Tracing The Womyn''s Labor Movement'

The women’s labor movement of the early 1920s classified women according to their skin color, who they married, were they of child baring age and then their skills. Specific struggles for all women started from the beginning of time, but some significant outstanding events increased women’s opportunities for paid employment and gave women recognition and validity. It seemed like whenever there was a war women’s duties expanded outside the home and women’s issues were pushed to the forefront of the work force starting in the 1920s after the men in their communities were sent to fight in the World Wars one and two. This was the era when women became recognized as persons and when they began to bridge the gaps between home and the world of work. The women’s movement at this time affected the First Nations women in a different way because of the cross cultural currents.
First Nations women, like women in general, were becoming more then just a commodity when they were sent into the factories, to replace the men who were going off to war. (www.womenmovement.ca) Women were moving into the paid work force to help keep the country’s industries going and keep up with the demands of Canada’s military needs until the men returned home. As a result of the important work they were doing, women were beginning to unearth their own power and understand the impact of the government body on both their personal lives and how they could use this to their advantage, and demand the right to vote in government elections.
The women’s movement continued on to the early 1970s existing on two separate paths, one for First nations women and one for all women, but going in the same direction and striving for the liberation their ancestors once had. First Nations women were united in resisting all forms of Canadian government legislation that they thought were denying them the rights to a decent living by their own standards. Their actions resulted in their voices being heard and a deeper understanding of one another’s issues and differences. After this achievement they formed their own wish list of declarations, reflected in Bill C-31, which included access to education, health care, employment, daycare and housing. The list also demanded the rights for fair treatment in the home, the community, the court rooms, the rights to be included in the procreation decisions, property titles and to be treatment with dignity and respect. In forming their demands, First Nations women drew on the experience and strength of their ancestors and the ideas of women from other races. Women like:
• Emily Gowan Murphy who was Canada’s first female magistrate, a social reformer and author. She helped win legal and political rights for Canadian women. The Famous Five).
• Nellie McClung who was energetically advocating for the rights of Caucasian women during the 19th and 20th century. (The Famous Five Readings)
• Zoe Haight (1987) “We are not idiots, not imbeciles.” We are women, and we are asking for equal franchise, not as a favor, but because it is just that we should have it. (Suffrage: The Women's Parliament ... The Women's Parliament Violet McNaughton, Zoe Haight, and Erma Stocking 56 KB In January 1914, the women ... the Women's Parliament (Herstory 1977). Nellie McClung ( Herstory 1974) played the premier, other women ...
Specific struggles for First Nations women have been happening since the beginning of time; with some significant world events influencing the movement’s progress. Although their struggles were identical amongst status and non-status women, each group was treated very differently by the presiding government and community, based on their status (non-status vs. status card holder, eligible for marriage), child bearing age and then their assets.
The first written reports of how valuable FN women were, were reported when the first European explorers had to use these women as cooks, nurses, doctors, guides and translators in addition to being considered cheap workers for the soon to be fish packing companies. FN women were not only used as an essential tool to our nation’s survival; they were also used as sexual slaves, bartering pawns and translators between all nations.
• While immigrant (Caucasian) women were struggling to be recognized as “persons” FN women had already had an existing women’s liberation tradition until the invasion of colonization. Their importance was recognized by everyone in their community which in turn would give them security for their children and themselves by insuring that they would have a home, some land and access to food and medicinal resources and other community amenities. First Nations women were once considered to have an elevated role in their respective communities (Albers and Medicine 1983. The Hidden Half) in the following areas:
• FN women had responsibilities for educating the children and managing the community’s affairs. As the givers of all life, they have always been their children’s first teachers and disciplinarians, but have now lost their rights to be included in discussion or decision making of issues which have direct connections to their well being and their communities.
• When the men of their communities went off hunting or fishing, the women were left behind to defend and manage their villages. This would put them in an elevated role of leadership.

