Pierre Poilievre Gives the Bigots Their Voice On Today's Day of Apology

Earlier today I wrote a short piece about today's Government Apology to Aboriginal Peoples for the Residential School system. Only wrote a short piece, giving most of the spaces to quotes from the people who spoke today, and I did that in order to show respect for what was happening today. I did so to give the benefit of the doubt to this Government and, at least for today, put the political battles aside to give this day the respect that it deserved. I would have hoped and prayed that the Conservatives would have done the same too, and frankly would never in a million years have believed that even the Conservatives would be so disrespectful and craven that they would do anything to crap all over this day. Well thanks to Pierre Poilievre, the bigots had their word today too (a major thanks to Kady O'Malley of Maclean's for catching this). Here are his exact words, as shown by Ms. O'Malley:

"That gets to the heart of the problem on these reserves where there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the leadership, and it makes you wonder where all of this money is going. We spend $10 billion dollars - $10 billion dollars - in annual spending this year alone … now, that is an exceptional amount of money, and that is on top of all the resource revenue that goes to reserves that sit on petroleum products or sit on uranium mines or other things where companies have to pay them royalties and that’s on top of all that money that they earn on their own reserves. That is an incredible amount of money. Now along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years. Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask, ‘Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve the problem?’ My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self reliance. That’s the solution in the long run - more money will not solve it.”

Value for money?? Value for goddamn uncle fucking money???!!!! Are you shitting me???? Of all the days to turn around and state your bigoted views, Mr. Poilievre had to do it today? Not only are his ignorant and blatantly disrespectful words so completely inappropriate for today and the events that the Conservatives claim to show respect for, they are factually wrong and spread out and out lies about how First Nations communities get funding. He talks about the "resource revenue that goes to reserves that sit on petroleum products or sit on uranium mines or other things where companies have to pay them royalties" as if some how First Nations community automatically get money like the province does, but it doesn't. There are far more First Nations communities getting the shaft than getting any financial benefit from the resources being taken from their land, let alone any say on it. That's exactly why we've seen the whole saga of the KI 6 and Bob Lovelace.

And to top it off Pierre Poilievre makes this $10 Billion, much of which is eaten up by INAC bureaucracy and never gets to the communities (only an estimated $4 Billion actually gets to the communities) out to be some fantastic amount of money when it doesn't even supply the basics like clean water and decent schools. Mr. Poilievre somehow thinks that the people of Canada are getting hosed because they are paying $10 Billion out to do a half-assed job in covering their responsibilities under treaties that give the people of Canada a legal right to be here on the land. Yeah, that's right, even thought that $10 Billion spent this year is $2 Billion less than they spent on a 1% GST cut. Sorry Pierre, but the Government of Canada is far from getting the shaft in this relationship, and to even dare to suggest such things on a day like this is just a complete slap in the face to those residential school survivors for whom today is supposed to be.

Now am I surprised to hear a Conservative, let alone one of the ilk of Pierre Poilievre, make a comment like this? Hell no, not at all. I've heard and seen far too many Conservatives (and even debated a couple) talk about this point of view of theirs. It's the true nature of how they feel about Aboriginal Canadians. I'm spitting mad at this because I would have hoped that the Conservatives would have had the decency to shut up with the "Aboriginals are ripping us off" shit for today, but that didn't happen. Poilievre does sneeze without the PMO's permission, so I have a very hard time believing that he went on a radio show today and made those comments without their knowing, permission or maybe even blessing. Right now, this is the moment that Stephen Harper needs to put his money where his mouth is. One of his MP's just leveled one of the greatest insults at Aboriginal people today, and did it on a day when the PM was apologizing for one of the darkest chapters in Canada's relationship with Aboriginals. That cannot stand and cannot be accepted as a mistake or an error. This deserves punishment, swift and strong. So with that, I'm calling on Pierre Poilievre to be punished by this PM for his ignorant words on this solemn day by either loosing his portfolios or simply being removed from caucus. If Stephen Harper is truly serious about his words of reconciliation today in the House of Commons, then this should be exactly what he does. If he doesn't do it, it will just go to prove that today was nothing more than a sham, one that everyone in the Aboriginal Community was right to be skeptical about. Mr. Harper, it's time to put up or shut up, and if you truly meant what you said today, then punish Pierre Poilievre properly. Nothing less than that will be acceptable to those Aboriginal people that Mr. Poilievre attacked and slandered on this solemn day of apology.

*UPDATE* 9:35 PM - Here is the audio clip from YouTube (h/t to Red Tory). The comments actually sound worse when you hear them from his voice and it's inflection



*ANOTHER UPDATE* - 9:45 PM - The Canadian Press has picked up on the Boy Wonder's comments. Thank my lucky stars that the media hasn't slept on this one.Recommend this Post