Gender Brutality, Larceny, Failure

Well that is a disappointment. Surely we would much prefer to have a good opinion of young Senator Patrick Brazeau than the one he has lately given us reason to form about the quality of his character. There is much that can be excused, but on the other hand, much more that simply cannot be accepted. As an Aboriginal Canadian, one who decried the ongoing situation on Canada's reserves with their unrealistic and desperately unworkable dedication to living their heritage, he was an effective, albeit unloved spokesman for reform.

He wanted to see First Nations come to their senses and remove themselves from the constancy of government dependency and handouts.  That like any other Canadians, Aboriginals were capable of competing in the workplace for good employment, after attending to their education to their fullest potential. Understandably, his outspoken criticisms of the status quo, and his insistence that it was past time for the Indian Act to be abandoned made him extremely unpopular with the Assembly of First Nations.

But he was someone who had something to say, and he had a significant position as chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, and as such had a podium from which to state his opinion. His message was that the Indian Act remained the single most significant factor largely perpetuating aboriginal poverty. And it had to be abandoned. The reserve system should be set aside as a failed experiment. He felt that the 633 status Indian bands would be best consolidated into 60 or so 'nations'.

Accountability for the billions spent annually from public coffers on aboriginal programs and services should be formalized. And then he was selected by the Prime Minister to sit in the Senate as one of its youngest members, at age 34. He is an Algonquin from the Kitigan Zibi First Nation in Quebec.  "I knew I was going to be a target from day one. I was appointed at the age of 34, a very young senator, the third youngest in Canadian history. That fact alone and the fact that perhaps that I'm also -- and I hate to say this -- perhaps the fact that I'm also aboriginal (would make me a target).

"People don't like the fact that we have aboriginal people in the Senate that can have a pretty powerful voice at times. I've always known I was going to be the target. That's fine."  Except that he made himself a target. He was his own worst enemy, as the saying goes. With revelations that he took steps to declare himself a resident outside the 100-km area of the capital, to make himself qualified for an annual residential supplementary benefit, was clearly unethical.

His brittle, sarcastic comments about Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence's absurd protest through the threat of a hunger-strike hardly struck those who felt her behaviour ridiculous, as abusive. He simply said what others thought themselves about the woman's ridiculous artifices.  But charges that have now been brought against Patrick Brazeau of domestic violence and sexual attacks are contemptible.

If true - and police in Gatineau responded to a 911 call ostensibly from the abused woman - that represents an unforgivable sin.