starting to learn their own language again by reading and writing and practising with the others.

Sask. Indian: How about financing? Were you able to start off with all the original equipment and with all the things that were left here before or did you have to buy new stuff and thereby put yourself deeply in debt?

Mr. Redcrow: we did not put ourselves deeply in debt but we had to start from scratch. Whatever was left here was old and we had to start buying things. Of course we had to try and get some money from Indian Affairs and we did get some money. We got about $50,000 to start with and that wasn’t very much because we had to buy what was needed: typewriters, sewing machines, and stoves and everything like that however, we managed to have a little money to buy these things and also to pay the people we hired. After that we made our own budget and it was approved. We got half of the budget we asked for. Of course we asked for a little bit more but they didn’t give us the amount we asked for but they gave us $141,000 to start with and that was only half. They gave us the other half at the end of the fiscal year 1970. This is the money that we are using right now. So I think we’ll have money to run the school for this year with that budget and we’ll get the other budget at the end of this fiscal year.

Sask. Indian: How about staff? One of the big reasons Indian Affairs says they can’t turn education over to Indian people is because they haven’t got qualified people. Did you have any problems finding qualified supervisors and other type of personnel in the school?

Mr. Redcrow: No we didn’t have any problems. We had some people helping us from the Indian Association and some other Indian people also who had the education and also we had one white man with us Mr. Roy Piepenburg and he’s one of them who helped us quite a bit towards education. We had no trouble. We picked out the ones we thought were the best ones and we still have these people working here and they’re very happy working with us. We also hired the teachers and fired them if we didn’t like them. If we did like the teachers, we gave them so many months of probation and if we didn’t like them, we’d fire them and get some other teachers that were suitable for the work.

Sask. Indian: Perhaps you can tell us a little bit about how Blue Quills School runs. How many students live here and how many come in from the outside and how many go into town for school.

Mr. Redcrow: There are supposed to be 112 students to stay here and we get about 90 of them every day and about 90 of them go back. We have 180 in this residence at the present time; 90 day scholars and 90 boarders. From here about 10 to 15 go to St. Paul; some of them in higher grades from grade 10 to 12.

Sask. Indian: In the past, I understood that all staff here were non Indian and that most of the goods and services were purchased from outside that is Edmonton. In what way have you been helping support the Reserve of Saddle Lake, which is the closest one, plus the people on other reserves nearby?

Mr. Redcrow: We have a Co-op store in Saddle Lake and we buy the meat from this store in order to support them a little bit and we buy about $1,000 worth of meat a month. Other reserves, we try to help them out as much as we can by hiring these people whenever there’s a vacancy sometimes we have to change people around like supervisors and some other people too, working here. What we do is send out notices to all the reserves and from there we screen them out and we hire the ones we think can do the work.

Sask. Indian: Perhaps we can just conclude this interview by asking what you see in the future for Blue Quills School and residential schools in general and also Indian people in their search for control of their own education.

Mr. Redcrow: The people at the school here, are doing a real good job. When we have meetings, we talk about a new school, a bigger school up to grade twelve. We would like to see more Indian people get further education. We would like to have some doctors, lawyers, nurses and all kinds of professional people and we hope to get that far but of course it will take a few years before we can do that but they’re coming up every year and finally I think we’ll have all Indians working in this school. Right now we have some white people, engineers and teachers. They are mostly white people and I think maybe the other reserves and other places would like to have control of their schools. It’s open to them because I think the Indian people are smart enough. I always said the Indian people are very smart and I think they can do the same as we did here and perhaps maybe the people in Canada are just watching to see how Blue Quills School is running and how it’s going to work, but I can say that it’s entirely up to the Indian people themselves where they belong in Canada. I think it’s open to them and I think they’re smart enough to do it too.

From Blue Quills’ Website:

Residential School Claims

contact information

(notes from Sharon Steinhauer, October 30, 2005, Blue Quills First Nations College 645-4455)

Currently there are two options available for people who want to pursue a claim against the federal government & the church that was operating the Residential School they attended. A third option has been proposed but not yet announced.

