Thread by @sunnshiiny

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam I’m an indigenous woman & your rationale is embarrassing. To me and to every indigenous woman who has ever had to work three times as hard to be heard in mainstream Canada. How dare you equate the struggle of indigenous women for a place at the decision table to this situation.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam Indigenous women have long been the most disadvantaged people in Canada. But this situation has absolutely nothing to do with the struggle for our identities to be recognized & respected.

This is a vindictive act to draw attention to a spoiled brat & misbehaving trouble maker.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas has her opportunity to demonstrate her abilities & proudly represent the indigenous women in Canada. Instead she walked away from the party in power when her judgement was questioned and spent months trying to do damage to the governing party, vindictively out of spite.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas Her irrelevance and lack of integrity became apparent the day she recorded her scripted response of the top bureaucrat looking for dirt to smear the party that elevated her to a position of prominence no indigenous woman has ever experienced in Canada before.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas Think about that for a moment. A leader and a party rallied behind an indigenous woman and gave her the opportunity of a lifetime and an chance to demonstrate how competent and equal indigenous women can be. And she blew it.

She ended up leaving in disgrace and humiliation.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas Hiding behind a surreptitiously recorded conversation that breached attorney ethics. To demonstrate how ethical she is. What kind of logic is used to decide to breach ethics to prove others are breaching ethics? One that involves vanity and the sense of entitlement to power.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas Then to use the race and woman card to make it literally impossible for any non-indigenous person to question her integrity without the suspicion of racism and misogyny.

Only an indigenous woman could call her out at the point she made that accusation.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas And now you defend her defiance, arrogance and hubris to throw the race card on the table again!?

I’ve worked hard all my life to prove that I’m capable, intelligent, resourceful, analytical, adaptable and equal to any man or woman regardless of their heritage.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas This woman’s arrogance has tarnished everything I have worked to prove about myself and other indigenous women for the past 50 years. Because she doesn’t want to live with the consequences of her own choices.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas No one forced JWR to resign, to secretly record a privileged conversation or to make accusations against a man who gave her the opportunity of a lifetime to advance indigenous women’s image in Canadian politics. She made those choices herself.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas She is equal to every MP on the hill, but she is not superior. She is not afforded the ability to rewrite protocol for office assignments because of the her skin colour or her heritage. Like every other MP she has the choice to abide by the rules or buck the system.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas How frustratingly humiliating that this is the hill she wants to defend. Young up and coming indigenous women look to her across this nation, and frankly, internationally, as a role model on how to conduct themselves when working within a colonial system. This is her response?

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas This is the situation she chooses to dig in her heels? Her own vanity to keep the office suite that she inhabited when she was handed the opportunity to shine? Obstructionism and obstinate defiance. That’s what she wants to demonstrate as an indigenous woman.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas And you defend this?

I worked in a work trailer, out of my car, in a dingy office space that required space heaters in winter to be habitable. All to further indigenous peoples issues. I never once complained. Nor would I given the opportunity.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas This woman was given the opportunity to do some great work for her community and to advance reconciliation in Canada for all indigenous peoples. And she walked away from it. There are consequences to every choice we make. Losing the cushy office is one JWR will need to live with.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas It has absolutely nothing to do with her heritage or her gender. The offices are for ministers of the governing party. She no longer works for the governing party. Logic and reason would inform her that the office needs to be vacated.

Move out of the office space @Puglaas.

@gtlem @Niigaanwewidam @Puglaas Quit embarrassing yourself and every indigenous woman that has done with so much less than the office you will be assigned.

You made your choices. Now live with the consequences, like every other human being who is filled with delusions of grandeur. Time to come back to earth.