I aspire to that quality of straightforward news reporting.

Calling it "The State of x (or Commonwealth of x), vs. y" would be better, but even if "The People" wouldn't support the case, it's still being brought on their behalf and ultimately the prosecutors work for elected officials. I don't think the Queen gives much thought, or ever could influence, the prosecutors' office in Manitoba.

Of course Law has a lot of those bits of terminology that don't literally make sense. Like, habeas corpus applies even when the case doesn't involve a corpus.

This story seems to get sadder and sadder.

Although the touch about the gay couple in small town Manitoba is nice.

QUOTE:
I don't think the Queen gives much thought, or ever could influence, the prosecutors' office in Manitoba.

Maybe not, but in other Commonwealth countries, the Privy Council is the highest court.

Gramsci, your brother is a hell of a reporter.

Two questions. What is a "treaty Indian"? And how did someone like Li get a special talent visa?

Great reporting. He got some good interviews.

QUOTE:
On the morning after the attack, Mr. Beatty got a call from the RCMP at work, saying an incident had occurred involving the man who sold him his laptop.

How did the RCMP know that he'd sold a lap top to the kid who works at the Kwiky Mart?

That kid needs to get out of that job. He's clearly a good negotiator. From $600 to $50 for a lap top. Nice.

QUOTE:
An officer visited his home and seized the computer, saying he might get restitution but wasn't likely to get the laptop back.

I'm amused that this detail got in. Do police usually give back evidence in a murder?


Privy council sounds like a group of people that meet in an outhouse.

Little bro' is going places, it's true. The G&M keeps trying to send him to Afghanistan, though, which is a bit of a problem.

"Treaty indian" is an Indian who has membership on a reserve and therefore receives the benefits to which Aboriginals are entitled under the various treaties. They don't actually have to live on the reserve, but they do have to have membership and be eligible to vote there, etc. The other term for this group is "status Indians". Not all First Nations peoples are status of course - some have been off-reserve in cities so long they have lost membership and become "non-status Indians".

And of course, there are also Inuit and Metis, who are Aboriginal, but not "indian" or First Nations and (more importantly) never signed any treaties.

I have no idea how Li got a special talent visa. Until a couple of years ago we only gave those out to Romanian exotic dancers. A lot of people have been coming this way since about '05 given the big labour shortages in the West; though since these are mostly for people working in construction, I don't see how Li fits this either.

The report says it could have been his wife who had the Special Talent.

Must resist...

Well, this guy's husband (brilliant!) is under the impression that his status as a treaty indian gives him special powers to see the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. Like Lamont Cranston. Or maybe Tonto.

How are the Inuit and Metis not "first nations?" They were here "first," weren't they?

And wasn't Nunavut created as part of negotiations with the Inuit? That's a treaty, of sorts, surely?

First Nations is a political term, not an anthropological one. Yes, the Inuit and the FNs were here at the same time, but that doesn't mean they have a united leadership or have common political interests (the lack of a treaty process for inuit is a big deal...they were far more nomadic than the Indians and never had a common leadership with whom treaties could be made, even had the Crown been so inclined).

Also, technically, the metis "arrived" (so to speak) *after* white settlement.

Nunavut is mostly Inuit, but was created basically to give a separate political identity to the Inuit (it used to be part of the NWT, which is mostly Dene, and Inuit and Dene don't get along). But it is in no sense the result of a treaty process or anything like it.

I thought it was the outgrowth of a treaty or at least an agreement of some kind with the Inuit leadership, such as it is.

Wiki says:

QUOTE:
In 1976 as part of the land claims negotiations between the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (then called the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada) and the federal government, the division of the Northwest Territories was discussed. On April 14, 1982, a plebiscite on division was held throughout the Northwest Territories with a majority of the residents voting in favour and the federal government gave a conditional agreement seven months later. The land claims agreement was decided in September 1992 and ratified by nearly 85% of the voters in Nunavut. On July 9, 1993, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act[5] and the Nunavut Act[4] were passed by the Canadian Parliament, and the transition was completed on April 1, 1999.[10]

I've always wanted to travel to the far north, but it's outrageously expensive (by my standards).

For a taster it's not too expensive to get the Polar Bear Express from Toronto to Moosonee, at the foot of St James Bay. CDN$354.00 return. It's a pretty neat ride.

By $354CDN return, do you mean "round trip?"

Yes, he does.

Have you done that ride, AdC? Most of the Canadian north doesn't appeal to me much. Except for the Yukon, which is fucking great.

That wiki entry is correct - but the point of land claims agreements is (usually but not always) precisely to remedy the fact that not all Aboriginals signed treaties to begin with. AdC, being from BC, will be much more intimately familiar with this process; we nevcer really signed treaties with the BC Indians and as a result large chunks of the province's real estate have uncertain title (there's always the possibility that a claim pursued through the courts will award the land back to the some Aboriginal group). The difference is that the treaties were signed (at least in theory) as equals to equals. Land claims agreements are ways of settling out of court with citizens whose lands have already been taken.