8 Key Issues

These are the eight key issues for indigenous peoples in Canada according o Bob Joseph’s Indigenous Relations blog. He notes that they are all connected and the challenges seem to hamstring all those in governments at all levels who try to deal with them

• Poorer health than that of other Canadians; causes relate to income levels and social factors. People have higher degrees of respiratory problems and infectious diseases. Heart Disease and diabetes are on the rise.

• Lower levels of education. These are affected most by colonialism’s sorry legacy of the residential schools and the experience of attempted assimilation. About 36% of indigenous people have not completed high school compared to 18% of the rest of the Canadian population

• Inadequate and crowded housing. Close to half those living on reserves live in dwellings that need major repairs.

• An income gap. Indigenous people earn about 25% less than other Canadians

• Unemployment rates remain high

• Incarceration. Nearly half those incarcerated are indigenous, and women are incarcerated more than men.

• Higher death rates among children and youth due to unintentional injuries such as drowning. These are three or four times higher than those of other Canadians of the same age.

• Higher rates of suicide among youth. “Suicide and self-inflicted injuries are the leading causes of death for First Nations youth and adults up to 44 years of age.” (A Statistical Profile on the Health of First Nations in Canada for the Year 2000, Health Canada, 2003).

What to do? Pressure governments on areas that you know and care about from your own level of expertise or experience. Donate to those organizations working to deal with the issues. Learn historic first nations values that may save us from our own flawed ones.