Our Own Mandela

Let me start by offering you a quote from Ghandi: Be the Change you Wish to See in the World. In other words, if you want to see something different, make it happen. Even if you don't have the resources to do it, don't wait for someone else to do it, the least you can do is get the ball rolling on your vision and other people can build on your foundation. The source of this blog has come from my many ponderings about Aboriginal people in Canada. And by Aboriginal (notice the capital A?) I mean First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people. The Aboriginal people are, for the most part, seperated. There has been no united uprising to assert our rights over the land that took care of us so many decades ago. We're just letting things happen as if we have no say in the matter. Let me tell you: We Do. There has been no united uprising to abolish the Indian Act or the need for status cards. Canada is the only country that has these types of documents for their Indigenous people. Side note: Did you know that the word Indigenous means "naturally occurring"?

As much as I'd like to see such documents gone, such an event would mean that our treaty rights would also be lost. No more medicine chest, no more education, no more five dollars a year, no more reservations. Essentially, the Government of Canada would no longer be holding our hand. As a person who is accessing these rights, it would be difficult to adjust to living a life without these freedoms. Having to pay for antibiotics alone would be hard to do as a student living on a student income. My education would also be paid out of my own pocket but these past couple years I did not meet the criteria for funding from my band and had to take out a student loan anyway. Let me tell you that it's not such a bad thing to have to pay  for your own education! It feels better, actually.

Abolishing the Indian Act and our Status Cards means that the Government of Canada is no longer looking down at us as an inferior people. John A. Macdonald, the dude on our ten dollar bill, was a wannabe lawyer and our very first Prime Minister. In a redirection, I'll tell you that I am the product of the British Columbia government. At an early age I had become a ward of the court and it was the responsibility of the BC Government to see that all my needs were met. I was placed in foster care. Well, my needs were not met, being in foster care was the worst thing that could have been done to me. I grew up not knowing my family, my people's language, xaad kil, not really having any long term friends, and having issues against Religion. Going back to J.A Macdonald, he was a key player in introducing the Indian Act back in 1876. The Indian Act's service was to direct the government on how to deal with Indians. Basically it put us as wards of the court.

A Summary of the Indian Act of 1876
Articles 1-2 states the name of the Article as the Indian Act and which Minister is responsible for Indian Affairs.
Article 3 defines the label "Indian" as "any male person of Indian blood reputed to belong to a particular band, any child of such person, and any woman who is or was lawfully married to such person".
Articles 4-10 deals with administration of reserve land.
Articles 11-20 deals with how reserve lands are protected from outsiders, as well the government's right to natural resources on reserve land. That being, the Indians own anything under the surface down one spade's length deep.
Articles 21-2 determines what to do in the event of any reserve splitting up.
Articles 23-4 has the Indians responsible for the roads on reserve land.
Articles 25-30 are consequences for illegal attainment of reserve land, the sale of Alcohol, and the removal of resources.
Articles 31-69 deals with the sale of Indian lands.
Articles 74-8 deals with the swearing in of non-Christian Indians in Court matters.
Articles 79-85 deals with substance abuse on reserve land. And the final articles deal with legal clauses regarding the use of affidavits and other documentary evidence used under the Act.

Which brings me to the title of this blog: "Our Own Mandela"
We need our own, Aboriginal, Nelson Mandela. If you don't know who Mr. Mandela is you've been living under a rock. Mr. Mandela was responsible for abolishing Apartheid in South Africa. South Africans fell under Apartheid which was like our Indian Act: a way of dealing with Indigenous South Africans introduced by the National Party Government of South Africa in the 40's and was upheld until the mid-90's. Basically, Apartheid asserted White rule over non-white people. In 1994 the African National Congress won the first democratic election held in South Africa in decades. Their leader was Nelson Mandela. Mr. Mandela's sacrifices for his people were many and started at an early age. He was punished for treason and jailed on Robben's Island for several decades. For all of his sacrifices, his people were united on voting day. 20'000'000 people voted on April 27th 1994. Twenty Million. 12'510'000 people voted for Nelson Mandela. Mr. Mandela is a great man who did more than his share for his people, he is one of my true hero's and I would love the opportunity to meet him. Even imagining me meeting him right now is bringing tears to my eyes. The Jungle Book song comes to mind and I wonder if I would sing it to him if I ever get to meet him: You see it's true! I wanna be just like you!

