After years of denying that their actual goal is the final and complete assimilation of native people, the elimination of their culture and the absorption of their lands, it appears the tipping point of Attawapiskat has dragged Harper’s conservatives out into the open. The Beast is now officially among us.
Thursday’s National Post carried the Birth Announcement.
“Our politicians will not say it, but the only solution for places like Attawapiskat is to stop subsidizing their existence. While inhabitants shouldn’t be forced from their homes, they should not be provided with a taxpayer-funded incentive to stay in destitute areas. Instead, money should be used to resettle people in less remote places, where aboriginals will actually has a chance to live the Canadian dream.”
The declaration of war was applauded by some of the vilest, most racist commentary it has been my pleasure to read in the NatPo comments section, including the truly vomitous “Sassy Lassy”. Highlights include:
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“I’m tired of paying to support their backward ways if they want to live in their glory days circa 1800s. Have these natives no sense of shame?”
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“Shame is not in their vocabulary. They won’t be happy until they see the taxpayer worked to death in support of their dysfunctional and selfish lifestyles.”
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“These morally bankrupt people are hopeless.”
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“Stop popping out FAS children. Stop popping out children that you cannot support but expect the taxpayer to.”
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“Stop suing for land, and screwing over everyone else by ‘claiming’ land in order to screw everyone else.”*
Just three years ago Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons and apologized to Aboriginal people for the unspeakable racism and arrogance inherent in the assumption that bureaucrats in Ottawa knew what was best for Aboriginal people, better than they themselves. Now his hounds are baying for assimilation on a scale that make the residential school horror look like a church picnic.
I’m not often ashamed for my country. But tonight I’m afraid for it.