[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Josephus]

And I'll stop after this:  Danielle Smith seeks to "clarify" her comment about discrimination about vaccine status, saying she did not intend to trivialize discrimination faced by other groups.  Also says she'll reach out to various minority groups.

https://twitter.com/ABDanielleSmith/status/1580257060465541120

What she doesn't say is any version of "I'm sorry" or "badly worded".

She needs better PR people.

[crazy canuck]

Oh - Smith has promised to fire our Chief Medical Officer of Health and replace her.  Dr. Hinshaw, our CMOH, served ablely throughout the pandemic, but was always cognizant that her role was to advise, not fight the government.

So not sure who Smith will hire.  I checked the Public Health Act.  The CMOH does need to be a physician, so we're not going to get some homeopath quack doctor, but quite a few quack MDs out there...

Probably an antivaxxer doc.

[viper37]

There's a general outrage, at least on Twitter, when Danielle Smith stated that the unvaccinated are "the most discriminated against group" in her lifetime.  Which when you consider she's 51 means she's been alive for apartheid, residential schools, gaybashing, etc.

One would hope the outrage is not limited to Twitter.

She said it today.  Give it time for real life talk.  It's a slow and inefficient means of communicating ideas and thoughts nowadays, after all.

[viper37]

I can say that Danielle Smith has not impressed me.

And using Beeb as a bellwether I'm guessing she's not landing particularly well more broadly speaking.

I think she's hitting the mark where it counts.  BB isn't the kind of Conservative that would have voted for her in the first place, with her kind ideas, lately.

Lots of people in her party supported her with such crazy ideas about vaccines, just like they supported PP with similar ideas.

This is just icing on the cake.

[Barrister]

So here's a fascinating, but very, very long story about lawyer, former judge and professor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/mary-ellen-turpel-lafond-indigenous-cree-claims

Here's the opener:

By 2014, the honorary doctorates had almost become routine.

That spring, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond took centre stage at the McGill Law School commencement ceremony, dressed in a scarlet academic robe, to receive her eighth honorary doctor of laws degree.

"Mr. Chancellor, I have the honour of presenting to you a passionate advocate for the rights of children and a distinguished jurist committed to justice for Canada's First Nations," said Daniel Jutras, then-dean of the law school.

WATCH | Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond receives honorary doctorate from McGill University:

During a 2014 ceremony at McGill University, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was awarded an honorary doctorate. Throughout her career, she received no fewer than 11 such honorary degrees from universities across Canada.
A 2021 recipient of the Order of Canada, Turpel-Lafond is considered to be one of the most accomplished and decorated Indigenous scholars in Canadian history.

She rose to national prominence during the Charlottetown Accord debates in the 1990s as a constitutional adviser to Ovide Mercredi, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Former prime minister Joe Clark was quoted as saying "anyone involved in constitutional negotiations will tell you that they would prefer to have Mary Ellen on their side rather than on the other side."

The 59-year-old Harvard- and Cambridge-educated lawyer and professor says she's biologically Cree through her father, who grew up on the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba. She has also said she's a treaty Indian who was originally connected to Norway House. Later in life, she transferred to her husband's community: the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.

A 1989 academic article she wrote about Indigenous people and the Canadian Constitution included a biography that referenced her First Nations name: "Mary Ellen Turpel is Aki-Kwe. Born of a Cree father and an Anglo-Canadian mother."

In 1992, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, left, and Ovide Mercredi, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, addressed a Quebec National Assembly committee on the topic of Quebec sovereignty. (Clement Allard/Canapress/In the Rapids)



In 1998, she was appointed as a provincial court judge in Saskatchewan, which she has said made her "the first treaty Indian to be appointed to the court" in the province's history. She has said her "First Nations background and Cree background" brought "extra value to my understanding of what I see in the courtroom."

A 2017 Globe and Mail story said that amid growing pressure to put an Indigenous jurist on the Supreme Court, Turpel-Lafond's name was one of two most commonly mentioned.

Late last year, however, CBC received tips that raised questions about Turpel-Lafond's claims to Indigenous ancestry.

Was also named by Time magazine twice as a global leader for the 21st century.

Turfel-Lafond makes some very specific claims of her ancestry: that she is status Cree, her father was cree and her mother white, and that she grew up in Norway House, Manitoba.  There were questions about this story for years though, so the CBC decided to investigate.  And investigate they did.

The article could have been 1/20th the length to conclude "no, she's probably lying".  But it doesn't just go there.  It spends some time on the documents that almost certainly prove she was born and raised in Niagra Falls, Ontario.  But they also dig deep into the history of Norway House, the story of her father and grandfather and their connection to Norway House.  And then even further into the history of what it means to be "status", the process how historically you could lose, and then regain status, and even what "status" means to First Nations people anyways.

