Private property for natives
According to media reports this week, the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) is undertaking a project to review best practices on the nation’s Indian reserves. Officials made a list of Canada’s 65 most economically successful aboriginal communities and is sending a senior official to meet with 33 chiefs. The goal is to uncover the secret to the reserves’ success, and use this knowledge to help struggling communities.
A good idea? Not according to some aboriginal leaders. Apparently, one of the key ways native communities have overcome poverty is through profitable management of on-reserve projects such as resorts, industrial parks and condominium developments. Some chiefs claim that the DIAND study constitutes a covert attempt to multiply such successes by introducing the concept of private property ownership throughout aboriginal lands.
We can only hope such “fears” will be fully realized.
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In B.C., there’s something almost sacred about salmon. So when the salmon runs started to dwindle, the blame game began in earnest. The disastrous decline in salmon stocks has been blamed on everything from misguided first nations’ fishing policy to global warming, pollution and habitat loss – to say nothing of mismanagement by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. But the biggest villain is fish farms. Many people believe the fish farms are responsible for spreading deadly sea lice and disease to wild fish. Three years ago, activists warned that B.C.’s population of pink salmon would be virtually wiped out if the infestations continued.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a parliamentary delegation from one of the newly independent Baltic states visited Ottawa to observe Canada’s democratic institutions in action. As is common for such groups, they were ushered into Question Period, Parliament’s most extensively covered activity. Shocked at the spectacle, they cringed. Is this how political debate is conducted in a leading democratic state, a country to which many emerging democracies look in modelling their own institutions? But one member of the delegation, an actor, chuckled at what he saw. He had quickly realized that a theatrical performance, albeit amateurishly executed, was on display. Many Canadians see Question Period the same way.
Here’s a warning for bogus Tamil refugees made by the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, just before she called an election last month:
Now that the sweet days of summer are becoming shorter, and our politicians are beginning to sound the themes with which they will torment us through the Fall, it’s almost charming that right at the top of the list is our old friend the long-gun registry. Vampire? Energizer Bunny? Terminator? It’s difficult to pick the apposite metaphor for the gun control issue. Its one undeniable quality, perhaps its political essence so to speak, is that it never quite goes away.
A familiar face on Canada’s political scene is calling for a new approach to politics in this country.



Male, retired and the rest is of little interest to anyone. The site keeps me busy and if it helps others to stay abreast of daily events then my time is well spent.