Newsletter Vol. #76 Thats How I See It!

Had a great day last Thursday at Shapes. I met a lot of wonderful people and shared my book with 137 of them. I will be spending the day at Shapes, 1150 Nairn Ave., on October 5, from 8 am to 8 pm, so stop by and pick up your copy of Communication And Relationships.

An interesting thing, maybe even a bit humorous, happened last Thursday. A friend wanted to pick up her copy of the book and so came over at 8 am, the time I said I would be at the Pembina Hwy. Shapes location. I made a mistake on the Pembina address and so wandered up and down what had to be the busiest and most traffic jammed street in the city and arrived 35 minutes late. My friend went home and decided to come back later, at 8 pm to pick up her book. At 7:45 I decided to pack it in as there was little traffic at the location. I left and for the second time that day I wasn't where I should have been. I got "the call" and my friend now has her book. I will do better on Oct. 5!

Unfortunately, "Pleasure" is not a priority in most people's life; often what takes precedence is what other people think, and their needs.

Dear Reader                           (survey)

Would you please take 1 minute to answer the following questions?

Indicate your answer with a #; paste and drag

     -Do you read the Newsletter "That's How I See It!"
                  Yes_#_ No__ Sometime__

Would you prefer I included an Index to the content of the Newsletter?     Yes__ No_#_

What do you like most/least about the Newsletter?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever sent the Newsletter to a friend or asked them to receive the newsletter?  Yes_#_ No__

Send back to me at danrosin@drcounselling.com

Consider not:
What can I expect from life?
But rather
What is life expecting of me?
Not:
What is the meaning of life?
But rather
What does life mean to me?

Are you willing to take responsibility to make life what you think it ought to be?                                                                               Dan

  I recently received a very wonderfully written article, passed on to me by my cousin Kenn, from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy web site, titled "Ignorance or Wisdom?"

Agree or disagree with the author, it certainly is worth a read.

Ignorance or Wisdom?

Senator Lynn Beyak says in a letter that status Indians should give up their status cards and become true Canadians.
The reaction to the letter has been fast and furious. She has been denounced by a host of worthies. As I write this, I am listening to a CBC radio interview with the Mayor of Winnipeg calling for the senator's resignation. Both the mayor and the CBC interviewer are aghast that she would say such a thing. They insist that the senator must be so out of touch with reality, and so much in need of an education about Indigenous issues, that if she only took some time to read the Truth and Reconciliation Report, she would see the error of her ways, and repent.
But, I have met the senator. She is a very intelligent lady. And, more to the point, she is very familiar with aboriginal issues. She has spent her life in close proximity to the aboriginal community, and has a close family member who is Indigenous. She also has an abiding belief that the system we have in this country is not working, despite what the flabbergasted mayor and interviewer think of her. She appears to be prepared to bear the weight of personal insult to say so. (It should be borne in mind that the senator has already endured abuse for having the temerity to say what even the TRC Report acknowledged: namely, that the good done by Residential Schools should be recognized, as well as the bad, and that most of the teachers and staff at the schools were decent, well-intentioned people.)
And when the senator says that status Indians are not true Canadian citizens, she is absolutely correct.
The fact is that status Indians living on reserves are legally very different from mainstream Canadians in many important ways. They cannot own private property in their own communities. The Indian Act says that they are to be treated as children, and they must have important decisions made for them by others. Most significantly, they are not treated as individuals, like other Canadians, but as part of a collective.
In fact, the senator is being too polite. Status cards are even worse than what she says in her letter.
They are an abomination.
Status cards are based on the evil, and completely discredited notion of racial purity laws. In order to prove entitlement to a card, one must show that one is racially pure enough to qualify, or one must marry someone who is racially pure.
The concept of racial purity harkens back to darker days. In apartheid South Africa people were required to carry one of three kinds of status cards: white, coloured, or black. Each of these status cards contained its own set of rights. In India, during the caste years, there were even more categories of people, with differing rights. In racial America whites and blacks had separate everything. And darkest of all was Hitler's Germany, where a yellow star on the sleeve was your status card.
Racial-Purity laws - status cards - have no place in a modern country. They should have been gone long ago.
The only reason we still have the cards is because those who carry them are entitled to special financial benefits not available to others. Although the list of benefits is long, the two most valuable are tax exemptions, and post-secondary education benefits. These benefits can be very valuable indeed. A person earning a six-figure income, but paying no income tax, can also have his or her children's university or college education paid for in full. This can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. An increasing number of the status Indian elite are in this category. No wonder that people are fighting so hard to keep these cards.
The unfairness is that mainstream Canadians, who may earn less than a salary like that are required to pay for these entitlements. Plus they are not entitled to the benefits themselves. A double whammy!
The other unfairness is that all of this money spent on these goodies does nothing to address Indigenous poverty. The great numbers of poor Indigenous people living on reserves are either on welfare, or in low-paying jobs. They get no benefit from an income tax exemption. And too few of their children make it to college or university, so the education benefit does nothing for them. The entitlements are for the middle class people, who should be paying their own way.
So, Senator Beyak is right. Status Indians should give up their status cards, and become true Canadians.
But the senator is also advocating fair and generous compensation for the surrendered rights. The government should initiate a process of honourable discussion with those affected, with the ultimate goal of a generous lump sum payment to every status Indian in exchange for the permanent surrender of the financial component of their Treaty rights. Treaties are very important symbolically, and the non-financial parts would live on.
From that point on - as advocated by Senator Beyak - there would be one set of laws for all Canadians. 