Option 1

The first option is a civil lawsuit and requires that you hire a lawyer and sue the government and church at your own expense. A lawyer may charge a fee or take a percentage (usually 30% to 40%) of the amount determined through the court. This process can be lengthy and adversarial (as our legal system is designed to be) and can re-victimize people without addressing their healing needs. Supports for healing are left to survivors to identify.

Option 2

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process is the federal government’s offer to facilitate an out-of-court resolution of claims of sexual and physical abuse. Additionally, they offer health services such as counselling and commemoration. Individuals complete an application form and have a hearing with representatives of the government and the church along with whoever else they would like to have attend as personal support for them. The process doesn’t require a lawyer but individuals have to secure legal advice prior to accepting the compensation and the government pays $600 for such legal fees. Locally, people can telephone Allan Beaver at 780-720-7119 to arrange an appointment. Allan has been seeing people quite regularly at the Boys & Girls Club in Saddle Lake (726-2178) and helps with the forms.

For more information about the ADR and Forms call 1-800-816-7293 or visit the website at

Proposed Option 3

The federal government is expected to announce a lump sum compensation package and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has recommended a basic rate of $10,000 to each residential school survivor, along with an additional payment of $3,000 for each year they attended school. (example: someone who attended residential school for 8 years would receive $34,000) It is expected that survivors can apply to both Options 2 (ADR) & 3 (Lump Sum Compensation). The proposed Option 3 does not require a lawyer.

For more information, you can contact the following:

Assembly of First Nations
1-866-869-6789 extension 332 or www.afn.ca

National Residential School Survivors Society (and related links)
1-866-575-0006 – www.nrsss.auc.ca

National Survivor Support Line
1-866-925-4419 (24 hrs a day/7 days a week)

Emily Delver [b. 1959; grad. 1976, 6 years after Indians protested the Department of Indian Affairs' attempt to close her school]:

“I went to Blue Quill Residential School for 12 years. Six of those years were after the nuns and priests were removed but not a lot changed for the first 3 years. It was still like being imprisoned.
…
What has affected me and my family the most are the losses; loss of identity, loss of culture, loss of parents, loss of values, loss of the ability to raise a family.
…
You can’t stop the priest from dragging your child away, you risk being incarcerated if you do anything. And as a mother with other children at home you can’t afford to be incarcerated. And when your child comes home during the holidays and they tell you that the very priest who tore your child out of your arms sexually molested your innocent child, what do you do? How do you fight back? My mother gave up utterly to the bottle because it was her only solace. It blocked out the pain, the loss of self worth, the loss of her child’s innocence and it haunted her to the end of her days. My mother has been gone for 30 years now and not a day goes by that I don’t feel her pain and mine. Residential school severed the bond between her and I.
…
When Ms. O’Neill [a journalist] is dust in the ground Canada will still have a shameful past, the genocide of our people will still have happened. And the best part is we survived, no matter what we survived to bear witness of the atrocities to our people. What Ms. O’Neill feels is shame because ignorant people like her are why people like us went through what we did.”

I hope that Ms Delver was properly compensated for every year she attended the school run by her own people! Ms Delver was born 5 years after an alternative school was built at Cold Lake Indian Reserve. (Also built by “evil” Christians.)

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS: CANADA’S SHAME:

“Government and Church organizations, including the St. Paul Diocese, are facing up to $195 million in damages in lawsuits filed on behalf of 230 former Native students of the Blue Quills Residential School.

The suit also names the Oblates, the Grey Nuns, the Attorney General of Canada and the Roman Catholic Church as defendants. It alleges that the Native people suffered abuse and, “brutal, inhumane and cruel treatment” while they were students at the school in St. Paul.