Aboriginal people do not have a Nelson Mandela. Mr. Mandela used politics to unites his people but we have not been primed to appreciate politics as it has been used to assimilate our people where we had to forfeit our status cards and treaty rights if we wanted to vote. So I am left with wondering what it will take to unite our people all across Canada, can we put our indifference on politics aside and really take it to hand in the political arena? Can we cast aside our crabs in the bucket policy and let some of our strong, Aboriginal leaders lead us? Can we really put down the bottles and pipes and our dependency on government handouts to take our lives into our own hands? I should think so!

peaceful chaos

Life is simple from up here; its quiet and calm allows time to slow down. The screen embedded in the seat in front of me says we are travelling at just about 600 miles per hour. I look out the small, oval window and my senses tell me otherwise. It’s like we’re timelessly suspended between heaven and earth. Only the airy drone of the fuselage cutting through the atmosphere keeps us company. The constant, indiscernible chatter of the other passengers, and the smiling flight attendants are the only reminders that time really exists.

On the ground, life is accelerated. Honking, concrete, lights telling you what to do, it all blends together like a smear of charcoal on an artist’s canvas. Always only fifteen minutes to get here, ten minutes to get there, late for that meeting. It’s frustrating waking up one day only to find out ten years has gone by in a blink. The trick is to be fast yet slow like the wind outside the small, oval window: blowing at hundreds of kilometers an hour, yet peaceful and calm.

A Political Definition

It occurred to me during one of my many ponderings that politics is really very boring. Never one to have a thought and not follow through with it, I began to think of why politics are boring. Politics, after all, touch every single Canadian and should be something that all Canadians are interested in. A Housing or employment Bill brought through the legislature can affect whether you can afford the next house, or even end up homeless, or take you off the street and into your first home in 10 years. Taxes rise more often than they fall, but it’s the government that decides the trajectory and velocity of taxes. No one can escape the grasp of the government whether that government is your town, province, or country. I find things boring if I don’t understand them, so in my pondering I concluded that politics are boring to youth because we don’t understand them! I lay no claim to fully understanding them myself, but I do pay attention to how governments are run. We’ll start with the basics.

Municipal Government-These are the people who run the city or town you live in. They consist of the Mayor and his councilors. The Councilors represent a different area of your city. Elections are typically held every three years and decide who the next Mayor, councilors, and trustees are. Trustees are people who are on the school board and make decisions on school related stuff.

Provincial Government-These are the people who run your province. Provincial elections occur about every 4-5 years, the head honcho is the premier. Ours, at the moment, is Ed Stelmach. Below the premier are the MLA’s, or Members of the Legistlative Assembly who represent a section of the province.

Federal Government-These people run the country, they decide pretty much everything. They are so large that they have departments that they appoint control over (e.i the Department of Oceans and Fisheries deal with, well, oceans and fisheries). They decide how much funding each Province receives and even whether we go to war, or whatever the Canadian equivalent to war is.

Democracy-Canada is a democracy. We are free to choose whom we appoint to the three levels of government, the process of us choosing our government is called voting. Voting is usually held within 10 or so blocks of where we live at a school or community hall. We have to be 18 or older to vote.

Voting-This is something that all Canadians, over the age of 18, have the right to do. It is a powerful way to show the government who we want to represent us, to be our advocates when it comes to decide the direction our country will go. We vote for MP’s, or Members of Parliament. Each MP belongs to a political party, such as the Tories (Conservatives), Liberal, New Democratic Party, the Green Party and so on. The important thing is that we mark the ballot with an X, and an X only.

What determines which party is in power you ask?

The House of Commons is where all the politicians banter to each other. The power of a political party lies in the House of Commons and how many seats each party holds. There are 308 seats in the House of Commons, one seat per riding in Canada so the more seats a party gains control of, the more power that party has to make decisions “for the people”.

Minority Governments occur when a single party is elected to 154 seats or less. They can’t make decisions without the consent of the rest of the seat’s approval but it’s the minority government that is in charge. Canada, for the last couple of elections, has had a minority government headed by the Conservatives. Minority governments must work hard to maintain their power lest they lose confidence of the rest of the leaders. In that case, the minority government loses control and another election is held. The minority party is still in power, but they are at threat of losing that power pending the election.

Majority Governments occur when a single party is elected to more than half the seats of the House. They are free to pass legislations and are better able to hold the confidence of the rest of the leaders than a minority government.

