july 2009 issue
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Aboriginal Awareness
Getting Through to Government
It’s time for all of us — corporate leaders, workers, Canadians — to learn the cold, hard truth about Aboriginals in our country. Then it’s time to convince the federal government to take action
BY Robert Laboucane
President, Ripple Effects Ltd.
Editor’s Note: The following is the latest installment in our series of columns designed to improve awareness of Aboriginal issues. These articles stem from an APEGGA goal to increase Aboriginal representation in the engineering, geological and geophysical professions. Check The PEGG Online for earlier columns in the series.
The Government of Canada must ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable citizens don’t lose their right to shelter, food, health care and education, simply so the government can balance the books. What and whom we choose to protect can make or break lives.
Effective poverty reduction requires additional investment. The statistics for Aboriginal women and families in Canada today tell a grim story, suggesting that spending is woefully inadequate.
The stats and facts tell us that
36 per cent of Aboriginal women live in poverty.
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38 per cent of lone mothers live in poverty.
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Of 47,000 First Nations children under the age of six, nearly half are growing up with families living in poverty. But still Canadians ask, “What seems to be their problem?”
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There are 35,000 Métis and 7,000 Inuit children under the age of six.
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In a significant number of Aboriginal communities, access to clean drinking water is not assured.
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More than 100 Aboriginal communities have lived under boil-water advisories for the past five years.
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Aboriginal housing is the worst in Canada. Homelessness has been on the rise since the federal government abandoned its responsibilities for housing 15 years ago, and a very large percentage of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples are homeless. On-reserve housing in the majority of First Nations is inadequate in quantity and quality, leading to severe overcrowding.
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Homicide rates are 600 per cent higher among Aboriginals than in the broader Canadian population. Aboriginal males comprise 70 per cent of all homicide victims.
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Male Aboriginals 15-34 years of age are subject to a suicide rate that is 400 per cent higher than the non-Aboriginal rate for the same age group.
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In Ontario, 80 per cent of Aboriginal women are victims of violence.
How Progressive Are We?
Read on. There are even more blots on Canada’s reputation as a progressive nation.
A recent government report says the death rate in fires at Aboriginal homes is 10 times higher than in fires at other Canadian homes, with overcrowding cited as the major reason.
Another recent report, this one called Against All Odds, speaks of homeless Aboriginal youths. Researched and published by the Canadian Institute for Health Research along with The McCreary Society in Vancouver, the report reveals that in B.C., 40 per cent of homeless Aboriginal youth had first run away at the age of 12 or younger. One in three had been kicked out of home by the age of 12.
Forty-seven per cent had gone hungry because their parents didn’t have money for food; 60 per cent have been physically abused; and 30 per cent of females and 18 per cent of males had tried to commit suicide in the past year.
“The trauma Aboriginal people have suffered because of colonization still affects our young people,” summed up one of the report’s key investigators.
Here’s another dose of statistics.
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The Aboriginal population is young and growing much faster than the rest of Canada. For example, 40 per cent of the 10,055 Aboriginal people in Thunder Bay, Ont., are under 19 years of age.
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More than 20 per cent of Aboriginal children who live off reserves are born to mothers between the ages of 15-24.
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One in four Aboriginal single mothers earn less than $10,000 a year.
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Forty-one per cent of Aboriginal children under 14 are living in poverty nationally, rising to 51 per cent in Manitoba and 52 per cent in Saskatchewan.
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By 2017, Aboriginals will account for 30 per cent of young adults in Saskatchewan and 23 per cent in Manitoba.
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About 64,000 children in Alberta are living in poverty.
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Some 343,400 Albertans earn less than $12 an hour and 64 per cent (219,600) of these are women.
Soaring diabetes rates, dental needs, mental health and addiction issues, many incidents of fetal alcohol syndrome and extremely high rates of suicide — even among children — should be a concern for all Canadians. This concern must be expressed to their governments.
One former child advocate with the Ontario Government, Judy Finlay, has this to say: “I travelled regularly to remote northern reserves in Ontario and witnessed the extreme deprivation and abhorrent living conditions in these communities.”
Ms. Finlay, now a professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at Ryerson University, continued: “An imposed history of colonialism, residential schools, inequitable distribution of resources and geographical isolation have contributed to a depth of community impoverishment not seen anywhere else in the province.”
Beyond Governments
Governments aren’t alone in their inaction. The response of Canada’s chiefs — essentially, the First Nations’ leaders — is sadly lacking. This is tragic because it is their ideas and leadership that will be the prime mover in lifting people out of poverty.
When the mythmakers and purveyors of misinformation are presented with the facts, they quickly fade away, unable to explain or justify their perceptions and ignorant attitudes, or acknowledge the harm they have done. They will never debate or attempt to defend their positions.
Canadians must exercise their duty and responsibility to question the nonsense they hear by challenging the hate-mongers. Canadians need facts and information to counter the deceptions and outright lies perpetually spread about Aboriginal people.
I believe it is a significant responsibility of our federal government to vigorously enlighten Canadians, because facts destroy rumours and lies, and reduce whining by an ignorant and uninformed public.
Workplace education is crucial to fostering greater understanding, and its starts at the top of the corporate ladder.
Notes Corporate Services director Chris Cvik of the City of Prince Albert: “Through misconception training and close cooperation between the parties, [our] agreement provides the framework to prepare the workplace to become more representative of Aboriginal people and remove barriers in the workplace.”
Misconception and other training for existing employees and management are critical. Training people to change their personalities doesn’t work; however, creating engaging leadership should be part of every corporate strategy.
I believe it is corporate leaders with a clear picture of their bottom line and a sincere concern for the well-being of our country who will contribute significantly to the meeting of these challenges.
It is my most sincere hope that these articles will assist and encourage you and your leaders to do just that. As caring Canadians, we must all become part of the solution rather than perpetuating and contributing to the problem. And we must insist our governments follow suit.
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