...Defining the issue Aboriginal families all across Canada were affected by the residential school system. The two main objectives of residential schools were to remove and isolate indigenous children from their families and cultures and to assimilate them into the Western cultures. From the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s it was mandatory that Aboriginal children went to residential schools by the federal government, to try to make them more like “children in mainstream society” (Kevin, Beeds, and Filion 340). Aboriginal values were looked down upon. Schools were operated by a staff that consisted of nuns and priests. They focused on teaching children Christianity. This event was significant in Canadian history because it represented the loss of culture, language, and family connection due to long separations and the hardships faced at school. The experience at residential schools continue to affect generations of Aboriginals still to this day. History of the Issue Prior to the Canadian government’s involvement in the education of Aboriginal children, traditional education effectively sustained Aboriginal cultures for decades of years (340). Early in the 1600s French missionaries came to North America to convert Aboriginals to Christianity (340). They established mission schools in New France. By the 1800s the government focused on educating First Nations children in a way to indirectly assimilate them into Canadian society (340). In 1879, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald commissioned...
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...This paper will explore the roles that gender and feminism plays alongside other determinants to affect the health status of Aboriginal Canadian women. Determinants of health refer to the circumstances in which people are born, live, grow, work, and age, that are responsible for most of the health inequalities that exist. Common determinants contributing to sub-par health status include: early child development, education, income, employment, social and physical environment, personal health practices and coping skills, access to health services, racism, and gender. These determinants work alongside Aboriginal-specific determinants like cultural identity, self-determination, and colonialism to create significant health discrepancies compared to non-Aboriginal Canadians. Aboriginal women are at an even greater disadvantage because of the role gender plays on top of the other determinants. The term gender refers to the socially constructed perceptions of feminine and masculine and is not to be confused with sex, which refers to the biological differences between men and women (Steckley and Letts 2010). While the two are different concepts, they are closely related and do influence each other because while biology may condition behaviour, it is in turn conditioned by the social environment (Halseth 2013). Health is also a social construct and issue, rather than simply a medical and technical problem associated with body parts and their functions. Because it is defined by and shaped...
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...history of Canada has gone through various events, some of which produced a nightmare for the country and from which the people as well as the leaders are still trying to awake, while making sure that such events do not take place ever again. In this essay I discuss the Canadian Ethnic problems and it's multiculturalism by mainly focus on two typical examples :the aboriginal people and the Chinese who have suffered injustice through out the history in different aspects such as politics and cultural. And later ,by looking at the current situations of the Canadian ethnicity in general and going over the past decisions that the government had made, I try to suggest the possible solutions. Introduction: As we all know, Canada is a country with large immigrants. Therefore , the history of Canada is largely the history of the meeting of different cultures. As its early settlers are mostly immigrants from Central and Western Europe, European culture is playing a dominant role in Canada's culture. Since the eightieth of the twentieth century, as the number of immigrants from different parts increased significantly, the new immigrants brought in their own culture with them as well. Thus, people are now feeling more of the tensions between those cultures and of prejudice felt among these groups toward one another. For this reason, how to deal with the relationship between the different nationalities became a big problem for the Canada government...
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...The Aboriginal people of Canada hold significant importance to Canadian history and our country today, yet as a whole, the Aboriginal people of Canada differ from non-aboriginals in access to health care and overall health outcomes. Although the overall health of Aboriginals has been improving over the past 20 years (Health Canada, 2013), as a group, Aboriginal people still have the shortest life expectancies and poorest health (HCC, 2012). Literature and antidotal research as cited several factors they negatively affect health outcomes. An important barrier that this paper will discuss the concept of cultural safety as a barrier to access health care by Canadian Aboriginals. It will then define cultural safety and discuss the evolution of...
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...over the Aboriginal peoples the treatment towards Aboriginals was inhumane. Many Aboriginal peoples were mentally traumatized, discriminated against and neglected in residential schools and society. The Residential schools left many aboriginal peoples mentally traumatized. For example “Some children experienced… psychological…abuse” (Quinlan etal 66). Being exposed to such a horrifying ways of life students begin to develop low self-esteem throughout the years. Having low...
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...greater awareness in the struggle of gender equality and female identification. Feminism looks at how the social, economic and political structures affect and shape women at the individual level. Accordingly, feminist theories analyze the relationship between gender differences, gender inequality and oppression. The idea of ‘waves’ in Canadian Feminist movements have been both diverse and dynamic in the act of coalition to obtain specific goals and broader changes in society. At the beginning of the 20th century, industrialization and nation-building came attached with a gender ideology that prescribed the public/private division between male and females. In modern-day Canada, issues concerning equal rights in the public and private sphere of women have become more relevant to the female community. In contemporary Canada, the discussion of sex work and the ‘entertainment industry’ is a controversial subject to many women. The traditional view is expressed to view these workers as individuals who have chosen this path as ‘immoral criminals’ or ‘victims’ of aggression. There is not much sympathy for these women as they are degraded to be invisible within Canadian society. Given the blind eye, these sexual deviants have historically served as an representation to regulate women of the public sphere. However, it is necessary to make distinctions of the ‘hierarchy’ within Canada’s contemporary sex industry- from street sex workers to high-end escorts or strippers. In addition to the...
