03 October 2016

Dear National Post... the actual problem...

...is not that Canadian prisons are full of aboriginal graffiti artists...
"For example, if someone spray paints graffiti on a school wall and the offender is a great lacrosse player, the law stipulates the person can be ordered to teach students how to play the sport."
Are you people shittin' me? Let's get real...
Sapers pointed to statistics that show the total number of people incarcerated in federal institutions went down by 12 per cent between 1996 and 2004. But the number of native inmates increased 21 per cent in the same period.
And...
One in 10 aboriginal children now lands in foster care, compared to one in 200 for non-aboriginal children, the AFN said. There are currently three times as many children in foster care as there were in residential schools.
You're gonna fix all that with lacrosse, right?

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RELATED: Stereotypes come from somewhere
Ten years later, the innovative, hard-working artist at the centre of that revolution was living rough in Ottawa, selling her drawings on the street and begging for beer money near a downtown liquor store. On Sept. 19, her body was found in the Rideau River. She was 47 years old.
It's sad, but you can't save people from themselves.