Filed under: Canadian Politics
Ottawa moved the Kashechewan First Nation community, against the residents’ will, to low-lying land in 1957. Flooding and tainted water (e-coli) have prompted three evacuations since 2004. In January, 21 young people tried to commit suicide. Little or no action has been taken by the federal government. We now learn that Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice turned down a request by the Kashechewan reserve in Northern Ontario to relocate within its traditional hunting grounds (at $474 million, Prentice called it “prohibitively” expensive). So, just so we get this right — the feds moved a community against its will to an area that floods, causing disease and deplorable living conditions and now it refuses to honour the wishes of the Kashechewan people again because the price tag is too high? It seems that nothing has changed in 50 years. No respect. No justice. Canada’s treatment of the First Nations people is simply deplorable. It is truly a national disgrace.
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