Canadian aboriginals target 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

^Canada's establishment of Nunavut a few years ago - an entire province basically run for and by Native peoples - provides a nice contrast to Chinese 19th centrury style imperialist occupation and repression in Tibet

Hey China - it's 2008, not 1848.

 

Can you imagine if the US was hosting the Olympics?

 

Well as a Canadian I'm somewhat informed on these matters. The Aboriginals do, for the most part, live in poverty. Their reserves are shoddy, and recent reports came out about a police station in a reserve that had no running water, electricity or sewage system. Detainees had to piss and crap in a bucket. Aboriginals also occupy the jails, percentage-wise, at a much higher rate that other races. There's also always issues over land claims and such. Research for example, Caledonia, and you'll get a lot more hint.

SamFisher, I don't think this thread was started to say that Canada's treatment of Aboriginals is on the same level as China's treatment of Tibet, rather that no matter the country and no matter its image, there's always a certain group that feels like it has been treated poorly. These Aboriginals just didn't kill any white man in sight, that's all.

 

I dont get it... why even reply to SamFisher's posts when its ovbious that hes trying to get u guys mad? i bet hes literally LOLing in front of his computer screen now

 

Hey, that is good for preserving their way of life! If you develop their land, improve their living standard and integrate them into mainstream society, you will destroy their their heritage!

 

screw them! dammit it pissed me hard enough have these incompetent native at our high school, where they get FREE FOOD/Lunch/Education and lack of respect for school property/teachers as if they deserve all those special treatment, which imo should be allocated for student that actually give a damn about education.

And the things about poverty, if you actually go find a job and willing to work, you won't need to worry. There is really no excuse, especially if you know how to speak English. If working 40 hours a week can support yourself or family, then work 80 hours, or 100 hours, just like Chinese immigrant here.

 

Hi Sam "Borg" Fisher, your post and stance in every China thread is so predictable that you are more a borg than everyone else. It's clear that you do not have independent thinking in any individual topic. All your so-called opinions and replies are like auto-response by a program. You should stop being a borg and join us in the free world in which we can enjoy independent thinking.

 

As a Canadian who may have a bit more grasp on the issue at hand then the average internet citizen, I do feel that I have to set a few things straight.

1) The Canadian Gouvernment has apologized and made steps towards reconcilliation with the Native people.

Canada apologizes to Natives

While some may argue these efforts are insufficient and forced by such embarassing incidents as the Oka Crisis , if one were to compare it to say China's "Tibet problem" (which is the obvious intent of this thread poster), then you can easily see how Canada is clearly on the road of good intentions while China hasn't even taken the first step.

2) The media. I don't even feel like sourcing this, since we can all take it as common fact that Chinese media is heavily censored while Canadian media is somewhat biased, but more or less free. (Chinese friends, please type in Tiananmen Square and play Where's Waldo with the man who stood before the tanks. If you get dragged off by the secret police for reading this or attempting that, don't blame me...blame your gouvernment.)

3. Canada has one of the better human rights records in the world. China has one of the worst. Canada is renowned for a free (albeit crappy) medicare system, workers' rights to unionize, good pay and good work hours as well as a tempest of free speech and expression. China is renowned for well...yeah.

Seriously, there are many differences between the two cases. It's not exactly tit for tat here. For one thing, if the natives want to express thier disgust over poverty they won't get censored, attacked by nationalist hooligans with gouvernment consent and ridiculed on national media. There are many differences that will differentiate what will happen in the 2008 Olys and those in 2010...I've just really gnawed at the surface.

 

But are they just paying lip service or are there definitely concrete steps? Personally, I'm surprised that this is the case in Canada, which I'm surprised even let things gotten this far out of hand.

If you type "Tiananmen Square" in google.cn, while in Beijing, probably the most heavily censored city in China due to it being the capital, the very first link that shows up is the regarding the Tiananmen Square incident.

The whole myopic view of the Chinese censorship in an Orwell-esque manner is just so hilarious every time I read it.

If anything, internet in China is TOO FREE, and really lacks regulation. And things can really get out of control. Rockets fans should be familiar wiht this, seeing how many BS sina articles used to get posted here. Lack of regulation is what makes Chinese internet news so annoying to me, the same way local news in the US(murder, bank robbery, cash prize giveaway) made me never want to watch them.

I agree to a certain extent.

I think the better parallel here may be that people will start looking at Tibet's success, and start using Olympics even more as a political tool than even now. That might be the bigger problem.

 

Someone posted a torch run related news because the torch run is such a hot topic lately. But then you got all worked up and immediately make it like a publicity war between China and Canada ... you are such a overly sensitive soul.

Also, your "I am a more humane wife beater than you are" mentality is so silly. Does it make you feel less guilty about yourself with the native people since Canada has a better human right record than China? If not, why have you taken the time to write an essay to do the comparison? What does China have to do with Canada's problem with her own native people there anyway?

 

As a Canadian, can you comment on the perceived stealing and bamboozling of First Nations lands in the past couple decades to secure the 'Oil Tar Sands' fields in Alberta and now more recently Saskatchewan...

I've read/heard some about the deep bitterness in the Native American communities there regarding this....

 

I assume you meant to say Native Canadian communities instead of Native American communities? Do you work in the oil and gas industry? I haven’t heard about this specific issue but you’re right that Saskatchewan looks like it’s going to become a new player in the oil sands game. That’s the Quest find, right? I’m not in the oil industry and I haven’t been keeping tabs such issues as closely for a while, but in general terms First Nations reserves can negotiate with outside parties for access to their lands, or to do some kinds of land swaps, or to make various other arrangements. I’m not sure what specific deals you’re talking about but you’d have to look at them on a case by case basis to determine what the issue is. It’s likely to be an issue with a specific deal and not a widespread, systematic, kind of problem.

Meh:
The issue in Canada is more one of correcting historical wrongs than one caused by “letting things get out of hand.” Here is a timeline of the residential schools issue, which was one of the bigger ones.
http://www.afn.ca/residentialschools/history.html

I have a lot of respect for Phil Fontaine. What he’s trying to do is to apply pressure to get some outstanding issues dealt with. Our current federal government is the least First Nations friendly government we’ve had in a long time and Fontaine is doing what he needs to do to wake them up and get some action out of them.

 

Is there a Canadian that couldn't find a high paying job in the Ft. Mc Henry area if they wanted one?

Is there any prohibition against Canadian Aboriginals doing that?

Can they not vote, run for office, assemble and protest freely?

Canada is the frozen promised land right now, you'd have to be a mental gimp not to figure out a way to live above the world average.

 

The Difference between Canadian protest and Tibet protest...

Nobody will be shot... i.e. Nepal