Native Fat Cats get Fatter
by Gilbert Oskaboose

Mainline newspapers are beginning to say exactly what I said two years ago about native fat cats growing fatter on the Aboriginal Healing Foundation funds – while real survivors of residential schools don’t get a lousy penny for their pain and humiliation! Is there an echo in here?

Check it out for yourself at www.firstnations.com The titles of the articles are “Surviving the Cure” written December 13, 1998 and “Money…I wants more Money” written July 21, 1999. See for yourself.

I wrote about native fat cats who had never set foot in a residential school jumping into the fray and grabbing off all the cushy jobs and fat honorariums with the Foundation and feathering their own nests first. This is exactly what has happened.

Of the $3.6 million spent last year by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (OHF) , most went towards honoraria, salaries and travel. Mike Degagne, the executive director of the OHF was paid $141,692 in salary. Documents obtained by the Hamilton Spectator show the 17 volunteer board members each receive an honorarium of $2,000 per year, for which they are required to attend at least two of four scheduled meetings. If they cannot attend the meetings, the members can still claim the honoraria by attending a “public relations event.” But if they do make it to one of the three day board meetings they are each given $500 for each day they attend. One such meeting that was held in Vancouver in December 1998 cost the Foundation $426,964, not including honoraria, the documents show. In addition, each board member is permitted to claim $75 per day in living expenses while working on Foundation business. And if they participate in a conference call that lasts less than 2.5 hours they are given $250 When those calls go over 2.5 hours they are paid $500 dollars. In total the Foundation paid its board members $787,066 for honoraria and travel in the 1998-99 fiscal year, not counting the money they were given to help with programs.

In my articles written a few years ago I said the proposal forms were vague and unreadable even to an English major. Native communities would have an impossible job putting together acceptable proposals. Guess what! The Foundation spent an additional $3.2 million on a special three person department that “provided assistance writing the applications ( read translating bureaucratic gobblety gook.” You can bet your bottom dollar that there were no residential school survivors in that little department either.

How many bucks will go towards honoraria, travel, wages and expenses in the 1999-2000 fiscal year? Aboriginal Healing Foundation staff has increased considerably since 1998 and now numbers around 60 fat cats. Figures are due to be released next month. You figure it out for yourself.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I have yet to hear of a single residential school survivor who has been helped in any way, shape or form – by any $350 million dollars allegedly turned over by the Canadian government to help victims of abuse who survived native residential schools.

Leona Makokis, president of the Blue Quills First Nations College in Alberta, told the Edmonton Journal that “for me, it’s (the OHF) has been the creation of a bureaucracy as bad as the federal Department of Indian Affairs ever was.”

---

Gilbert Oskaboose is a retired Ojibway journalist from the Serpent River First Nation in Northern Ontario

The Woman Behind Fontaine’s Leadership Win Also Paid By The AFN

Sue Bailey, CP, July 13, 2006

Commentary by Paul Fromm precedes article:

Dear Canada First Supporter:

Phil Fontaine won re-election as for a third term as Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations because he’d delivered a $4-billion pot of taxpayers’ money in the form of compensation for all Indians who attended residential schools. There will also be more millions doled out for healing sessions and guiltmongering propaganda. An ad in the Globe and Mail (June 24, 2006) explains that for “the 80,000 living Aboriginal people who are former students of the residential school system” the plan offers payments of “$10,000 for the first school year (or part of a school year) plus $3,000 for each school year (or part of a school year).”

Indians will be given money as compensation for having been educated at taxpayers’ expense at residential schools. The residential schools gathered Indian children from far flung reserves and tried to teach them English, reading, writing, math and other rudimentary skills to allow them to participate in Canadian society. The programme began in the 1880s was an effort by the Dominion Government to try to integrate a Stone Age people into a modern society. Critics complain that the schools denigrated Indian culture. However, what was the government to do? Ignore the Indians, leave them ignorant and unschooled on their reservations?

Now, the taxpayer is being hit twice for educating Indians.

