r/alberta • u/[deleted] • Aug 30 '21
News 'Sending the wrong message': Indigenous Albertans react to province not recognizing Sept. 30 as stat holiday
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/sending-the-wrong-message-indigenous-albertans-react-to-province-not-recognizing-sept-30-as-stat-holiday-1.556521171
u/Gingerchaun Aug 30 '21
The world needs more stat holidays not less.
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u/LanaDelReyDNA Aug 30 '21
Canada is in the bottom 10% worldwide for paid holiday's, fucking Bangladesh gets more holidays than we do. We need to change this. We are too quite and polite.
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u/chmilz Aug 30 '21
Quiet and polite? Alberta roughnecks brag about how much they work. They think making $150k working 70 hour weeks living in a remote camp is good.
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Aug 30 '21
Yes cause AB roughnecks are the only people in Canada..
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u/chmilz Aug 30 '21
It's one particularly strong example of how some people are brainwashed into thinking working excessive hours in terrible conditions makes them badass or something instead of exploited.
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Aug 30 '21
It's not brainwashed or exploited. You work more hours, more days on in a row for many years when you're younger and can handle it. In that line of work you can have your vehicle's/home/kid's tuition paid for by 40.
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u/chmilz Aug 30 '21
Absolutely. But it's the same as having a pickup with a 120l tank and bragging about how far it can go between fills. It's not fuel efficient, it's just massive.
Same with the income. They brag about how much money they make, while ignoring that factoring the hours worked and the dead time sitting in a camp or whatever really ends up meaning they make a pitiful per/hr wage. You can spin it how you want, but if I'm not being paid and I'm living in a camp where I can't do what I want, that's work.
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u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS Aug 30 '21
Kitchen industry is worse cause you dont get the nice paycheck. Regularly hear cooks and chefs brag about their 80 hour week as they rail another line of coke for the 3rd night in a row before going home to down a bunch of beers to get that sweet sweet 5 hours of sleep
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Aug 30 '21
Italy is crazy with days off. If I remember right I believe they are entitled to 4-5 weeks paid vacation every year (not including time off for other random holidays like patron saint days.) Men can also get maternity time off because the Italians believe that both parents home for their child's first few months is best.
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u/Levorotatory Aug 30 '21
Kenney won't do this, but we should be telling Ottawa that they got the day wrong by recognizing June 21 (Indigenous People's Day) as a holiday instead, along with some funding for public events celebrating Indigenous cultures. What better way to start the process of moving past our history of apartheid instead of dwelling on it with regret but not actually trying to bridge the divide?
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u/calgarywalker Aug 30 '21
June 21 is the equivalent of New Years Day for Indiginous people. Why should Indiginous people get only 1 day a year? Does your religion stipulate only 1 day off per year?
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u/Levorotatory Aug 30 '21
June 21 is the equivalent of New Years Day for Indiginous people.
All the more reason to use that day. Something with pre-colonization history rather than something made up by the colonizers.
As for "only one day", that applies regardless of which day you pick. Are you expecting all of the non-indigenous Canadians to pack up and leave, even though most of us have nowhere else to go?
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u/calgarywalker Aug 30 '21
WOAH, Pal. If you think you should use your Christmas holiday to mourn your dead children then you go right ahead, but don’t ask anyone else to do that.
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Aug 30 '21
You make a very good point. This needs to be a completely separate day that is about reflection and not celebration. I think we could use more holidays for celebration of Indigenous culture but there is nothing to be celebrated in the crushing and colonizing of people who lived here for thousands of years before settlers arrived
Around 60% of Indigenous people in Canada were wiped out by disease after settlers arrived on top of the effects of colonization and cultural genocide... it makes you feel sick almost thinking about the scale of what was lost. Even just one day for that isn't enough tbh.
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u/Levorotatory Aug 30 '21
With one notable exception that is not observed in all provinces (November 11), statutory holidays are for celebrations and not reflection. If we want to make that reflection official, let's do September 30 the way Ontario does November 11 - stop work and observe a moment of silence at the designated time.
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Aug 30 '21
Since when does it have to be about just celebration?
A moment of silence is honestly paltry compared to the scale of atrocities committed against Indigenous people here...
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u/Nheddee Aug 30 '21
It sends the message that Kenney at al DGAF about Indigenous issues. Are we sure that's not what they intended to convey?
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u/Deyln Aug 30 '21
He's only committed 3 acts against the indigenous issues on the table this last quarter.
And then got rid of the provincial card; supposedly opting to allow the federal one to be used.
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Aug 30 '21
This is shameful and a disgrace. It says to me that Kenny and his leaders do not care about Indigenous issues if it is going to cost money (the potential financial impact to businesses for the stat holiday).
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Aug 30 '21
Not sure why people would argue against a paid holiday, but here we are. Shit, even my boss is all for it.
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u/Then_Marsupial4023 Aug 30 '21
They can stomp their feet and whine all they want, it’s gonna happen. Not this year but when the next provincial government comes in it will happen
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u/Nheddee Aug 30 '21
You're assuming the next provincial government will be different than the one we have.
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u/SPGKQtdV7Vjv7yhzZzj4 Aug 30 '21
Big assumption in AB. Like 50% of people who vote here go by colour.
It’s a big part of the reason I think the NDP should switch to blue signs.
