Comment pages 10 to

Canada’s settlement does not reconcile lost childhoods

In light of the large settlement, Canadians cannot forget responsibility

COMMENT

Lucas Edmond, staff The Canadian government and various First Nations leaders outlined a non-binding agreement to settle a 14year legal battle over the “racist underfunding of child welfare services on reserves.” The Canadian government decided to settle the agreement with First Nations leaders outside of a legally binding court room in an effort to resolve the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s (CHRT) 2016 ruling. The deal must be ratified by March 31, 2022 to be considered binding.

As the deal stands, the federal government will dedicate $40 billion to Indigenous communities to help reconcile the damage caused by its systemic neglect and discrimination. If approved, the settlement will be the largest in Canadian history. Of the $40 billion, $20 billion will be dedicated to compensating First Nations children and their families for the trauma they endured and the other $20 billion will be used to reform the First Nations child welfare system.

Although an important step toward reconciliation, Cindy Blackstock — the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society — said she will not stop fighting for First Nations children until she sees tangible changes to the system. “These are simply words on paper. It is not time to look away, and it is not time for any of us to exhale,” she said in a press conference.

Blackstock has been an integral player in bringing these systemic injustices to light. In 2007, it was her and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) that filed a summary of complaints asserting that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada — later renamed the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) — was violating the Human Rights Act. The complaints outlined that the department provided discriminatory levels of child welfare for on-reserve children in contrast to the welfare provided by provincial governments for people residing off-reserve.

Due to the Indian Act, reserves are governed by band councils in conjunction with federal departments. This legislation means the Canadian government is directly responsible for investing in reserves — these investments include child welfare. However, the federal government has no child welfare legislation. As a result, Canada made arrangements in 1989 with provincial governments to provide funding for provinces in order to deliver child welfare for on-reserve Indigenous populations. formula to stimulate on-reserve welfare funding through provincial services. However, the formula made inaccurate assumptions about how many people would need these services which resulted in inadequate and limited fixed funding. Because the compensation framework reimbursed the provinces for children in foster care flexibly at their direct costs, First Nations Child and Family Services had incentive to separate children from their homes and put them into provincial foster care systems. The lack of direct welfare funding for First Nations families mixed with these incentives contributed to the drastic overrepresentation of First Nations children in foster care. Roughly 52 per cent of children in foster care are Indigenous despite making up less than eight per cent of Canada’s child population.

Over the past 14 years, the federal government has made an overt attempt to stall and bury the AFN and Caring Society’s complaints. Between 2008 and 2013, under then-prime minister Stephen Harper, Canada continuously motioned to have the case dismissed. The Harper government willingly obstructed the case by having Blackstock harassed, thrown out of consultations and spied on. Further, the Harper government intentionally withheld more than 100,000 incriminating documents and emails from the CHRT.

As a result of continuous impediments to the case, the court hearings survived long enough to witness administrative change. In 2015, running on a platform that looked promising for Indigenous affairs, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada won the federal election. By 2016, the CHRT concluded its review and found that on-reserve child welfare funding was up to 38 per cent lower than funding provided for off-reserve children. The CHRT noted the government was

Over the past 14 years, the federal government has made an overt attempt to stall and bury the AFN and Caring Society’s complaints

staff

/ Dallin Chicoine / graphic responsible to make reparations for its abhorrent human rights abuses. However, for the following five years, Trudeau and the Liberal party spent more than $12 million appealing the CHRT’s decision, further delaying crucial reform.

Following the CHRT’s landmark decision in 2016, a panel member noted that for years federal officials, provincial governments and the AANDC neglected blatant discrimination within the system. Instead, the speaker continued, the department simply added “support pillars to a house that has a weak foundation in an attempt to straighten and support the house. At some point, the foundation needs to be fixed or, ultimately, the house will fall down.”

The house did fall, and it fell with First Nations children inside of it. These children were victims of the federal government’s abuse. For 14 years, the individuals elected to ensure the safety of these children actively fought them in court. And for 14 years, children were pumped out of a broken house that stole their identities, family support and virtually left them for dead once they aged out of the system. For 14 years, the government chose to ignore racism and erasure.

Although the $40 billion could potentially prevent future abuses, no amount of money can reconcile stolen childhoods. The government is responsible for these abuses and, like Blackstock noted, Canadians cannot surrender this critical fact in light of this large settlement. It is far from time to exhale in relief. Rather, it is imperative that the federal government does not capture the settlement’s narrative and skew it as a fortune of the Liberal party’s goodwill. Now, more than ever, Canadians must pressure the government for reform and remember its role in the destruction of the lives of over 163,000 First Nations children.

One man’s quest for clean oceans

Award-winning documentary an environmental wake-up call

ARTS & CULTURE

Grace Paizen, staff The equivalent of one truckload of garbage is dumped into the ocean every minute. Currently, plastic can be found in 80 per cent of seabirds and it is estimated by the year 2050 plastic will be found in 99 per cent of them.

With statistics this staggering, the award-winning documentary Hell or Clean Water is a much-needed alarm bell for the future of the planet’s health.