Usually Fontaine is a bit of a media hound, but he doesn’t have too much to say about the woman who negotiated this mugging of the Canadian taxpayers.

But Fontaine was mum when repeatedly asked through his staff to talk about Kathleen Mahoney, a University of Calgary human rights lawyer, AFN negotiator and adviser.Fontaine and Mahoney have been a couple, sharing homes and vacations, for much of the last decade. Their personal connection isn’t much of a secret in native and legal circles, but is less widely known outside them.

It would be irrelevant but for the millions of dollars in public funding that sustain the AFN, critics say.

They have raised questions about the optics of Mahoney’s AFN work, given her close connection to Fontaine.

Mahoney, who has been lauded for promoting equity, is alternately described in recent assembly documents as its lead negotiator or adviser in federal talks on residential schools.”

The Assembly of First Nations took in about $29 million in federal cash—ninety-five per cent of its total funding—in the last fiscal year, an official confirmed. (Canadian Press, July 18, 2006)

Amazingly, Canada’s 1-million plus Indians contribute virtually nothing to their own lobby group. The taxpayer gets slammed twice: he essentially funds the Indian lobby and then has to pay the shot for what they shake down from the government.

Bill Wilson, who also ran for the AFN leadership, said:

“I just think if it’s not a conflict of interest, it certainly is an appearance of favouritism—which I’m absolutely opposed to.”Tanis Fiss, spokeswoman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says the assembly and similar lobby groups should be more open to scrutiny.

“They’re accountable to no one, essentially, even though they receive bucketloads of tax money.”

…

Mahoney may be the best qualified person for the work she does for AFN, Fiss said. Trouble is, there’s no required public process to answer related questions when they arise.

“We’d certainly hope that any organization which is the recipient of large sums of tax dollars each year would have open tendering processes.

“If things are done with a lack of accountability and transparency, red flags go up. What are you hiding?

“The best way to dispel any of those possible myths is to open it up to scrutiny.”

But the assembly is not subject to federal regulations that are meant to keep other political leaders in check.

Duff Conacher, co-ordinator of Democracy Watch, notes that federal cabinet rules bar ministers from hiring family members and significant others, or those of other ministers.

Former Defence Minister Art Eggleton was fired from cabinet in 2002 for giving a $36,000 research contract to a former girlfriend.”

Paul Fromm
Director
CANADA FIRST

———————————————————————————————-

The Woman Behind Fontaine’s Leadership Win Also Paid By The AFN
Sue Bailey, CP, July 13, 2006

Ottawa—Phil Fontaine staked his third successful bid to lead the Assembly of First Nations on a landmark deal for residential school survivors – a deal won with help from a paid AFN adviser who’s also known as his longtime companion.

Fontaine made the $2-billion lump-sum settlement a centrepiece of his campaign. He rode that triumph to a decisive victory Wednesday, winning another three-year term. But Fontaine was mum when repeatedly asked through his staff to talk about Kathleen Mahoney, a University of Calgary human rights lawyer, AFN negotiator and adviser.

Fontaine and Mahoney have been a couple, sharing homes and vacations, for much of the last decade. Their personal connection isn’t much of a secret in native and legal circles, but is less widely known outside them.

It would be irrelevant but for the millions of dollars in public funding that sustain the AFN, critics say.

They have raised questions about the optics of Mahoney’s AFN work, given her close connection to Fontaine.

Mahoney, who has been lauded for promoting equity, is alternately described in recent assembly documents as its lead negotiator or adviser in federal talks on residential schools.

She also helped craft a key related report for the AFN in 2004 calling for lump-sum payments and healing programs. Both measures were ultimately included in the recent settlement with Ottawa. Its value is expected to reach $4 billion when all cases are resolved.

The Canadian Press made several requests to the AFN in recent months for clarification on whether Mahoney was paid for her work and whether she competed for related contracts.

