White Man's Money

Paul Martin and his advisors have had their sneak peak at the Gomery inquiry report today, read the tea leaves, and are handing out the emergency pre-election bribes to all the usual suspects, starting with the Indians:

Ottawa will commit between $3-billion and $4-billion when the Prime Minister meets with the premiers and aboriginal leaders later this month, The Canadian Press has learned.

The money will be promised over five years when the first ministers meet Nov. 24 in Kelowna.

“After nearly two years of ongoing work with the national aboriginal leadership, we're very excited about the prospects of long-term change,” said a senior government source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sources say the money will be used to improve education, housing, health and economic development programs.

Ottawa will also formalize its promise to draft rules to set standards for drinking-water quality on reserves.

Not one Indian will be lifted out of poverty, addiction or criminality after the band chiefs and their friends in the professional Indian grievance industry have taken the lion's share.

Indians will still continue to be sold the lie that their future is forever tied to the isolated reserves and traditional hunting and fishing rights that no longer can sustain them. The chiefs and their cronies will still lord it over them with the power that the reserve system and control over the land allows them to.

But Paul Martin gets to look like the benevolent Great White Father, and the Indian vote will be locked up for another election.

Source: Globe and Mail