[IPSM] canadians rate Native issues a low priority

[lcarle at po-box.mcgill.ca]

this is really shocking to me.  The plight of Indigenous people here is to my
mind THE most pressing human rights issue.  If native people gain what they are
rightly asking for, so many other things wrong with our society and by extension
the world will necesarily have to change.  i'm sorry if I send too many of these
around.  How can I not, though?

Loren

Canadians rate Native issues a low priority

Max Maudie, Sweetgrass Writer, Ottawa

According to a recent poll, most Canadians do not consider improving
the quality of life of Aboriginal Canadians to be a high priority for
the federal government.

The poll, conducted by the Centre for Research and Information on
Canada (CRIC), suggests almost one in two Canadians (49 per cent)
believe that Aboriginal Canadians are on an equal footing with, or
better off than, other Canadians. Forty-four per cent say Aboriginal
people are worse off than other Canadians.

Twenty-nine per cent of Canadians rated improving the quality of life
of Aboriginal Canadians a high priority, the same percentage that
rated increasing military spending a high priority.

People polled were asked to place, in order of priority, a list of
government tasks. Protecting the environment was on top, followed by
health spending, and co-operation between federal and provincial
governments.

In tenth spot was improving Aboriginal people's quality of life. This
beat out increasing federal spending on big cities.

"It's a reflection of what the future holds," said Lorena Fontaine,
professor of Indigenous studies at the First Nations University of
Canada in Regina.

"Unless the issues are definitely affecting the public, why would they
place it high in terms of their considerations?"

Yet, according to Health Canada, suicide on reserves and in Inuit
communities runs three to five times greater than in the rest of the
Canadian population. New cases of AIDS in Aboriginal people have
increased over the last decade, while they have leveled off in the
rest of the population. And diabetes among Aboriginal people is three
times the national average.

The disconnect doesn't surprise Fontaine. She said many of her own
students don't realize the complexity of Aboriginal issues.

"It takes them a whole [school] term to understand the impact.
Education is the key."

Indeed, an ominous aspect of the poll was the views held by Canadians
age 18 to 34. The poll found that group to be the least likely to rate
improving the quality of life of Aboriginal Canadians a high priority.
Twenty-nine per cent said it should be a low priority, the most of any
age category.
The interim director of research for CRIC, Gina Bishop, said the
centre was disappointed by the findings. Further, it seems efforts to
educate Canadians on Aboriginal issues are falling short.
"It doesn't seem to be working yet. And the fact it doesn't seem to be
getting through to young Canadians is troubling."

The survey's co-director, Amanda Parriag, said that, since at least
1998, concerns over Aboriginal quality of life have been "relatively
static. Aboriginal issues come at the bottom of the list."

She added there are spikes of interest, though. The recent Aboriginal
round tables and Prime Minister Paul Martin's Aboriginal Affairs
cabinet committee got attention, and public sympathy increased. But
otherwise, most Canadians seem indifferent.

"It's not right in front of their faces," Parriag said.

Campbell Morrisson, press secretary for Indian Affairs Minister Andy
Scott, said he didn't think the poll's results were negative. The
twenty-nine per cent of Canadians rating Aboriginal issues high was
"pretty good," he said.

"The department is always looking for better understanding. I think
the public can always be better informed. There's always work to do."

Asked whether public support of the department's public education
initiatives was important, Morrisson said "Public support helps the
department achieve its objectives. That's certainly true. The more
public support we get, the better off we are."

The department, however, does not operate on public whims, Morrison said.

"We do what's right."

Native issues have been in and out of the public consciousness for
centuries. But what's stayed steadfast, say Native leaders, is the
government's study-it-to-death-but-don't-do-anything-about-it
attitude.

"I feel like it's just another study on Aboriginal issues that's been
shelved," Lorena Fontaine said of the 1996 Royal Commission on
Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) report. In 1999, a United Nations
human-rights panel ruled that by not implementing the recommendations
of the 1996 royal commission, the Canadian government was not
complying with the international covenant on civil and political
rights, one of the UN's key human-rights treaties.

The UN panel said the social situation of First Nations in Canada is
"the most pressing human right issue facing Canadians." The RCAP
report, presented to the Government of Canada, held a host of
recommendations, among them to better educate the general public on
the history of Aboriginal people in Canada.

The government has made strides in this area, but may still be coming
up short. The recent poll may support this idea.

http://www.ammsa.com/sweetgrass/topnews-Dec-2004.html#anchor1342900
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