REBECCA COOK/Reuters
Each sentence comes from a letter or online comment posted by a Globe reader during the past month
Idle No More is scaring the establishment. That means your voice is working. The real story ... is that more than 60 per cent of Canadians feel conditions must significantly improve. This isn't just a native issue, it's a Canadian issue. It is indeed a good time for Canada to give back after centuries of taking away. This is a movement of the oppressed.
Ultimately, moderates like Chief Shawn Atleo are helped by the presence of a militant voice such as Idle No More as it gives him more credibility with the government while also giving him a stronger negotiating position. Mr. Atleo is trying to negotiate, not threaten, like some of the other chiefs. Praying for him and his sincere belief in justice – long overdue! [That said], next year, it will be a historical curiosity. Idle No More is another version of Occupy Wall Street. It is a self-serving rebellion with a brand. The Indians don't get to dictate Canada's foreign policy or domestic policy. Mr. Atleo is another grandstander.
[Chief Theresa] Spence has done something none of us will forget. Together we stand, divided we fall. It's beautiful how our people united. [But her] approach is not working. We will not walk this path. My hope [is] that her first priority is to her children. I don't think she has made any point whatsoever. She's a prima donna ... looking to get a reality show. She has been on a fish soup diet, which doesn't appear to have caused any significant weight loss. Change the locks on her teepee.
The time is over for heritage guilt. Those who don't acknowledge the past are bound to make the same mistakes of the past. The Indian Act must be ended and the system of apartheid we call Indian reservations should be ended. I think we should do nothing this big in haste.
Canada was supposed to be better than this! As it turns out, Canadians do have Charter rights, one of which is to protest government actions they consider immoral or wrong. [But] you cannot expect to have a mature dialogue while threatening the general public with blockades of highways and railways. Time for the cops to start doing their jobs if they want to be taken seriously.
More and more Canadians, including first nations people, will harden their attitudes towards these [protesters]. Any time any of them mention colonialism or a colonial past, they just lose all credibility. And this will be Whitey's fault how? It will be a TURBULENT summer.
To be a modern and successful person today means that you have to give up on the idea of segregation based on ethnic background. I don't believe that Canada will ever be back in that place where people are roaming around hunting, gathering, fishing and living in tents. Every single culture evolves. It is not racist to recognize that there are problems and we cannot continue on as is. Time to take the actions that will put these things in a history book on a shelf and write a new future.
It's not that everyone agrees today with the natives, it's that this is all shoved down our throats by the media. The media continues to ignore the multiple crises on Attawapiskat.
We need more courses on buffalo hunting with stone arrows. It would be great if we could purchase Indian status from every aboriginal person who has it … I think about $250k per head would be about right. Better get that chequebook out.
Ezra Levant has some ideas about this.