Thread by @Norlaine

There is a narrative, incorrect but not uncommon, that says a) First Nations came over the Bering Strait, therefore, have no claims on land, & b) residential schools weren't all that bad, therefore First Nations deserve no special treatment. It is greed speaking here. 1/10

https://twitter.com/Dean_Winnipeg/status/1339247526315057152

It is a travesty that the treaty relationships were not taught in our schools. This has allowed the belief to grow that the government just gives First Nations people money and they are a drain on the system, and even that our taxes could be lower if we could just get them 2/10

Off reliance on the government. That isn't how it works. Treaties were made. Contracts signed. Effectively, we are paying rent for the use of the land (to put it in the most basic of terms). People who understand this try to undermine it by claiming First Nations are... 3/10

As much immigrants as the rest of us, therefore they don't have any claims to the land, and we should not be bound by the treaties. But we are bound and they receive money to which they are entitled, legally. And less than they should receive because white people are greedy. 4/10

The residential schools were an attempt to integrate Indigenous Peoples into our society, as was the 60s scoop. The thinking seems to have been that if we can assimilate them, we will no longer have to honour the treaties or make accommodations. 5/10

Those who maintain the residential schools were well-intentioned, or that they weren't all bad, are saying "We don't want to have to compensate people or give them any special allowances or position in society because it is inconvenient and uncomfortable and costly." 6/10

The same sort of people may well think Jews should just "get over" the Holocaust, or even deny that it happened. There is a stubborn refusal to accept psychological damage as real (in much the same way the UCP is trying to push people off AISH, and deny PTSD care to 7/10

Front line health care workers and first responders - there is no real belief that this is an actual thing and not just someone trying to rip them off, and this attitude extends to addicts and people deemed not mentally responsible for crimes). 8/10

Effectively, O'Toole is dog-whistling to his base who apparently don't like brown people very much; really don't like people they feel are inferior getting any sort of recognition or status; and really, really hate the fact that money is being paid for treaties/past wrongs. 9/10

There seems to be an ideology that people should work hard, break a sweat, in order to get money. Which is actually funny, because a lot of these people have spent their whole working lives enriching guys who wear $10,000 suits and have people to do most things for them. 10/10