Friday, June 18, 2021

The internet is doing what residential schools couldn't

Assimilating native youth. 

I was taking a visit to the Saugeen First Nation down the road the other day. My vape went on the fritz a while back, so the pot-addled hillbilly has been twisting doobies like it's 1972, and I've got the lung-shredding cough to prove it.

I'm getting desperate, but the head shops in town, being non-essential, remain closed. Every Korean corner store sells bongs and those cheesy tobacco vapes, but I'm looking for a new Pax. I figure maybe some of the pot shops on the rez might stock something like that.

Long story short, nobody had what I was looking for. A gal at one of the joints said she'd order some in. The pot shops on the rez aren't subject to the same regs as the official Ontario pot outlets, and I couldn't help but notice their prices were about half what government shops charge. Five bucks a gram, a hundred an ounce. That in itself is worth a drive to Southampton. 

But here's what struck me. These places are most often family run, so sometimes you'll meet the extended family. Don't be surprised if a twelve year old kid is giving you change when you shop at a rez store. (Not the pot shops; didn't see any minors there.) They're not as bad as the Koreans.... I've had four year olds hand me my change there.

Anyway, I notice that a couple of places where there were kids about, they were all on screens. And not that I was particularly spying on them or anything, but they were playing the same Grand Theft Auto and Hitman 3 or whatever kids everywhere are addicted to.


From Saugeen to Scarborough, the internet has become the great leveller. 



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