And now, let's solve the problems  

by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES

Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, who apologized last week after he said native people need to learn the value of hard work more than they need residential schools compensation, was rightly under fire for comments made on the same day as the Prime Minister's apology.

"My view," he said immediately before his government apologized to the former students of Indian residential schools, "is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self-reliance. That's the solution in the long run—more money will not solve it."

His comments, circulated last week by the Liberals, were morally insensitive, politically stupid, and factually wrong. Yes, there are problems on the native reserves, especially among young people; but they are the consequence of bad politics in Ottawa, not the other way around.

Poilievre might have a great political future, but right now it's a waste of time to spend too much time talking about his inappropriate and misinformed comments. It is more important to concentrate on some of the real issues of the week: last week's long overdue apology and the problems among Canada's aboriginal peoples.

What the Canadian government did to aboriginal peoples goes against all Canadian principles and I don't agree with the National Post argument in one of last week's editorials regarding Prime Minister Stephen Harper's historic and important apology, when it stated that "residential schools actually produced much that was good, alongside much that was evil. Many of the students who attended received proper educations, learned how to speak English or French, were cured of contagious diseases and—in some cases—were actually saved from abusive situations within their communities."

There is no way to justify an initiative whose sole mandate was to obliterate an entire culture. Apologies were appropriate and long overdue, period.

Having dealt with the political and the moral aspect of racist government policies doesn't mean, however, that the problems in all the aboriginal communities will be automatically solved.

The problems are complex and difficult to deal with, so let me start from some solid facts.

First, the number of aboriginals in Canada living on reserves is around 800,000 and, according to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate for those between 25 and 64 year olds is almost three times the national rate. If you consider that almost 48 per cent of aboriginal Canadians are under 25, you can understand the seriousness of the problem.

Moreover, 34 per cent have not completed secondary school which is more than double the national rate of 15 per cent and the suicide rate among young aboriginal people is more than double the national rate.

Another hard fact is that the federal government spends $12-billion every year on aboriginal peoples.

Now, considering the status of the people living on the reserves, and the amount of the money spent by the federal government, there is an obvious question that begs an answer: What's happening with the money? Who is handling it? Who is controlling them?

At this point the issue becomes more complex and I believe that political organizations, instead of asking for a special commission or inquiry for any stupidity that a minister might be responsible for, should ask for an inquiry to find out, after spending so much money every year, we still have young aboriginal people living in conditions that are considered unacceptable even in third world countries?

Who handles the money? Who controls the way the money is spent? Are the companies receiving the contracts doing proper jobs? Are the ministers and bureaucrats doing their job properly? Are the chiefs making sure the money is used according to their mandates?

Apologizing for racist policies in the past is the right thing to do, but the apologies won't fix the problems of the present and start building the future.

Wasting time talking about a sophomore MP like Poilievre might be good politics, but it doesn't address the problems aboriginal peoples are facing.