And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.1 (32) >Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 21:12:19 -0800 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Tehaliwaskenhas-Bob Kennedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: > >The Canadian Human Rights Commission has just issued its latest report. The >following link is for the Commission's report as it relates to Aboriginals. > > >http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/ar-ra/ar98-ra98/abor-auto.asp?l=e {excerpt} Aboriginal Peoples In 1998, a United Nations study named Canada as the best place in the world to live. This was the sixth consecutive year in which Canada topped the United Nations Human Development Index, a comprehensive measure of human well-being. But a government study of status Indians, using the same United Nations index, found that living conditions for many Aboriginal people in Canada are more like those in the developing world than in the best place in the world to live. "Canada's squalid secret" is how one national newspaper described the study's findings. The Human Development Index measures real gross domestic product per capita, educational attainment, and life expectancy, in order to calculate a global measure of quality of life. According to the Canadian study, carried out by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the quality of life of registered Indians living on reserves would place them about 60th of the 170 countries studied by the United Nations. The situation is somewhat better for status Indians living off reserves. The Department's study did not calculate scores for Métis, Inuit and non-status Indians, but there is no reason to believe that their quality of life is significantly higher than that of status Indians. On a more encouraging note, the study did show that the gap between Aboriginal people and other Canadians has narrowed in recent years, at least for matters of health and education. These improvements are no doubt partly attributable to the determined efforts of Aboriginal communities, with the support of the federal government, to take control of these services. But the gap is still unacceptably large, and without significant effort will not soon diminish. A Deafening Silence "Deplorable" is how the Chief Economist of the Royal Bank of Canada, John McCallum, described the current economic status of Canada's first peoples in a June 1998 address to the Assembly of First Nations. Mr. McCallum criticized what he called the "almost deafening" silence of the Canadian business community in responding to the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. He called the situation "a matter of great national urgency," and urged business and government to work together to achieve the goals of the Royal Commission. The Canadian Human Rights Commission concurs. A Short Fuse The explosive growth of the Aboriginal population makes it essential that the issues identified by the Royal Commission not be ignored. According to the 1996 Census, the number of Aboriginal people in the prime working and family-rearing age group (aged 35 to 54) will increase 41 per cent by 2006. This remarkable rate of increase can only exacerbate the already desperate situation that Aboriginal people face regarding jobs, housing, education, and social services. For Aboriginal communities, the implications for cultural and social integrity are stark. >Tehaliwaskenhas - G.R.(Bob) Kennedy >INFOCOM Management >20 - 1976 Glenidle Road, Sooke, BC V0S 1N0 >Phone: (250) 642-0277 Fax: (250) 642-0278 >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.turtleisland.org &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