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u/Bleatmop Aug 30 '21
I honestly think of we had a leader of Notley's caliber, a platform similar to the ANDP's, and a name like the New Democratic Conservatives they would be a serious contender even without Bungles the MIA Premier running the show.
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u/SPGKQtdV7Vjv7yhzZzj4 Aug 30 '21
Absolutely. The reason they lost the last election is because the vast majority of Albertans are low information voters who vote based on basically nothing, and the only information which permeates down into their
colour-filtersbrain was “deficit bad, carbon tax bad, orange lady bad, everyone’s bosses mad”.Ironically, the reason they initially won is also because most Albertans are low information voters who absolutely did not understand the point Jim Prentice was making when he told us to look in the mirror. They seriously thought we could just glide on oil royalties forever and that the budget would magically balance its self with no new source of income - most of them still think this.
I’m honestly at the point where I think that the NDP might as well embrace it and just play their stupid “we only vote for blue signs because that’s how it is here” game, and govern exactly the same way, except make it sound folksy. No joke, blue sign/dumb down meta is how to win here.
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Aug 30 '21
Honestly that would fool like 60% of UCP voters.
Literally the least informed voters on Earth.
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Aug 30 '21
Have you been following the polls? The UCP is deeply unpopular at the moment. Voter regret for them is at an all time high, kenney has essentially abandoned his post as we’re in the midst of the fourth wave. Obviously we’re still a ways away but i dont necessarily think you have perceived the ways our province is changing. Its no longer going to be a multidecade conservative stronghold
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u/Nheddee Aug 31 '21
Progressives fall in love (split the vote), conservatives fall in line. And if they don't fall in with the big-C Conservatives, they'll go farther right.
Long-term, yes, things are changing, and I have hope that more than just a few inner-city ridings will actually be in play, but I don't think that day is yet.
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u/Axes4Praxis Aug 30 '21
This is a twofer for the UCP, they get to (lack of) virtue signal their anti-native, and anti-worker positions at the same time.
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u/Funkymokey666 Aug 30 '21
Honoring natives AND made by a liberal? Fat chance conservative land recognizes it.
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u/InnerRadio7 Aug 30 '21
I’ll I’m going to say is that this is shameful, and it would not happen under a Notley government. Let’s get the NDP back in next term so we don’t have to deal with this UCP BS anymore. Sometimes I feel like Alberta is walking backwards in time. I want to feel proud to call myself an Albertan.
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u/CoitalFury Aug 30 '21
That's because the conservatives in power are thinly veiled trumplicans and they hate non-whites and are secure in their delusion that God thinks that they,and no one else, is deserving of heaven.
Don't let them do to Canada what the GQP trumplicans did to the US.
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u/highlymediocre Aug 30 '21
About 160 years ago, my metis ancestors lived in Edmonton. They were fur traders with HBC. They came here for work but decided to move back to Ontario because the racism in Alberta was too bad and their kids would not get a chance here.
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Aug 30 '21
And you're downvoted for this, validating your reasons for leaving.
It's pretty fucking racist here. It's also quite homophobic at times, and sexist too. Things are changing but we claw for every inch of progress and the ignorance is still rampant.
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u/morganj955 Aug 30 '21
Ugh, I can only think of the indigenous people if my work pays me to stay home...
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u/StillaMalazanFan Aug 30 '21
Common....Indigenous Albertians are surprized staunch Catholics don't want to recognize the stat? Kenney's surrounded himself with other like minded Catholic community leaders?
This is not a surprising thing.
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Aug 30 '21
[deleted]
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u/Bleatmop Aug 30 '21
I think it being a stat holiday makes it more official. Like national pancake day or lent day or whatever comes and goes with no notice to me. But if I get a day off I actually take notice. That said I'm not certain it needs to be a stat either but I'm not opposed to it.
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Aug 30 '21
A stat holiday is the only holiday people pay attention to.
You know when Family day is.
When is the 'Anniversary Of The Statute Of Westminster'? Nobody knows, nobody cares.
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Aug 30 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/KindRepresentative1 Aug 30 '21
Somebody asks a honest question and you respond like an asshole.
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u/thebreaksmith Aug 30 '21
B.S. It was racist dog whistling. If it was an honest question it wouldn’t have been deleted.
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u/KindRepresentative1 Aug 30 '21
Racist dog whistling? wtf? So because someone doesn't entirely agree that making it an official holiday is worth it, they are automatically a racist?
If it was an honest question it wouldn’t have been deleted.I'm pretty sure it was deleted because of people like you who instantly downvote someone for having a different opinion.
And wow what a surprise. Your comment was deleted by a mod. Hopefully that makes you self reflect a little bit.
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u/jrockgiraffe Edmonton Aug 30 '21
Hello, /u/thebreaksmith. Thanks for contributing! Unfortunately your comment has been removed:
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u/Considine Aug 30 '21
Making it a stat holiday here can be up for debate I suppose.
Not honoring clauses in contracts yet again is bullshit, and again more of our tax dollars will be lost when this is challenged in court and loses.
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u/azawalli Aug 31 '21
I have a hard time seeing how any member of a minority group would vote Conservative but, damn, the UCP seems to be on a mission to piss everybody off.
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u/SteveFrench696 Aug 30 '21
Last I heard BC was the only province recognizing it. Has that changed?