[Chief Terrance Nelson of Roseau River [Manitoba] has been targetted by the Asper Press for some time now, all in response to his rather mild observation that to attack anti-Jewish comments in the press while ignoring anti-indigenous comments would inevitably cause a backlash. He recently wrote a letter to the editor for the Winnipeg Free Press (owned independent of the Asper family) regarding what he sees as the hypocrisy of the Asper papers. they refused to run his letter. Here we reproduce it below.]

Dear Editors

Re: Alexandra Paul Article on David Asper

Alexandra Paul quotes David Asper in a January 28th Winnipeg Free Press article as stating, “Asper said he is not making any apologies.” What the writer does is sidetrack the issue, insinuating that David Asper is confronting the Chiefs on accountability issues, when in fact the real issue is racism. The Free Press should have had the courage to reprint the National Post racist comments to make the real issue clear for the readers.

The Asper family owns the National Post which has published some incredibly racist and de-humanizing articles, including the following:

“The day after Halloween, all the kids brought bags of candy to school, and one chubby girl ate so much that she defecated right there in the classroom. She was so enraged when the boys teased her about it that she reached into her underwear to remove the offending rank mass and began throwing it around the room. I distinctly recall the considerably large contents of her bowels splattering on the blackboard - way too close to where I was standing.” Laurie Gough, Saturday, November 19, 2005”

Or the following:

“It was said that most females had been raped at least once. I remember learning that a six-year old girl in my class had been raped just before school began. The episode was seen as unexceptional, and the rapist suffered no punishment.”

“You can take any hardworking, educated, motivated person and stick him on that reserve, to live the life of the people. Come back in a year and you will have an alcoholic, depressed, hopeless person”.

“In the pitch-black nights, the only sounds one heard were the dogs barking-and gunshots. The housing provided for teachers was flimsy. I always feared a stray bullet would come through the wall.”

“All of the children had head lice,”

“It was distressing to see their dilapidated homes just a short distance from those lovely houses at the other end of the reserve, with their television aerials and cars. It was equally distressing that the government allowed the money that was meant for all the residents to be kept and used by the few who controlled the reserve.”

“Those in control of the reserve cared not one bit.”

The editors at the National Post must have known that the articles were beyond inflammatory and that the articles were promoting racism towards First Nations people when they printed allegations without any proof. They allowed the Lynn Foster article to printed with the following understanding:

“In order to avoid possible reprisals, the author has chosen to write this article under the pseudonym Lynne Foster.”

The Lynn Foster article was a poison piece written by a disgruntled former employee of the First Nation. Even she admits in the article, “When I started, I was offered a set figure as pay. A year later, I received less than half of this amount. I discovered one cannot litigate against anyone on a reserve.”

Not only did the National Post editors know that this piece was extremely biased written by someone who unsuccessfully sued the First Nation but they took it a step further. The editors added a ¼ page cartoon depicting a white man handing what looks like a “cigar store Indian” money. If that message given in the cartoon was not enough for the readers, the editors decided to further depict a stereotypical drunken Indian man holding a bottle of alcohol, a crying child that everyone is ignoring and a beaten black eyed native woman begging.

The Free Press did a disservice to its readers and to the native people by trying to sidetrack the issue into one of leadership accountability, when the fact is that David Asper and the National Post promoted hatred. The National Post (David Asper) is promoting hatred of First Nation people by deliberately restating old worn out stereotypes and giving out false information.

He stated “the government of Canada gives 400,000 reserve resident native Canadian households the equivalent of $70,000 per year” This is false information deliberately designed to exonerate Canada and put the blame for poverty directly upon the First Nations leadership. What this does is provide a target for people who pay taxes to blame the Indians. Can David Asper provide proof of his numbers or back his accusations against the Chiefs?

The accusations that First Nation leadership is uncaring and full of thieves cannot be more clearly put than in quoting David Asper as saying:

“Asper said Canada’s system of aboriginal governance has created an industry of dependence that keeps the elites, including chiefs, relatively affluent. Meanwhile, reserve residents are impoverished and the general public is kept at a physical and emotional distance from the reality of reserve life.”

