Kudos to Christina Blizzard, the veteran Queen's Park columnist whose frequent columns about the plight of Ontario's aboriginal communities are always written with such empathy.People in the GTA tend to forget about the "intense poverty" of First Nation men, women and children, but Christina has always been there to remind us of our lingering disgrace.
Nothing spoke more for Ontario's warped priorities than the placing yesterday of Christina's report from Pickle Lake beneath a Rob Granatstein column about Toronto's waterfront.
Toronto's waterfront, once a green paradise inhabited by aboriginals for centuries, is now a glut of concrete, roadways and high rise condos. The "haves" have it all on the wasted waterfront.
Meanwhile, aboriginals living in our remote and not-so-remote communities, the "have nots," struggle to survive one day at a time.
The proposed sharing of Ontario's annual billion dollar gambling profits with First Nation communities across the province is an overdue gesture, but it is progress.
Perhaps Christina's enlightening columns have helped shame the provincial government into doing more to improve the lives of aboriginals.
She is certainly due a salute for embracing aboriginal communities and for frequently reminding us something is terribly wrong here in Ontario, not just in Third World countries.
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