10 May 2020

Never let a "crisis" go to waste... right?

Apparently 10-12 billion dollars every year with zero audit controls just isn't enough for our aboriginal brothers & sisters...insert alt text here
Native Women's Association President Lorraine Whitman says she finds the numbers "shocking" and is deeply concerned about the safety of Indigenous women in Canada.

"Because we are facing the impact of colonialism, we are not a top priority and we can see it with COVID right now."
Lorraine, hang on a sec... are you saying you just discovered domestic violence among aboriginal peoples? And how exactly is 'colonialism' or 'coronavirus' beating the snot out of aboriginal women?

I'm so confused.
"With the increasing rate of violence, which has occurred during COVID, we are now in an even worse crisis," said NDP MP Leah Gazan.

"We need to move swiftly. This is a life and death situation."
Well, no Leah... this is simply "life on the Rez"... and native gals seem to be getting in a few licks of their own...
Sapers pointed to statistics that show the total number of people incarcerated in federal institutions went down by 12 per cent between 1996 and 2004. But the number of native inmates increased 21 per cent in the same period.

The figures were even more dramatic for native women, whose numbers rose by a startling 74 percent.
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RELATED: "Culture is not destiny"...

..."especially when that culture is frozen in time."
"This is the argument of 'Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry', a newly-released book by two academics that is making waves within the academic world."

"This, they argue, is the problem confronting First Nations today: they need to catch up culturally."
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LAST WORD: "If it saves one life"...
"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.