The Indian act, introduced in the 1876 by the colonizers, discredited First Nation’s (F.N.) women by removing their status within their own community. The Indian act gave the federal government power over FN communities. The male dominated European government’s tendency to treat their women as commodities was transferred over to how they expected FN men to treat their women. This new European government was not accustomed to dealing with women as equals. Yet, FN women’s work was just as valuable as their men’s work. Their value was not measured in dollars and cents. It was measured in their adaptability to their work and home environment; FN women did not make any distinctions between the two work sites.
The loss of the women’s traditional cultural status led to a lack of accessibility to community support and a lack of understanding of FN women issues. The results were a high percentage of them ending their own life prematurely or at the whims of another. Their deaths were only measured in the physical not the spiritual, mental, and emotional symptoms which usually precedes the physical, lack of adequate housing, food, and education has also hampered their well being. Criminal offenses against FN women were almost non-existent prior to European contact because FN women treated themselves and their communities with respect. Since the disappearance of respect the criminal acts against these women have been on a steady increase. It was a first time experience for FN women to experience this type of violation because there were no lessons taught to them by their elders about such abuse, since it had no place in their culture.
Community affairs such as the invasion of another race, government, apartheid and illegal child apprehensions were all introduced with the inception of a new community thus devaluing FN women’s lives.
• For First Nations women it would take until the late 1960’s for all women to be recognized as “persons” and be considered eligible to vote in any government elections, or to be considered as equals. It was during this era that folk singers like Buffy St. Marie (Cree Nation) and Cher (from Cherokee Nation) started pushing the issues of FN women’s concerns to the forefront causing them to create their own political body National Women Aboriginal Council (NWAC),within the Assemble of First Nations(AFN) in 1974. This women’s party had the following purposes:
• to be the national voice for Native women;
• to address issues in a manner which reflects the changing needs of Native women in Canada;
• to assist and promote common goals towards self-determination and self-sufficiency for Native peoples in our role as mothers and leaders;
• to promote equal opportunities for Native women in programs and activities;
• to serve as a resource among our constituency and Native communities;
• to cultivate and teach the characteristics that are unique aspects of our cultural and historical traditions;
• to assist Native women's organizations, as well as community initiatives in the development of their local projects; and
• To advance issues and concerns of Native women; and to link with other Native organizations with common goals. < http://www.nwac-hq.org/about.htm>
After establishing this foundation this group of women engaged in supporting women like Sandra Lovelace Nicholson when she decided to challenge the federal government and the Indian Act which had governed the First Nations community. Ms Lovelace-Nicholson was the woman who challenged the federal government to treat women as equals by removing the gender identity discrimination part of Bill C-31. This bill did not recognize their traditional roles. The failure of this bill has denied thousands of women and their children adequate housing, decent health care and everything connected to a person with status (Bill C-31).
FN women have been forced to form their own political body, which was a position that they were familiar within their own traditional community, but this time they have to do this with out the essential support of their men; nor did they have the support of their non-status community.
They have succeeded in attaining the rights to be recognized as a person by the non-status with different privileges.
Numerous people from both the Caucasian and First Nations women community contributed to the progress of FN women rights to be recognized for their contributions, for the past 200 years, to the main stream women’s movement. Amongst those who could be singled out for their historical contributions are women like:
The ones who were the guides and Fur traders of the early 1800s and women who worked in BC’s own fish factories in the 1920s, or who worked tirelessly for years out in the community for pennies a day. (www.indiancountry.com/firstnation-women leaders)
• Jean Goodwill who studied at the Holy Family Hospital in Prince Albert and graduated in 1954-the first Aboriginal person in Saskatchewan and one of the first in the country to become a registered nurse. www.indiancountry.com/firstnation-women leaders)
• Victoria Belcourt who decided her wealth of memories and experiences should be preserved for future generations, and she took on the role of Métis historian. She is credited with writing a number of articles for the Alberta Historical Review, chronicling her life as a young Métis woman on the Prairies in the 1800s, as well as relaying stories of even earlier times shared with her by others. She was the first reporter for a major news paper.
• Warrior women like Buffy St. Marie who risked their lives by going public and singing the political songs about the enslavement of women during the 1960s.
• Rreporters like Carla Robinson who is the first FN given an award winning journalist and news anchor on CBC News world and is the main reporter on a nightly news report, and a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations. (CBC News World-Report-www.cbc.ca).
• Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, now 56, who is considered a seminal figure in aboriginal women's history because her complaint to a United Nations body shamed the government in 1985 into reversing rules that stripped women of Indian status when they married a non-Indian man. (www.turtleisland.org/women discussion).
First Nations women, like women in general, were becoming more then just a commodity when they were sent into the factories, to replace the men who were going off to war. (www.womenmovement.ca) Women were moving into the paid work force to help keep the country’s industries going and keep up with the demands of Canada’s military needs until the men returned home. As a result of the important work they were doing, women were beginning to unearth their own power and understand the impact of the government body on both their personal lives and how they could use this to their advantage, and demand the right to vote in government elections.
The women’s movement continued on to the early 1970s existing on two separate paths, one for First nations women and one for all women, but going in the same direction and striving for the liberation their ancestors once had. First Nations women were united in resisting all forms of Canadian government legislation that they thought were denying them the rights to a decent living by their own standards. Their actions resulted in their voices being heard and a deeper understanding of one another’s issues and differences. After this achievement they formed their own wish list of declarations, reflected in Bill C-31, which included access to education, health care, employment, daycare and housing. The list also demanded the rights for fair treatment in the home, the community, the court rooms, the rights to be included in the procreation decisions, property titles and to be treatment with dignity and respect. In forming their demands, First Nations women drew on the experience and strength of their ancestors and the ideas of women from other races. Women like:
• Emily Gowan Murphy who was Canada’s first female magistrate, a social reformer and author. She helped win legal and political rights for Canadian women. The Famous Five).
• Nellie McClung who was energetically advocating for the rights of Caucasian women during the 19th and 20th century. (The Famous Five Readings)
• Zoe Haight (1987) “We are not idiots, not imbeciles.” We are women, and we are asking for equal franchise, not as a favor, but because it is just that we should have it. (Suffrage: The Women's Parliament ... The Women's Parliament Violet McNaughton, Zoe Haight, and Erma Stocking 56 KB In January 1914, the women ... the Women's Parliament (Herstory 1977). Nellie McClung ( Herstory 1974) played the premier, other women ...

During the 1980s the women’s movement seem to reach a plateau where everything that they and their ancestors had fought for had either been achieved or gone so far to the way side that the women of this decade have forgotten about the issues that affected other women. Our issues seem to have become diluted with less of a status of importance with the evolution of instant products and services and population’s growth. But they are still in existence for many women who are considered as under privileged women in third world countries. They are laden with oppression, depression and sedation of prescription drugs which only mask the problems of women needing to be freely able to support one another through the humanistic connections that has bound so many women together.









WORKS CITED

”Colonization and Traditional Roles”From the Fur Trade to Free Trade: Forestry and First Nations Women in Canada.” Status Women Action Group. 13th December 2004. 16 September 2005
< http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/pubs/pubspr/0662363779/200404_0662363779_7_e.html>
Albers and Medicine 1983. The Hidden Half.

< http://www.nwac-hq.org/about.htm
Important changes were made to Canada's Indian Act on June 28, 1985, when Parliament passed Bill C-31, an Act to Amend the Indian Act. Bill C-31. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

www.indiancountry.com/firstnation-women

Tehaliwaskenhas - Bob Kennedy, Oneida. ”Problem continues, so does the studying of this key women’s' and human rights issue for First Nations. . . “. Turtle Island Native Network 8TH April 2005. 15TH September 2005 .


”Colonization and Traditional Roles”From the Fur Trade to Free Trade: Forestry and First Nations Women in Canada.” Status Women Action Group. 13th December 2004. 16 September 2005
< http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/pubs/pubspr/0662363779/200404_0662363779_7_e.html>

Tehaliwaskenhas - Bob Kennedy, Oneida. “Aboriginal women who earn a mere 46%.” Online discussion on Pay Equity. 15 Feb. 2005. Native News. .


“Bill C-31”. 19 Sept. 2005. JOHNCO Ottawa Business Promenade. .

First Nations and Caucasian Political Leaders

Monday, November 28, 2005

The up coming conference between Canada’s pre-kanadians and the elected leaders of our political parties has me a bit concerned about what is really happening between the First Nations and the Caucasian community. The two communities have historically been at odds with one another over almost everything from environment, health and childcare issues. Now I read in Oct. 31 Times Colonist that there is going to be a major conference where all the elected leaders will be meeting to discuss upgrading FN living standards. I read this article after glimpsing at the article of what has happened to the FN community, in (Kashechewan) northern Ontario, which has made national headlines in every major paper because of its in adequate drinking water. It also happened to be on the page just before the article about the little known group claiming responsibility for the India bombings, where that country’s indigenous community have been fighting for years for the in human living situation that they have been exposed too. To me this juxtaposition reveals the desperation of all indigenous people who are suffering all over the world as a part of the rippling effects of colonization.