Brian Dale Giesbrecht
Senior Research Fellow
Brian Dale Giesbrecht received his education at United College and The University of Manitoba, where he obtained his LLB in 1972. He worked with Walsh, Micay and Co., and then joined Legal Aid Manitoba in 1975 to become Senior Attorney and the first Area Director for western Manitoba in Brandon.
Appointed to The Provincial Court (Family Division) in 1976, he heard child welfare cases and general family matters until he transferred to the Criminal Division in 1989. During his career he served on the National Family Court Committee, and various provincial court committees. He was an Associate Chief Judge from 1991 to 2005, and he became Acting Chief Judge in 1993. Among the notable cases he heard was the Lester Desjarlais Inquiry. His report strongly criticized the government's decision to devolve child welfare responsibilities to racially based child-care agencies. Following his retirement from the Bench in 2007, Mr. Giesbrecht has written extensively for various publications. His main theme has been the need to abolish The Indian Act and the separate systems of government that exist in Canada.
Aboriginal Futures, Brian Giesbrecht, Commentary September 18, 2017

Have you ever wanted to take Flute lessons? Now is your chance. I met a lady who gives Flute lessons. Her name is Susan MacLagan and her tel. # is 204-453-7379.

Be open to others,
Be generous to others,
Listen well and interact with others,
Just don't take responsibility for others--Don't be a Rescuer.

Want to check out whether or not anger is an issue for you- for each of the 11 statements indicate how true or false they are of you:

1. I lose my temper easily but get over it quickly
2. I'm always patient with others.
3. I am irritated a great deal more than people are aware.
4. It makes my blood boil to have somebody make fun of me.
5. If someone doesn't treat me right, I don't let it annoy me.
6. Sometimes people bother me just by being around
7. I often feel like a powder keg ready to explode.
8. I sometimes carry a chip on my shoulder.
9. I can't help being a little rude to people I don't like.
10. I don't let a lot of unimportant things irritate me.
11. Lately, I have been kind of grouchy.

You decide! Perhaps it is time to do something about your anger--like talking to a therapist.

Rescuers (R) take responsibility for solving other people's problems.
Active Listeners/Helpers (H) listen to and assist the person in solving their own issues. When you (R) you don't listen. When you stop (R) you have the opportunity to really hear what is being said and therefore you are a (H).

Have a great week and please join me at Shapes on Oct. 5!