About the same number of Indigenous children are permanently in poverty across Canada and no one ever thinks about doing anything about it.
About 1.8 million indigenous people in Canada and the statistic is that about 3/4 or more of that population is under the age of 30 and most of them are younger than that.
I’m full blooded Ojibway/Cree and it’s always been a joke to me for Canada to say it’s a first world country when a million of it’s people live in third world conditions.
About the same number of Indigenous children are permanently in poverty across Canada and no one ever thinks about doing anything about it.
For the record, Canada has spent tens of billions of dollars over the last decade to support our indigenous people. This is over 150% more than in previous years.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, but significant progress has been made, and continues to be made.
Nearly every municipality that I’m aware of also celebrates our first nation people, and gives a land acknowledgement with every single event, council meeting, public gathering, etc.
I can understand your frustration, but to say that Canada isn’t doing anything about, or that no one ever thinks about it, is not accurate.
it’s always been a joke to me for Canada to say it’s a first world country when a million of it’s people live in third world conditions.
Name one country, just one, where there isn’t a segment of the population that lives in poverty.
It’s unfair to single-out Canada, although I do empathize and want more support for our indigenous populations. I think that many of us do!
I whole heartedly agree … and it’s this level of understanding and appreciation that is much needed in Canada. If only there were more people with your perspective in our government and halls of power that could do more to help this situation.
I enjoy the discourse and discussion … I agree that Canada has been having a more open conversation about this over the past 20 years but sadly, it’s still a debate with very stereotypical, short sighted and even racist overtones in many groups, including those in government.
it’s still a debate with very stereotypical, short sighted and even racist overtones in many groups, including those in government.
This is very much a shame, and hopefully it’s only a matter of time before those groups/people fade away, because that is not what Canada is about.
I am optimistic that things will continue to change for the better, especially when I see more celebrations of indigenous culture being offered throughout the region I live in.
Even the inclusion of smudging ceremonies at helps to raise more awareness, and I’m seeing more of that, even in events not specifically focused on indigenous culture.
Learning about that sort of stuff made me realize that Canada is effectively an apartheid state.
Learning about actual apartheid made me realize that people who don’t get it want to equate everything to it, without realizing it cheapens the actual trauma of people who suffered under actual apartheid.
Maybe you should read up on what First Nations have suffered in Canada then. You can start by learning about ethnic cleansing that Canada practised with residential schools for starters.
Psst. Everywhere is a third world to someone.
It’s not “child poverty”, but “family poverty”. Families are struggling, and that impacts kids, too.
Unless, children are expected to get a job and support themselves, which they aren’t… at least, not yet.
The reason it’s framed as “child poverty” specifically is because growing up in poverty has very specific and lifelong consequences ranging from lowered IQs to behavior and mental illness issues. It’s really highly correlated, to the point of being deterministic.
I agree that poverty needs to be fixed for everyone, but for children in particular it can have long lasting effects for an entire generation and more because of what it does to brain development.