The colonizers and the corporations that followed them into the indigenous people countries have systematically targeted indigenous people’s housing, food, medicines, education and sense of community values. Whose nations once had communities with almost non-existent social problems until the invaders came in and started laying claim to the land that was shared territory amongst the indigenous people. Having access to the land that they depended on to help them meet their communities need has been denied to the indigenous people, restricting their nations’ abilities to care for the land and its resources which housed and fed them. Creating a lack of accessibility to their own community, kin and land has deprived them of the educational leaders who would have taught them about medicinal plants and how to live of the land.


When the indigenous communities throughout the world were able to have access to the land, they were able to grow their own food and hunt or fish for what they needed, when they needed it. They never took more then what the matriarchs or community leaders said that they needed. Their community’s leaders had been taught to plan for the future.
Even their houses were built from the material that came from the ground on which they stands. These houses then would last longer in natural elements, for that area, and provide some shelter for the community without destroying the land. They would be big enough to house forty people or more, thus taking less land space to build single houses and creating a sense of community.

Their medicines would come in a surplus so that everyone in the community could be treated for any of their ailments. Their communities would learn from their elders what plants would be good for them and where to get them from the land and how to nurture the land should the supplies dwindle due to a drought or other natural disasters.

Indigenous people in the new millennium have had to learned learn alternative ways to do things in order for their communities to survive. With the progress of colonizers embarking on their land FN communities have been disbursed by the colonizers’ desires to possess all the things that are most valuable to the indigenous communities. The Indigenous people’s proactions that ensure their communities survival have been oppressed by the new colonizers leaving this new disease named oppression for the current generation to fight. They are have had to learn how to defend their existence as a part of the human race. Through this new position indigenous people have gone from being very proactive to learning how to survive amongst a group of people who have very different life values and do not see indigenous people as a viable race.

Viable Communities

I believe touting for a viable community that is created for profit is a major hurdle that is morally wrong if no monies is returned through community investments. Our community’s ability to thrive shows that its efficiencies are functioning, making complementary glossed over statements an under statement of the true will of the human spirit’s will to survive.
The comprehensive and chronic state of our community’s aggregated bill for non-insured services to be created to meet the needs of our community has made it a viable one; if our community’s whims were to achieve a state of nirvana. The solicitous then might conversely alter the health of Canada’s comprehensive thoughts of how valuable our communities are.

Thank You Victoria for Your Support Nov 20 2005

Nov 20, 2005



I would like to be able to thank everyone in person for all the hard work that they did for my campaign. It was an incredible feeling for me to see the numbers grow as they were scrolling by on the screen. The final total was 3339 (3.16 % of the vote). Once again the areas that I excelled in were Fernwood, George Jay, and Central Baptist. These areas are the unofficial areas at this point- but this is what I heard from a few people who where at the official counting stations. I will let people know when I get the results within a couple of weeks.

Now all I have left to do is to figure out how much in the red I am and how I will get the bills covered. Although it was costly I am even more determined to run again. We must keep up the fight for the generations to come. We must continue to fight for democracy, diversity and a guaranteed livable income for all.

I would like to acknowledge people like John Rooney who has been in my corner for the past two election attempts. He did an incredible job getting me to and from school, work and to candidate meetings and finically always being there when I needed a good cup of java or food for my family.
Lise Wrigley for creating my leaflets
Kym Hothead for being there when I was feeling down and out.
Jennelle and Bobby for allowing me to take over their living room space when my computer crashed at a very critical time during the campaign.
Jesse A, Reese, David and Mary Lowther, Bobby Arbess, Aloha –Al R. from HEU, everywhere Larry Wartel, Karen Ainslie, David Tatryn, Cindy L’Horendelle, Catherine Wilchuk, MJ Collins and her tribe and Don J. Southerland. These are the people who did all the leg work and leafleted over 8000 homes.
Carlos Flores who literally at the last minute created to beautiful signs for the truck.
Sol and the Mitraniketan housing co-op for the meeting space.
The dozens of other picked up and distributed leaflets in their classes.


I would like to give recognition to the other services that supported my campaign by advertising for me.



Victoria Street Newz ( advertisement)
Status Women Action Group (Soldier of women who leafleted)
Community Solidarity Coalition (Seed Money)
J&L Photocopying (leaflets)
Camosun College Imaging Centre (Posters)
Victoria READ Society (Letter of Encouragement)
Hospital Employees Union ( endorsement-Financial)
Victoria Labor Council (endorsement- no Financial)



Excercise Your Democratic Right and Get Out and Vote for the Person who Cares enough to raise your issues the office that can make changes in your community.
Get Out and Vote on Nov. 19/05 Every Municipalities throughtout BC will be electing new Communiy Representatives.
check out my blog at www.rosehenry.blogspot.com

Race vs CLass Oct 2005

I think that some cultural sensitivity needs to be practiced by the reporters and editor of the Times Colonist. When I picked up the edition of Wednesday Oct 26 the first thing that I saw was the Caption of “Native Housing in for an Overhaul”. Then right below it I saw “Cridge park campers await decision”. If I had not continued to read the article on the Native Housing issues and then the tent city in Cridge Park I could have easily mistaken the Cridge park issue and how it related to the front page’s main headline about native housing which has suffered severely for many years due to the restraints of all of our governments.

Having both of these vital issues put on the front page introduces a juxtaposition of how our federal government is proposing to change the housing situation for thousands of First Nations through out Canada and how our provincial and municipal government is failing to provide the most basic needs for our homeless population.

First Nations people don’t need any more negativity images about our social problems because the transformation between race and class is far to short and to easily exploited by many people, who have good intentions, to use as an excuse to benefit from some of the most marginalized people in our community.

I hope the media takes some heed to my recommendation and takes some actions on what they put on their main page.

Rose Henry

Elect Rose on Nov.19, 2005

November 19th Vote for Rose Henry

Nov 20, 2005



I would like to be able to thank everyone in person for all the hard work that they did for my campaign. It was an incredible feeling for me to see the numbers grow as they were scrolling by on the screen. The final total was 3339 (3.16 % of the vote). Once again the areas that I excelled in were Fernwood, George Jay, and Central Baptist. These areas are the unofficial areas at this point- but this is what I heard from a few people who where at the official counting stations. I will let people know when I get the results within a couple of weeks.



Now all I have left to do is to figure out how much in the red I am and how I will get the bills covered. Although it was costly I am even more determined to run again. We must keep up the fight for the generations to come. We must continue to fight for democracy, diversity and a guaranteed livable income for all.



