Friday, August 3, 2012

Canadian Aboriginals In Row With Justin Bieber Over Racist Comment.

(SunNewsNetwork.ca) - Pop singer Justin Bieber has perpetuated the "misconception" that Natives in Canada "are somehow getting a free ride," by claiming he can get free gas because he's part Native, Canada's Congress of Aboriginal Peoples says.

"I'm actually part Indian. I think Inuit or something? I'm enough percent that in Canada I can get free gas," the Stratford, Ontario native told Rolling Stone in an interview that appears in the magazine's August edition.

The comment sparked outrage in Native communities and on Thursday, National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Betty Ann Lavallee and vice-chief Dwight Dorey issued a joint statement calling the teen sensation's comments "simply not true."

"These kinds of remarks are another example of what Aboriginal Peoples in Canada struggle with every day. It promotes the misconception that we are somehow getting a free ride. This simply is not the case and we are concerned that many people may believe what he said," the statement says.

In Ontario, the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs notes First Nations people who have a gas card don't have to pay a tax of 14.7 cents per litre on gasoline - but it's not free.

Dorey said Bieber is "still a young man" and "unaware of the facts."

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