Indian issues too complex?

Apge 4

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and we think Reform MP Jim Pankiw proved it this month. The 33-year-old chiropractor and acupuncturist who grew up on the family farm in Unity, Sask. was quick to jump in with his views on affirmative action when the University of Saskatchewan decided to try and make its workforce begin to reflect the population of its community. Pankiw's is a point of view that's been out there for awhile. There's no original thinking behind his declaration that affirmative action sometimes cheapens the accomplishments of minority people. There's some truth to what he says, although saying that reaching out to a much-discriminated against minority is even remotely similar to the hate-filled intolerance of the KKK is just plain blankety-blank stupid.

We even agree that there have been some spectacular failures created by the so-called Native access programs. There's no short-cut to a law degree or a social work certificate or even a degree in journalism. You've got to do the work.

But in a province that actually elected a Klu Klux Klan provincial government in this century, (it's true, you can look it up), where community leaders like Mr. Pankiw have allowed a group that makes up 13 per cent of the population to fill only one per cent of the workforce, something's got to be done.

Pankiw said he's looking out for Native people, that regular folks in Saskatchewan will resent Native people who get jobs because of their race and it will foster racism.

Hey, Mr. Pankiw. Instead of writing moronic, half-baked letters that argue that things should stay the way they are (a strange thing for a "reformer" to do, in any event), why not get to work on the real problem. Those regular folks you're so worried will react in a racist manner could use a little educating. This hiring policy will be a good stop-gap measure to stem the suicide epidemic among young Native people. Right now they see no hope for the future until those prone-to-racism yahoos whose reactions you're so worried about are shown that it's OK to hire someone who looks or talks or dresses or acts a little differently from the boys at the lodge.

After all, you should know something about the troubles minority members have in getting and keeping a job. Wasn't it former Reform Party whip Bob Ringma who insisted he had the right to keep his visible minority employees in the back of the shop, away from his intolerant customers? Didn't Mr. Ringma end up on the political scrap heap because he felt blacks and gays and, probably, Indians should have been kept out of sight of the regular folks who were his customers?