Farihah Ali
Contributor
Today, we are living in a time when the youngest and fastest growing population of Canada is inherently disenfranchised and society at large is blindly allowing injustices to continue.
For far too long, First Nations children on reserves in Canada were discriminated against, and have been affected by the flawed and unequal distribution of child and family welfare services in Canada.
In February 2007, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations filed a human rights complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The FNCFCS stated that child welfare services provided to First Nations children and families on reserve were flawed, discriminatory, and inequitable.
The federal government ended up spending over $5 million in an attempt to get the case dismissed on technical grounds. In February 2013, the tribunal began to hear accounts from 25 witnesses, with approximately 500 documents filed as evidence.
After nearly a decade since a complaint was filed, on Tuesday January 26, 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found the Canadian government to be racially discriminating against 163,000 First Nations children by denying them the same funding for child protection, education, and health as Canadian children.
“This decision is dedicated to all of the First Nations children who, for years and for decades, have been denied an equal opportunity to live the life they wish to have had and sadly, too often were judged by a Canadian public who didn’t know any better as if they got more,” says Cindy Blackstock, executive director of FNCFCS.
These inequities have resulted in First Nations children being 12 times more likely to end up in foster care, compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts.
Today, there are more Aboriginal children in child protection agencies than in the height of the residential school period.
“The ruling in this case is just another step forward for First Nations in our plight towards self-governance,” says Charlene Lindsay, co-founder of Sustainable Development Revitalization for First Nations.
It is also about righting a wrong that has been longstanding for decades, she says.
In acknowledging the current state of play and to give First Nations children the same opportunities to grow up safely at home, get a good education, be healthy, and be proud of their cultures, the FNCFCS is hosting Have a Heart Day.
This is a reconciliation campaign to bring together caring Canadians to help ensure First Nations children have the services they need to grow up safely at home, get a good education, be healthy, and be proud of who they are.
It’s time to support culturally based equity for First Nations children and there are many ways to get involved.
On February 10, students can join Aboriginal communities, allies, and people of all ages across Canada to support the movement where the landscape of Canada is one of possibilities for all First Nations children.
Those interested in joining the conversation and supporting the movement for equality for all First Nations children can visitwww.fncaringsociety.com.
Now with the awareness of the inequities and discrimination happening in our backyards, each and every one of us at York can make a difference and stop allowing injustices to occur.
