A Mother Resists the Military's Push to Recruit Aboriginals.

Accelerated Military Recruitment Directed Towards Young Aboriginals, Visible Minorities and Women

The Canadian military is offering $3,000 and the promise of a "cultural program" to attract recruits among native youth as young as 16 into a summer program in Wainwright, Alberta. Most of the focus is on teens in Western Canada and northwestern Ontario. The program, named Bold Eagle, is said in promotional materials to offer "participants a taste of military life, with the option -- but no commitment -- to pursue part-time employment with the Canadian Forces."

When Laura Holland's two sons wanted to sign-up, she convinced them otherwise.

Holland comes from the Wet'suwet'en Nation near Smithers, B.C., where she was born and raised, and she has lived in Vancouver since 1986. She was active in the formation of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, does volunteer work in the Downtown Eastside, mainly with women and children, and is a member of the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter collective. She assisted, at a community school, with forming and co-facilitating "Girlz Group" to address the realities of violence directed against girls.

"The first thing that I want to do with my sons is explain our position here in Canada and what our reality is, what our lived experience is. I explain to them that this is an occupied country. So we don't want to contribute to the violence and oppression of women and children in other occupied countries -- because women and children are who are affected first and foremost."

LINK: Read entire story at TheTyee.ca