Report here.
“Reclaiming Power and Place
The National Inquiry’s Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. . The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.”
Study here
Adolescent mothers in the care of CPS are much more likely to have their child taken into CPS care. By separating a quarter of young mothers from their infant within the first week of life, and almost half before the child turns 2, the cycle continues. For adolescents in CPS care who give birth, more and better services are required to support these mothers and to keep mothers and children together wherever possible.
Coverage here
A quick review of the study doesn’t reveal a direct link to Indigenous girls, but
She pointed to the province of Manitoba, where 10,000 of the 11,000 children in care are indigenous.
The number of children in care in Manitoba is among the highest per-capita compared with other provinces. It has nearly doubled in the last decade to 11,000. Nearly 90 per cent are Indigenous.
In neighbouring Saskatchewan, with roughly the same population, the number is roughly 4,000, Fielding said.
Here.
Link: Erasing Indigenous Heritage by Emily Anne Epstein (Oct. 30, 2016)
Excerpt:
For nearly a century, the Canadian government took indigenous Canadians from their families and placed them in church-run boarding schools, forcibly assimilating them to Western culture. Children as young as 2 or 3 years old were taken from their homes, their language extinguished, their culture destroyed. With support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, photographer Daniella Zalcman has been documenting the lingering effects of this trauma for her book, Signs of Your Identity, this year’s winner for the FotoEvidence Book Award.
Link to APTN coverage here.
The price tag to fix homes and infrastructure on Manitoba reserves is $2 billion when $150 million is the government’s annual budget for all First Nations.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said she’s not deterred by the $2-billion price tag. She couldn’t explain exactly how the new Liberal government will tackle the backlog, but said improving First Nations housing is a priority.
“I’ve been in those homes,” Bennett said in an interview. “It is a disgrace for Canadians to watch. There is a consensus in this country that we have got to get going on this.
“The sticker shock on any of these things can’t get in the way of us beginning what has to happen.”
Here is the decision.
AANDC’s [Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada] design, management and control of the FNCFS [First Nations Child and Family Services] Program, along with its
corresponding funding formulas and the other related provincial/territorial agreements have resulted in denials of services and created various adverse impacts for many First
Nations children and families living on reserves.
Here is the media coverage.
This is a tremendous and long-fought victory for the First Nations and Family Caring Society, who brought the claim, and Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the Society and incredible driving force behind the claim.
I tend to tweet most articles about Canada and First Nations issues we follow, but here’s a post for Concurring Opinions collecting some of them together as an introduction for readers who are may be unfamiliar with the stories.
Here.
Via Jody Porter (@cbcreporter)
Turtle Talk 
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