In Canada an aboriginal person can get full funding for their post secondary education, including living expenses, and travel expenses as well as tuition fees. They don't need to do well in school or write an essay or prove they still practice aboriginal traditions, they get the money no questions asked. This is unjust, people shouldn't be rewarded just because of who their parents are, amirite?

u go girrrrrrrl

FIRST OF ALL,
I am aboriginal and NO, we do not get funding just like that. For example, I do not live on the reserve but one of my parents does and because I do not, they do not count me as a "native". Only a select few will get funding from the government. Also, WHY SHOULD other races get the same treatment? The caucasians took our land from us and still treat us poorly. Its only right we get help from the government. Shove that in your pipe and smoke it.

Even then. It puts a giant chip on your shoulder knowing that people in your family treated unfairly by the government because of their race. More than that, the amount of culture that has been lost over the last two century is astounding. Most bands now are struggling to try and keep teenagers interested in their heritage and they fall into a downward spiral where less interest creates causes a decrease of resources which causes less interest and so on.
These people aren't immigrants with a native country--this IS their country and to watch their societies slowly crumbling away is an awful thing to go through. Sure, the original crimes may have been against their great-grandparents, but that doesn't mean the teenagers today aren't feeling the affects of it.

It's not "for nothing". I know that a lot of people victimize themselves unjustly but I think we underestimate how much something done against a person's parents can affect them, especially when it's race/culture based.
Also, if the government does nothing for the kids, what's left? A public apology? Sure, that's great, but there has to be some weight behind it before it carries any meaning.

Actually I would be against the great grand children of holocaust survivors getting money for nothing.

Well said, thank you. I mean it.

It's not their parents, it's their grandparents closest. Probably even more distant than that.

But we have to understand that the native and the government agreed on this so that the government can use the natives land. Of course they get benefits. You think we're going to steal their land and banish their culture? No

You don't have to. Just by immigrating to the country and changing the dominant culture by a wide enough margin you send native north american culture into decline. Without efforts to preserve it, it disappears completely and becomes nothing more than a chapter in a history text book.
Besides, I don't think any of the treaties mentioned abuse or 30-60% mortality rates among residential school students in the fine print.

If they're competing equally there shouldn't be a problem. Why are you complaining about something the government themselves set up? Treaties provide these opportunities and give bands funds to supply them. They deserve whatever they agreed on with the government when they had everything taken away from them. It's important to secure a healthy future for their youth. Especially after enduring such a catastrophe such as the residential schools.

Aboriginals are presented with different opportunities based on the government, which is also fair due to the circumstance of their treaties.
i.e those scholarships.

I don't think those people with blue eyes, or Caucasians, or for people with ring fingers longer than index fingers, or people who were born in June, or people with straight hair, or people with a widow's peak, or people with detached ear lobes, or any of these other things that we happen to be born with or without are given the same opportunities because they haven't endured something such as the violent colonization that directly changed their ancestor's lives and caused those scholarships to be presented. If they did, the very same would happen.

It's still early enough that their grandparents did. Why would we revert to that again? You're making it sound as if they can just go up and receive funding and scholarships. They can't. ''They don't need to do well in school'', that's completely false. They get opportunities because that was what both parties agreed on, if you dislike it, you could always leave.

If you take away one part of a treaty, the rest are surely to collapse. Taking away something they agreed on wouldn't serve a purpose. That one minority group was targeted and directly changed rather than the majority of people who live there now. Many aboriginal youth are still living on reservations, in poverty and need fundings that are rightfully theirs. Maybe we would have these ''equal rights'' you speak of if they were treated with equality in the first place. It isn't something to forget. Treaties were made and those treaties will be respected. Like I said, if you dislike it, you can always leave.

I'm disagreeing that ''they don't need to do well in school or write an essay or prove they still practice aboriginal traditions, they get the money no questions asked. This is unjust, people shouldn't be rewarded just because of who their parents are'' because those funds are based on something already agreed on in treaties and are by no means easy to get. Go bring up that issue of rejected funds based on those articles with someone who could help you. Anyone can apply for scholarships, which if fair. Aboriginals are presented with different opportunities based on the government, which is also fair due to the circumstance of their treaties.

It's a treaty that's been agreed on. Maybe you could go bring it up to the government and try to whine to them instead? They worked together after having a mass genocide of their people on their own land. They were given treaties which in all actuality is fair. You can't break something once it's signed without a massive uproar but if it concerns you ever so much that you feel you aren't being given equal rights in a country as lovely and free as Canada, I'm sure they'd appreciate the feedback.

How haven't they? Many live on the same reserves as their grandparents. You aren't living in the warzone area your grandfather fought in. It hasn't been long enough since residential schools, and it never will. I'm so happy you ''WORKED FOR BY MAINTAINING AN AVERAGE ABOVE 95%'' and kept a scholarship. They don't have to pay taxes? Are you serious? They pay major taxes just like everyone else.

