Monday, February 1st, 2010

Since when is calling for accountability a bad thing? Since when is it wrong to want to hold your government responsible for the good and the bad? I have noticed very recently that in response to this blog, Communications now keeps a blog on behalf of Chief and Council, but their blog is heavily censored, so any comments you may wish to leave for them have to be approved first. So in the effort to communicate more and be more open and accountable they are still in essence trying to control and manipulate what's said and what comments make it on to their blog. There is one particular comment that was left by Anonymous. Only someone who didn't grow up here and spent a portion of their lives denying their ancestry would have the nerve to refer to us (Rama) as "The #1 First Nation in Ontario" and accuses the Group for Accountability of 'causing negativity'. My response to that would be this - It's not that were not the #1 First Nation in Ontario, but we would never be so arrogant as to refer to ourselves that way. Many of us have family and friends in other First Nations communities and it's just not like us to put ourselves above another community. THAT'S JUST NOT OUR WAY! Someone who actually grew up on the Rez or lives here might actually know this, and I mean no disrespect to our off reserve membership, you're the one's were trying to reach. But seriously, how out of touch with the community can you be???? And as for causing 'negativity', if choosing to educate and advocate for community members on their right to know and right to partcipate than I suppose were guilty of rocking the boat and shaking things up a bit. But if we didn't feel it was 100%, ABSOLUTELY necessary for community members to know what the issues are and participate in their government for the sake of future generations to come then I suppose we wouldn't take the time to do what were doing. But obviously we care a great deal about our community and the health of our people and if that can be twisted by Chief and Council OR administration and made to look like attempts to breed negativity for the sake of maintaining their secrecy and iron grip on affairs then I wouldn't put it passed them for trying. Be aware of what you hear and what they put out there that casts this group in a negative light. In the coming months you may start to hear some very obvious attempts at attention diversion. Do not be fooled! You know better than this! You know that something isn't right. You know it in your gut and you know it in your heart. Question everything, and don't believe everything you hear. We, the members of the Group for Accountability have doors that are always open and are willing to listen to your concerns. We will never stoop to spreading rumours or attempting to divert your attention from the issues at hand and we will continue to press Chief and Council for the answers to the questions they don't want to address. Miigwech.