Reconciliation is now officially over.To be fair, it was always a slow, meandering, broken-down engine, limping along the track, led by politicians who never quite knew where the train was going.Most Indigenous leaders never use the word âreconciliationâ because it is not plausible when First Peoples are still fighting for basic human rights â for water, land, social services, health care and education.The reality of 2019 looks a lot like Canadaâs colonial past.This week, we are seeing this play out clearly and painfully on two separate but related fronts.On Wednesday, Cindy Blackstock will walk into an Ottawa hearing room to begin the 12th year of her fight to end the federal governmentâs long-standing and well-documented racial discrimination against First Nations kids.Blackstock, the tireless executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, is once again challenging Ottawa to comply with Jordanâs Principle â a principle affirmed unanimously by Parliament in 2007 that aims to ensure Indigenous kids living on and off reserve are given their fair share.Read more:Opinion | Thunder Bay must admit the truthThe health system in Canadaâs North is failing â but not by accident. âIt is designed to do what it is doingâWhen you grow up surrounded by suicide, it seems normal. How do you heal a âbroken spiritâ?This time, Blackstock is looking to make sure kids who do not fit Canadaâs definition of a Status Indian under the Indian Act receive urgent health care if they need it. Law since 1876, the Indian Act is a paternalistic piece of legislation that has historically governed every aspect of Indigenous life in Canada. Through it, Canada established the residential schools, and to this day the act dictates who can receive treaty rights and who cannot.Blackstock told Canada in July 2018 that the definition of âFirst Nations childâ for the purpose of implem ...
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