This week, AFN chief executive officer Richard Jock offered this response:

“Like many organizations, the Assembly of First Nations does not use a competitive bidding process for legal advice,” he said in a written statement.

“We seek out and identify the best possible firms based on the issue or case involved.”

Jock confirmed through a spokesman that Mahoney’s firm has received AFN payments.

When reached by phone in Vancouver, where Fontaine was re-elected, Mahoney declined to discuss her work for the assembly.

“I have no instructions from my client to talk to anybody about our relationship,” she said.

In a brief interview, Mahoney did not deny that she and Fontaine are a couple but declined to discuss the matter.

Bill Wilson, the B.C. consultant who unsuccessfully challenged Fontaine for the leadership, didn’t want to talk about the situation in detail.

“It would sound like sour grapes,” he said Thursday. “They clearly are a partnership and more power to them.”

However, Wilson said if he were in Fontaine’s position, he would not want his “spouse, wife or girlfriend” hired by the AFN.

“I do know that she has profited considerably from it, but she is a qualified lawyer and I’m sure the services she provided were top of the line.

“I just think if it’s not a conflict of interest, it certainly is an appearance of favouritism – which I’m absolutely opposed to.”

Tanis Fiss, spokeswoman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says the assembly and similar lobby groups should be more open to scrutiny.

“They’re accountable to no one, essentially, even though they receive bucketloads of tax money.”

APOLOGIES NOT ACCEPTED

Canada Confesses To Part of Its Crimes Against First Nations People

CANADA CONFESSES PART OF ITS CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY –THERE HAS FINALLY BEEN AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY FOR ‘MURDER”, RAPE…

MNN. June 11, 2008….SODOMY, PEDOPHILIA, GERM WARFARE, STERILIZATION, MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS AND WHO KNOWS MAYBE EVEN NECROPHILIA OF INDIGENOUS CHILDREN IN ORDER TO “STEAL” OUR LAND AND RESOURCES.

This is a start.
…
Our people were kidnapped and held hostage for three to four generations. Genocide is taking children away and killing them. It was only a small part of a bigger story of “gangsterism” and greed. Don’t be fooled! That evil program is still in full swing. Canada has no intention to stop.
…
Canada practically admitted to “murder” and theft in the first degree.
…
Every Canadian benefited from these crimes against humanity. … The perpetrators of these heinous crime have to be prosecuted in the international courts.
…
Our future is tied to the Kaianereh’ko:wa, the law of Onowaregeh, Turtle Island. We cannot “bury the hatchet”! Planned murders of our children by the church and state cannot be pardoned anywhere. Canada broke international law to which they are bound.
…
The program to murder school children and to put them in unmarked graves was not random. All the churches , Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and United, stepped up to the plate to do dirty deeds for the state. It was part of the “pogram” to remove us completely to claim Onowaregeh, Turtle Island.
…
Every single piece of Turtle Island, our resources and possessions must be returned to us so we can regnerate the natural beauty and health of Turtle Island.
…
Canada stage managed this performance. It was sickening to see colonial lap dog Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations accept Harper’s apology on our behalf. It was a pre-written script probably by government spinners. We were never asked if we wanted him to accept this apology or to even accept it. The supporting remarks were made by the heads of colonially funded “puppy dog” organizations that jump to their “master’s” commands.
…
The Queen and all the other “carpet baggers” who head the corporate criminal organizations that murder, rape and pillage us and our possessions should now be prosecuted in the international court for their crimes.

Our parents were threatened with imprisonment if they did not release their children to the control of the church and state. How long does it take to forget what our children saw – other children being murdered and even being forced to help bury them. They were deliberately given contagious diseases from which many died. There was out-and-out murder of over 50,000 at the hands of teachers, priests, nuns and staff. Our children were used in experiments by German doctors in the 1930’s and then disposed of. The children were threatened to never tell anyone about it.

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Tags: Corruption, Historical Revisionism, Phony Apology Scam Syndrome, Propaganda, Victimology