16 March 2011

Too many Clan Mothers...

...not enough responsible, sober adults...
Clan mothers marched from the community centre in Ohsweken to the council hall toting almost 500 helium-filled balloons. The balloons represented the 483 Aboriginal children they say are currently in the care of the Children's Aid Society of Brant.
This must be more evidence of Canada's systemically racist treatment of aboriginal peoples, right?

I mean, it's not like the CAS can justify... wait a minute...
Statistics Canada calculates that more than half of native kids are living in poverty; ¾ drop out of school before completing Grade 12; the incarceration rate of aboriginal men is 11 times that of non-native men; of women, it is 250 times the rate for non-native women.
But, but, but... we can't blame the aboriginals... they're trying as hard... yikers...
Esme Fuller-Thompson, an associate professor of social work at the University of Toronto, said 17 per cent of all caregiving grandparents are of First Nations origin. "This was easily more than five times the numbers you'd expect to find given the population," she said.

Today, however, Fuller-Thompson and other researchers are finding children are usually driven into their grandparents' homes when their parents succumb to substance abuse.
Man, that's a shitload of succumbing... but at least these grandparented kids are in a warm, safe, culturally nourishing environ... oh, holy turtle crap, I give up...
"The rate of deaths from injuries is 3 to 4 times higher for Aboriginal children than for other children in Canada."

Source: Government of Canada (2002) Healthy Canadians – A Federal Report on Comparable Health Indicators Ottawa: Health Canada.
I sure hope they had fun with that balloon machine... 'cos the rest of this protest was a publicity stunt gone wrong.

RELATED: Definitely not the CBC
"Aboriginal and other 'ethnic' leaders know how counterproductive ideas like these are for 'their' people, but that's not the point."

"If they don't build differences and divisions between 'their' people and the wider community, they could end up with no flock to lead - and therefore no government subsidies or fawning media."