Anarchy in Canada! The New Normal?

Hello, you super duper double delicious person, you. It's Sandy Boucher here once again and holy moly's, do we have things to talk about because I don't know about you, but as a general rule I love people. I love meeting new people, I love interacting with new people. But in this day and age, this time period, being a hermit is starting to look really appealing. It's because of the people I keep running into. We have so much to discuss today. So grab a coffee, get comfy, let's talk about it. Bonjour, Pogginon. Hi everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And as I said in the opening, I hope. You know what I hope? I hope and pray that you have the biggest social network ever that you could hang out with like 40 different people that you love and get along with and never have to worry about interacting with someone new. Because as much as I love meeting people and I guess I love meeting people at my seminars and because I know the problematic people are not going to be at my seminars. The real problematic people, the anti indigenous people, the, the residential school deniers, all of those. The end of race based legislation because they don't get how we got here. All of those people do not come to my events. I guess that's why I love my fans and friends and followers so much. Because in day to day life I'm starting to get really leery of meeting people. And I'm going to be crystal clear here. It is not. Okay, let's get real. I'm not going to have a lot in common with a conservative. But I saw a description the other day. The person was describing himself as fiscally conservative, socially liberal. It got me thinking. It made me stop. I was like, interesting. You know what? Why I found it interesting? This is someone who put some thought into this, right? Even if I don't agree, I put some thought in it. So it's not just a conservative With Conservatives and Liberals. With liberals and NDPs. With NDPs, fine. I mean, whatever party is your party. I happen to think it tells me a lot about you as a person and the values you hold dear. But that's not even the people that are problematic. And by the way, handy dandy index cards haven't done that in a long time. The people I keep running into and I kind of shied away from the term till I've now met several people that use It, So it's like, okay, are they self identifying this way? What I'm talking about is anarchy. People identifying as anarchists and mind blown. So, so before we go any further, grabbing my phone here, whoops. Calling up, calling up my photos because I took a photo of the definition so I couldn't lose it. Okay, so anarchy, first definition, a state of disorder due to the absence of or the non recognition of authority or other controlling systems. Can you say 20, 25 or, or the near future where so many people are just against authority, I don't know why I'm going to assume incredibly disempowered people feeling that they have no power. And as always, it's either I do something about it or I point fingers at someone else. And it's so much easier to point fingers at. And the government is a really good target. I'm indigenous in Canada, trust me, I am not blowing smoke up your butt. I'm not saying the government does everything right. The government does a lot wrong. But I'm also not goofy enough to think we don't need it. Which brings us to the second definition. And I, when I was researching this for this video, I was thinking, is this what they honestly think would happen? Because I think it's kind of funny. Listen to this. The organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation without political institutions or hierarchical government. That's anarchism. So no Government society. The organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation. So suddenly everyone within Canadian borders is just going to voluntarily do the work of the government. You're voluntarily going to run national programs. You're vot. You don't need police anymore, you don't need organizations. You're just going to voluntarily obey the law. You're going to just voluntarily respect like property boundaries and staying out of my face. And you're just going to what are you smoking? Like what? What? No, no hard pass. No. You know what? Get out and vote. Get out and vote. Which kind of brings me to the second point that I wanted to touch on today. Well, no, not even. It's under this. This anarchy. This, this. I called this section of this video Get Real because seriously. Okay, so I don't know, maybe no one's ever taught you this. I hope someone's taught you this if you're over the age of like 10. I was taught a long time ago that if someone says something to you, the first thing you should consider when considering what they said is who said it. It's kind of like those people I was complaining about that like to show up in my life and tell me how to run my business, who have never run a business for even a day in their lives. Or maybe they run it for someone else and somehow think they know what it's like to do that. Or the people who think they know what it's like to be indigenous. I saw. Oh, I can't think of her name. The beautiful, beautiful. Oh my God. Metis artist. That looks like the dots, the beadwork. Oh, oh, what is her name? I'm gonna have to put it in the video. Is the title. I will look it up. But she her quote, because she's Metis and I guess people were challenging her on that. So, okay. In the era of pretendions, we got to be able to ask. And I don't get upset when people ask me. Look at me. You should be asking if I'm indigenous. I could flash up my status card. My daughter freaks when I do that because stealing my identity and all that stuff. But Belcourt is her last name. Is it Cindy