<strong>I would like to acknowledge people like John Rooney who has been in my corner for the past two election attempts. He did an incredible job getting me to and from school, work and to candidate meetings and finical always being there when I needed a good cup of java or food for my family.
Lise Wrigley for creating my leaflets
Kym Hothead for being there when I was feeling down and out.
Jennelle and Bobby for allowing me to take over their living room space when my computer crashed at a very critical time during the campaign.
Jesse A, David and Mary Lowther, Bobby Arbess, Aloha –Al R. from HEU, everywhere Larry Wartel, Karen Ainslie, David Tatryn, Cindy L’Horendelle, Catherine Wilchuk, MJ Collins and her tribe and Don J. Southerland. These are the people who did all the leg work and leafleted over 8000 homes.
Carlos Flores who literally at the last minute created to beautiful signs for the truck.
The dozens of other picked up and distributed leaflets in their classes.


I would like to give recognition to the other services that supported my campaign by advertising for me.



Victoria Street Newz ( advertisement)
Status Women Action Group (Soldier of women who leafleted)
Community Solidarity Coalition (Seed Money)
J&L Photocopying (leaflets)
Camosun College Imaging Centre (Posters)
Victoria READ Society (Letter of Encouragement)
Hospital Employees Union ( endorsement-Financial)
Victoria Labor Council (endorsement- no Financial)


Rose Is Running for City Council Sept 2005
Elect Rose Henry and you are electing someone who has a Conscience and is considered in some circles the Conscience of the City. For many years Rose has worked to improve the condition of our citizens - especially the disenfranchised, the poor and the downtrodden. She has worked to improve race relations, stood up for the homeless and helped the helpless. This election for city council has many brainy financiers, lawyers and business people running. Maybe we need a little more heart.

Here is the polling locations for Victoria:

Who can vote?

Anyone who is over the age of eighteen; has lived in BC for at least six months and been a city resident for 30 days or more. All you need is two pieces of ID. For example, one piece of mail with your name and address on it, rent receipt, BC ID etc.

Voting Places for General Voting Day-Saturday Nov. 19, 2005

Polling Hours 8am -8pm




Burnside Elementary School Gym 3130 Jutland Rd (near Bus Rtes# 8,11,21-22)

Central Baptist Church 833 Pandora St.

Fairfield New Horizon Centre 380 Cook St (on Bus rtes # 3&5)

George Jay Elementary 1118 Princess St. ( on Bus Rtes# 24&25)

James Bay Community School 140 Oswego St ( on Bus # 30/31)

James Bay New Horizon Centre 234 Menzies St (On Bus Rtes #5,27&28)

Margaret Jenkins Elementary 1824 Fairfield Rd (On Bus #5)

Oaklands Elementary School 2827 Belmont Ave.(Rte#4)

Quadra Elementary School 3031 Quadra St (On Bus Rte#8 & 11)

Sir James Douglas Elementary 401 Moss St. ( On Bus#5)

Sundance Elementary School 1625 Bank St (On Bus Rte# 2 &11)

Vic West Y 521 Craigflower Rd (On Bus #14)



Rose is a big lady - she has to be to enclose that wonderful big heart and Victoria council needs more heart. If you would like to see our city help the homeless, help to feed the hungry and give justice to our minorities vote for Rose. Our city needs her.

Rose Henry is an outspoken First Nations social justice activist, feminist and woman of colour living
in poverty.

Her first hand awareness of the urgency of the issues affecting a growing number of people living in poverty in this city, will galvanize her fellow councilors into the kind of action that has long been needed.

She is a compassionate, conscientious and capable candidate who will continue to work hard beyond the call of duty to improve living conditions for the most disadvantaged members of our community.

Her unrelenting commitment in seeking solutions to social problems, inequalities and injustice is the antidote to complacency, and her direct action approach to the many crises that face us flies in the face of all the most common reasons people don't vote. She is more about doing than talking.

You can believe in Rose. Her track record speaks for itself.

Rose Henry works tirelessly on behalf of those who are in any way marginalized by society. She has done everything from providing blankets at 3am to people living on the street in Victoria, to meeting with the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu to discuss human rights issues.
Rose has long been a strong communicator, but she struggled with the written word. Last year she worked hard at the Victoria READ Society to improve her writing skills, and helped other students along the way.

Now Rose is a passionate advocate for literacy and has spoken and written eloquently about her past struggles due to low literacy skills. Last year she spoke at the Literacy Summit in Vancouver about her own story and about learning challenges faced by First Nations people. She has promoted literacy programs in Victoria by speaking about the value of literacy to service clubs and through her blog.


The world needs more Rose Henrys!


Julie Holder Executive Director

Victoria READ Society

www.readsociety.bc.ca

On November 19th, a vote for Rose will be a vote for social justice and an effective way to challenge the barriers of race, class and gender privilege that typically prevail in the realms of political decision-making.

Rose has contributed 15 years of mostly volunteer front line community-based social services for the poor and marginalized in this city. Her many activities have included:
*anti-racism education for pre-teens.
*advocate for literacy and access to education as a tool for empowering the poor and marginalized. Giving recognition to the thoughts that education is a part of the solution to helping with eradication of poverty.
*instrumental in starting up local community economic development projects the Bent Nail recycling wood project, which allowed the poor and the street community entrance into work force.
* advocated for the creation of the Needle Exchange, ensuring the safety of drug users in the city.
* spearheading the effort to promote the right of the homeless to vote in elections, 1990
*author and distribution of the Red Zone and Street Newz, street community publications
*represented the Victoria community at the Global Anti-racism conference in Durban South Africa
*supported the Dawson family, following the tragic death of their son Anthony while in police custody.
*Organized the B.C Womyn's Walkout for recognition of the value of unpaid women's work and the impacts of poverty on women.
*Organized the public burning of ballots during the Liberal government’s racist referendum on aboriginal rights.
*consistent advocate on behalf of the poor: mobilizing campaigns against the anti-panhandling by-law, for the right to access public benches, against transit fare increases, and for affordable housing.

As most of you would know, local social activist Rose Henry has entered her second campaign to break the cultural barrier at City Hall in becoming the first aboriginal person on council.


Here is what she stands for :


Rose is an outstanding voice for the poor and the homeless in our community, having devoted an accumulated almost two decades of service at the Native Friendship Centre, Sandy Merriman House shelter for women, Victoria Street Commnity Association, Together Against Poverty Association and the Vancouver Human Rights Coalition. She stands up for the rights of the most marginalized and dispossesed in our city.

She is herself a survivor of a racist colonial system and the foster care system and who faces the multiple barriers of being a First Nations woman, a visible minority, who has lived in poverty her whole life and who has the great strength of being able to authentically represent the realtiy, issues and needs of a whole segment of the population whose voices are systematically excluded and ignored in the realms of political power, privilege and decision-making.

