Craig makes a good point. Rarely do you get it straight from governments. It's not in their interests. Currently in Canada, all the chatter is about bald-faced lying by federal cabinet ministers, including a former prime minister. Fortunately, newspapers are providing a well-balanced diet of information and analysis, laying out context and chronology of what they said and what is known.
As for Indians, or First Nations who were here before us, I don't think any minority is coming ahead faster economically and politically in Canada, assisted by generous dollops of majority guilt. I work with them from time to time on resource-management and environmental issues. In our region, they have provided the most effective leadership in protecting habitat.
I understand Jim's view. It's the prevalent one here and, I suspect, there. I do not think that First Nations, by any measure, have made more of a balls-up of leadership, stewardship and governance than we have with a thousand years or so of a head-start. One thing I know with certainty: never in 40 years of tough-slugging has an Indian lied to me.
