Stephen Harper's Maj Gov 2011

[Boom Boom]

 Bring Back Katimavik Funding!

[lagatta]

Both Katimavik and Community Internet Access were such piddling expenditures, in government budget terms. Like Rights and Democracy. Obviously more ideological than anything else.

I still haven't forgotten the funding cut to Wapikoni Mobile, the mobile video/film studio in a camper van, that trained young video/filmmakers in Aboriginal communities, first in Québec, then expanding also to Ontario. Wapikoni was named for an Amerindian teenager who committed suicide, as a tribute and in hope of providing a positive alternative to such distress.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapikoni Unfortunately there is no wiki article in English. The funding was cut in June 2011 - one of the first evil acts of the majoritory government.

As you can see from their own website http://wapikoni.tv/ (seems to be in French only - although Wapikoni trains Native youth in communities where English is the second language, as well as those where French is. Guess it is another funding issue), students in medicine at University of Ottawa have chosen Wapikoni as the recipient of the take from their annual MedShow! There have been other fundraising initiatives as well, including a major show in Montréal that coincided with a big conference on preventing suicide in Aboriginal communities. Show was far too expensive for me, but the point was to secure funding from sympathetic people with some cash.

The U of Ottawa MedShow website spotlighting Wapikoni: http://www.uottawamedshow.com/wapikoni.html

[greenvie]

The funding was cut in June 2011 - one of the first evil acts of the majoritory government.

If ever I inherit $$, win the lottery or even inexplicably earn more than I need, this is where i would give. I lost one of my children to suicide, almost 25 years ago. Distressed youth have great difficulty seeing beyond the near future when feeling that bad.

Boo on Harper's government and all who feed and nourish it!

[Boom Boom]

Boo on Harper's government and all who feed and nourish it!

 

[lagatta]

greenvie, I'm sure you can imagine how hard it was working at that suicide prevention conference, but it was important. There was an utterly lovely Inuit lady, I'd say in her 40s, but very young and chic looking, and her niece - late teens to very early 20s, a bit punky but very chic as well, and they were mourning their daughter/cousin. And that is just one of many stories, from the streets of Montréal or Ottawa, the Arctic, the forest regions bordering Northern Ontario and Québec, or the Inuit and Micmac lands by the sea... Over and over. How could those arseholes not see that those young people needed something to express their considerable talents and not fall into despair?

The current student movement is giving me a lot of hope though. It has gone far beyond the initial demand. I see "carrés rouges" (red patches or squares) everywhere.

[sparqui]

I'm so sorry, greenvie. No parent should ever have to suffer like that. 

CBC "C'est La Vie" recently did a brilliant profile of Wapikoni Mobile. Such a small but high impact initiative. And Katimavik, our youth need that program now more than ever - with such dreadful unemployment and so much cynicism about democratic/civic rights. And CAP, often the only source of internet access to far flung family or posted job opportunities for those with no computers.

Harper and his gang are retrogrades. Their only idea of compassion and sharing is tied to religious conversion and/or shaming.

[greenvie]

Thanks, sparqui, I've downloaded the C'est La Vie podcast & will listen later.

Losing a child is bad enough. By their own hand it's really complicated. It felt like a nuke had exploded into our family. I can't even imagine what it's like for First Nations families where there are so many clusters of youth suicides.

[Boom Boom]

Peter Mackay was just on CTV's Question Period saying the extra $10billion is the cost of maintaining the F18 program until we get the F35s. Is that clear to anyone???
 
ETA: Mackay said there is no reason for him to resign.

[Boom Boom]

  More reason, as if we need any, to be pissed off at the Harper government:
 
Harper's disregard for aboriginal health
 
excerpt:
 
When governments make a decision that is stupid, embarrassing, overly partisan, or risks causing an outcry, they tend to do so late in the day and late in the week, preferably on the eve of a holiday long weekend, when citizens - and journalists - aren't paying much attention.
 
So, late Thursday, the government of Stephen Harper dropped this bombshell, as related in a brief announcement posted on the web site of the National Aboriginal Health Organization: "NAHO funding has been cut by Health Canada. It is with sadness that NAHO will wind down by June 30, 2012."
 
This travesty of public policy only came to light because of feisty publications like Windspeaker and Nunatsiaq News.
 
Founded in 2000, NAHO oversaw many research and outreach programs, in crucial fields such as suicide prevention, tobacco cessation, housing and midwifery. It collected an invaluable series of audio and video interviews with elders recounting traditional tales and knowledge. The group also published the Journal of Aboriginal Health and was home to one of the best collections of aboriginal health research in the world.
 
There are many political and policy differences among aboriginal groups, but NAHO managed to bring them together at one table, with a common purpose, improving the health of the unhealthiest, most disenfranchised people in the country. It wasn't always smooth sailing, but it was an achievement in itself.
 
We are destroying this asset for what reason exactly? To save a few bucks?
 
NAHO received $4,955,865 from Health Canada last year.
 
In the world of $25-billion (and counting) fighter jet contracts, that's a pittance.
 
And what does it say about the federal government's priorities?
 
(the rest of the article is worth reading)

[lagatta]

Yes, I read that this morning. I was livid.

NAHO/ONSA was one of the funders of the conference on suicide prevention in aboriginal communities I worked at, late in 2011. And the National Healing Foundation is also cut, as is Sisters in Spirit.

For those who read French, here is an interview with Rights and Democracy assistant programs head France-Isabelle Langlois, on the killing of that agency:

http://www.pressegauche.org/spip.php?article9899

[Boom Boom]

Meanwhile, instead of doing the honourable thing of handing in his resignation, asshole Peter Mackay is defending his bungling of the F35 file. Smarmy little bastard.

[greenvie]

I think we are going to see a huge growth in Occupy and FN organizing this Summer. This is beyond the pale! I am spitting angry.

[Toedancer]

MacKay can't be fired and he can't resign, he's being groomed for the UN or was it NATO, I forget which.

[Toedancer]

Next Tuesday is the 30th anniversary of the Charter Rights & Freedoms. I'm going to hang my wee Can. flag upside down from my balcony. What ru going to do?

[Antonia]

I would do the same from my new 9th floor aerie (I can see hawks riding the wind from my bedroom window!) except on Tuesday I will be on the 401 coming back to TO from Montreal.