The NDP Forces a Debate on Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women

I couldn't have asked for a better sight to pick up my sagging spirits.

In Stephen Harper's miserable Parliament, where democracy goes to die. Where there is all the time in the world to talk about war, but no time to talk about all those murdered and missing aboriginal women.

And absolutely no time or money for an inquiry into why that happened, why it keeps happening, again, and again, and again. 

And what can we do to stop this MASSACRE...



There was the wonderful sight of the NDP outsmarting the Cons and forcing a debate on the issue.  

The growing call for a full federal inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women got an unexpected boost after the New Democrats took advantage of the typically sparse end-of-week turnout in the House to seize control of the parliamentary agenda.

And the magnificent sight of Romeo Saganash pleading for an inquiry... 



Reminding us that Stephen Harper once had the monstrous gall to tell a G20 audience that Canada had no history of colonialism.

And telling this heartbreaking story:

Let me tell a story about a little boy named Jonish, who was sent to a residential school in 1954. He was five years old. He never came back. Apparently, he died the first year he arrived at the residential school. His mom never knew, until after two years, of his death. 

His mom, my mom, for 40 years never knew where Jonish was buried. It is only by coincidence, one day, that one of my sisters happened to be in the area, and someone told her "I know where your little brother is buried." After 40 years, my sister filmed the site where he was buried and brought the film back to my mom to show her. 

Just imagine, it was 40 years until she found out where my little brother laid. I do not know if any of the members have seen their mother cry, but I saw my mother cry many times, but the day she saw that video — I had never seen her cry that way. That was closure. That is what we call closure. That is the closest she could get to final closure for her son.

This is what indigenous families in this country need. That is what they want. That is why they are calling for this national inquiry.

Which sums up for me the experience of so many of our First Nation's people. And the callous cruelty of colonialism...



You know, I've heard a lot of decent, well intentioned Canadians say that an inquiry would be a waste of time and money. That we all KNOW the problem and we should just do more to fix it.

But here's what I think, as a boy who arrived in Canada all excited about meeting a REAL indian. After playing them all the time in the cowboy games of my childhood.

Because I admired them from afar, and when I thought of Canada I thought of THEM. 

And bears.

Only to discover that sadly there were no bears on Mount Royal, and that even more sadly many of the REAL indians in Montreal were some of those homeless men lying on the sidewalks in the city's east end. Which shattered my illusions.

But never dented my admiration for them, their awesome history, their amazing legends and stories, and the way they fight to protect our beautiful land from those who would rape it in the name of ghastly greed.

Which is why this blog proudly wears this feather...



As a symbol of support and RESPECT.

And to remind me of this great movement....



That great peaceful uprising that moved me beyond belief, just like the one in Scotland did.

And what I think is that most Canadians do NOT know enough about the problems facing our precious native people. Nowhere is it written that an inquiry can't serve both as a window into the past, and the doorway to a better future.

And if our First Nations, who are the very foundation of the house we call Canada, want an inquiry. Then they should have one, and we should listen.

And I don't care how much money it costs, because it's the price of being CANADIAN.

Oh well, good for the NDP. Good for Romeo Saganash.

Let's have that inquiry, let's make it a new beginning.

Let's defeat that monstrous un-Canadian Con regime and its depraved leader.

Let's heal this open wound...



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