Nation to Nation
Ten years ago Thursday, Cindy Blackstock filed a human rights complaint against Ottawa for discriminating against First Nation children by underfunding child welfare services on reserve.
Last year, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled Ottawa was discriminating against First Nation children.
Blackstock, who heads the First Nation Child and Family Caring Society, sits down for an in-studio interview with Nation to Nation.
The Nation to Nation political panel also debates whether the Justin Trudeau Liberal government’s words on First Nation child welfare match the actions required by the Human Rights Tribunal.
Cindy Blackstock says the government and the oldest institution of colonialism needs to ask “what are the ways of thinking that led to this discrimination”. Canadians need to ask what are the ways of thinking that led to this discrimination, and then direct their government and this institution overseeing the Indian Act to transform. It is time to drill very deep, and see that the reason why governments are able to react so quickly to other issues are because the “way of thinking” is to prioritize actions that support what Pope Francis has described as “savage capitalism”. The fact is that, according to Oxfam, this economic paradigm has seen inequity recently go from 85 people owning as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s wealth to JUST 6 PERSONS having the wealth of 3.2 BILLION people! Cindy Blackstock should be put in charge of the $382 million and get this money to the First Nations. Canadians then need to realize the intersection of what I have pointed out to their own difficulties with “this way of thinking”.