Belcourt? I think, anyways, she said indigenous as lived experience. It's not just that documentation, right? Like It's. It's Ryan McMahon said ages ago, who claims, you know, which community claims you, which nation claims you, which family claims you. And the one I always did was, what have you hurt? How have you hurt? Because you're indigenous. What pain? What have you paid in pain? Because I know I have. So back to these anarchists. These are not politicians. These are not people that have ever tried running for flipping anything. They're not on town councils, they're not. They haven't done anything except sit on their butts on a couch and complain. That's my point. So take it with a grain of salt. I had the sarcasm the pleasure of meeting someone last weekend who in his opinion were all, we're all criminals, we all break the law and we're all drug dealers. Do you think he'd be a good fit in my world, a good guy to have standing beside me? Oh, what a sad way to look at the world. You know what? You go unpack that. You do some healing. You look at what happened to you and. And put some things down. But do not paint me with that brush. Dude. Dude, that's as always, what people are saying is telling you a whole much bunch about them and not about. They think they're talking about other people. They're telling you about them. Unreal. One thing I've noticed. Is it just me? Is it just me? I get. People are hurting, I guess. Get Money's tight, groceries are damn expensive. My daughter and I were just having this conversation. She has a family to look after. But everything seems so. And maybe this is indigenous lands, Anishinaabe lens. That could totally be in this case. But everyone seems so self centered. Me, me, me. It's just if I'm safe, I don't care if my next door neighbor's starving. I don't care if you're starving or you're starving. I don't care about another country, just my country. I don't care about another town, just my town. Are you under some impression that those imaginary lines on a map are anything more than imaginary lines? Like when a country chooses to pollute the air or pollute the water, are they actually under some oppression opinion impression that it's not going to affect other countries? Mother Earth doesn't see those lines like don't throw crap in the water because it's going to affect everyone. So is it self centered or is it just ego? Are people so disempowered that they're now overcompensating saying listen to me, I'm important. I know you're important. I also know that the wisest person in the room is often the quietest. They're not out to impress anyone. So what? What? Anarchy? Really? That shows me. You know what that shows me? It's just like those anti vaxxers. I'm just going on a rant today. Obviously anti vaxxers are comfy with being anti vax because they never lived in the world where the vaccines weren't there. My oldest brother had polio. That is not something I'm ever going to take for granted. I take my vaccines and think creative for the people that created them so that we don't have to deal with those horrible diseases. But those people that have had only lived in a world without those diseases actually think that they don't have to do the prevention anymore and we will all pay the price. So I guess I'm throwing anti vaxxers in with the anarchists and I guess they fit because it's questioning authority again, right? Like if I get one more person. This was six months ago, seven months ago, summertime and I absolutely went wide on someone because he had googled some medical advice and was in a position of power over a very young female and felt the need to advise her on medical decisions against what her doctor had told her to do. How much of an ego do you have to have to think that what you can look up on the Internet is Going to be comparable to all the years of someone studying to have a medical degree. And then let's take it even further, it's not even your health. Then you're going to advise someone else who looks up to you for guidance and you're going to assume, never mind the fact that you're a guy and she's female and let's just pretend you understand how our bodies work. Yeah. So all these people assuming they know, either they're super self centered or on the other side of that coin they believe that they know what is perfect for everyone else. The next section I wanted to talk about. Holy moly. We're already 13 minutes in. Probably not close to. I got to cut out some parts. This one's called when you going to ask. So because another definition I came across or not, I guess Webster definition. But a comparison that was made. One of the training sessions I took was the difference between confidence and cocky. I used to. Arrogance, right. And I used to confuse the two because they come across very similar. You find out in the long run how different they are. But confidence I now know and I agree with what they said in this training program is confidence is being able to look at what you're doing and look at what's going on to identify an issue and then to have the flexibility to change how you're doing things to take care of the issue. That's confidence. You don't take it as a personal shot. Yeah, that's not working. I got to try something else. It is not a shot. It's just reality. Cocky on the other hand gets stubborn. Cocky can say there is a problem. Cocky blames other people. Cocky says I'm going to dig in my heels and do it the same way forever because this is the way it needs to be done. It's or worse, it's the way we've always done it. Throw good money after bad. Why would I bring that up? Canada, did you hear me? Canadian businesses and entities, can you hear me? The way you have been doing Indigenous engagement has not been working. So when you