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...argued to criminalize certain groups within society. Specifically, Aboriginal women as offenders in corrections have faced many difficulties. They often are sentenced younger, more often and for longer sentences than non-Aboriginal offenders. The over incarceration, over representation and criminalization of Aboriginal women within the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is attributable to a legacy of colonialism and sexism which placed them at a vulnerable place within society. Canada’s public policy post WWII regarding, social welfare, education and the labour market, exhibit how colonialism and sexism have created unfavorable cultural and socio-economic conditions for Aboriginal women, which make them more susceptible to be victims/survivors of violence, poverty and behaviours or circumstances in conflict with the law. As a result of these conditions, Aboriginal women are more likely to meet deplorable conditions while in prison, and the laws do not seem to accommodate Aboriginal methods of rehabilitation, restitution and justice. In order to understand the plight of Aboriginal women within the CJS, the issue will be approached from a feminist perspective. Further, the evidence will be sourced from secondary sources, mainly text and government reports. First a landscape of Canada’s colonial past’s impact on Aboriginal women; starting post WWII will be advanced. This will demonstrate the links between Aboriginal women’s experience with poverty, violence in all forms, and the...
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...these three groups function together under the rule of law to maintain the law within society. Despite its important role, there is a sufficient amount of evidence that blacks and aboriginal people are over-represented in the criminal justice system. The logic behind this problem is that racial discrimination and profiling is present, or it is the result of the differential offending patterns of the minority. After researching, I believe that aboriginal and blacks are over-represented in the criminal justice system due to racial discrimination and profiling. My reasoning behind this is based on the collected data that supports the fact that racial discrimination and profiling is apparent in the criminal justice system. Racial discrimination and profiling is most associated with the police, and that is strictly because they are the first contact with the suspects, victims, citizens, and the offenders. I also believe that the causes of the problem and the potential solutions are the same for both aboriginal and black people. The only variable that might alter the causes of the problem, and the potential solutions is the location in which the aboriginal and blacks live in. This being said, racial discrimination and profiling are without doubt the primary attributes in the over-representation of aboriginals and blacks in the criminal justice system. Although I agree with the fact that certain minority youths contain a greater involvement in delinquent behaviour. This does not provide...
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...Aboriginals Issues The issues that aboriginals have faced is staggering, but the small amount of people that actually know about this is even more staggering. I am here to try and shed some light on this topic. Throughout history aboriginals whether they lived in the U.S. or Canada have been persecuted and discriminated; because of how they lived or what they believed. The staggering amount of poverty the people face is unbelievable due to the amount of discrimination they faced once let off reservations. For example, “On average, 55.6% of Aboriginal people living in Canadian cities were poor in 1995.” Aboriginals were given pieces of land called reservations, which they were forced to live on, but with a lack of essential resources they were almost in habitable. Many of the Aboriginals died due to starvation, dehydration, or lack of shelter on these reservations. When they were forced onto the reservations the government did not set up any health care system. Also the Canadian government placed very tight restrictions on relief efforts to the reservations...
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...Struggle of Aboriginals in Canada “We owe the aboriginal peoples a debt that is four centuries old. It is their turn to become full partners in developing an even greater Canada. And the reconciliation required may be less a matter of legal texts than of attitudes of the heart.” - Roméo LeBlanc Aboriginal people are called the people from “First Nations” in Canada who have rich historical, cultural and spiritual traditions. However, many of these traditions were altered or even taken away upon the arrival of British and French settlers in Canada. Since then, forcing colonial culture and values on Aboriginal societies, the dispossession of Aboriginal lands and the seclusion of Aboriginals from modern amenities created a sequence of social, physical and spiritual devastation of their culture. Effect of these is quite noticeable even today. This is mainly because the Federal Government is not taking enough responsibility for providing proper support to Aboriginals with growing problems in the reserves. The Government of Canada recognizes the inherent right of self-government as an existing Aboriginal right under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 (AANDC). It recognizes that the inherent right may find expression in treaties, and in the context of the Crown's relationship with treaty First Nations. Recognition of the inherent right is based on the view that the Aboriginal peoples of Canada have the right to govern themselves in relation to matters that...