City Hall has long been the domain of the privilege and the comfortable, the educated and the middle class.
It is no coincidence that the issues affecting the poor are year after year given short shrift. Class
interests on city council have almost unanimoulsy been with those who stand for big development and private profits before people's real needs, affordable housing, public transit and poverty alleviation.

Rose is no newcomer to social justice struggles. She operates on substance and not slick. She is one person who will put the urgency of Victoria's pressing social issues at the top (rather than the bottom) of the agenda at City Hall. She is a compassionate and hard-working advocate who will serve beyond the call of duty to press for solutions to the growing problems that our community faces: addiction, homelessness, intolerance, housing affordability, public safety.

****Endorsed by the , Hospital Employees Union,Victoria Labor Council
Community Solidarity Victoria Victoria Street Newz, Coalition, and SWAG
Rose has stood with all of us in the social justice community for a long time. It's time that we stood with her now.

Rose can be reached at pheonixstar62@hotmail.com

Bobby Arbess
Rose Henry Campaign Team
garbanzobob@yahoo.ca
995-1477



Some Thoughts about our youth

Why, in your opinion, don't the majority of youth vote?
I think that the majority of the our youth do not vote because they feel that there vote is not of any importance to our Government. It might be that they feel dis-empowered by how our society and government has treated them because they have not been informed through our educational system about the electoral process. It makes it hard on everyone when a certain group of people have been excluded from society for the first eighteen years of your life and then when your eighteen your given this power to determine not only your life but everyone Else's future without knowing what kind of power this entitlement has with out every being exposed to its history.
What are you doing, in your campaign, to entice youth to vote for you?
This is a issue that I am really struggling with with trying to figure out how to let the youth know that their votes are important. All that I can do for them at this point is give them the time to have their issues heard and encourage them to get active in their communities' neighborhood groups for just one meeting every other week or whenever their community has these meetings. If I was was elected I would like to see at least one seat on each of council's own committee to be designated for youth and another for First Nations.
Exercise Your Democratic Right and Get Out and Vote for the Person who Cares enough to raise your issues the office that can make changes in your community.
Get Out and Vote on Nov. 19/05 Every Municipalities throughout BC will be electing new Community Representatives.
As a potential local policy-maker, we would like to know your views and opinions on dog management in Greater Victoria. We have included three basic questions in this regard and would greatly appreciate receiving your response by November 7, 2005.
1. Are you aware of/concerned about any dog-related issues in your municipality? If so, how would you like to see these issues addressed? How would you promote responsible dog ownership?
I am aware of the issues of safety concerns that people have brought to the attention of the media because they or someone they know have been attacked by a dog. I am not very familiar with the policies that government having dogs in the city. I would definitely be interested in receiving any information that your organization has, because apart of my heart is owned by my princess named Raven-Skye who thinks she is a human being but is part Lab/collie.
2. Do you agree that dog owners should be involved in the development of dog-related policy? How would you see this involvement take place in your municipality?
Most definitely I think that their owners should be involved in all the decision making aspects.
As much as I hated to see more committee meeting being created, I think at this time this is the one that should be created. It should involve dog owners, CRD pound staff, and other agencies like the SPCA.

Context:

In 1989, the House of Commons unanimously resolved to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. At the start of 2005, one million Canadian children, or nearly one in six, are still poor. In a rich country such as Canada this is abhorrent. Aboriginal people are disproportionately affected by poverty, as are women, immigrant Canadians, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. We must end child poverty—and all poverty—in Canada. We must make key investments in social development that will make a difference: More money for low-income families, affordable housing, the creation of decent jobs with a higher minimum wage, and universal, affordable early learning and child care.

As the Federal and the Provincial governments cut social spending, many problems are downloaded onto Municipal governments who do not have the resources to deal with them. For example, in 1995 the Federal government eliminated the Canada Assistance Plan and now there is no standard for the provinces to meet on social spending. Poverty has grown since then. Municipalities must take the lead in pushing the Federal government into bringing back national standards on income assistance, housing, health, and harm reduction strategies, as well as working toward a guaranteed livable income for all Canadians.

Questions:

1. How will you negotiate with other levels of government for the reinstatement of national standards to meet people’s basic needs?

A) I like direct action through community consultation first with the people who are being directly affected. Then bring the community leaders to the clients and let the leaders hear and see first Hand how their decisions are impacting the community.

B) Both clients and service providers who work the front lines need to be including in every aspect of negation.

2. What is your perspective on implementing a “livable” minimum wage?

A) I would like to see some sort of a guaranteed livable income for all people. I have been involved in the anti-poverty for years through my own experience and know that income assistance does not pay enough and neither does the current minimum wage.

B) I think minimum should be at least $10.00 an hour to start with so that people like me might be able to afford to eat at least twice and day and not have to worry about whether or not I am having to take it out of my bus fare or am I going to have a place to live next month.

3. What will you do to address the issue of housing affordability in your municipality? Will you encourage measures such as relaxing zoning laws to allow multi-family occupancy and/or sleeping in cars and camping trailers?

A) I would like to see the legalization of Single Room Occupancies (SROs) and a by-law to be changed that would for bid property owners from buying land and allowing building to sit vacant for decades while the vacancy rates are sitting below the five percent mark and our homeless population in on the rise.

4. Will you lobby the federal government for extra funds to support homeless people in Victoria who are fleeing the cold weather in other parts of Canada? How will you ensure that homeless shelters are safe for everyone, especially for women?

A) Yes I will lobby all levels of governments to re-implement to money and services that were lost during the cancellation of Bill 29 at the provincial level four years ago. I would like to say that we don’t need to be segregated based on our gender but in the case of the homeless I believe that we do need multiple separated shelters to meet the needs of our changing communities. We shelter that are able to let our homeless to stay longer that seven days in a 30 day time period. We need one for women who are homeless and do not have an illness or addiction, we need one where women can bring their dogs and we need one where IV users can feel just as safe as a non-IV user. I think that all the shelters should have at least one per floor needle drop boxes and that the staff at these sites should receive specialized, training in dealing with IV users with or with their children. I would also like to see a safe house for battered men be available, especial for those who are two spirited. I would like to see several of these houses have a FN value implemented in how they are built and operational service deliveries and staff who have been consumers to some of these services.

5. Will you set aside an area accessible to downtown where homeless people will have access to land for camping, toilet/shower facilities and safe lockers until such time as housing can be provided?

Yes I would definitely advocate for all of our disenfranchised society members. I believe that setting up a park for this community would be very beneficial for all involved in providing the basic care of these individuals. As well as the community members it self would benefit from because we are all the same we need the human contact whether we like it or not. As far as the rest of society goes we need to accept that this is an issue that will not go away by pretending it doesn’t exist by sweeping it under other community issues and that we can all benefit from accepting the responsibility for lack of housing and in adequate social safety net and that there is no shame in addressing our social issues while the world is watching us.