going to ask us for input? Because you doing it alone in isolation is getting you nowhere. And I've established a hundred times that reconciliation benefits all of us. Us, right. You're going to benefit from an increased customer base or from being having a better relationship with that close by indigenous community. So like when I came up with a list, I think there's going to be four different times based on my experience and all the companies I've worked with, companies, municipalities, non profits Whatever. All the entities I've worked with there are four different times they finally get it together, put the ego down and say we need help and of course I'm going to be there when they ask. The first one is after the bridge burns. They've lost the contract. They got bcr, Ben Council resolution. They got BCR down to the First Nation community until it's like a no trespass order. You're just out of here. It's hit the fan and now in retrospect, they're licking their wounds and saying we did something wrong. Can you help us? I'm glad they reach out. My point, you don't need to wait till you pay that kind of price to get the help you need. The second time that they finally get it and realize we need some guidance, we're assuming we understand and we don't is after the first or second sign of trouble. So this is the company that reaches out because they got the negative Google review or they've heard through the grapevine and indigenous people don't like shopping at their store, is not going to use their services. So something negative has already happened, hasn't totally hit the fan yet, but they're already starting to pay a bigger price than they need to. That's the second time they reach out. Third now we got some companies are starting to get it. They don't like wasting money, they don't like throwing money out the door. So they actually reach out before they start hiring or worse, having to fire indigenous employees they want. They need the workers, they need the staff. I can't think of any entities that don't need staff and they don't want to screw it up. So they might have already hired them and maybe things are starting to go wrong or they're worried it's going to still more proactive or maybe they've already had to fire a few. The last one, one which is where I'm pushing all of you to just gently, just gently pushing you during orientation, whether you're bringing on a new board member, whether you're bringing on a new manager or supervisor or frontline worker, whatever the case may be during orientation so they understand that indigenous people are your customer base or the people you serve. And here's what you might observe and this is what you need to understand. This is what you never need to do. Please don't ever say these words. They're going to blow up our relationship. So I guess the question is when are you going to ask if you're not having the relationships with Indigenous people that you would like to. When are you going to ask, right? Are you done wasting money? Are you done losing the contracts? Have you realized that your indigenous engagement game just isn't up to what it should be? But for the benefit of you, your company, your nonprofit, your municipality, Are you done guessing why the relationship ended or why that community is so upset with you? Have you been bcr'd out of a community? All of it is possible without the proper training. And just when you get your team trained, you hire someone new. You can't afford to keep sending everyone to the same training. And isn't it time you got your onboarding program up to snuff? I have just what you need. Check it out on my website. Which brings me to my third point. If we accept the confidence in cocky, right? Confidence can identify a problem and fix it. Cocky is just get stubborn. If we can remember back to back teaching that you can see things and issues and challenges with the project that I can't see vice versa, then let me be the first to say, maybe not the first, but one of them that say, you are not wrong. You are not wrong about reconciliation. Often it's two sides to a coin. It's opposing sides. It's a whole bunch of missing information and misinformation and stereotypes. It's challenging, it's sensitive. People are sensitive, they allies. You're gonna say something wrong. It's not if. It's when. And if you get all bent out of shape when someone points that out to you, that's white fragility. That's not allyship. So there are going to be. If you start working with indigenous communities, you're gonna make a mistake. And unless you're humble enough to stay on top of your training and ask and have that guidance, someone you can call to say what happened, what went wrong, and it's going to keep happening. You are not wrong about reconciliation and you are not wrong about you. The problem is I just want to call up something here on my computer. You're not wrong about you and your view of things and what you need. What you might be wrong about is me. If you're not indigenous, it's back to back teaching. You don't know what we need. You don't know how things look to us. You don't know what's going to make us feel comfortable in your establishment and what isn't. If you do it without engaging with us, then you're still trying to do it from that, that isolation and it doesn't work. So I'VE got some examples here. Oh, I know what I did. I was looking at my notes. What did they do? You have stereotypes about indigenous people. We know that. But one of the things I love doing in seminar because I love rocking the boat, referring to people as non indigenous is a perfect example. They're like, what? I'm a non. It changes the conversation. Which, like I said, 2025 seems to be all about changing the conversation. So what if, by the way, we