Hey Canada, I'm Wab Kinew;
I know I'm not your boyfriend,
but I wouldn't mind being your man on the side
but for this thing to work,
there's five things you're going to have to have to stop saying about my people.
First thing: alcohol.
The big thing that separates us here isn't the alcohol,
it's the poverty.
Because when a non-Native person passes out,
they do it at a curling club,
or a Nickelback concert.
But when a Native person does,
they do it on the street,
which is shameful, but oh-so comfortable.
Then there's this whole idea of get over it.
You know, why don't you guys just get over it.
You know, I am over it.
My dad was raped in a residential school by a nun.
I'm over it.
But it doesn't mean that we should forget it.
Then, there's the long hair thing.
You know, some Aboriginal people do wear their hair long
as a symbol of cultural pride.
Those are the Natives beautiful long, straight hair.
For a curly-haired Ojibwe such as myself,
hair clippers have been the greatest invention of the white man since the mirror.
Then, I often hear this question:
what are you guys doing with the seven billion dollars?
The seven billion dollars we give Indian Affairs--
what are you guys doing with it?
You know what,
that money has to pay for a population the same size as New Brunswick.
You know what New Brunswick spends on their population?
Eight billion dollars.
And yet I never hear Canadians ask:
hey New Brunswick, what are you doing with your eight billion dollars?
Finally, one of your favourites: taxes.
Guess what, I'm a Status Indian,
I pay income tax, I pay sales tax,
I once even paid a land transfer tax.
Ironic.
It's all part of a much larger stereotype:
that Aboriginal people in Canada
are getting a free ride.
A hundred and forty years after the treaties,
we're still waiting for the things that we were promised
in those agreements to share the land.
So I ask you:
who's really getting the free ride?