6. What is your stand on decriminalization and/or unionization of prostitution?

A) I think that prostitution should be decriminalized. If the sex trade workers want to unionized themselves then I am in total support of them. I am aware of several unionized sex trade workers in the US and overseas.

7. What will you do to make legal aid and dental care accessible to poor people?

A) I think that legal aid should be provided for free from the students who are practicing law. Dental care should be seen as a preventative measure for long term health concerns and should be considered as an essential service. I think that any service charges should be done based on what the individual person can pay.

8. What is your opinion of harm reduction strategies that see drug addiction as an illness, not a crime? What do you propose to do about the lack of deter centers and safe injection sites? Although lack of affordable housing allowed these problems to get rolling on a grand scale, it will take more than that to solve them.

A) I would support any strategies that would help preserve a person’s life and give them an opportunity to recover from their addictions. I would like to see a safe injection site established in Victoria. We need a little more deter beds for the people trying to deter and not for the people who have no place to go. For them we need more extended supportive services to help them make the transition treatment to independent living.

9. Currently the public library is serving as a de facto drop-in centre for homeless people to spend their days during bad weather. While libraries should remain accessible, can you suggest alternative City-sponsored safe and warm drop in spaces?

A) No. I don’t think that we should be pushing these people out of a business that is created for public use because these people are a part of the public and are in directly tax payers too.

10. Accessible and convenient transportation is a necessity for low-income Victoria residents. What will you do to expand bus coverage, particularly from the F airfield/Cook Street Village area where service is minimal outside of rush hours (and sometimes even then)?

A) I would like to see an urban bus pass made available to all citizens of Victoria who are existing on a limited income. Something like the yearly disability or student U passes. But have one for the working poor where they can buy one that might be good for four or five months. For Fairfield / Cook Street Village the community needs to publicly announce when they are having these public transit meeting and ensure avid bus riders like myself gets invited so that we can support this community. We need to promote more people to use both the bus service and rider ship as an environmental and economical way to travel.

11. Do you feel it is appropriate to have Victoria’s school meal breakfast program provided by the Salvation Army, along with “food for the soul” (prayers), considering that many families and taxpayers do not subscribe to that belief system? How will you work to ensure that children in Victoria do not go to school hungry?

A) NO I definitely do not feel that there should be any group or action that promotes a mandatory action for anyone to have to sing or pray for food. As survivor of the sixties scoop I have some experience as to how damaging this kind of life long impact can have on a child. Especial one that is connected to a religious organization that thrives on keeping people impoverished.

12. Will you fight to keep Victoria's water supply in public hands so that water does not become a commodity for those who can afford it?

A) Yes as an FN woman I have understood the importance of the value of our land and all the elements that come with and I have been repetitively told that no one can say that no one can really claim ownership to the water.

13. What measures will you take to halt the spread of epidemic diseases such as AIDS, Hepatitis and TB, which are all on the increase in our province and are directly linked to poverty?

A) Educated the educators, consumers, students, customers about how such diseases like these are spread. In prove accessibility to our outreach teams, health care services, promoted safe sex by offering free supplies and encourage everyone to get tested on a regular basis and get shots.

14. Will you make licenses required for busking and craft sales more accessible to the poor, or, better yet, eliminate them altogether?

A) Yes.

15. What do you see as a viable as well as socially and ecologically sustainable direction for Victoria's economy?

A) Stop the big box corporations from setting up shop any where in Victoria and allow more small developments to establish shops. Promote the buy local products and give the business owners a tax break when the do this. Make room for more affordable housing in the downtown core


The Victoria Make Poverty History Coalition (VMPHC) is a group of individuals and organizations in the Victoria, BC area committed to the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign. Our aim is to raise awareness around poverty, both in Victoria and around the world, through a variety of public education events. We have been meeting since July 2005.

A few words from Rose I am from the Coast Salish Territory where I am a registered member of the Snuneymuxw First Nation (Nanaimo) originally from Sliammon. I am married with small family of my own. Self-identity and belief in a better future for my culture and the people in my community is very important to me. I believe that I can help bridge the gaps between urban First Nations, the reserve community and the people suffering from multiple discrimination based on race and class.
I live and work in the down town; I have raised my family here and have seen a lot of changes throughout Victoria. I have strong hopes and desires to become Victoria's first First Nations council member.
Graduated from the school of hard knocks and the institution of being brought up in the foster care system.

Over the years I have actively volunteered for many organizations.

My personal commitment to the following issues:
· Passing by-laws that will ensure that vacant building will not seat empty for a certain amount of time will our homeless population continues to grow and the bed space for them deteriorates.
· Promoting diversity in the community
· Transportation becomes affordable to everyone
Ensure that new housing projects have a certain percentage designated for people living below the poverty line
Help for Seniors and Children
· Promoting Small Business
· Environmental Issues-Like saying no to the privatization of water
· Help for our urban First Nations Community
· Poverty and Homelessness

------------------------------------------

Dear Friends, Please Pass this on

As most of you would know, local social activist
Rose Henry has entered her second campaign to break
the cultural barrier at City Hall in becoming the
first aboriginal person on council.

Rose is an outstanding voice for the poor and the
homeless in our community, having devoted an
accumulated almost two decades of service at the
Native Friendship Centre, Sandy Merriman House shelter
for women, Victoria Street Commnity Association,
Together Against Poverty Association and the Vancouver
Human Rights Coalition. She stands up for the rights
of the most marginalized and dispossesed in our city.

She is herself a survivor of a racist colonial system
and the foster care system and who faces the multiple
barriers of being a First Nations woman, a visible
minority, who has lived in poverty her whole life and
who has the great strength of being able to
authentically represent the realtiy, issues and needs
of a whole segment of the population whose voices are
systematically excluded and ignored in the realms of
political power, privilege and decision-making.

City Hall has long been the domain of the privilege
and the comfortable, the educated and the middle
class.
It is no coincidence that the issues affecting the
poor are year after year given short shrift. Class
interests on city council have almost unanimously been
with those who stand for big development and private
profits before people's real needs, affordable
housing, public transit and poverty alleviation.

Rose is no newcomer to social justice struggles. She
operates on substance and not slick. She is one person
who will put the urgency of Victoria's pressing social
issues at the top (rather than the bottom) of the
agenda at City Hall. She is a compassionate and
hard-working advocate who will serve beyond the call
of duty to press for solutions to the growing problems
that our community faces: addiction, homelessness,
intolerance, housing affordability, public safety.