have as many stereotypes about non indigenous people and to be able to do my work, you gotta unpack that stuff in the same way as if you honestly, genuinely want to have a successful relationship with indigenous people, you gotta unpack that crap. You gotta look at the stuff you've been taught not to judge the people that taught you, but to realize that wasn't accurate. They probably got handed that from someone who had no idea. Maybe like those anarchists who think they know things that they don't know about. So for example, here are some stereotypes that indigenous people may have about non indigenous people. Are they true? No, they're a stereotype. So first one, not all indigenous or all non indigenous. Here's the stereotype. All non indigenous would destroy Mother Earth for money. Look at some of the statements coming out of the conservative party and you can see how stereotypes get fed. Is that true? No. No. I know many non indigenous allies and activists that are fighting tooth and nail for Mother Earth. So all non indigenous would not destroy Mother Earth for money. But unfortunately there's enough of them to have us believing the stereotype could be true. And that's exactly what happens with stereotype about indigenous people. Enough people believe it that you start thinking maybe it's true. It's not true. It's not true. Along that lines, I've heard people say this. Sorry, hit my microphone. Non indigenous would sell their own mother because to us, in many cases, non indigenous don't value relationships. They don't value the relationship with their mother. And now let's go off on a tangent about I had a lousy mother. Hello, we're indigenous. We get so many years of trauma playing against us that there's a lot of mothers out there that won't get mother of the year award. You still wouldn't sell off Mother Earth or our mother. Which brings me to the next stereotype. Family is nothing to non indigenous people. They will move for a job and leave family behind. Can you see how that might be reinforced? Now I know many non indigenous who have moved away for a job or school or both. Who desperately miss their family, the differences in values. We wouldn't do it. I did move away at one point in my life for my healing. My kids joined me and then because they're older, eventually they came back. And then when my daughter started talking about wanting to have kids, I moved back. Why could I have stayed there? Absolutely. But I'm not missing that family tie. See the difference? Non indigenous just want to get richer, not better. Anishinaabe traditional teachings are all about becoming wiser, becoming a better person, learning from your mistakes. Nowhere in our teachings does it talk about the size of your bank account. Having said that, poverty is not our culture. Humility is. Poverty is just some place we've lived for far too long. So do you see how a stereotype can be reinforced? I used non indigenous examples. But I mean, let me be the first to say I'm not a welfare bum, even though there's no known non indigenous out there that would say that I don't enjoy poverty. I didn't never have and did I need supports at different times? Yes, I know that sayings out there. I paid taxes, by the way, so can do whatever you want with that. And I'm not an alcoholic or an addict. But that stereotype is definitely out there too. So back to back teaching, who's saying what you're hearing and is it true? Is it something they would even know based on their experience? Or did they just listen and now they're parenting the parroting the bs? Last but not least, came across a quote this morning. You know me, I love my quotes. And it was like, okay, indigenous people know if you're struggling enough. And in my case Anishinaabe, not all cultures use tobacco. But if I take tobacco and offer it to an elder and want guidance, yep, prepare yourself to do that. Because you know whatever they tell you to do to make it better is not going to be easy. They're not just giving you an answer, they're sending you on a journey so you can figure out your answer. Because that's how you build wisdom. You don't build wisdom by someone else giving you answers. You walk the walk. So when I saw this quote, I was like, thank you Creator for sending it to me. And oh shoot, there's some work I have to do. What was the quote? It's by Edmund Burke and the quote is, when you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear. When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear. So I have to learn more about Canadian conservatives instead of just writing them off. I got to figure out what they're scared of. I got to figure it out by hearing from them what they're scared of, what are they trying to protect? What are their values? What is important to them? Because I'd be willing to bet they're scared. And that's not a judgment. That's I want to understand. And for all of you, run into people that may be afraid of indigenous people learning why we powwow or what a smudging ceremony is is not what I'm talking about. Don't culturally appropriate art ceremonies. Get to know us. It's hard to hate. Up close is another quote. I know Michelle Obama said it. I don't know who originally said it. Get to know us, not for your sake and your learning, but because we're a human being on the planet that might live next door to you and maybe try saying hi. It's a great place to start. Could actually be the first footing on the bridge we're going to eventually build. So there you have it. How's that for a thank you for being here. Thank you for being someone I enjoy hanging out with because I have an overwhelming desire to go barricade my front door. I won't do it, but I could daydream about it until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.