Hitting rock bottom.

"Aboriginal Canadians, especially Inuit and Indians on reserves, live in poverty comparable to that found in developing nations." That's Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson writing in November 2005. But, Mr. Ibbitson could have written that sentence 30, 40, or 50 years ago and it still would have been accurate

Living conditions for Canada's Native people have been a national embarrassment for many decades and there have been countless pledges to deal with the problem.

"A report released by the Association for Canadian Studies has found First Nations people in Saskatchewan have the highest rate of poverty in the country ... The think tank, based in Montreal, found that 42.6% of Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan live below the low-income cutoff point (the poverty line) compared with 9.2% of Saskatchewan's non-Aboriginal population. Across Canada, the Aboriginal population had a low-income rate of 31.2%. In Saskatchewan urban centres, the poverty rate went as high as 51.3%." That quote comes from 2004.

Even those who move to cities for economic reasons are way behind their non-Aboriginal counterparts: in 1995, the median income was 40 percent higher among off-reserve Aboriginals compared with those on reserve, but their incomes still were about 60 percent less than those of non-Aboriginals.

Along with the poverty go a host of social ills--overcrowded housing, unemployment, substance abuse, poor health, crime.

In October 2000, the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres (OFIFC) released a report entitled Urban Aboriginal Child Poverty: A Status Report on Aboriginal Children and their Families in Ontario. The report cites some statistics that reveal the extent of the problem:

* 52.1% of all Aboriginal children are poor;

* 12 percent of Aboriginal families are headed by parents under the age of 25 years;

* 27 percent of Aboriginal families are headed by single mothers;

* 40 percent of single Aboriginal mothers earn less than $12,000 per year;

* 47.2% of the Ontario Aboriginal population receives less than $10,000 per year; and,

* Aboriginal people have a disability rate that is more than twice the national average.

OFIFC adds that "Aboriginal child and family poverty in Canada is rooted in cultural fragmentation, multi-generational effects of residential schools, wardship through the child welfare system, and socio-economic marginalization. For reasons none other than 'being Aboriginal,' Aboriginal people have, for generations, grown up poor."

Researchers found "that the level of poverty among many Aboriginal families has now reached the rock bottom level where even the most basic needs are not being met. Food was cited as the most pressing need."

As the National Anti-Poverty Organization sees it (in a September 2005 paper submitted to the federal government finance committee), "Poverty among Canada's Aboriginal groups remains unacceptably high both on and off reserve. In fact, if the statistics for Canadian Aboriginal people were viewed separately from those of the rest of the country, Canada's Aboriginal people would slip to 78th on the UN Human Development Index--the ranking currently held by Kazakhstan ... With projected surpluses of $9.5 billion in 2005-06 and $11.3 billion in 2006-07 a [federal] poverty reduction plan is more than affordable."

The Third World conditions that exist on Canada's Native reserves were confirmed in October 2005 at Kashechewan reserve in Northern Ontario. That's when the community was evacuated because of E. coli-contaminated drinking water. The community is also plagued with unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, boredom, and despair. As knowledge of the disaster unfolded, the Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine said he was looking for at least $5 billion in new spending on housing, education, and economic development for Native People. He later said provincial and federal governments should commit to a 10-year program to wipe out poverty on reserves. After all, Kashechewan is not an isolated case of abject poverty on Native reserves. According to a Globe and Mail report, Native People continue to live--and die--in condemned houses with undrinkable water that federal government officials found a year earlier at the remote village of Gwayasdums on the northeastern coast of Vancouver Island. Reserve Chief Bob Chamberlin explains that "The houses in the village (of 30) all have mould, some have leaking roofs, some have such unsafe wiring that power has been shut off," and he wonders why nothing has been done to solve the problems. Respiratory illnesses and sores from showering in the contaminated water have forced families with young children to leave the community.

Poor living conditions have led to myriad other health problems for Native People across the country. The rates of arthritis and diabetes among Aboriginal adults, for example, are twice the national average. In a 2003 Statistics Canada survey almost half off-reserve Aboriginal Canadians reported chronic health problems. Older women are particularly hard hit with 41 percent of those between 55 and 64 rating their health as poor or fair, compared with 19 percent of non-Aboriginal Canadian women in the same age group.

The study involved interviews with 117,000 Indians, Metis, and Inuit, and little had changed since a similar survey in 1996. Memee Harvard, president of the Ontario Native Women's Association, said the saddest part is that none of the findings in the study is a surprise.

As the Aboriginal population grows, so will its problems, if something isn't done. In the 2001 Census, 976,305 persons identified themselves as Aboriginal People, 22 percent higher than in 1996. During the same period the non-Aboriginal population grew by only 3.4%. One of the main keys to progress, of course, is improved education. By 2003, the number of Aboriginals between the ages of 20 and 24 without a high school diploma dropped to 48 percent from 52 percent five years earlier but it still was almost double the figure at the national level.

