POVERTY, EXCLUSION AND DISCRIMINATION: THE LEGACY OF COLONIALISM

First Nations Health Forum, Hotel Pur, February 24 to 26

Poverty in the world

1%: percentage of the population that possesses more than half of the world’s wealth

The income of 80 of the wealthiest people in the world is equal to that of 3.5 billion of the poorest people…

Poverty and inequality: issues of rights

The issue of poverty is essentially a human rights issue.

Therefore, poverty should be defined as a denial of basic human rights.

Continued

Charters, at both the national and international levels, have been developed to protect citizens from all forms of systemic and social discrimination.

It has been proven that poverty is closely associated with different forms of discrimination.

At the national level

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 Section 25 of the Canadian Charter of

Rights and Freedoms (cultural rights) Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982

(ancestral rights and/or treaty rights) Quebec Charter of Human Rights and

Freedoms (Chapter IV)

At the international level

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Disparities between First Nations and non-aboriginals

The Community Well-being Index (CWI)

Canada

0

50

100

Ab

ori

gin

es

Tra

nsfe

rs

EarningsAfter Taxes

Individual

Family

Services

Empl

oym

ent

Part

icip

atio

n Activity

35 to 64 yr

25 to 34 yr

15 to 24 yr

Feminity

DependancyMed

ian

Age

0 t

o 1

4 y

r Population

EducationActivity

Income

Community of Opitciwan (n = 1785)1 785)

0

50

100

Ab

ori

gin

es

Tra

nsfe

rs

EarningsAfter Taxes

Individual

Family

Services

Empl

oym

ent

Part

icip

atio

n Activity

35 to 64 yr

25 to 34 yr

15 to 24 yr

Feminity

DependancyMed

ian

Age

0 t

o 1

4 y

r Population

EducationActivity

Income

Community of Wemotaci (n = 1075)

0

50

100

Ab

ori

gin

es

Tra

nsfe

rs

EarningsAfter Taxes

Individual

Family

Services

Empl

oym

ent

Part

icip

atio

n Activity

35 to 64 yr

25 to 34 yr

15 to 24 yr

Feminity

DependancyMed

ian

Age

0 t

o 1

4 y

r Population

EducationActivity

Income

Community of Manawan (n = 1845)

0

50

100

Ab

ori

gin

es

Tra

nsfe

rs

EarningsAfter Taxes

Individual

Family

Services

Empl

oym

ent

Part

icip

atio

n Activity

35 to 64 yr

25 to 34 yr

15 to 24 yr

Feminity

DependancyMed

ian

Age

0 t

o 1

4 y

r Population

EducationActivity

Income

Community of Misipawistick (n = 1140)

0

50

100

Ab

ori

gin

es

Tra

nsfe

rs

EarningsAfter Taxes

Individual

Family

Services

Empl

oym

ent

Part

icip

atio

n Activity

35 to 64 yr

25 to 34 yr

15 to 24 yr

Feminity

DependancyMed

ian

Age

0 t

o 1

4 y

r Population

EducationActivity

Income

Municipality of Saint-Séverin (n = 860)

0

50

100

Ab

ori

gin

es

Tra

nsfe

rs

EarningsAfter Taxes

Individual

Family

Services

Empl

oym

ent

Part

icip

atio

n Activity

35 to 64 yr

25 to 34 yr

15 to 24 yr

Feminity

DependancyMed

ian

Age

0 t

o 1

4 y

r Population

EducationActivity

Income

Municipality of Saint-Roch-de-Mékinac (n = 325)

0

50

100

Ab

ori

gin

es

Tra

nsfe

rs

EarningsAfter Taxes

Individual

Family

Services

Empl

oym

ent

Part

icip

atio

n Activity

35 to 64 yr

25 to 34 yr

15 to 24 yr

Feminity

DependancyMed

ian

Age

0 t

o 1

4 y

r Population

EducationActivity

Income

Food insecurity

Food security65.1%

Moderate food insecurity9.8%

Severe food insecurity21.4%

Missing data3.7%*

Index of food safety for individuals living with children

* Data to be interpreted with caution (coefficient of variation > 16,6% and < 33,3%)Source: RHS 2008

Continued

Males Females0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

14,1% 13,0%

12,8%9,7%

Index of individual food security by gender

Severe food insecurity

Moderate food insecurity

Source: RHS 2008

Continued

Zone 1 (urban) Zone 2 (rural) Zone 3 (isolated) Zone 4 (difficult to access)0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

11,4% 15,0%9,5%

34,4%10,3%

16,7%

11,5%*

4,6%*

Index of individual food security by geographic isolation

Severe food insecurity

Moderate food insecurity

* Data to be interpreted with caution (coefficient of variation > 16,6% and < 33,3%)Source: RHS 2008

Continued

Food security65.1%

Moderate food insecurity9.8%

Severe food insecurity21.4%

Missing data3.7%*

Index of food safety for individuals living with children

* Data to be interpreted with caution (coefficient of variation > 16,6% and < 33,3%)Source: RHS 2008

Continued

Zone 1 (urban) Zone 2 (rural) Zone 3 (isolated) Zone 4 (difficult to access)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

10.3% 8.5%* 7.5%* 10.8%*

17.2%27.7%

18.1%*

38.9%

Index of food safety for individuals living with children by geographic isolation

Severe food insecurity

Moderate food insecurity

* Data to be interpreted with caution (coefficient of variation > 16,6% and < 33,3%)Source: RHS 2008

Continued

Males Females0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

10.1%* 9.6%

22.9%20.1%

Index of food safety for individuals living with children by gender

Severe food insecurity

Moderate food insecurity

* Data to be interpreted with caution (coefficient of variation > 16,6% and < 33,3%)Source: RHS 2008

Why?

