Ignored emergency? Attawapiskat, ON, Canada.

[Larry B.]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/charlie-an ... 04370.html

[Jasper]

It's like a Canadian Hurricane Katrina.

[JOEinPHX]

i still am not understanding what happened. I read the article and all i saw was a mention that people had to move out of their homes because they were 40 years old.

Since when is 40 years old an old home? Perhaps those people could put some money into some updates?

Can someone explain what the emergency is/was exactly?

[Jasper]

I think you read the wrong article.

[JOEinPHX]

i read the one Larry linked to, which linked to a previous article as well.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Lives ... story.html

In neither of them is a mention of what catastrophic thing occurred to put these people in such peril.

The families have been living in these conditions because they had to move out of deteriorating 40-year-old homes and also to accommodate a rapidly growing population.

The province has acknowledged the state of emergency declared on Oct. 28, but has not put any plans in place to renovate or build more housing, or as a last resort, to temporarily evacuate residents to safer accommodations.

So the homes are 40 years old old and no one wants to move or build anything else?

Not much of an Emergency.

So once again my previous question, what exactly happened there?

[Hype]

I'm not sure you realize how far out in the middle of nowhere that is, Larry. It's not like backwater Louisiana... it's thousands of kms from anything.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Attawapis ... at&t=h&z=9

"Kenora, Unorganized, Ontario, Canada"

No one lives up there except those people, and there are probably no roads to get there.

I know people who have lived in Moosonee and Moosfactory, which are waaaaaaay up north from here, and there is no way to even get from those towns to that place.

[creep]

I'm not sure you realize how far out in the middle of nowhere that is, Larry. It's not like backwater Louisiana... it's thousands of kms from anything.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Attawapis ... at&t=h&z=9

"Kenora, Unorganized, Ontario, Canada"

No one lives up there except those people, and there are probably no roads to get there.

I know people who have lived in Moosonee and Moosfactory, which are waaaaaaay up north from here, and there is no way to even get from those towns to that place.

they have an airport

i only skimmed the article and i also never figured out what the problem is.

[Hype]

I'm not sure you realize how far out in the middle of nowhere that is, Larry. It's not like backwater Louisiana... it's thousands of kms from anything.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Attawapis ... at&t=h&z=9

"Kenora, Unorganized, Ontario, Canada"

No one lives up there except those people, and there are probably no roads to get there.

I know people who have lived in Moosonee and Moosfactory, which are waaaaaaay up north from here, and there is no way to even get from those towns to that place.

they have an airport

i only skimmed the article and i also never figured out what the problem is.

They do have an airport (That's what I linked to on google maps, I think). But it's weird. Northern Ontario might as well be the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, except it might even be worse, since probably 99% of Ontario lives in the Greater Toronto Area.

This might help: http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/social-issues ... iskat.html

[creep]

I'm not sure you realize how far out in the middle of nowhere that is, Larry. It's not like backwater Louisiana... it's thousands of kms from anything.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Attawapis ... at&t=h&z=9

"Kenora, Unorganized, Ontario, Canada"

No one lives up there except those people, and there are probably no roads to get there.

I know people who have lived in Moosonee and Moosfactory, which are waaaaaaay up north from here, and there is no way to even get from those towns to that place.

they have an airport

i only skimmed the article and i also never figured out what the problem is.

They do have an airport (That's what I linked to on google maps, I think). But it's weird. Northern Ontario might as well be the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, except it might even be worse, since probably 99% of Ontario lives in the Greater Toronto Area.

i read another article and it says that the town is overpopulated and the housing is run down. i can see the govt stepping in if there is a national disaster but i guess i don't understand how a town of 1800 people can't build more houses and improve the ones they have. is it really the governments responsibility to build them houses? (don't answer hoka). send them birth control and offer to move some people out of there.

[JOEinPHX]

I think these people basically choose to live outside of conventional society, trashed their own town and now want conventional society to pick up the bill just because it's about to get cold out.

Some emergency.

