Identity fetishism; the putrid heart of wokery at CBC

News today that Buffy Sainte-Marie has been booted from the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. She’s already had her Order of Canada clawed back. This is all thanks to a CBC campaign to root out “Pretendians,” fake Natives who aren’t really Indians. Supposedly there’s an epidemic of this fakery going on, which is somewhat ironic. You don’t hear about Indians passing themselves off as white to steal university jobs from whites, but for some reason the system incentivizes the reverse to happen. Before the colonists arrived, Indigenous peoples decided who was a member of the tribe. The settlers wanted to improve that loosey-goosey system, so they introduced something called Blood Quantum Laws. That enabled them to determine who was or was not Indian enough. Now the Indians themselves have embraced this settler innovation. Buffy didn’t make the cut. She must be destroyed. Also today, news that human remains have potentially been discovered in the Winnipeg landfill search. It will take at least two weeks to determine whether the remains found are human remains, and more time to determine their identity. That didn’t prevent the CBC from interviewing relatives of the missing women to get them to share their feelings at this moment. That’s pretty much the epitome of exploitative journalism. If CBC needs to feature this story, why don’t they focus on stuff that’s known, instead of speculating about what isn’t. One thing we know for sure is millions are being spent in the search for the remains of these marginalized human beings. Why couldn’t we spend the money on them before they died? Nobody would ever die in a dumpster if we made sure they had a roof over their head. Buffy Sainte-Marie was a one-time supporter of Leonard Peltier. She backed away from that position during an anti-Peltier smear campaign run mainly through CBC. The man is free at last. Here’s his welcome home party. Times are changing, but CBC’s identity fetishism lives on.

Sleepy Joe shows some decency on his way out the door

Actually, from what we know now, Joe was apparently irrelevant to his own presidency throughout his four years in the White House. Think on that for awhile. What does that tell you about American democracy? What it tells me is that the standard-bearer of the democratic world order is a faux democracy, as fake as a three-dollar bill. Yup, the Exceptional Nation that has busied itself spreading democracy hither and yon these past few decades doesn’t actually have one at home. Instead, it has a bustling hive of conniving opportunists, careerists, lobbyists, and grifters of all stripes, each committed to the lofty American ideal of lining their own pockets at the expense of what in simpler times might have been called the “common good.” Needless to say, when the DC hustlers realized they were advising a dementia patient, they ran with it. Gotta make hay while the sun shines, dontcha know! And did they ever make hay! Under Biden, hundreds of billions in US dollars flew out the door to “save democracy” in Ukraine, in Taiwan, and in Israel! For almost a year, the hive buzzing around Biden claimed they were working 24/7 for a ceasefire in Gaza, to no avail. Do you really believe Trump’s golfing buddy Steve Witkoff has more influence in Israel than the entire US State Department? Or is it more likely that Sullivan, Blinken, et al were never interested in a ceasefire? How else to explain Trump’s Middle East envoy securing a ceasefire with one visit to Jerusalem, a ceasefire that eluded Antony Blinken and the entire state department for a year? But enough of that; I come to praise Caesar, not to bury him under mountains of well-deserved opprobrium. History will look after that. In the dying minutes of his last day in office, President Biden granted clemency to Leonard Peltier, who has languished in the US prison system for nearly fifty years for the alleged murder of two FBI agents. Over the decades, everyone from the Dali Lama to Mother Teresa to Nelson Mandela to Amnesty International has lobbied successive US administrations for clemency. Every president, including Clinton, Obama, and Trump, has ignored Peltier’s plight. Until today. Good on you, Joe.

From Leonard Peltier to Wab Kinew: how the hang-around-the-forts have commandeered the Indigenous narrative

One of Canada’s pre-eminent public intellectuals, a small pond to be sure, wrote a book about eight years ago positing that Indigenous Canadians, often colloquially referred to as “Indians,” were poised to make a great comeback. And here we are today, with a provincial government led by an official, card-carrying, Canadian Indian. Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba. The ten Canadian Preems have been meeting in Halifax to build a common front against PM Fluffy’s non-stop incursions into areas of provincial jurisdiction, like health care and education, among others. So the CBC headline Manitoba Premier urges Trudeau to move up NATO spending caught my attention. Whoa! What’s this? Isn’t Wab straying into Justin’s lane? After all, national defence is strictly a federal file. What gives? What gives is that the Preems are in a sweat because they’re afraid of a Trump presidency. Trump has made some serious anti-NATO noises, and in order to not alienate Trump, and thereby impair their provincial economies, we should ramp up our NATO contributions pronto. Really? The Farm Manager and I were enjoying the late afternoon sun out on the stoop, and got into a lengthy debate about the state of our education system. I spent 25 years teaching in that system, and the FM still works there as an ed assistant with “challenged” kids. She gripes non-stop that the system no longer serves the needs of those students. Twenty-five years ago there were serious supports for kids. That’s no longer something we can afford. Just one example; the waiting list for one-on-one support for autistic kids is so long, most of them will age out of the system before they get any. But Wab Kinew, who should know a thing or two about kids needing more support, thinks we should bust a nut to hit NATO’s 2% of GDP spending targets. And the Trudeau-Blair brain trust is pushing hard in that direction, at least in their PR. Just during the NATO summit, we heard about 12 new submarines and 90 icebreakers! Really? Between that and our commitment to 88 F-35s and a new surface combatant fleet, we’re looking at perhaps $500 billions in spending! And this while we can’t provide support for autistic kids? While we can’t solve our housing crisis? While millions of Canadian don’t have a family doctor? While food banks and tent cities are ever-growing? C’mon, Wab… you can do better! But maybe it’s not that simple. Maybe there’s a price to pay to sit at the master’s table. The “comeback” might require you to leave your principles at the door. Which brings me to another CBC headline, the one announcing the Assembly of First Nations stepping away from their support for Leonard Peltier. Peltier has been locked up for 50 years after Fluffy’s father, the much celebrated champion of human rights, succumbed to US pressure to extradite him on a very dubious charge that he murdered two FBI agents. In making this decision, the AFN sides with the FBI against the substantial documentation from Peltier defenders. Check out this CBC Fifth Estate episode from 1987. So much for “The Comeback.”

POTUS Donny J gifts presidential pardon to Jack Johnson; could Leonard Peltier be next?

Everything old is news again!

Folks have been lobbying the Oval Office for well over half a century trying to get a presidential pardon for Jack Johnson, with no results. You'd think the first black president might have had a soft spot in his heart for the first black heavyweight champ, but apparently not.

But today Donny J done the deed!

Is this because Mr. Trump likes black folks more than Obama did?

Of course not!

It's because this particular black dude has a white A-list Hollywood star advocating for him. That's something Trump understands.

That's why I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Peltier's pardon. Ever since Marlon Brando went to his reward, Native Americans haven't had a white A-list Hollywood star in their corner.

Elsewhere in everything old is news again, I see where the Grassy Narrows mercury poisoning scandal is back from the grave. This was a major news story from the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties, when the government of the time negotiated a settlement between the owners of the offending paper mill and the First Nations people they were poisoning.

That was the end of that. For thirty years.

But now the story is back. Looks like just because the story disappeared, the mercury in the water didn't. We "solved" the problem by ignoring it. Can't imagine we'd ignore mercury in Toronto water that long. But Grassy Narrows?..


Systemic racism doesn't get more systemic than that!