Liberal Leader Bob Rae arrives in Attawapiskat, Dec. 17, 2011. (REUTERS/Frank Gunn/Pool)
EDITORIAL. Great Canadian explorer Bob Rae journeys up to the deep north of Ontario over the weekend and discovers a Native community called Attawapiskat living in squalor on the shores of a mammoth bay named James."This is a Third World," he cries, as if his eyes are the first to bear witness. "And it is right here. Right here at home."
We are uncertain if he also cried, "Eureka!"
But perhaps he did.
We remind him, therefore, that this should not have been a Jacques Cartier moment.
We remind him, in fact, that he was premier of Ontario at the time former Attawapiskat chief Ignace Gull appeared before a royal commission to talk about appalling living conditions on his northern Cree reserve -- about scores being crammed into poorly-heated huts, about lack of water, about abuse both sexual and physical, about rampant alcoholism, and about how the reserve's youth were killing themselves huffing gasoline fumes.
And it was "right there," right in his own backyard, 20 years ago when he was not only the NDP premier of Ontario but the provincial overlord of Attawapiskat's provincial money.
So spare us if his cries over the weekend don't move us.
Bob Rae did nothing 20 years ago when he could have, and should have.
He ignored Ignace Gull's pleas.
And he is doing nothing now but lay blame at other doorsteps, namely the Harper government's, even though it was largely a Liberal government that did nothing for over the last two decades to alleviate the hell that remains the frozen septic tank of Attawapiskat.
No, to Bob Rae, now interim leader of the Liberal party that failed Attawapiskat so miserably, it is all Stephen Harper's fault.
It was one quote in particular from Rae over the weekend, however, that left us cold.
"We can't go on like this for the next decade or the next 20 years without some real improvements," he said about Attawapiskat.
Why not? He let it go 20 years ago. The Chretien Liberals let it go for 20 years.
If Rae wants to play the blame game, he can start with himself, and then move up the line.
Just don't feign ignorance or innocence.Read here.-
A Lesson For Bob Rae On What 3rd World Poverty Looks Like...
‘This is our Third World,’ Rae says at Attawapiskat
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