Coupling this statement with what the editors allowed to be printed in the 1500 word article by Lynn Foster in which she blamed the leadership of the First Nation for the situation. “Those in control of the reserve cared not one bit.” The accusations are clear, Chiefs are thieves and don’t care about the plight of their people.

Ten months ago on April 9th 2005, I tried to warn Canadians and Jewish people that if the David Ahenakew hate crime trial in Saskatchewan was not handled properly “native hatred of Jews will rise dramatically!” I got a tremendous backlash from press and Jewish organizations for refusing to condemn David Ahenakew and for the hurtful comments I made in that press release.

What I feared would happen is now becoming a distinct reality, this has now become a race issue. Last week the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs passed a resolution unanimously seeking hate crime prosecution against David Asper and the National Post, but once again media outlets like the Winnipeg Free Press are not telling the whole story and the reasons behind the anger felt by the Chiefs.

The National Post has published seriously biased articles against First Nations long before the David Ahenakew statements became public. After the Ahenakew trial, the National Post continued to publish what can only be called promotion of hate against First Nation people.

Regardless of the limits of Section 319(2) of the Criminal Code, there is message here that the Aspers need to hear. The editors hired and paid for by the Asper family not only allowed poisoned articles to be published, the editors had a hand in the articles by reinforcing the message with paid for cartoons and with comments like, “As a teacher in Kashechewan, the author’s idealized view of native communities was beset by a classroom of uncontrollable children, heirs to generations of neglect and a dying culture”

Perhaps if David Asper had written only one article and the National Post had only slandered the leadership of First Nations once or twice, we can let things slide, but the National Post has published dozens of hate filled articles slandering First Nations over a number of years.

Alexandra Paul states, “Asper said he is not making any apologies.” Publicly at the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs meeting, the Chiefs were livid in their comments. Privately, for some of the Chiefs, there was hatred expressed. And so it begins once again, tit for tat, the same path that began in Palestine, the same beginnings of the road to hatred.

Canada is a peaceful nation, a nation that doesn’t appreciate that native people have never bombed anyone, never sent rockets against Parliament, never high-jacked planes to use as missiles and that, through the hundreds of suicides in First Nation communities, no one killed anyone except themselves.

Similar to the other chiefs, I was extremely angry at the way the National Post tried to label our people. There are no children in Ginew School digging in their underwear to throw their feces around the classroom. Rape is not a culturally acceptable act amongst our people and our people do not receive $70,000 per household. Our Chief and Council administration did not steal money from the people. In Roseau River, all our funerals are conducted by our own traditional people, suicides are well below the Canadian average, welfare day is like any other day, the bar in town is closed because the Indians don’t drink enough. We care for our people!

It is important that Canada take this matter seriously. If the National Post continues to publish hate-filled articles against First Nation people, we will all regret that we didn’t try harder to stop the hatred. If David Asper speaks for the Jews and no Jewish individuals or organizations are willing to confront him or condemn the National Post, then why did all the Chiefs except me stand in line to condemn Ahenakew?

The Aspers are asking the federal government for $100 million to fund the Jewish Holocaust museum. How can Canada consider funding the Aspers for a Human Rights Museum if they cannot even understand that de-humanization was the first step of the Nazi government before the Holocaust began? The Aspers are de-humanizing the First Nations people. Unlike the Jewish people in the 1940s, we are not about to simply stand by and watch de-humanization happen.

As I stated from the beginning, I will publicly condemn David Ahenakew when the Jews start confronting and condemning some of their own people who spread hatred against my people. Is David Asper’s comment “Bring it on” in regards to the suit against him supported by the Jewish people in general and by Jewish organizations?

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs asked to meet with David Asper in order that we could stop the hatred. I believe that I speak for all the Chiefs when I say our door is still open to dialogue, at least for now.

Sincerely
Chief Terrance Nelson
204-782-4827