Public must recognize 'national tragedy'

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The words have changed and the language is a bit stronger, but the message is the same.

Native people throughout Canada are the brunt of racism from all sides.

Even after more than a year, the conclusions of the 1989 annual report of the Canadian Human Rights Commission are the same. It's a virtual carbon copy of last year's embarrassing report, which hit the country's elitists like a ton of bricks.

The way the country's aboriginal people have been treated has become a "national tragedy" and a complete disgrace by a society that has always regarded itself as a stalwart example of religious, ethnic and racial freedom.

The report by commission head Max Yalden to the House of Commons may be a sympathetic declaration of support for the county's original cultures. It may be a government lashing and a public outcry for an end to racial injustice. But in reality, it's an incomplete and weak position -- if the complete picture can be put into the proper perspective.

It's a perspective the general public will have t come to grips with on their own instead of a government watchdog doing it for them.