The situation has been declared urgent for decades, with a succession of reports confirming the challenges faced by the country's Native People: the 2002 report Our Children--Keepers of the Sacred Knowledge, published by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada quotes the Auditor General's report on First Nations elementary/secondary education of April 2000 stating that "... action is urgently needed. Today's urgency will be exacerbated by increasing demands for education services as a result of demographic changes in Aboriginal communities. In the absence of satisfactory progress, there will be an increased waste of human capital, lost opportunities, high financial cost in social programs, and a degradation of the relationship between the government and First Nations peoples."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Professor John Richards, an economist who teaches in the new public policy program at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, thinks federal government transfers to bands should be reduced in favour of treaty benefits paid to individual Aboriginals, regardless of where they live. This would put the money into the hands of the people who need it rather than band councils, many of which have misspent government funds. In addition, he agrees that the provinces, particularly the Western provinces where most Aboriginals live, should improve the high school completion rates of Native People. Review and discuss Professor Richards' paper at www.irdp.org/po/ archive/dec03/richards.pdf

2. Canada ranks 19 out of 26 countries in child poverty with a rate of almost 15 percent. By comparison Denmark and Finland have child poverty rates of 24% and 28% respectively. Find out how these countries succeed in maintaining such low poverty rates.

FACT FILE

Data from the 2001 Census shows the median pretax income of Aboriginal Canadians was $13,526, or 61 percent of median income for all Canadians which was $22,120.

About 40 percent of off-reserve Aboriginal children live in poverty compared to the national rate of 18 percent.

Websites

Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres

(Urban Aboriginal Child Poverty Report)-http: //www.ofifc.org/ ofifchome/page/notes.htm

The National Anti-Poverty Organization--http://www.napo-onap.ca/ en/issues.html

Unicef's Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005--http://www.unicef.org/ sowc06/pdfs/repcard6e.pdf

CRIMINALS OR VICTIMS?

It's been known for a long time that our justice system doesn't serve Aboriginal people well. In 2000, for example, the Canadian Criminal Justice Association (CCJA) reported that Aboriginal People experience disproportionately high rates of crime and victimization, are over-represented in the court and the correctional system, and feel alienated from a justice system they find foreign and inaccessible, and that reflects racism.

Using research that went back to the 1980s, the CCJA found that:

* Aboriginals accused are more likely to be denied bail;

* More time is spent in pre-trial detention by Aboriginal People;

* Aboriginals accused are more likely to be charged with multiple offences, and often for crimes against the system;

* Aboriginal People are more likely not to have legal representation at court proceedings;

* Aboriginal clients, especially in northern communities where the court party flies in the day of the hearing, spend less time with their lawyers;

* As court schedules in remote areas are poorly planned, judges may have limited time to spend in the community;

* Aboriginal offenders are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated than non-Aboriginal offenders;

* Aboriginal elders, who are also spiritual leaders, are not given the same status as prison priests and chaplains, in all institutions; and,

* Aboriginal People often plead guilty because they are intimidated by the court and simply want to get the proceedings over with.

The social conditions that contribute to crime--poverty, poor education, unemployment, marginalization, substance abuse, sexual abuse, and other forms of violence, and dysfunctional families, for example--are more prevalent in Aboriginal communities. But, the report adds that Aboriginal People also have limited options for rehabilitation. Also, they are imprisoned more often for relatively minor offences against the system such as not paying fines, fail to appear, or non-compliance with restriction. In addition, there is inadequate funding for community-based approaches to crime prevention.

As well as language barriers there also are numerous cultural differences that place Aboriginal People at a disadvantage in Canada's criminal justice system. For example, Aboriginal communities focus less on guilt and more on identifying the problem at hand and fixing it. Their objective is to restore harmony rather than impose punishment so the accused is more likely to admit wrongdoing. In our justice system, even the guilty often plead innocent to avoid self-incrimination, a concept foreign to Native People. Something as simple as eye contact with those in authority, seen in non-Aboriginal cultures as a sign of honesty, is considered disrespectful in Aboriginal communities.

CCJA concludes that "The Canadian criminal justice system is based on EuroCanadian values and, as a result, often conflicts with Aboriginal values. High levels of incarceration, increased focus from law enforcement, language barriers, conflicting values and conceptual frameworks regarding crime and punishment, as well as particular issues faced by First Nations youth, all contribute to the failure of the criminal justice system to meet the needs of Aboriginal People."

According to the 2001 Census, most Aboriginal People live in Western Canada: they make up 14 percent of the population in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, five percent in Alberta, four percent in British Columbia, but only about two percent east of Manitoba. More and more, they live in allies, with just 31 percent living on reserve (compared with 33 percent in 1996, and 80 percent in the 19600. Ranked by size of Aboriginal population, they live in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Saskatoon, Regina, Ottawa, Prince Albert, and Montreal. Native People are younger than other Canadians, with a gap in median age Oust under 25 for Native People) of 13 years. One third of Aboriginal People are under 15, compared with 19 percent of the overall population. So, while Aboriginal People were just 3.3% of Canada's population in 2001, they accounted for 5.6% of the country's children.