In the 10 days ahead I urge all of you to consider
what resources of time and/or finances you can devote
to helping Rose win a seat on council. She is in need
of canvassers and some funds to put up a few signs
around town.

Rose has stood with all of us in the social justice
community for a long time. It's time that we stood
with her now.

If you wish to vote in advance you can do so at Victoria City Hall on Nov. 9,

14,15,16 & 17 Hours start at 8am until at least 5pm

Rose can be reached at 812-0199 or at
pheonixstar62@hotmail.com

Bobby Arbess
Rose Henry Campaign Team
garbanzobob@yahoo.ca
995-1477


I only need 6900 votes to get in as Victoria 1st First Nations person The last time I ran and did not speak to the media I got 4500 votes

**** People wishing to donate to my campaign can send cheques to Rose Henry's Campaign c/o John Rooney home address 104-864 Pembroke St. Victoria BC, V8T 1H9
People wishing to help me with my campaign can contact me at 250-812-0199 or through my E-mail address at: pheonixstar62@hotmail.com.

Federal Government Compensation package Fiascoe

Rose Henry Response to the Federal Government Response to the Residential School Fiascoes
What is the price tag for all the years of un-necessary suffering at residential schools that our country’s pre-Canadian have had imposed on them because of their race?
Canada’s pre-Canadian have had to endure this invasion at a settlement price of just barely over twenty-nine thousand dollars per child who attend residential school.
Of the $83 million spent last year by the federal Office of Indian Residential Schools Resolution, $17m (or 20%) - was used to resolve 593 claims. The rest paid for government lawyers, staff salaries, research fees and other administrative costs.
Thousands of First Nations children were forced to attend residential schools over a six decade time period before the majority of the schools were force to close permanently in latter half of the 1970’s, with the last closing in 1996.
Compensating for every former pupil wouldn't be cheap for the FN communities or federal government due to the exceeding amount of adults now disclosing the amount of abuse and neglect they have suffered since their early childhood.
The detrimental effects of the financial ramification that have cost our country are huge. Especially when one considers the amount of paid work each individual has missed, the amounts of times each person has ended up in using our health care system through premature deaths due to depression and addictions, the onset of poor health conditions because of the lack of access to their traditional foods and medicines, to being uneducated because the former residential school system that instilled a fear of this system and therefore have passed their experiences onto the children.
I personally think that this compensation package should be extended to include
1. one hundred percent Health care coverage to help this race out with the trauma that they have had to endure for decades.
2. A public apology to all FN and their descendants should be delivered verbatim from all the governments and churches that were responsible for these schools existence.
3. The perpetrators of these institutions should also pick-up the cost of all legal fees and not tax the recipients of this settlement.
As the settlement reads right now the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) says each student (or their descendants) should get $10,000 plus $3,000 for each year spent in the schools that were meant to "Christianize" them.
"I have no reason to believe that the claimants and (their) lawyers will not work with (judge Iacobucci) in a spirit of good faith.
"They want fairness for their clients, but they want finality as well."
These words have been echoed through history with the signing of each treaty and acts that have passed through Parliament. They have also fallen to the side because the rest of Canada as successful and progressive as it has become has failed to honor and respect its first people. So reestablishing a trusting relationship with the FN community should be deemed essential if this is country going to continue to progress in a healthier future and not loose its pre-Canadian citizens.
What I would like to hear and see from all parties involved in this process is a commitment to follow through with their agreements, that there never be another residential school set up, and that there be some kind of guaranteed livable income for all

Justice or is It A In-JUSTICE?

Essay writing
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Rose H.

Although we pay dearly for our legal system, we do not always get justice because we cannot define justice with one word. Since our country consists of many different levels of governments and was built by people with strong ethnic connections from all over the world, the word justice has taken on many different meanings.
For instance the upholding of what is just for one person does not mean that it will be the same for another person, especially when it comes to fair treatment if the injustice was based on a person’s capabilities, skin color or gender.
The current justice system is not flexible enough to encompass the different ways people have of saying what has happened to them during their interaction with justice issues. Victims or witnesses of this system usually do not have enough time to tell the whole impact of what has happened to them, or what they witnessed. To get conformity to truth, fact, or sound reason from a person’s response in one sentence or word is almost impossible. Getting victims’ to repeat their answers, in a verbatim style response is just as challenging. Some times if a victim or a witness has to recite an event, in a verbatim style, their story will begin to change unintentionally as time goes on.
To deliver fairness to all is a challenge, especially when you are dealing with young people, people with disabilities, or people of a different race. For instance when you are dealing with a school incident the teacher will usually ask who started the incident. A witness might come forward and start telling the truth as to how they saw things. Then, somewhere during this action the truth changes, and the witness ends the story with a reflection of the teacher’s impatience, or the perpetrator’s threatening vibes. The end results could become detrimental for all parties involved, especially if a transformation of the witness happens. These people could very easily change, from being a witness role, to a victim’s role through their desires to accommodate the time restriction imposed on them.
Finding a justice system that encompasses all races and ethnic back grounds means that our law makers must create a new justice system, by rewriting the current one and making it more flexible to encompass everyone, or they must reinforce a justice system that is currently excluding people.
The challenge of creating a legal system that would encompass the beliefs and laws of everyone who partakes directly or indirectly within the main stream justice system, has been an in surmountable obstacle for our law makers, many of whom, come from the old colonization education system that does not work in today’s changing world.

UN Human Rights Act List Kanada as 48th on World Scale

Thursday, May 12, 2005 Rose H.

On the global scale under the United Nations Human Rights Act, Canada is listed as the number one country out of one hundred and seventy-four for human development, and is considered the second most desirable country to live in.
If Canada was graded solely on its own rating on how they treat their own Indigenous people, it would drop drastically to forty-eighth, based on how all levels of its governments have treated them. When compared to how other countries that we consider third world countries are dealing with their indigenous communities.

Please see reference listing on last page Reference: #1

The United Nations development program's ranking of 174 countries in the 2000 Human development index
1. Canada
2.Norway
3.UnitedStates
4.Australia
5.Iceland

Reference #2

Canada ranked low in UN native report
April 11, 2005 - GENEVA - Canada's high ranking on the United Nations' human development scale would dramatically drop if the country were judged solely on the economic and social well-being of its First Nations people.
According to a new UN report, Canada would be placed 48th out of 174 countries if judged on those criteria. The low position is a significant drop from Canada's usual top 10 ranking on the UN's human development scale. Canada came in seventh in the last report but if the conditions of native people were the only qualifiers, the country's ranking would plummet. "Poverty, infant mortality, unemployment, morbidity, suicide, criminal detention, children on welfare, women victims of abuse, child prostitution, are all much higher among aboriginal people than in any other sector of Canadian society. "Economic, social and human indicators of well-being, quality of life and development are completely lower among aboriginal people than other Canadians," said Rodolfo Stavenhagen a United Nations representative. Who has also acknowledged that the condition of aboriginal people in the country was "The most pressing human rights issue facing Canada." Unfortunately our own governments do not see this.

