Cindy Blackstock, Canada & Meetings, Meetings, Meetings!
Cindy Blackstock and the First Nations Caring Society first took Canada before the Human Rights Tribunal, I don’t know how many years ago. I remember attending a FNESC (First Nations Education Steering Commission) Conference several years ago. She spoke about the recently published news that the Federal Government had been caught actively spying on her and seeking to discredit her. This was in the early years of the Harper regime but it is something many First Nations people have long assumed the Federal Government actively engaged in. This “scandal” became even more prominent during the height of Idle No More, but as far as I know, no one in mainstream Canada cares enough to get the Federal Government to stop.
At any rate, Blackstock won an order for Canada to start funding Indigenous children in care at a rate comparable to that of non-Native children in care. To date, and FOUR court orders later, Canada has yet to do so. All of the court orders have come down under the Trudeau regime, so those who want to claim that this was a Conservative thing need to realize that the Conservatives and Liberals have been equally complicit throughout THE HISTORY OF CANADA in their poor treatment of First Nations, and other Indigenous, peoples.
In recent months, there has been, allegedly, a new urgency from the Government over concerns (read: a lot of negative press) about the over representation of Indigenous children in care and the Minister of Indigenous Services has called an emergency meeting to figure it out. As Blackstock points out in the article, linked below, very few provincial premiers and ministers will be attending and that is concerning. Without these folks on board, Little will change.
We, on the ground, have often argued that there is a lot of money spent on meetings to try and figure out what is wrong and very little spent on actually doing something to fix the problem. Blackstock has a lot of ideas that can be implemented if only anyone would step and properly fund the system.
I am a teacher and have spent far more of my time dealing with social workers or MCFD types than I should have too. I’ve worked with too many kids that are with their parents one day and with someone else the next. I’ve seen too many tears because of this. It is not a good system and it needs to change but go ahead and hold another meeting about it I guess.
Emergency Indigenous child welfare meeting needs 'political commitment' http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thehouse/the-montreal-round-nafta-talks-at-critical-juncture-1.4493916/emergency-indigenous-child-welfare-meeting-needs-political-commitment-1.4495884
-photo via CBC.ca (please see article above for further credits).