I don't really know about Canada but I do know that a lot of the Native Americans on reservations in the U.S. still have a rough time, not because of what their ancestors went through (which was awful) but because of the aftereffects -- the red tape, the lack of schoolteachers, etc. I believe that the government should help them with their post-secondary education aspirations. HOWEVER. I don't think it's fair for the government to award scholarships -just- based on race. Every applicant for a scholarship should have to prove that they deserve it, whether it be an essay or simply a family income assessment.

Oh, and I do feel like pointing out that there are quite a few ridiculous scholarships out there, including scholarships for the left-handed, scholarships for tall people, and there is even a scholarship for people with the last name "Zolp". Yes, there are scholarships that are based off of how people are born -- yes, they are sometimes evaluated unfairly. Unfortunately there is not much we can do about it.

So you honestly find this fair:
Scholarships for Aboriginals (on top of government funding):
http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc....g/ao20011.html
Someone's attempt at a Scholarship for non-aboriginals:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/s...-race-123.html

Right, everyone can apply for scholarships, like this one:
https://you.ubc.ca/ubc/okanagan/aborigtuition.ezc
And these ones:
http://indspire.ca/scholarships
And ALL of these:
http://www.aboriginallearning.ca/resources/1/1/2

Where did the government agree to that?
Now tell me, if I created a scholarship for people with blue eyes, or for Caucasians, or for people with ring fingers longer than index fingers, or people who were born in June, or people with straight hair, or people with a widow's peak, or people with detached ear lobes, or any of these other things that we happen to be born with or without, what would people say?

They have indirectly suffered. They should be compensated because that is what has been agreed on. When in fact, the government itself does supply certain scholarships. Go complain and try to change it and explain this lack of ''equal rights''.

Voice it somewhere out in the real world.

Right, that's a wonderful option, leave our country if you don't like a law. And there are people that aren't aboriginal that are living in poverty, and people that are aboriginal that are living the high life and don't have to pay for their education on top of it. Bursaries are available for people in need of money, and aboriginal people could apply for them, and write essays, and earn the money, just like the rest of us.

I'm a little confused as to why someone would vote down the above comment... they weren't being offensive, they weren't being controversial (as you both have been in other comments) and they were being fair. Seems like some people are just being bloody minded.

I mean tax on goods when they go shopping in reserves, which they don't have to pat, actually. And I wouldn't compare a reserve to a warzone, that's ignorant.
And if fourty years is long enough for my parents to go from living in council houses and a caravan to living in a well to do area, then a century is long enough for the natives.

I didn't actually write that, I'm just a commenter, but neither I nor the OP said anything about reverting to residential schools, I just believe that everyone should get equal opportunities, if, for example, the government is willing to pay for aboriginals' school fees, they should be willing to pay for everyone's. It's a simple concept, most people know it as "equal rights."

You're being ignorant as well. Maybe you should try telling them that then.

I have. Plenty of them agree with me.

Did the students of today go to residential schools, or do they get the same opportunities as their peers, if not more? And I said they compete equally to get into post secondary institutions, I never said they compete equally for funding and scholarships, they get far more opportunities there.

How have they indirectly suffered? Just because my grandfather was in the War doesn't mean I indirectly deserve compensation as a veteran, and don't say that they're poor because if it, because both my parents were born poor, and they managed to make enough to support me with the help of scholarships that I WORKED FOR BY MAINTAINING AN AVERAGE ABOVE 95% rather than just relying on the government, it's been long enough since the residential schools and colonization that they should have worked their way out of their situation, especially when they don;t have to pay taxes, or tuition fees, and are presented with more opportunities than any other minority or majority on Canada.

Aboriginals haven't endured colonization though! Their ancestors did, not them, that;s the point, they haven't suffered, so why should they be compensated? And my point with those scholarships is that they aren't done by the government, they're secular, just like one for people with blue eyes, or Caucasians, or for people with ring fingers longer than index fingers, or people who were born in June, or people with straight hair, or people with a widow's peak, or people with detached ear lobes, or any of these other things that we happen to be born with or without would be. Jesus, it's like arguing with a bloody brick wall.

" being put away to be forgotten by the rest of society. How many aboriginals do you know? Oh that's right, they were wiped out"
I know lots of aboriginals...

You should watch the Pathology of White Privilege. I'm not sure if you're white or not, but he makes a great point about how the average white American (lives in the suburbs, has a car, went to college) does not know the true pain of being an oppressed minority group, a kind of pain that goes down generations.

Yeah, well I don't think there's much of a problem with giving people scholarships for being aboriginal if they can prove they still adhere to the traditions and such, but I know people who don't do anything to do with being aboriginal, except go on the career fairs just for aboriginals, and go to camping trips just for aboriginals, all things set up by the school. They don't respect their heritage off their own back, so why do they deserve money for it.if they maybe wrote an essay to prove they still are part of the aboriginal culture from their ancestors, then they might deserve one, but not just for having the blood, that's ridiculous.

You have to be at least 1/4 native soooooo

Also, you're*. Your point is invalid when you're complaining about aboriginals getting money for scholarships over you when you don't know basic grammar.