Post by blackcrowheart on Nov 25, 2005 13:38:03 GMT -5
Canadian officials, aboriginal leaders open talks on billion-dollar
redress plan(Updated 02:01 p.m.)
2005/11/25
KELOWNA, British Columbia (AP)
Canada was expected to unveil a C$4 billion (US$3.4) federal program
Friday to empower Canada's native Indian and northern Inuit
communities with tools to help lift them out of poverty and disease
on their neglected native lands.
Martin and the premiers of Canada's 13 provinces and territories were
participating in an unprecedented, two-day summit with five
organizations representing the nearly 1 million aboriginal peoples of
the North American nation, namely Indian tribes known as First
Nations and Inuits, aboriginal Canadians of the northeastern and
Arctic territories.
The federal government currently spends upward of C$8 billion (US$6.8
billion) a year for aboriginal groups, but problems abound: Native
reserves are dramatically short of housing and safe drinking water,
their high school graduation rate is just over half the national
average, and life expectancy for Indians is five to seven years lower
than for non-aboriginals.
The infant mortality rate is 20 percent higher among First Nations,
suicide rates are threefold and teen pregnancies are nine times
higher than the national average.
"It is evidence these heartbreaking facts speak not just to health
care," Martin said Thursday at the opening ceremony of the historic
meeting, set on the shores of Lake Okanagan in the former frontier
town of Kelowna, an Indian word for grizzly bear. "They speak to the
psychic and emotional turmoil in communities that we must find ways,
urgently, to address."
Martin on Wednesday went a long ways toward addressing one of the
most shameful stains on Canadian history, proposing C$2 billion
(US$1.7 billion) in payments for aboriginal victims of sexual and
psychological abuse during forced Christian schooling.
Some 100,000 children were required to attend such residential
schools over the past century in a futile and painful attempt to rid
them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into
Canadian society. The legacy of sexual abuse and isolation among
these children has long been cited by Indian leaders as the root
cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reserves.
Inuit and First Nations came from around the country for the
unprecedented gathering, hoping the summit would be a historic
turning point for the peoples who once helped European immigrants and
fur traders survive the harsh northern climes.
"Mr. Prime Minister, over the next two days the ... leaders in this
room have an opportunity to make a historic and positive impact on
our aboriginal communities, and to set a source of action that can
help alleviate some of the most challenging problems facing
aboriginal peoples across Canada today," Chief Robert Louie of the
Westbank band of the Okanagan Nation, told the opening ceremony.
Not all who came were happy about the federal plan to spend billions
over five years to improve housing, health care, education and
economic development for nearly 1 million indigenous people. About
200 protesters from the Association of Aborginal Friendship Centers
demonstrated outside the summit site, upset that their organization,
which provides social services to the urban Indians and Inuit who do
not live on reserves, had not been included in the talks.
"Our concern is that you can can't have half a solution," said Paul
Lacerte, executive director for the British Columbia chapter, who
noted half of Canada's Indians do not live on reserves. "If this is
going to be a watershed for aboriginal people, why haven't half the
people living off the reserves been addressed?"
And David Chartrand, the Manitoba Metis leader who opened the
conference by presenting Martin with a finely embroidered buckskin
jacket, later emerged from the closed-door talks to complain that
while Martin was offering C$1.8 billion for native education, the
provincial premiers weren't giving any to the Metis.
"It's like inviting you to the house but you're kept on the porch,"
Chartrand complained.
The Metis are Canadians born of an ethnic group descended from the
marriages of European men and First Nations women.
Martin on Thursday laid out an ambitious 10-year wish list for
achievement: eliminating the gap in high-school graduation rates;
doubling the number of aboriginal health professionals; and reducing
the housing gap on reserves by 80 percent.
Some worry, however, that any progress made at the conference could
vanish next week, when opposition parties in Parliament are expected
to topple Martin's minority government in a no-confidence vote,
forced after he refused to call early national elections.
redress plan(Updated 02:01 p.m.)
2005/11/25
KELOWNA, British Columbia (AP)
Canada was expected to unveil a C$4 billion (US$3.4) federal program
Friday to empower Canada's native Indian and northern Inuit
communities with tools to help lift them out of poverty and disease
on their neglected native lands.
Martin and the premiers of Canada's 13 provinces and territories were
participating in an unprecedented, two-day summit with five
organizations representing the nearly 1 million aboriginal peoples of
the North American nation, namely Indian tribes known as First
Nations and Inuits, aboriginal Canadians of the northeastern and
Arctic territories.
The federal government currently spends upward of C$8 billion (US$6.8
billion) a year for aboriginal groups, but problems abound: Native
reserves are dramatically short of housing and safe drinking water,
their high school graduation rate is just over half the national
average, and life expectancy for Indians is five to seven years lower
than for non-aboriginals.
The infant mortality rate is 20 percent higher among First Nations,
suicide rates are threefold and teen pregnancies are nine times
higher than the national average.
"It is evidence these heartbreaking facts speak not just to health
care," Martin said Thursday at the opening ceremony of the historic
meeting, set on the shores of Lake Okanagan in the former frontier
town of Kelowna, an Indian word for grizzly bear. "They speak to the
psychic and emotional turmoil in communities that we must find ways,
urgently, to address."
Martin on Wednesday went a long ways toward addressing one of the
most shameful stains on Canadian history, proposing C$2 billion
(US$1.7 billion) in payments for aboriginal victims of sexual and
psychological abuse during forced Christian schooling.
Some 100,000 children were required to attend such residential
schools over the past century in a futile and painful attempt to rid
them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into
Canadian society. The legacy of sexual abuse and isolation among
these children has long been cited by Indian leaders as the root
cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reserves.
Inuit and First Nations came from around the country for the
unprecedented gathering, hoping the summit would be a historic
turning point for the peoples who once helped European immigrants and
fur traders survive the harsh northern climes.
"Mr. Prime Minister, over the next two days the ... leaders in this
room have an opportunity to make a historic and positive impact on
our aboriginal communities, and to set a source of action that can
help alleviate some of the most challenging problems facing
aboriginal peoples across Canada today," Chief Robert Louie of the
Westbank band of the Okanagan Nation, told the opening ceremony.
Not all who came were happy about the federal plan to spend billions
over five years to improve housing, health care, education and
economic development for nearly 1 million indigenous people. About
200 protesters from the Association of Aborginal Friendship Centers
demonstrated outside the summit site, upset that their organization,
which provides social services to the urban Indians and Inuit who do
not live on reserves, had not been included in the talks.
"Our concern is that you can can't have half a solution," said Paul
Lacerte, executive director for the British Columbia chapter, who
noted half of Canada's Indians do not live on reserves. "If this is
going to be a watershed for aboriginal people, why haven't half the
people living off the reserves been addressed?"
And David Chartrand, the Manitoba Metis leader who opened the
conference by presenting Martin with a finely embroidered buckskin
jacket, later emerged from the closed-door talks to complain that
while Martin was offering C$1.8 billion for native education, the
provincial premiers weren't giving any to the Metis.
"It's like inviting you to the house but you're kept on the porch,"
Chartrand complained.
The Metis are Canadians born of an ethnic group descended from the
marriages of European men and First Nations women.
Martin on Thursday laid out an ambitious 10-year wish list for
achievement: eliminating the gap in high-school graduation rates;
doubling the number of aboriginal health professionals; and reducing
the housing gap on reserves by 80 percent.
Some worry, however, that any progress made at the conference could
vanish next week, when opposition parties in Parliament are expected
to topple Martin's minority government in a no-confidence vote,
forced after he refused to call early national elections.