I have no sympathy for people who choose to live a certain way due to religious or cultural reasons, then have that way of life bite them in the ass. You get the good and the bad of your choices. Modern society is not responsible to fix the poor choices of primitives

[Hype]

I think these people basically choose to live outside of conventional society, trashed their own town and now want conventional society to pick up the bill just because it's about to get cold out.

Some emergency.

I have no sympathy for people who choose to live a certain way due to religious or cultural reasons, then have that way of life bite them in the ass. You get the good and the bad of your choices. Modern society is not responsible to fix the poor choices of primitives

There are historical reasons that at least in part explain aboriginal canadian life though. It's not like you have much of a choice to get off the reserve if your parents chose, or had to stay. What you're saying is akin to telling people in the ghetto to just move somewhere else.

[Jasper]

I think these people basically choose to live outside of conventional society, trashed their own town and now want conventional society to pick up the bill just because it's about to get cold out.

Some emergency.

I have no sympathy for people who choose to live a certain way due to religious or cultural reasons, then have that way of life bite them in the ass. You get the good and the bad of your choices. Modern society is not responsible to fix the poor choices of primitives

There are historical reasons that at least in part explain aboriginal canadian life though. It's not like you have much of a choice to get off the reserve if your parents chose, or had to stay. What you're saying is akin to telling people in the ghetto to just move somewhere else.

Yes, I'm not sure how people with no money or education can just pick up and move.

[Artemis]

I have no sympathy for people who choose to live a certain way due to religious or cultural reasons,

In Canada people have the right to choose to live a certain way due to religious and cultural reasons.

[Hype]

The historic treatment of aboriginal Canadians is despicable though. Will Kymlicka, a major political philosopher in my dept. writes a lot about reparations and multiculturalism and this sort of thing. http://www.amazon.ca/Politics-Reconcili ... 07&sr=1-22

The legacies of exclusion can still be seen in a wide range of social attitudes, cultural practices, economic and demographic patterns, and institutional rules that obstruct efforts to build genuinely inclusive societies of equal citizens. Finding ways to overcome this problem is a major challenge facing virtually every society around the world. This book focuses on two parallel intellectual and political movements that have arisen to address this challenge: the 'politics of reconciliation', with its focus on reparations, truth-telling and healing amongst former adversaries, and the 'politics of difference', with its focus on the recognition and empowerment of minorities in multicultural societies.

[Larry B.]

My original point was basically that if they turn to their government requesting water and some type of shelter because things are getting pretty serious, the government should (try to) do something

[Artemis]

Yes, something should be done but it sounds like the provincial government is passing the buck to the federal government.

The province of Ontario has the responsibility to ensure equitable standards for education, as well as water, fire safety and building codes citizens in Ontario. And yet, when the families of Attawapiskat look to the province for help, they are continually told that they are a federal "responsibility."

Ironically, the province doesn't take the same attitude when it comes to the immense wealth coming out of Attawapiskat's back yard. The De Beers Victor Mine is the richest diamond mine in the Western world. Just recently, the province upped the royalty tax at the mine from nine per cent to 11 per cent to ensure an even higher return for the provincial coffers. Not a dime of provincial royalty money comes back to help the community with infrastructure or development.

As for the mine itself, De Beers has signed an IBA (Impact Benefit Agreement) providing for training and job opportunities. Thanks to the provisions of the Indian Act, workers who may want to build their own house in Attawapiskat are unable to do so because they can't get a mortgage on a reserve. Even if there was a possibility of new housing for the densely overcrowded shantytown, the province hasn't bothered to turn over any land for new development. No wonder that people with jobs are leaving and heading south -- they can't stay in their home communities.

And then there's the federal government; over the last number of years, they have consistently turned a blind eye to the growing infrastructure crisis. In fairness to the new Minister John Duncan, he has committed $500,000 as an emergency measure. But given the scope of the problem, this is little more than a Band-Aid.

[sinep]

Since when is 40 years old an old home? Perhaps those people could put some money into some updates?

50 year old home in so cal... six figures.

[creep]

Since when is 40 years old an old home? Perhaps those people could put some money into some updates?

50 year old home in so cal... six figures.

95 percent of the houses in california are six figures.

my house is 60yrs old