The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada - a documentary

[www.firstcontact.ca]

The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada

"Today, survival for the Mushuau Innu is a daily struggle."

( VIEW PHOTOS http://www.firstcontact.ca/Surviving-Ca ... ml#Gallery )

Saturday, October 16 at 7:00 PM

OMNI.2

TORONTO, Sept. 30, 2004

"The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada documentary employs a no-holds-barred approach to getting at the truth of the 50-year decline of the Innu under white domination to their present day crossroads in Natuashish."

Rogers OMNI Television is proud to announce the English-language broadcast of The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada as part of its new OMNI Signature Series documentaries. This new series showcases
compelling documentaries that reflect Canada's ethnocultural composition. The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada, was previously aired in Portuguese, Italian, Mandarin.

http://www.cfmt.com/tv/docs/episodes/innu/

The latest production from BestBoy Productions, The Mushuau Innu:
Surviving Canada explores the devastating impact of constitutional violations committed by the federal government for over 50 years, as reported by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 1993, have had on the Innu and their future.

They are an Indian people who have suffered for many years, forced to
live in unimaginable squalor. As their sense of worth disintegrated, they
engaged in a process of self-destruction. Stripped of culture, meaning, and
hope, the Mushuau Innu killed themselves at a rate among the worlds highest.

Today, survival for the Mushuau Innu is a daily struggle.

"More than a decade has elapsed since the Canadian Human Rights
Commission condemned the federal government's unconstitutional treatment of the Innu," said Ed Martin, Producer, Director and Writer of The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada. "Thanks to support from OMNI Television, now this shameful and long overdue story can be told."

The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada was made possible with 100 per cent funding from the OMNI Television Independent Producers Initiative. Interested producers can access funding criteria at OMNI Television's web site: www.omnitv.ca

For further information: To secure a screening copy of the documentary
or to interview the producers of Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada, please
contact: Gillian McArdle, Adrienne Simic, Media Profile, (416) 504-8464,
gillian@mediaprofile.com, adrienne@mediaprofile.com

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
http://www.firstcontact.ca/Surviving-Ca ... story.html

Synopsis
Produced, directed and written
by Ed Martin

They are an Indian people who have suffered for many years. They were forced to live in unimaginable squalor. Houses not much better than cardboard boxes. No running water, no sewage disposal. Human waste tossed into the streets where children played in it and dogs ate it.

As their sense of worth disintegrated, they engaged in a process of self-destruction. 90% of the community became alcoholic. Many of their children sniffed gas. Many more suffered from chronic disease. Stripped of culture, meaning, and hope, they killed themselves at a rate among the world’s highest. But their tragedies did not occur in a third world country. They happened in a country with a reputation as one of the world’s best places to live—Canada.

They are the Innu. For thousands of years they roamed strong and free. They survived on one of the harshest lands on earth, the tundra of the great Labrador. After 50 years under white control in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, they struggle daily to survive Canada.

In 1993, the Canadian Human Rights Commission released a report condemning the Federal government’s treatment of the Innu. The report came to a shocking conclusion. It found the federal government had been in violation of the constitutional rights of the Innu for more than 50 years.

( Summary of Conclusions from 1993 Report http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/ra ... e13-en.asp )

The Mushuau Innu: Surviving Canada explores the devastating impact these constitutional violations have had on the Innu and their future as a people.

Documentary Length: 46 minutes

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The Implications of the Government's Failure to Provide the Innu with Treatment Equal to That of Other First Nations for the Period 1949 to 2001

http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/ra ... ge9-en.asp

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Report to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on the Treatment of the Innu of Labrador by the Government of Canada

http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/ra ... toc-en.asp

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Indian Affairs Information about the Mushuau Innu

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/irp/index_e.html