FEDERAL CONSERVATIVES BEHAVED UNREASONABLY

According to the story in last Friday's (Aug.2/12) Waterloo Region Record "It was "unreasonable in all circumstances" for the federal government to appoint a third-party manager for the financially troubled First Nations community of Attawapiskat, the Federal Court ruled Wednesday." So far so good but then the Court decided to throw a bone to the government by suggesting that there was no political malice nor intent to embarassthe reserve or its members. Give me a break. If it was unreasonable based on all circumstances then clearly the reason was either gross incompetence and stupidity or it was for self serving reasons. That would be self serving political reasons. Keep in mind we are dealing with Conservatives here. Conservative as in anti union, anti welfare, anti gay, anti ...well you get the picture. Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet decided they could look good on a humanitarian basis while sending a clear message that the reserve were the authors of their own misfortune and they the party of business and industry would bail them out while carefully usurping full financial control of the reserve. That is just about as political as it gets.

Clearly the Court has refuted any suggestion that the band had been mismanaging funds. Furthermore the Court stated "The decision to appoint (Marion) did not respond in a reasonable way to the root of the problems at Attawapiskat nor to the remedies available". It seems obvious to me the federal Conservatives were more interested in the optics of the situation and in "managing" those optics then in solving the problem. This is Canadian politics at their worst.