Discussions

Pardon my stupidity on this issue but I cannot help think about this in the news.  
 
DESERONTO, Ont. (CP) — Canada’s busiest highway was shut down for 11 hours Friday and rail lines were closed to passengers and freight for even longer as a rogue Mohawk protester ignored calls for a peaceful day of action by aboriginals and set out to disrupt the country’s economy.  
 
The blockades, which inconvenienced tens of thousands of travellers and parked $100 million in cargo, stole the spotlight as Mohawks on a usually hectic stretch of Highway 401 near this eastern Ontario town lit bonfires and warned they were armed with shotguns and ready to resist any police intervention.  
 
Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, appealed to Canadians to look beyond the extreme measures of one man, saying that the long-planned day of action with its many peaceful demonstrations was intended to raise awareness of aboriginal issues from poverty to suicide to land-claim disputes.  
 
“We are looking for the basic necessities of life that come with being Canadian — clean drinking water, decent housing, education and health care,” Fontaine told a news conference in Ottawa.  
 
“We are looking for equality of opportunity so we can get good jobs and support ourselves and our families. We are looking to control our own destinies. Improving our lives won’t only be good for us, First Nations people, it will be good for Canada.”  
 
I am not trying to be racist or anything but I am getting angry for paying for something so long ago. Let me say for a minute that O.K. we give all this land to them, fine done. There is the comment of decent drinking water, housing, education, and health care. Well for me I have to pay a water bill every 3 months to contrubute to getting clean water. I also pay property taxes to go towards infrastructure. Housing, I have a bill with the bank that I will be paying for the next 25 years. Education, I pay every year taxes for schooling plus school fees every year. Plus I am paying for the next 10 years for student loans for my wife. Health care, taxes go to pay for that. My question is if all the demands of fontaine are met who is to pay for it all. I have no problem with land claims, health care we are in the same boat as trying to find decent health care and keep it. Housing who is to pay for decent housing on reserves? Will the government pay for the houses and get the money back in forms of a mortgage payment like everyone else. Education, if natives want to continue schooling will they pay back student loans like everyone else? I am not trying to be ignorant here but if they want fairness everyone should be taxed the same, and pay the same. I would like to see where our folks back in the day said that we will give you land, houses, education, money, what ever you want. My problem is how much longer am I going to have to pay and my children have to pay? I am sure people are going to hate me for what I am saying. Just like lake of the prairies, a dam put up and stocked with fish paid for by taxpayers and portions of fishing licenses. Then netting is allow as a right? Why? The fish weren't there before. I am just really confused on the who situation and am just looking for answers. Sure natives need help due to suicides and standard of living, but what if right now the government took every penny and created, clean water, bought every native a house, gave them unlimited education fund for schooling, and provided them with a job after school, plus on top of that gave them the land they want, are all the problems solved and nothing else will be said. I doubt it, there will be something else. I am just looking for some insight on this.