Canada's treatment of Indigenous Peoples

[Treatment of Aboriginals]

Canada Put Under the International Spotlight for its Treatment of Aboriginals . . .

News and Comment
by Tehaliwaskenhas
Bob Kennedy, Oneida
Copyright
Turtle Island Native Network
http://www.turtleisland.org

May 3, 2006 - Canada's treatment of Indigenous Peoples was under the international spotlight in Geneva, Switzerland this week. Aboriginal people appeared at the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and told the world body how their people are forced to live.

Canada is raising a group of children that are growing up not within their status group, but in foster care said CINDY BLACKSTOCK, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. She said that culture was being able to define who you were and being able to grow up in the company of your group. Canada is the home to one of the few race-based legislations in the world, the Indian Act. While the Federal Government did not fund support services to keep children in their homes, there were unlimited resources to remove them.

ANGELA STERRITT, Justice for Girls, said that it was difficult to address Canada's breaches of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights when the repeated assaults upon the dignity, culture and lives of indigenous girls were overwhelmingly carried out and supported by the Canadian Government. Indigenous girls lives remained under protected and over-policed, not only because of Canada's failure to promote the rights of indigenous girls, but because of the Canadian Government's continued programme of assault against those girls in the form of systemic racism, cultural genocide, and institutional violence.

DOREEN SILVERSMITH, Sixth Nations Confederacy, said the UN Committee should remind the Government of Canada of its obligations under the right to self-determination, and take note of the Committee's concluding observations of 1998, in which it stated that Aboriginal poverty was directly connected to dispossession of their lands. She also said the Committee should recommend that Canada refrain from its current practice of allowing private companies to exploit First Nations lands over which title was in dispute. Doreen also appeared before the committee on behalf of the Feminist Organization for Women's Advancement, Rights and Dignity. She said the Government of Canada had turned its back on women. The Committee should vigorously scold the Canadian Government on its invidious, scurrilous legislated human rights violations, and strongly urge it to implement the Committee's recommendations. The Government should recognise, respect, protect and fulfil rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, acknowledging the connections between violence against women, social and economic exclusion, and Government policies contributing to degradation, ensure that every person had access to a home that was adequate, affordable, safe, secure and dignified, and provide autonomous, dignified housing and support for independence.

ALPHONSE OMINAYAK, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation, said Canada lacked effort and concern to honestly resolve land claim issues. It was the heart of the reason for the existence of the United Nations which the Canadian Government was ignoring in its actions. FRED LENNARSON, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation said the Nation had never surrendered its land rights, and in the past 25 years its territories had been invaded by natural resource companies, which had devastated the ecology of the area, and forced many of the inhabitants onto welfare in order to survive, with other negative effects on health due to pollution. Canadian officials had even tried to deny the existence of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation. The United Nations Human Rights Committee had heard the plight of the Nation in 1987, and instructed Canada to take measures to protect the members of the Nation. The Committee should censor Canada for ignoring its concluding observations and recommendations.

[UN Committee ?'s Canada]

UN Experts question Canada's inaction on poverty, housing, aboriginal rights

"Canada was asked about a number of aboriginal issues, including the Six
Nations and the Lubicon Nation land claims, and on-going issues about
discrimination against women under the Indian Act. The Committee also
expressed serious concern about the disproportionately high rates of violence (including murder) inflicted against Indigenous girls and women in Canada, and raised the correlation between high rates of homelessness among girls and sexual abuse in the home."

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 8, 2006

"Many of the issues our committee raised in 1993 and 1998 are unfortunately still live issues today," said Ariranga Govindasamy Pillay, a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during the committee's review of Canada's performance. "Years later, the situation appears to be unchanged, and in some respects worse.

There is continuing homelessness and reliance on food banks,
security of tenure is not still not enjoyed by tenants, child tax benefits are
still clawed back, (...) the situation of aboriginal peoples, migrants and
people with disabilities doesn't seem to be improving."

"The Committee is right to challenge Canada to address the depth of
poverty which has left the most marginalized people worse off than ever
before. There are still too many people who are still denied adequate housing, a decent standard of living, and access to health and higher education," said Aimée Clark, from the National Anti-Poverty Organization, one of the Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) participating in the Committee review currently held in Geneva.

Several committee members were disturbed by the lack of investment in
social programs and by continuing high poverty rates of the most marginalized (women, aboriginal peoples, people of colour and immigrants) and wondered why this has happened when the government is enjoying budget surpluses year after year.

Canada was asked about a number of aboriginal issues, including the Six
Nations and the Lubicon Nation land claims, and on-going issues about
discrimination against women under the Indian Act. The Committee also
expressed serious concern about the disproportionately high rates of violence (including murder) inflicted against Indigenous girls and women in Canada, and raised the correlation between high rates of homelessness among girls and sexual abuse in the home.

Today, Committee members are expected to ask further probing questions
about Canada's compliance. Issues to be covered include housing, social
assistance, employment insurance, education and health. The committee also wants to know how Canada will improve accountability through domestic laws.

"Economic and social rights must be enforceable rights, not just distant
goals," said Vince Calderhead with the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues.

"That's why we are pleased that the Committee is asking why our federal
and provincial courts and human rights commissions don't give enough
consideration to economic and social rights and why governments continually deny they are accountable to economic, social and cultural rights in court."

The Review began on Friday May 5th and will end today, May 8th.
Participating in the review process are Canadian NGOs, representing the First nations, African Canadians, women, poor people as well as legal experts. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is expected to submit its concluding observations on May 19th, 2006.

For further information: In Canada: Dennis Howlett (National
Anti-Poverty Organization) (613) 889-0141; John Tackaberry, Amnesty
International (613) 744-7667 ext 236; In Geneva: Josephine Gray, (Low-Income Families Together, LIFT), (416) 827 7119

- - - - - - -

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cescr.htm

- - - - - - -

Here is How the Government of Canada Described Its Performance on Aboriginal Issues. . .
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/report/govrev/ ... c119296592