theletterqwerty

A joke at the expense of physicians who over-prescribe and can't tell their famous or wealthy patients "no" is fair comment. It's a serious problem in the US that's killing off a lot of athletes and artists who don't need to be dying early in such an awful way.

Chii-miigwetch for speaking to us! I have a difficult question that I'm having a hard time phrasing inoffensively, so pardon me if I misstep.

In the years leading up to (and well after) the first world war, a succession of Canadian governments was openly embracing policy that amounted to genocide against your people. We both know what was going on then so I'll spare us the list, but in the midst of all of that, when our King was attacked, a LOT of Aboriginal men volunteered to defend us. So many that attempts to conscript them late in the conflict failed because there basically weren't any who hadn't already joined! Can you comment on what must have been going through those young men's heads, leaving the relative (??) safety of their homes to go overseas and fight for the government that had treated them so unkindly? And then a second time in the mid-1940s, after so very little had changed?

Wow. That's an answer and a half, thank you! Ottawa has a wealth of riches in storytellers from our First Nations, so as long as you're willing to tell your stories I'll certainly be right there to listen!

I'm about a century late here, but did you see any parallels between your brother's early death and those of other celebs with out-of-control doctors, like Michael Jackson or Derek Boogaard? Might it be time for some sort of "Tell Us No" campaign that encourages physicians not to over-prescribe or over-medicate people just because they're absurdly wealthy and famous? It wouldn't "stop" people from losing their lives to illicit drug use, but it might put doctors and agents in a better position to recognize addiction and stop enabling it.