Children should be given the strap

I have never understood the logic in the Inuit complaining about things that have happened in the past when they still occur in today’s life in the North.

I know for a fact that incest still happens here in the North, nor will it ever end, as told to me by many elders it is Inuit tradition, it is “in our culture,” and if you travel to the little settlements, it is very obvious that it still goes on to this day.

Today you hear of all of the statistics about the Inuit dropouts. What do you expect when the youth of today have so much power compared to what the rest of us who are parents today had when we were youth? We all were taught to stay in school and were disciplined accordingly to stay in school.

Today the kids tell the teachers, parents and any adult, whether it be social services or other what they want to do, and with the way that the statutes of Canada are today they are allowed to do this crap.

My God you legally aren’t even allowed to spank your child without legal repercussions. What the hell is up with that? Why the heck do you think these poor teachers have such a hard time with the kids of today? They are so out of hand and the teachers aren’t allowed legally to discipline them without landing themselves in court. That to me is a load of crap. Today’s youth need the strap and spanking from their parents now more than anything.

Sure there is a difference between beating your kids and giving them a disciplinary spanking. Would you have your own child tell you where to go when they haven’t gotten their own way or would you discipline them to understand rights from wrong?

My attitude today is becoming more and more to the point of not understanding where I stand with my own child. After all, do I have the power to tell my child what he or she is permitted to do, or do I have to go to the government of Canada for permission or advice on how to raise my children? After all they are basically telling me what and what not to do to my child when they misbehave.

Are they around when my child takes something from one of their friends? Or when they take my pocket change for popsicles at school from my work coveralls? Or when they take money from their mother’s purse when their buddies are all going to the store together? Or when they stay out way past their known bedtimes? Are these government agencies there to help me discipline my child on a day-to-day basis?

Hell no, they are only there when some jerk comes along in the pathetic school board that we have up here in the North asking children “do your parents hit you when they are mad at you?”

They don’t ask the child “do you get spanked, grounded or other forms of punishment when you behave wrong or when you know you did something wrong.” No, they just jump to absurd conclusions, and then get the formal authorities involved and then blow everything out of proportion.

This town is becoming more and more pathetic every year, you hear of all kinds of abuses and murders, but yet you don’t see any recourse for any of these actions. There are thousands of child abusers in the North right down to their own mothers or fathers sexually abusing their children and known amongst family members, but yet the ones who are being investigated and prosecuted are the ones who discipline their children, not the ones who are having incest, or worse, raping their children.

Just ask for the statistics of foster children in Iqaluit and then investigate those foster homes and see who is truly being abused. I can tell you for a fact it isn’t the biological childre. The foster families are truly trying their best with the foster kids but they are continuously being ridiculed as poor parents because of the simple fact that they have morals and our looking out for the childs’ best interest and not looking for the monthly cheque.

Some of those foster parents really do care, but did you ever look at the issues?? Why on earth would any agency allow three or four foster kids to live in a home with only four bedrooms?

Now you tell me, do you honestly believe that Social Services do surprise visits like they do down south to see whether or not these children are being taken care of as they should be? Well, of course not, that would take up social workers’ drinking time in the evenings, and when you are addicted you know exactly which takes over. It certainly won’t be your morals, it will be your addictions

Personally , this town and all their authorities need to start opening up their eyes and to stop ignoring the obvious if they expect to change things for the better. Soon Iqaluit is expecting to change their status to a City from a Town. I would seriously start acting like a city then instead of some campground in the frozen Arctic.

If the appropriate agencies would just do what they are being paid to do appropriately then perhaps everyone may feel a lot more comfortable living a life that is far more prosperous than most people experience today.

Thank you for allowing me to express my views and I truly hope that some readers truly begin to open their eyes to see what is really going on in this community, because with all of the hustle and bustle of politics and the powers to be lining their pockets I believe that the ordinary person has truly been forgotten.

Bruce Arnold
Iqaluit