If you're interested in or would like to understand more about the situation in Canada and the relationship between The Government and The Indigenous people, I would recommend starting with these 4 PDF's:
Here is the 1969 Government of Canada report on how to deal with aboriginal people. It proposed to eliminate Indian status and dissolve the Department of Indian Affairs within five years, aiming to achieve "equality among all Canadians" by removing legal distinctions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The government believed that this would help to address socio-economic disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Indigenous communities across Canada argued that the policy neglected the rights, treaties, and historical relationships between the Indigenous peoples and the government, and viewed it as an attempt to assimilate native peoples into mainstream Canadian society and erase their unique cultures and identities. [1]
Here is the "Ryerson Report" (namesake of Ryerson University). This report influenced the creation of the residential school system for Indigenous children in Canada. Ryerson believed that education could be used as a tool to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian society. [2]
Here is the Indian Act of 1876. It's the primary law the Canadian government uses to administer Indian status, local First Nations governments, and the management of reserve land and communal money. It's been widely criticized for being paternalistic and especially for its role in creating and enforcing the residential school system. It remains in place today...and it (sadly imo) continuing to shape the relationship between the Canadian government and the First Nations. [3]
Here is the Truth and Reconciliation Report. The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. This report is a comprehensive account of the history and lasting impacts of the Canadian Indian residential school system on Indigenous people. NCTR outlines the realities faced by Indigenous children in our residential schools, including cultural assimilation, physical and psychological abuse, and the effects these experiences have had on Indigenous communities.[4]
This is a subject very close to my heart. My father was the executive director of a government team set up to study and assist in supporting mental health on First Nations reserves. I spent a lot of time on reserves myself and I find what happened and still happens to Canada's Native people to be abhorrent.
The money is good, but really Canada needs to work to elevate the status of the First Nations in our society. Not only because it's the right thing to do, but because they have a lot to add, a lot to teach us, and we're better together.
Curious about your stance on the “1969 Government of Canada report on how to deal with aboriginal people”. Ostensibly, this would have provided everyone with the same healthcare and would have avoided these lawsuits about deficient healthcare for natives.
Of course, people have written books, books and books on this, so to cover it in a HN comment would be difficult. I'd also much prefer people read the documents and form their own opinions (either direction, but just to be well informed). I don't want to get into it too much, so what I'll say a few brief things: Nobody can tell what the other timeline would have looked like, had the 1969 report been adopted and the law changed to reflect it, I'm not sure I believe Natives would have been provided with the same level of social services. It's important not to be myopic, the recommendations in the report were vast, and in one hand I understand the intentions, but what was asked to give up was a lot, and I also agree that it very much feels like a way for the government to abscond on colonization era issues that needed to be resolved (and still are being resolved). As I alluded to at the end of my comment, I don't believe in assimilation.
In defending the report, Trudeau said: "We can't recognize aboriginal rights because no society can be built on historical 'might-have-beens.'"
The indigenous population of Canada is currently at 5% of the Canadian population and growing faster than the rest of the population. It currently costs 25 billion dollars per year per year, which is 6% of the federal budget, to offer them services and they do not pay any taxes.
To offer them services on the land they were robbed of, while not playing tax on land they where robbed of, seems like a cheap way out of the colonization crime.
No it isn't. You just found one 10 year old CBC article about one issue on one reserve. There is no proof at all this is a systemic issue, and people who point to it are typically just prejudice against aboriginal Canadians.
The problems related to first nations people, the reserves, the government, treaties and history are so vast and wide, I don't think they're tractable.
Right?
Hopefully this money can be used to the greatest benefit of the most disadvantaged people on/around the reserves.