Infographic: Aboriginal Poverty
Michael Champagne
Filmmaker Wab Kinew profiles a young Aboriginal man, Michael Champagne, who
pulled himself out of a childhood of poverty and violence in downtown Winnipeg.
DOC ZONE | Season 2011- 12, Episode 1 | Dec 8, 2011
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Aboriginal Children's Village opens in East Vancouver
Housing development built for foster children and their families.
Howell, M. (2013). Vancouver Courier.
Aboriginal foster children are placed in units with foster parents. But if the parents and children don’t prove to be a good match, it’s the parents who have to move on — not the children, as Stewart did when he was a child.
“The whole foster system needs an overhaul and this is a good start,” he said.
The 24-unit building is set up so a foster child could conceivably remain a resident for many years. Some of the units are so-called transition apartments designated for children once they become adults.
Counselling and support for families and children is available at the building, along with training for foster parents and respite workers. An aboriginal art mentorship program, which has welcomed celebrated artist Robert Davidson, is on site.
While Stewart is proud of the new building, he said the public should not lose sight of the fact that thousands of aboriginal people are on waiting lists for suitable and affordable housing in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
Lu’ma Native Housing Society, which owns and manages the building, has a waiting list of 4,500 people wanting housing. Other First Nations societies such as Vancouver Native Housing Society also have long waiting lists, Stewart said.
The City of Vancouver’s release last month of its March 2013 homeless count also showed aboriginal people comprised 30 per cent of the city’s homeless population, although Stewart believes the number is higher. He suggested some of those homeless were likely foster children at one point in their lives.
“There’s such a high correlation between being a foster child and homelessness and something like this [building] will hopefully get people another option,” he said.
But, he acknowledged, getting more housing complexes built in Vancouver is an expensive venture, noting the new building cost $17 million and took seven years of wrangling with all three levels of government to get it built.
Lu’ma contributed $10.6 million, with the provincial government kicking in $5.2 million and the federal government adding $710,000. The City of Vancouver provided $240,000 in addition to levy reductions of more than $214,000.
Marjorie White, the vice president of Lu’ma Native Housing Society, said the lack of funding committed to more affordable housing makes it difficult to meet the needs of people without decent homes or living on the street. Lu’ma already has 380 apartments spread over 15 buildings.
The building was named after Dave Pranteau, who was described by White and others as a tireless leader in the aboriginal community who pushed for more housing and improving social and economic conditions for aboriginal people. He died last year.
“Dave was well known to many of us here in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia for his leadership, teachings and compassion,” White said. “He has been by our side and we believe he still is in helping our cause to advocate for safe, culturally appropriate and affordable housing for aboriginal peoples.”
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MacDonald, D. & Wilson, D. (2013). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Based on data from the 2006 census, this study disaggregates child poverty statistics and identifies three tiers of poverty for children in Canada. In particular, it finds that Indigenous children in Canada are over two and a half times more likely to live in poverty than non-Indigenous children. According to the report, Indigenous children trail the rest of Canada’s children on practically every measure of wellbeing: family income, educational attainment, crowding and homelessness, poor water quality, infant mortality, health and suicide.
Olson, A. (2013). The Associated Press.
UNITED NATIONS -- Canada is facing a crisis over aboriginal issues despite years of efforts to overcome tensions and address social problems, a UN expert who recently visited the country said Monday.
James Anaya, UN special rapporteur on indigenous rights, said Canada has not narrowed social disparities between aboriginal and other Canadians in recent years. He said disputes over land and natural resources continue to be a source of tension and distrust.
In a statement following his visit to Canada, Anaya said aboriginal peoples live in conditions comparable to much poorer countries.
He said one in five indigenous Canadians live in dilapidated and often overcrowded homes and "funding for aboriginal housing is woefully inadequate." He said the suicide rate among Inuit and First Nations youth on reserve is more than five times greater than that of other Canadians. One community Anaya visited had suffered a suicide every six weeks since the start of the year.
Anaya said such problems persist even though Canada was one of the first countries to extend constitutional protection to the rights of indigenous people, has taken notable steps to repair the legacy of past injustices and has develop processes for land claims "that in many respects are models for the world to emulate."
