WEBVTT

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Hey Canada, I'm Wab Kinew;

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I know I'm not your boyfriend,

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but I wouldn't mind being your man on the side

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but for this thing to work,

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there's five things you're going to have to have to stop saying about my people.

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First thing: alcohol.

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The big thing that separates us here isn't the alcohol,

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it's the poverty.

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Because when a non-Native person passes out,

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they do it at a curling club,

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or a Nickelback concert.

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But when a Native person does,

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they do it on the street,

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which is shameful, but oh-so comfortable.

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Then there's this whole idea of get over it.

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You know, why don't you guys just get over it.

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You know, I am over it.

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My dad was raped in a residential school by a nun.

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I'm over it.

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But it doesn't mean that we should forget it.

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Then, there's the long hair thing.

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You know, some Aboriginal people do wear their hair long

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as a symbol of cultural pride.

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Those are the Natives beautiful long, straight hair.

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For a curly-haired Ojibwe such as myself,

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hair clippers have been the greatest invention of the white man since the mirror.

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Then, I often hear this question:

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what are you guys doing with the seven billion dollars?

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The seven billion dollars we give Indian Affairs--

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what are you guys doing with it?

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You know what,

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that money has to pay for a population the same size as New Brunswick.

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You know what New Brunswick spends on their population?

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Eight billion dollars.

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And yet I never hear Canadians ask:

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hey New Brunswick, what are you doing with your eight billion dollars?

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Finally, one of your favourites: taxes.

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Guess what, I'm a Status Indian,

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I pay income tax, I pay sales tax,

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I once even paid a land transfer tax.

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Ironic.

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It's all part of a much larger stereotype:

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that Aboriginal people in Canada

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are getting a free ride.

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A hundred and forty years after the treaties,

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we're still waiting for the things that we were promised

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in those agreements to share the land.

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So I ask you:

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who's really getting the free ride?