Introducing a New Northern Malady--"Attawapiskat Syndrome"

It's the fear that "outsiders" will try to turn your basket case of a community into less of a basket case. Or something like that. A sympathetic soul who reports for the Montreal Gazette explains:

At least 15 northern Ontario First Nations were suspicious that government agents would use information obtained during annual water-system inspections to force the communities under third-party management, according to internal government documents, which underscore the tense relationship between the federal government and some First Nations.

In a string of internal emails from Dec. 7, 2011, obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation, Thunder Bay-based Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development employee Art Mauro writes that two northern Ontario-area Tribal Councils — representing 15 communities in the region — are “opposed to annual inspections for their communities (because) they are suspicious as to how the inspections will be used.”

He called the fear “Attawapiskat Syndrom” (sic)...

Nothing that the purchase of a shiny new Zamboni and some equally shiny new Cadillacs can't get rid of--at least temporarily.