New Media

If you’re a political observer who cares about Canada’s mission in Afghanistan and the role of China in Central Asia – and if you happen to be in Vancouver next week – this is a presentation not to be missed. Be there. I will be.

Canadian sacrifices and Beijing’s looming shadow

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Fraser Institute Boardroom
4th Floor-1770 Burrard St
Vancouver

A conversation with Terry Glavin, author of Come from the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan and co-founder of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee

There can be little argument that Canadian troops have played a critical role in Afghanistan, whether driving the Taliban out of Kandahar or providing training to Afghan security forces and helping rebuild needed infrastructure.

But despite Canada’s ongoing commitment to helping the Afghan people find liberty and self-determination, policy vacillation in Washington is creating an opening the Chinese government is all too willing to exploit, says journalist Terry Glavin, author of the book, Come from the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan, and co-founder of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee.

After having failed to lift a finger in support on the United Nations action in Afghanistan, Beijing is now rushing in and acquiring vast copper and other mineral leases as well as forming ties with the Pakistani ISI while the United States is prepared to abandon the Afghan people to recurring threats of Islamic violence and oppression. Meanwhile, Canada and other Western nations have failed to stand up to Washington.

I get the feeling that if I did the things that this cop had done, I’d be in prison for a very, very long time. But I don’t know if he’s going to serve any time at all.

RCMP Corporal Benjamin Robinson was driving drunk when he slammed into Orion Hutchinson, killing him. His lawyer suggested a contributing factor might be his involvement in the Robert Dziekansky case from 2007.

So, the cop’s defense amounts to this:

“I’m a sad drunk. Part of my deep booze-dulled sadness stems from my incompetent leadership of the team that killed a frightened and confused Polish immigrant at Vancouver International Airport. Ever since that man died, I really hoped that I wouldn’t inadvertently kill anyone else. Sorry. It looks like I did it again. But I mentioned that I’m a sad drunk, right? So maybe you can find it in your heart to go easy on me? Also, can we get this hearing over soon? My next shift for protecting and serving the public is in three hours and I really was hoping to get a couple of beers in me to mellow out. I can promise you that I will try very hard not to kill any other innocent people while on duty.”

Imagine you’re the slumlord owner of a rent-controlled bedbug-infested hotel in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. You’ve pocketed big bucks over the years from the government that was supposed to pay for essential renovations. Your welfare-dependent tenants usually don’t complain too loudly about the mold or the rats or the lack of working toilets, for fear of being tossed out on the street.

But this time, they couldn’t help themselves, when a wall fell down, exposing several families to the elements and the shocked stares of onlookers from Hastings Street. They spilled the beans. Reporters from all over the country started talking about the deplorable crisis. It’s downright embarrassing.

An independent auditor comes knocking to go over your financials. He wants to find out what you’ve done with the millions of dollars that you were supposed to use to fix the leaky plumbing and the crumbling brickwork and rotten wood and broken windows. You tell him to take a hike. When he objects, you physically throw him out.

Then you get an epiphany. Oh, this is brilliant. You file a grievance with the United Nations over your ill treatment.

How do you think this story ends? With you keeping your hotel? With the United Nations giving you a badge of honor? With your long-suffering tenants patting you on the back for your courageous stand? With you not going to jail?

No.

No, no, no, no.

The crisis of Attawapiskat has thankfully helped put the entire system of First Nations reserves under more scrutiny. Band leaders on many (most?) reserves operate with impunity and an explicit rejection of democracy. The nepotism, corruption and wastefulness not merely of money but of human beings is something that people in the rest of the country would never stand for.

I’ve been ambivalent about this problem over the years because I don’t live next to it. I see the conditions on reserves in the news from time to time. The places do look awful. But that’s not the fault of the government shoveling cash into these places. No amount of cash can paper over this perpetual horror show. Not with band leaders demanding 280 new houses at $250,000 a pop, according to the NDP — houses in the middle of nowhere that are just going to fall apart again after a few years because under the rules on reserves, no one actually owns the property.

Think about that figure again: $250,000 per house. That’s just to build a house, since the land has no value. This is a house that will stand in an isolated community with no jobs, no schools, no hospital, no reason to live there at all. Why does it cost that much to build a house there? Because that’s what the band council says it costs… for houses that are going to end up as firewood.

This problem needs to be solved yesterday.

The solution? Simple. Stop the flow of money. There are some examples of well-run, prosperous reserves that are closer in development to Whistler than Attawapiskat. They will survive, maybe even thrive. But those reserves like Attawapiskat that cannot survive without massive infusions of funds (or fail even with such generous support) need to be dismantled. Let the people living on those reserves migrate to places with education, jobs and a hope for a future.

No more money. No more reserves.

Earnest Canuck. Written by an overeducated East End gentleman, 41, heterosexual and beefy, frequently charged but never convicted, who keeps his hand in literature, politics and comedy.

What are you waiting for? Put it in your damn RSS Google Reader, already. Sheesh.

Opponents of the Conservative Party of Canada will be hard pressed to point to this as a negative election campaign ad.