Oh and then there's unexpected ending to the story.

Really well done if anyone has the time.

[crazy canuck]

In a new poll, 30% of Canadians can't identify anything they like about either the Liberals or Conservatives.

The Globe story is behind a paywall.

[Barrister]

A little disappointed nobody commented on the story about Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond - it was a really good read well beyond the particulars of Ms. Turpel-Lafond herself.



But to give the audience what they want: Alberta's Premiere Danielle Smith had an account on right-wing crowdfunding website locals.com, and people have been mining it for all kinds of "choice" comments she made.  Of course she was pro-trucker convoy, but it shouldn't be too surprising she was parroting some Russian PR about the war in Ukraine - that eastern regions should be allowed to join Russia, that it was understandable the Russians would fear Ukraine joining NATO.

This is perhaps poor politics on her part in a province where 1 person in 10 has Ukrainian heritage...

https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/facing-heat-on-ukraine-smith-decries-ndp-politicization

[Jacob]

It's an interesting story, but I don't have anything intelligent to say about it...

[Barrister]

It's an interesting story, but I don't have anything intelligent to say about it...

Tell me that when you got to the part about academic fraud you weren't like "holy shit - oh wait, I guess it's not that surprising once I thought about it..."

But I thought the part about life in Norway House in the 1920s was really interesting in how "colonial" it was.  As well the discussion about how despite the fact that First Nations ostensibly want to control who is a member, ultimately it's that government status card that is all-important.

[crazy canuck]

I recommend an article Macleans published a few weeks ago regarding the issue of pretendians in academia

https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/the-curious-case-of-gina-adams-a-pretendian-investigation/

   

[HVC]

It's an interesting story, but I don't have anything intelligent to say about it...

Tell me that when you got to the part about academic fraud you weren't like "holy shit - oh wait, I guess it's not that surprising once I thought about it..."

But I thought the part about life in Norway House in the 1920s was really interesting in how "colonial" it was.  As well the discussion about how despite the fact that First Nations ostensibly want to control who is a member, ultimately it's that government status card that is all-important.

The part I found interesting is that the son of the man who gave up tribal status to join the war was "allowed" to go to the white school. Kind of shows that the social divide wasn't just skin colour, but then Keeper still went to (had to go to? ) a residential school, so i guess it only goes so far. Interesting too that Keeper had to fight to get his status back.

People lying about their race for benefits isn't so odd, the "black" lady in the states for example. You set up a system to offer benefits to one group (as well intentioned as it is) and people will game the system.

[Sheilbh]

A little disappointed nobody commented on the story about Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond - it was a really good read well beyond the particulars of Ms. Turpel-Lafond herself.

I thought it was fascinating - and strikes me as a little bit Balzac.

[viper37]

A little disappointed nobody commented on the story about Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond - it was a really good read well beyond the particulars of Ms. Turpel-Lafond herself.



But to give the audience what they want: Alberta's Premiere Danielle Smith had an account on right-wing crowdfunding website locals.com, and people have been mining it for all kinds of "choice" comments she made.  Of course she was pro-trucker convoy, but it shouldn't be too surprising she was parroting some Russian PR about the war in Ukraine - that eastern regions should be allowed to join Russia, that it was understandable the Russians would fear Ukraine joining NATO.

This is perhaps poor politics on her part in a province where 1 person in 10 has Ukrainian heritage...

https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/facing-heat-on-ukraine-smith-decries-ndp-politicization

I read it, but I don't have much to comment.  Similar stories have surfaced over the years about people claiming First Nations ancestry which happened to be totally bogus.  None have gone that far though.

[Barrister]

A little disappointed nobody commented on the story about Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond - it was a really good read well beyond the particulars of Ms. Turpel-Lafond herself.

I thought it was fascinating - and strikes me as a little bit Balzac.

Balzac, Alberta?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balzac,_Alberta

[Valmy]

People lying about their race for benefits isn't so odd, the "black" lady in the states for example. You set up a system to offer benefits to one group (as well intentioned as it is) and people will game the system.

Any system will be ruthlessly gained by some people.

The problem is with identity is if we start setting up standards for who is really indigenous or whatever, it starts getting really weird. Like suddenly you are posting Nazi-esque charts about who gets qualifies as a Jew or German or whatever.

Though with Indigenous nations don't we already kind of do that with people officially belonging to this group or that group? You shouldn't be able to just go around claiming you are part of such and such a group without that group signing off on it, right? Especially once you start fraudulently making specific claims about direct descent from real individuals.