The Editor,
Re. “Disclosure shows big bucks for KFN’s chief” (The Tri-City News, Oct. 4).
First, let me disclose that I am just an average person with no expertise in economics, business or executive pay packages. I, like most of us, am continually shocked and flabbergasted by the enormous amounts of pay that are given to business executives.
This story, about the chief of the Kwikwetlem First Nation receiving more than a quarter of a million dollars in the last fiscal year, is just another of those stories.
Without putting this story into that context, however, I believe that it feeds racial discrimination, which is rampant against First Nations people. Saying that First Nations leaders are thieves who mismanage the money that is supposed to benefit the people is a standard idea put forth by some non-indigenous people to justify their prejudice.
According to Cindy Blackstock, a Gitxsan activist and professor at McGill University, the auditor general looked into this and found that there is really no difference in the way indigenous and non-indigenous leaders in business and industry manage or mismanage their finances.
Perhaps future stories could give us some comparative numbers, with other indigenous and non-indigenous enterprises of similar scope, in order to give us context and perspective.
Sheren Spilker, Port Moody
