5 Feet of Fury

Don’t tell me: they sent out this press release using smoke signals…?

When they aren’t committing sabotage/assault, huffing solvents and running guns/cigarettes/casinos and just plain living tax free off my hard earned, extorted tax dollars in a state of consensual apartheid, many Canadian Indians are employed in the even more lucrative victimology industry, one which accounts for, what? 45% of the country’s GDP at this point?

Why we don’t cut each status Indian in Canada a cheque for a million bucks and tell them to get lost and shut up forever is beyond me.

Look: they gave us cigarettes; we gave ’em booze. I call it even.

Here’s their latest braindead crybaby demand. Let’s give the Globe & Mail credit for telling them to stuff it in all four directions…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Globe & Mail defends columnist who argued native cultures are inferior to European: more than 1800 people call for Wente’s dismissal via Facebook, letters

 Thursday, October 29, Canada/ — Globe and Mail senior columnist Margaret Wente faced a firestorm of criticism, complaints and canceled subscriptions after she wrote a column arguing that Indigenous civilizations are less advanced than those of European descent, and that Indigenous cultures are “neolithic” and of no use in the modern world.

After a flood of letters and phone calls, the Globe and Mail published an official response today. Comment editor Sylvia Stead stated that “as a national columnist, Ms. Wente is paid to express her opinions… These matters are within the bounds of reasonable public discussion.”

Many critics, however, say that Stead’s response glosses over the real issue and did not address what they deemed Wente’s racism.

“Not only does the Globe and Mail not realize the blatant racism and ignorance of her article, but that Ms. Wente is in fact paid to be racist and ignorant,” wrote Niigonwedom James Sinclair, an English instructor at the University of Winnipeg, in a response posted to the Fire Margaret Wente Facebook group.

(ME: damn that bitch! How can I get a sweet gig like that??)


Wente’s article “is the very definition of racism, and it encourages Canadians to believe that European colonization and subordination of Indigenous peoples was somehow justifiable,” wrote Kalin Stacey of Toronto wrote in the same group, which now has over 1800 members.

“The Globe and Mail is much more interested in promoting and standing up for Ms. Wente,” added Flora Dayrider of Calgary, “than building the bridge of understanding with First Nations people.”

Wente’s original article has not been disavowed or criticized by the Globe’s editors.

“It is simply not permissible to say that aboriginal culture was less evolved than European culture or Chinese culture – even though it’s true,” Wente wrote of 17th century Indigenous people.

Wente extended the sentiment to the present day. “A neolithic culture cannot possibly give them a future. And it’s time for us to face that,” Wente wrote.

– 30 –

Media Contacts:

Niigonwedom James Sinclair
Instructor, University of Winnipeg
email: niigon@interchange.ubc.ca
cell: (204) 999-5192

Dru Oja Jay
Organizer, Montreal
email: StopGlobeRacism@gmail.com
phone: (514) 563 1399


***
UPDATE:

Kate asks the burning question:

“Had Christopher Columbus Been Governed By The Prime Directive, Would North America have Facebook today?”