Dear editor,
I read with interest Frank Assu’s editorial (Dec. 21) on the aboriginal situation (i.e. Attawapiskat). As one who has worked a lifetime with and behalf of aboriginal youngsters (as a teacher) I find it refreshing to find a reporter like Assu who bravely asks How has this happened? and How can (aboriginal) people move forward and grow?
These are questions politicians and normal-stream media don’t tend to have a stomach for. Assu dares to point out the fault for aboriginal impoverishment lies not only with the government but with the aboriginal community itself.
He adds a pervasive sense of victimization and entitlement in the aboriginal community falls wholly with the aboriginal community, and that overcoming such a disposition is a matter of aboriginal choice. I tend to agree.
I congratulate Frank for daring to ask difficult questions, and daring further to answer them. Now, if the politicians would only dare. In closing, I would add my hope that both aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities will someday stop existing as separate entities – as apartheid is an uncomfortable reality in our nation which claims to endorse integration of all people.
Neil Garvie
Courtenay