Opposition party is a term that describes the political party that not in power but is still elected to the House. Their role is to oppose government in power, criticize their decisions, offer alternative methods, and to inform us of what is happening in government.

Coalition Governments occur when there is a minority government that loses confidence of their peers. The opposition party’s band together to form one party and threaten to take power. Often, when a minority government is in place, their opposition has the potential to be a majority government if they were one party.

The Major Political Parties of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada headed by Stephan Harper is currently in power but has lost confidence of their peers. http://www.conservative.ca/party/founding_principles/

The Liberal Party of Canada is headed by Michael Ignatieff and is the official opposition party and are vying to be elected back into power in the upcoming election. http://www.liberal.ca/party/history/

The New Democratic Party is headed by Jack Layton and is the official opposition part and are vying to be elected into power in the upcoming election. http://www.ndp.ca/

The Bloc Quebecois is headed by Gilles Duceppe and is the official opposition party and are vying to be elected to power in the upcoming election. http://www.blocquebecois.org/accueil.aspx

There are many other political parties that hope to make it into parliament but are not represented on the ballot come election day. These include, in alphabetical order, Animal Alliance Environmental Voters Party of Canada, Canadian Action Party, Christian Heritage Party of Canada, Communist Party of Canada, First Peoples National Party of Canada, Green Party of Canada, Libertarian Party of Canada,  Marijuana Party, Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, People’s Political Power Party of Canada, Pirate Party of Canada, Progressive Canadian Party, Rhinoceros Party, United Party of Canada, and the Western Block Party. For more information on any of these parties, go to http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=pol&dir=par&document=index&lang=e

So I hope that politics are a little less confusing with this blog, and I hope to see you all at the polls on MAY 2^nd 2011!

A sort-of blog, but not really

Here is the two page essay I wrote for Philosophy called "I am not a Worthless Peon":

Capitalism. My society is based on it. The government claims that there is no class system in Canada, but our class system is the most salient aspect of our society; especially for those of us in the lower classes. Sociologists describe my society as a pyramid, with a small percentage of people, the ones with the most money, property, and prestige, at the top. These are the executives, the Chief Executive Officers of the major banks and oil companies. And, for some odd reason, the ones who get the most tax breaks from the government are found at the top of the pyramid.

Mid-way down we find the middle class, these are the people who are not executives, but are managers, business owners, and entrepreneurs. Not as many tax breaks, but a lot of other freedoms such as yearly vacations, hefty retirement packages, and annual raises.

Then, at the very bottom of the money pile, we have the lower class. Some people refer to these people as crabs in a bucket, when one crab is just about to escape the confines of the glass ceiling; all the other crabs pull them back into the fray. Those of us in the lower class are forced to feed off whatever money trickles through the crack in the ceiling, or floor however you want to look at it. Among us are welfare recipients, laborers, admin assistants, office workers stuck in a cubicle, and post secondary students!

And just to make some feel better, a class in the upper echelons of the lower class was formed; in which, teachers, small business owners, and blue-collar workers are all vying for that little kick that would push them through the glass ceiling and into middle class society. I am on the bottom of the pile. A crab forced to survive off what little makes its way to my microcosm after being filtered through the rest of the food chain. But I am not a victim of circumstance; my position in society is not my fate. As a post secondary student I feel I have the wits to dodge the pincers of those crabs around me, and I have the strength to break the glass that hangs over head to truly be free from the life I’ve lived for, well, my whole life. I took it upon myself to take the necessary steps to make a better life for my family and me. There wasn’t anyone who pushed me to do it. I was proactive. After all, the last thing those in the upper classes want to see is a crab tarnishing their Alpaca covered floor!

And now that I stand on the cusp of breaking free from my previous life, and exploding onto the scene of my newly convocated life, I have been charged with proving that I am not a worthless peon, a drone meant only to make the rich richer, and the powerful more powerful. I am not a worthless peon who’s destiny it is to only enrich other people’s lives. As a post-secondary student, my peers and I are not leaving it up to others to determine the trajectory of our lives. We have a target and we’re aiming for it. One aspect that you might argue is that most of us, myself included, are living off student loans which come from the government, and, therefore, is still crab food. To that I say we pay it back. Every single penny, or soon to be nickel (they are considering abolishing the penny because it takes more than a penny to make a penny), plus more, will be given back. Restorative justice. We give it back because it wouldn’t be fair to all the other crabs who take their lives into their own pincers. In short, I am not a worthless peon because I am proactive.