From dbain@interchange.ubc.ca Wed May 3 09:02:13 2000 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id JAA44314 for ; Wed, 3 May 2000 09:02:12 -0700 Received: from priv-edtnes11-hme0.telusplanet.net (edtnes11.telus.net [199.185.220.111]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id JAA07577 for ; Wed, 3 May 2000 09:02:12 -0700 Received: from interchange.ubc.ca ([207.194.20.178]) by priv-edtnes11-hme0.telusplanet.net (InterMail vM.4.01.02.11 201-229-116-111) with ESMTP id <20000503160207.YJVP20085.priv-edtnes11-hme0.telusplanet.net@interchange.ubc.ca>; Wed, 3 May 2000 10:02:07 -0600 Message-ID: <39104DA4.5F9535D7@interchange.ubc.ca> Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 09:02:44 -0700 From: Don X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en,pdf MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [Fwd: Opinion: Our silence hurts natives] Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------18B712403DB84DBC2D02AAA8" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------18B712403DB84DBC2D02AAA8 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --------------18B712403DB84DBC2D02AAA8 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Delivery-date: Wed, 03 May 2000 03:43:47 -0700 Received: from sundial.ccs.yorku.ca ([130.63.236.117]) by mail.interchange.ubc.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.03 #1) id 12mwd8-0000th-00; Wed, 03 May 2000 03:43:46 -0700 Received: from sundial.ccs.yorku.ca (sundial.ccs.yorku.ca [130.63.236.117]) by sundial.ccs.yorku.ca (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA26669; Wed, 3 May 2000 06:36:38 -0400 (EDT) Received: from YORKU.CA by YORKU.CA (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 1.8d) with spool id 32949 for INNU-L@YORKU.CA; Wed, 3 May 2000 06:36:35 -0400 Received: from sunfest.ccs.yorku.ca (sunfest.ccs.yorku.ca [130.63.236.102]) by sundial.ccs.yorku.ca (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA26654 for ; Wed, 3 May 2000 06:36:33 -0400 (EDT) Received: from voyager.newcomm.net (voyager.newcomm.net [204.101.95.1]) by sunfest.ccs.yorku.ca (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA09579 for ; Wed, 3 May 2000 06:36:32 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by voyager.newcomm.net (8.7.6/8.7.3) id IAA29950 for ; Wed, 3 May 2000 08:10:38 -0230 (NDT) Received: from gsb204.nf.sympatico.ca(142.163.6.196) by voyager.newcomm.net via smap (V2.0) id xmaa29946; Wed, 3 May 00 08:10:33 -0230 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: linnes@pop.web.net Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by sundial.ccs.yorku.ca id GAA26655 Approved-By: Larry Innes Message-ID: Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 07:27:07 -0300 Reply-To: Innu People Forum list Sender: Innu People Forum list From: Larry Innes Subject: Opinion: Our silence hurts natives (Toronto Star) To: INNU-L@YORKU.CA Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by sundial.ccs.yorku.ca id GAA26669 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Our silence hurts native people ``What is more morally reprehensible?'' asks epidemiologist Jeff Reading. ``To cause something, or to turn a blind eye to it? The net result is the same.'' Reading was talking about the epidemic of diabetes among native Canadians, highlighted in today's instalment of Lost People, a first-hand account of the problems plaguing native reserves by Star reporters Sonia Verma and Louise Elliott. But he could just as well have been talking about any aspect of life on Canada's native reserves: the mass unemployment, inadequate housing, widespread abuse of alcohol and drugs, lack of proper health care, a non-functioning education system or the high suicide rates that led the World Health Organization to rank conditions on native reserves in Canada 63rd in the world, below Mexico and Thailand. Native Canadians - a lost people? The personal stories that Verma and Elliott tell are new. But the tale is as old as Canada. Through successive governments, we have contributed greatly to the problems faced by natives, and have failed repeatedly to do anything about them. Finding solutions is clearly not an easy task. But many useful suggestions were put forward by Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, set up in 1991 by former prime minister Brian Mulroney. Unfortunately, the price tag the commission put on its over-all remedy was so high that quick implementation of its recommendations was not feasible. But native Canadians were hopeful, when Jean Chr=E9tien came to power, that the government would act on some of the commission's proposals. The Prime Minister spent six years as minister of Indian Affairs. The First Nations believed they had an ally. But progress under Chr=E9tien has been glacial. As documented by Verma and Elliott, the old problems continue to destroy a once proud people. In a report to the Assembly of First Nations delivered two years ago, Royal Bank chief economist John McCallum, pointed out that more money would become available for programs to alleviate the misery on reserves and create opportunities for natives as the fiscal climate improved. He was right about the budgetary outlook. But natives still are not on Ottawa's political radar screen. One reason for this is the absence of public pressure. If Canadians want the situation to change, they will have to demand that Ottawa make native issues a priority. That's what should happen when the Canadian Human Rights Commission calls the plight of native people a national tragedy; when the United Nations condemns this country for allowing a ``gross disparity'' to persist between natives and other Canadians; when even a top official of a big conservative bank calls the situation of natives ``Canada's shame.'' A public outcry would make the Prime Minister take notice - and take charge. Without it, he leaves the responsibility to Bob Nault, the nearly invisible minister of Indian Affairs. It is time to remind Chr=E9tien that the famous Red Book which won him election in 1993 says that, ``The place of Aboriginal peoples in the growth and development of Canada is a litmus test of our beliefs in fairness, justice, and equality of opportunity.''v --------------18B712403DB84DBC2D02AAA8-- .