The documentary follows Newfoundland and Labrador diver and former fisherman Shawn Bath on his journey to secure support and funding to clean the Newfoundland coastline.

Director Cody Westman documents Bath’s journey as creator of the Clean Harbours Initiative (CHI), whose purpose is to bring awareness to pollution in the oceans and to clean the ocean floor.

The film starts with a John F. Kennedy quote: “One person can make a difference and everyone should try.” While Bath is definitively the one diver of the CHI who began cleaning the ocean floor on his own volition after realizing he couldn’t leave the task to someone else, Westman showcases the team effort between Bath and CHI volunteers, including Bath’s girlfriend Staunene Whelan. The opening sequence of the documentary sets up the film well. In the breakneck speed of two minutes, the “plastic nightmare” currently plaguing the world’s oceans is sufficiently summed up. To boil down this polyethylene horror story to its core, Bath remarks that he took 1,200 tires out of the harbours in one year and thousands of pounds of trash.

Of course, a significant problem with the dumping of everything from car batteries to asbestos pipes in the ocean is that these toxic materials break down and are consumed by sea creatures which are, in turn, consumed by humans.

The most frightening part of the documentary is the focus on ghost nets — fishing nets left behind by fishermen. These nets are not only trapping, harming and killing wildlife — with one of the saddest moments of the film occurring by finding a drowned orca tangled in these nets — but are breaking down and entering the food supply chain via microparticles.

The purpose of Bath’s initiative is to prove one person can make a difference. But as Bath and Whelan put their own money into the CHI, the film places a spotlight on the stress of obtaining funding from the provincial and federal governments.

The documentary does a fantastic job elaborating on prejudices or distrust between Newfoundlanders and the federal government and other organizations. In this way, there is even a history lesson to be had between the unlikely partnership of Bath and Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare to secure funds for Bath to continue the CHI’s efforts.

A particularly politically frustrating moment of the film comes in the form of the Government of Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans $8.3 million initiative to clean up ghost nets and the allocation of funding to local fishermen rather than the CHI, despite the fact that Bath said the government had used the CHI as an example of where the funding would be allocated.

Westman’s documentary follows Bath through this aggravating trial that only escalates as the film continues

provided / Cody Westman image /

to simply secure funding for the CHI. The film, then, acts as a sort of microcosm of current pandemic struggles of government bungles and negligence.

As educative as it is aesthetically shot, Hell or Clean Water is a much-needed documentary in our current climate crisis.

The garbage is “endless,” as Bath says, but if more individuals believe they can make a difference in the world, the garbage in more than just our oceans can be cleaned up.

Hell or Clean Water will be available to watch on CBC and CBC Gem on Jan. 16.

arts@themanitoban.com

’Toban cornertable

Review: Laurie Fischer — ‘Musings on a Life Well Lived’

ARTS & CULTURE

Zoë LeBrun, staff Winnipegger Laurie Fischer has released his second selfpublished poetry collection, Musings on a Life Well Lived.

Fischer’s first release was a book called Poetry of the Pandemic, which he began during the quarantine of March 2020 as something to occupy his time. As the collection came together, Fischer decided to share his poems in the hopes it would help others to know they weren’t alone in the troubles brought on by the pandemic.

Since the release of his first collection, Fischer’s continued writing practice is now another way he hopes to give back to others while processing his own experiences simultaneously. He hopes that Musings on a Life Well Lived will “inspire, encourage, uplift and motivate” his readers.

Featuring over 100 new poems, Musings on a Life Well Lived is composed of 10 different sections which address various topics and take a more positive look at the everyday through the lenses of the past, present and future. Some of the themes included across each section are nature, history, childhood memories, pets and the battle with cancer.

The collection’s contents prove true to its title — almost every facet of life is explored within Fischer’s poems and they are imbued with a feeling of familiarity and relatability. Fischer’s thoughts could be our own in many regards, and the landscapes he describes recall ones that many who have lived in Winnipeg and the surrounding areas are accustomed to seeing on a regular basis.

Fischer’s poems do not hide behind elaborate words, abstract imagery or complex metres — instead, they are open for the reader to understand and interpret quickly and easily, making it a more accessible and enjoyable poetry collection for all who read it.

Three poems from Musings on a Life Well Lived stand out in particular.

“An Easy Decision” speaks to the universal experience waking up to a rainy day and choosing to remain in bed and sleep in rather than waking up. Fischer paints this picture clearly, describing the stormy grey sky outside, the distinct lack of birds and the comfort and warmth of the bed he decides to stay in.

“Footprints” is another highlight from Fischer’s new collection, in which he discusses how we impact the lives of others. He encourages us to “make footprints throughout your life / You will never see” and to help others.

Last but not least, “What Day is it?” takes a positive outlook on the isolating lockdowns that we all experienced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of this poem, Fischer imparts upon us some wisdom that we all must try to keep close to ourselves in these continuing troubled times:

provided / Pamela Roz PR / image

“Now more than ever / It is time / To set aside our frustration, / To release our anger, / To forget our regrets, / To simply relax and enjoy / The time of our lives.”