Anaya, who is planning to present a full report to the UN Human Rights Council, had several recommendations for Canada's government.
He encouraged the government "to take a less adversarial" approach to land claim settlements "in which it typically seeks the most restrictive interpretation of aboriginal and treaty rights possible."
He also cautioned the government "not to rush forward" with a proposed First Nations Education Act that indigenous leaders have opposed. The law is meant to allow indigenous communities to establish their own education system and proposes standards for "school success plans," but indigenous leaders say it denies the primary importance of First Nation languages and cultures and fails to affirm First Nation control over their education.
Indigenous leaders have cited legacy of Canada's now-defunct residential school system, in which aboriginal children were removed from their communities and placed in schools intended to strip them of their culture, as an argument for allowing First Nations to control their own education. Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a historic apology to survivors of the schools in 2008.
In response to Anaya's statement, Canadian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Bernard Valcourt said the social well-being of aboriginals is "at the center of Canada's preoccupations and explains why the government has taken, and continues to take, effective incremental steps to improve the situation."
More jail won’t solve Canada’s aboriginal incarceration problem
Mason, G. (2013). Globe & Mail.
There seem to be few people who think the answer to solving the abysmally high incarceration rate for aboriginals is to make it easier to throw them in jail and keep them longer. But that’s what many believe the federal Conservative government is intent on doing.
Last week, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Perry Kendall, added his voice to a burgeoning group of public officials worried about the increasing role that prisons are playing in the lives of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. His report suggested that the Safe Streets and Communities Act – passed last year – will only intensify the problem.
A few weeks before him, Howard Sapers, Canada’s prison watchdog, was critical of Ottawa for doing little to address a situation he said continues to get worse. In the past five years alone, the population of aboriginal inmates in federal penitentiaries increased by 43 per cent. Today, aboriginal people make up 23 per cent of all inmates in federal institutions despite representing just 4 per cent of Canada’s population.
Before Mr. Sapers, former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci issued a report that suggested Ontario’s justice system is in crisis as it concerns the province’s First Nations community. He found that aboriginal people are subjected to systemic racism in the courts, prison and jury process.
In Saskatchewan, which has the highest native incarceration rate in the country, the person who’s been handed the job of trying to change this grim picture told the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police that we aren’t going to “arrest our way” out of it.
The Safe Streets Act introduced new mandatory minimum sentences for some offences and increases existing minimum penalties in other areas. It also makes changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act to allow the courts to keep young people in custody while awaiting sentencing. It’s the contention of Dr. Kendall and others that the act also undermines a section of the Criminal Code that asks judges to consider all possible options for sentencing before choosing prison, especially for aboriginal people.
And this, despite a plethora of studies that have shown that prison and longer sentences don’t act as deterrents or reduce the likelihood that a person will reoffend. In fact, studies have demonstrated that more prison time can actually increase crime.
Most of us are familiar with the litany of reasons why our First Nations people end up in jail. They’re societal, historical and deep rooted in scope. They link to poor health, poor education and the less visible, but no less damaging, influences of colonialism and racism.
In B.C., aboriginal people represent about 5 per cent of the general population but nearly a quarter of the admissions to the province’s correctional centres. Dr. Kendall believes this statistic has the potential to become much worse.
Incarceration rates are highest among those 20 to 34. Dr. Kendall reasonably presumes that the more people you have in that demographic, the greater the likelihood of a higher crime rate. In B.C.’s aboriginal population, there’s an abnormally large number of people in the under 19 group. As this cohort moves into the 20-to-34 category, there’s the real risk that this will increase the already unacceptable overrepresentation in the adult criminal justice system.
Dr. Kendall is urging the federal government to revoke or amend those sections of the Safe Streets Act that he and others believe will only exacerbate an already terrible condition. Rather than locking up aboriginal people and throwing away the key, Dr. Kendall believes we’d be better off providing more resources for rehabilitation and setting off in the more enlightened direction that Saskatchewan has taken than in building more space in our prisons.
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