Government expenditures

The weight of history

The root of the problem

European colonization of North America From independence to dependence: the fur trade The decline of the fur trade The end of strategic alliances

Imposition of the Indian Act: racism and structural discrimination

The “Indian problem” and the solution: assimilation Integrate Aboriginal peoples into the new economic

and political order: alliance between the State, capital and clergy

Cheap labour for agriculture and the natural resources industry?

A series of amendments to the Indian Act: the example of 1911

Continued“Kill the Indian in the child ”

Settlement and Christianization: the development of reserves and Indian residential schools

Political and cultural incarceration

The notion of “inferior” peoples

Geographic boundaries: the creation of reserves

Social and economic exclusion: limited access to resources

Political exclusion: denial of the right of self-determination

Attempts at assimilation

The objective of assimilating Aboriginal peoples was far from hidden.

“Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department, that is the whole objet of this Bill” - 1920, Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendant of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932 (concerning the amendment to the Indian Act).

Parallel between Apartheid and the reserve system

Apartheid (Afrikaans word meaning “separation or apartness”) was a policy of segregated development that affected populations based on racial or ethnic criteria in defined geographic areas. With apartheid, territorial connection and social status depended on the racial status of the individual.

The concept of apartheid involved the political, economic and geographic division of the territory of South Africa and its population broken down into a hierarchy of four distinct racial groups. The black population of South Africa was confined to limited geographic enclaves known as Bantoustans.

A prelude to the White Paper?

“Indian reserves in territories under the jurisdiction of provincial governments constituted solitary splendours where isolated groups lived, subjected to federal government jurisdiction. The solitary splendour of their isolation was geographic, economic, political and cultural, and the special legal regime based on the Indian Act reinforced this isolation.” [unofficial translation] - Hawthorn-Tremblay - A Survey of

Contemporary Indians of Canada, 1967.

1969 White Paper

In 1969, the federal government published the Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy. The goal of the federal government was to address discrimination towards First Nations by absorbing them into the body politic of Canada. For First Nations, it was another policy aimed at their assimilation. The paper recommended: The abolition of reserves and the status of

“Indian” The administrative takeover of communities by

the provinces

From self-sufficiency to dependence: some examples

The Naskapi, people of the caribou: the undesirable consequences of the fur trade

Exclusive-rights areas of the North Shore

The famine of Ekuanitshit (Mingan) (1873)

The Malecite of Viger

Aboriginal farmers of Western Canada

Illegal cultural practices (potlach)

Beaver reserves: restrictions on this right

Development of the Gouin Reservoir (La Loutre Dam) (1914)

Exclusive-rights areas of the North Shore: examples

The appropriation of salmon rivers and the establishment of exclusive-rights areas:

Mishtashipu (Moisie River)

Mingan River

Development of the Mauricie region in the 19th and 20th centuries

Logging operations in the region

Massive influx of Anglo-Saxon capital

Emergence of private clubs

Construction of the railway

Waterpower development

Waterpower development

In 1911, the Hudson’s Bay Company abandoned its post in Kikendash and rebuilt it in Opitciwan.

Difficult beginnings: flu and measles epidemics

In 1914, the Quebec Streams Commission enters Nitaksinan and begins preliminary work to built the La Loutre Dam.

Continued

In 1915, the Fraser Brace Company began to build the dam: The Atikamekw were not informed, consulted

or compensated for work that would transform their ancestral lands forever.

The dam was completed in December 1917. Rising waters forced the displacement of the

Atikamekw once again because of the flooding of Opitciwan.

Promises regarding reconstruction would be broken many times.

Continued

The construction of the dam and flooding of the land deprived the Atikamekw of their resources:

Banks along the reservoir were inaccessible. Navigation was dangerous. Water pollution was significant and aquatic

wildlife threatened. The work also had a negative impact on the

fur trade, trapping and hunting. More than 20 years would go by before the

issue of hunting territories was resolved.

La Loutre Dam

Continued

Continued

Log drive on the St-Maurice

Discrimination today:

Reports by the Auditor General of Canada

Housing on reserves (2003) Drinking water in First Nations communities (2005) Management of programs intended for First

Nations (2006) First Nations child and family services (2008) Land management and environmental protection

(2009) Programs for First Nations on reserves (2011)

Continued

United Nations reports Visit by Miloon Khotari, UN Special

Rapporteur, on housing (2007) Visit by Olivier De Schutter, UN

Special Rapporteur, on the right to food (2012)

Visit by James Anaya, UN Special Envoy, on the rights of indigenous peoples (2013)

Tools to address the problem

Community development

Community development approach

Carry out WITH members of communities: mobilization and consultation projects

Solidarity alliance between the MESS and the FNQLHSSC

First-line services Agreement with Avenir d’enfants and the FNQLHSSC FNQLEDC pilot project on community action Development of a social economy Partnerships with national organizations Development within regions (MRC, etc.) Action research project on poverty

Mekwetc!Thank you!

pbacon@cssspnql.com