‘Canada’s shame’ on display yet again

Re State of emergency, April 11 Once again the suffering and tragedy of First Nations life in Attawapiskat is in the news. Once again, I am left sadly wondering about my fellow Canadians and how long it will take to resolve what I call “Canada’s shame.”

If I was a mechanic and did not do my best for my customers, I’d have trouble sleeping. Same thing if I was a doctor and did not do my best for my patients. Anybody in any job should have the enthusiasm and courage of one’s convictions to do their very best.

And that involves getting a job done properly and by a deadline. Businesses worth their salt work to deadlines and meet, or beat, those deadlines.

So how is it that “Canada’s shame” continues under the noses of staff of the federal and provincial aboriginal affairs departments? Have they given their very best efforts to assist First Nations through the decades?

The problems First Nations in Canada have been encountering have been going on for decades. Well-paid bureaucrats go home each night to sleep in comfort, while the Canadians they are supposed to serve sleep in squalor.

Was there never a deadline set by any bureaucrat, or any politician, to get things fixed? One must wonder how those politicians and bureaucrats, who allow “Canada’s shame” to continue, can sleep at night. George Czerny, Collingwood I am disgusted that the government continually turns its backs on helping the First Nations. They are the poorest of the poor. How is it that we can bring in refugees, house them, clothe them and promise them a better future yet here we are once again reading about anguish and suicide from this population?

I do not understand how we can turn away from our own before taking in refugees or sending millions of our tax dollars overseas for aid when we need it right here in our own country.

Our focus should be on the homeless, especially those with mental illness, our aboriginal people and our own poor children. Then, and only then, should we help other countries. Renate Diorio, Brampton