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...remain seriously underfunded for children on reserves. The event was important to me as it brought awareness of the issues that are faced daily by Aboriginal families and their communities. I had previously read about how there was a discrimination complaint filed against Canada that was in violation of the Canadian Human Rights Act, that Canada provides significantly less funding for family and child services on reserves than that provided off reserves, but never knew much about the case so I was glad to be able to attend the event and gain more knowledge on the issue. In 2007, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) filed a human rights complaint alleging that the inequitable funding of child welfare services on First Nations reserves amounts to discrimination on the basis of race and national or ethnic origin, contrary to Section 5 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, RCS 1985, c. H-6 (the Act). Some of the current inequities in Canada are that almost half of all children in care under the age of 14 are Aboriginal. The placement of Aboriginal children in informal care with relatives is 11.4 times the rate for non-Aboriginal children, and 12.4 times the rate of non-Aboriginal children for formal placement in the child welfare system. In 2008 and 2011 The Auditor General of Canada confirmed that the federal government’s provision of First Nations child and family services and elementary and secondary education is flawed and inequitable...
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... The State of Indigenous Peoples’ Languages and Cultures in Canada Submission by Kontinónhstats - The Mohawk Language Custodians Submitted by: Kontinónhstats – The Mohawk Language Custodians 14A Sóse Onahsakenrat (Joseph Swan Road) Kanehsatà:ke, Quebec Canada J0N 1E0 Phone: 450-479-1651 Email: Ellen Gabriel kontinonhstats2@hotmail.com Hilda Nicholas kononkwe@inbox.com Table of Contents Page Executive Summary ………………………………………………………. 3 - 6 Introduction ……………………………………………………………….. 6 – 7 Current Situation ………………………………………………………..... 7 – 9 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 9 - 11 Recommendations ……………………………………………………….... 12 End Notes …………………………………………………………………...13 - 14 Annex 1………………………………………………………………………15 -16 Annex 2………………………………………………………………………17 Suggested Questions ………………………………………………………..18 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This submission on Indigenous languages, culture and identity demonstrates the manner in which Canada continues to practice institutionalized racial discrimination and assimilation against Indigenous peoples’ human rights and fundamental freedoms through the imposition of their policies and programs which are based upon the archaic legislation of the 1876 Indian Act. According to the ICERD’s definition of “racial discrimination”, racial discrimination is the “…distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on...
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...Aboriginal Issues Essay As I read the articles about the aboriginal people what stood out to me and impressed me the most was the over representation of Aboriginal people in our Canadian prison system. A shocking statistic that I read was that 2.8% of the Canadian population is Aboriginal but they account for 18% of our federal prison inmates. Aboriginal people have been faced with so many historic inequities such as being forced to move to reserves with almost none of the basic infrastructures needed to run a functioning society. Having their children taken from their families and put in abusive residential schools, being forced to learn and live by a foreign culture and beliefs as well as being faced with racial discrimination and having their rights ignored. Due to the history of injustice and discrimination aboriginal people have experienced higher unemployment rates and lower incomes leading to lives of poverty, substance abuse, and family violence. I think that the residential schools play a big role in the problems some of the Aboriginal people faced because when they took young children who had learned only a small amount of their families cultures and tried to teach them western cultures and beliefs. As well some of the children were sexually traumatized and beaten, which likely caused a lot of confusion and difficulties growing up. In my opinion because of all the injustice in the past there is a huge lack of trust that the aboriginal people have with the Canadian...
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...purpose of the Employment Equity Act was created to ensure that there are equal opportunities for individuals living in Canada. The Employment Equity Act mainly targets four groups of individuals which include; women, aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities, and visible minorities. The Employment Equity Act serves an important role in the workforce as it seeks out discrimination and removes it effectively. When the Employment Equity Act is enforced correctly the act will ensure that individuals in the workforce have equal access to job opportunities as well as equal treatment in the workplace. Many individuals believe that employers are not very likely to battle situations of discrimination while going through the hiring process, as well as properly implementing the act in a particular workforce. Therefore the complexity of the Employment Equity Act is fair, however it is not necessary to have the act implemented in various Canadian workplaces. The Employment Equity Act was first introduced to Canada in 1986, and was later updated in 1995. “The Act stated in the legislation: The purpose of this Act is to achieve equality in the workplace so that no person shall be denied employment opportunities or benefits for reasons unrelated to ability and, in the fulfillment of that goal, to correct the conditions of disadvantage in employment experienced by women, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities by giving effect to the principle that employment...
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...Knowing who you are is an essential part of understanding how you fit into society. For most, understanding who you are is based on an understanding of where you come from (Wagamese, 1993). Many Aboriginal people identity themselves by their band, family, or nation which allows them to show historical roots and connection to their ancestral land. Others use their matrilineal or patrilineal genealogy to connect them to a nation or traditional territory. Regardless of the connection, this ability to identify with a community has deeper significance than merely labelling oneself, it serves as a reminder of one's spiritual connection to land, culture, and traditions, and helps to solidify one's self-concept (First Nations Studies Program [FNSP],...
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