An intractable social problem

In Canada, we call them First Nations. In the USA, they are called Indians. (In fact, Indian is the historic term here, too; it survives in legal texts such as the Indian Act.)

Many First Nation communities live in desperate circumstances. One all-too-typical story is making news this week.

The Kashechewan First Nation, in Northern Ontario, has been under a boil-water advisory since 2003. The community's plight became much worse two weeks ago when deadly E. coli bacteria were found in their drinking water.

E. coli often causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps. In vulnerable people, the infection can cause a complication which can lead to kidney failure. A small number of survivors will still have abnormal kidney function many years later, and a few will require long-term dialysis. Other potentially lifelong complications include high blood pressure, seizures, blindness, paralysis, and the effects of having part of one's bowel removed.

In short, E. coli in your drinking water is a serious problem. And the Government of Canada (which has jurisdiction over Indians and Indian reserves) has known about the problem for more than two years. It received an alarming report from the Ontario Clean Water Agency in 2003.






This week, the Government of Ontario declared a state of emergency in Kashechewan after seeing graphic photographs of the community's children. Many of the children are infected with scabies, a nasty parasite, and impetigo, a bacterial skin infection. Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail reports,

95 other Canadian reserves are also under boil-water advisories. A 2001 report by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs found that 75 per cent of the aboriginal communities in Canada faced "a significant risk to the quality or safety of drinking water." In a sobering report last month, the Auditor-General of Canada reported that most water-treatment plant operators on native reserves across Canada don't "possess the knowledge and skills required to operate their plant safely."

Around the world, wherever indigenous populations have survived into the modern era, the same issues exist. Socio-economic problems abound. In Canada, as summarized by Canadian Press,

The average rate of aboriginal youths committing suicide has soared to six times higher than the national average for the age group. …

Native communities also have higher incidences of infectious and chronic diseases, earlier mortality and face more barriers to health-care access than the general population. …

The high prices for everyday food items in communities like Kashechewan — where a pack of hot dogs costs more than $11 — makes it difficult for residents to eat healthily … although the price of cigarettes does not differ greatly from the rest of the province.

This is an intractable social problem. The Government of Canada spends billions of dollars per year on First Nations, and yet this intolerable situation persists.

Full disclosure here:  I am an employee of the Government of Canada. Specifically, I work for Health Canada, in the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch. I am not trying to exonerate the Government of Canada, nor do I wish to castigate it. I am simply stating a fact:  that if the funding is calculated on a per capita basis, an extraordinary amount of money is invested, to no avail.

The Globe and Mail offers this opinion:

For thousands of years, the James Bay Crees survived by seasonal migration, travelling and living in small groups. Now the Kashechewan residents live in about 200 pre-fab houses in a community of 1,700 with only a tenuous connection to the old ways — some trapping, some crafts, a goose hunt a couple of weeks a year. They survive on money from Ottawa because there are few jobs beyond the ones Ottawa pays for. The Kashechewan unemployment rate is 87 per cent. …

The majority of [Kashechewan residents] are under 24. They need to live closer to employment, with training that will give them a realistic chance of landing that employment — a statement that could be as easily applied to the other remote reserves in this country.

In other words, the Globe and Mail advocates a permanent relocation of the community. Move them south, where the jobs are, and give them the training they need to join non-Aboriginal Canadians in the workforce.

What does this recommendation amount to? The old policy of assimilation:  First Nation people should give up the attempt to maintain a distinct identity and become like the rest of us. Live where non-Aboriginals live, cultivate the same skills that non-Aboriginals rely on, and get yourself the same kind of job.

If that's the solution, it stinks.

I don't have anything brilliant to say here. It seems to me that First Nations are being forced to choose either the frying pan or the fire. Refuse to assimilate and continue to live in squalor and misery; or forfeit your Aboriginal identity for a shot at prosperity.

What kind of choice is that?