Abstractions won’t solve age-old crisis

Re Indigenous issues must be addressed at every level, Opinion Jan. 1

All Canadians want “equality” for our indigenous peoples. Tragically, Bob Rae’s chimerical route to equality is more “decolonization” and more indigenous “self-government,” but within the context of an even more chimerical new, third “effective order of government by and for indigenous people.”

These totally abstract, undefinable words and concepts, which bear no relation to the physical reality playing out daily on reserves, epitomize the destructive power of ideological abstractions over human lives. It seems that utopian thinkers like Mr. Rae and his law firm’s indigenous clients reason that the finite sacrifices that occur every day on reserves — unconscionably high rates of suicide, poverty, alcoholism, drugs, criminality etc. — is a price worth paying for their infinite totally abstract, highly contingent payoff “decolonized self-government.”

An abstract, infinitely remote end like that is not an end for our suffering indigenous peoples; it’s a perpetual prison for the present. Peter Best, Sudbury

Re Giving birth alone and far from home, Jan. 2

Your story said indigenous women are giving birth alone. Where are our priorities and our hearts?

We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on refugees from places like Syria. We don’t know their backgrounds or whether they will be good Canadian citizens and yet we pride ourselves on our compassion.

Where is our compassion for indigenous people? They are Canadians, like us, needing some extra care because they live in our northern areas. We spend millions on hospital care for those who live in the larger Canadian cities.

Indigenous people in the north are just as deserving. Let’s find the best way to make birthing easier in our Canadian north, set up effective procedures, and spend the required funds. Compassion should be shown equally to all Canadians and prior to compassion for refugee claimants. Jonathan Usher, North York

When Canada finally has an Indigenous prime minister, only then will Canadians be able to confidently look back into history. Hopefully, this will take less than 10,000 years. Douglas Cornish, Ottawa