The conclusions in the UN report are no surprise to anyone knowledgeable about First Nations issues, particularly in BC. Highlighted in the report: •Poverty-60% of aboriginal children • Annual income of aboriginal people is "significantly lower" than other Canadians. •Unemployment is very high among aboriginals. • 20 per cent of aboriginal people have inadequate water and sewer systems. • Aboriginals make up 4.4 per cent of the Canadian population but account for 17 per cent of the people in prison. • Cases of tuberculosis are six times higher than the rest of Canada. • Life expectancy among the Inuit is 10 years lower than the rest of Canada.

Canada has become notorious for hiding, and masking its own failures when it comes to dealing with its own Indigenous people. Canada has committed crimes like; deploying First Nations men into wars that were not of their own creations (A), and signing treaties before these soldiers’ families could read and write the colonizer’s language. Other crimes that were committed and most times overlapped one another with the introduction of each treaty or bill that identify, divide and slot First Nations (FN) in accordance to their skin color(B) and gender, were the residential schools (C), the creations of sixties scoop, foster care, and adoption(D). The remnants of this era go far beyond the decades of the actual occurrences. The legacy of all these events reaches well into the minds of the now present adult survivors of this era. Their present behaviors could be considered as a reflection of how they the survivors think, or perceive the world and how they treat their children.

A) As heard first hand from some of the First Nations war veterans, they lost their rights to live with their own families or communities, when they were forced to enlist in the war that was not of their own doing, and had returned home from fighting over seas. They had to give up their status cards, their land and all other rights that identified their uniqueness of their culture, to fight this war. It was because of their skin color that they were not honored in the same way as their non-status comrades for fighting in the same wars. Canada’s F.N. war veterans would have to wait until the early 1990s to receive their medals after enduring a long fight with the Canadian government over their entitlements to be treated with the same dignity and respect that their non-status (natives) comrades had received. It was because of Canada’s own racist attitudes that these First Nations war heroes were not able to receive the same entitlements as their non-native comrades. Many were denied privileges such as entering a Royal Canadian Legion, or the rights to receive adequate medical services from a veteran’s hospital, or the privileges to ride above the car decks of BC’s own ferry corporation (as late as mid 1970s). Other entitlements such as spousal and dependants support were also denied. Segregation was still applicable to them, in their own homeland, until the end of the apartheid (1968). The rights to participate in any non-native elections were denied until the end of the apartheid, so fighting for their colonizer’s rights and freedom reduced these indigenous soldiers to a life of poverty and homelessness in their own home land.

B) This loss of cultural identity and land also applied to women who lost their status through marriages to non-status men. Some were forced to marry these men after being kidnapped, placed into residential schools, used as medical guinea pigs, or raped, often conceiving a child through these hideous crimes. For women from all cultures it was still frowned upon to be pregnant and un-married during the FN apartheid. So, when these indigenous women married, they still were treated as savages by their counter parts (non-status women).

C) Residential schools for many of the attendees ----this was a time of horror. Some children where forcibly removed while others where voluntarily given by their families and communities. All of them were subjected to ridicule and taunting by non-natives. This was a time when many of them were turned into slaves instead of students. They had become slaves to the whims of the schools that were financed by religious bodies. The children who were sent to these schools were expected to work twelve and sixteen hours cultivating hundred of acres of gardens, and to clean the schools for the school officials. The food and flowers that they grew in these gardens, were not for their own consumption, they were for the church and school officials. The attendees’ spiritual, emotional and physical was not built on a healthy diet. These children were subjected to all sorts of abuse and neglect, not by their families, but by the bodies that were and still are running this country. They are called the government. These children’s bodies were so depleted mentally and emotionally that the physical impact on their bodies resulted in a life time of chronic health concerns due to the malnourishment. They were fed mush (porridge), stale bread, sometimes water or powder milk and out dated baloney on almost daily basis denying their bodies enough enriched vitamins for these young children’s bodies to develop. Almost all of these attendees lived in fear of being rejected, alienated, and becoming sexual slaves to the predators who ran these schools. Some of these children were as young as three years of age. Many of them did not survive and have moved onto the spirit world leaving their unclaimed remains to be buried on the school grounds of these now defunct schools. Their memories still remain in the minds of their surviving kin and fellow students.

D) The sixties scoop was an era when the highest percentage of indigenous children where being apprehended from their family and placed in non-native homes. The reasons for these apprehensions varied from an inadequate supply of food, to problems such as the lack of housing, life skills and health care. The amount of apprehension would continue to climb higher then 40% of all indigenous children in care throughout Canada. A few of these children were adopted out to non-native homes until the early 1980s. This is when the Provincial government in BC introduced a bill that would forbid any adoptions of First Nations children to non-native families residing in their province. Unfortunately this moratorium was not applicable to the other provinces, or territories, or to the amount of apprehensions that were placing First Nations children in non-native foster families by labeling them un-adoptable. So it is still legal for non-natives to cross the provincial borders, or reservations and adopt native children.

This type of interference has created a huge wave of uncertainty amongst the indigenous people, with a high percentage of their race being born into multiple addictions such as, alcoholism, gambling, AIDS, TB, in addition to being malnourished, raised illiterate, suffering from poverty and homelessness. All of these diseases are treatable, a few are avoidable, but all are usually beyond the financial scope of these individuals realm, forcing F.N. to rely heavily on non-status support for their existence. The costs of treating these diseases are then usually paid for by multiple levels of governments, which include First Nations bands, who usually have restricted medical coverage. That does not always cover all of the medical expenses of their band members’ needs, increasing their poverty.

Canada’s governments continue to forge forward denying the truth of this history which has created a life time of uncertainty for all people, including the non-status who have inherited the aftermath of lost souls and have not been told the truth of their ancestors’ actions, or lack of actions. The non-status do not understand that they have been deceived by their governments about how the land that they currently reside on was taken from the F.P.

The money, land, and education that are needed to ensure the first people’s survival is in existence, but with barriers attached to them. Over coming, these barriers is almost impossible for the first people (F.P.) to achieve without going to the non-status to gain access to their traditional foods, lands and medicines.

Canada’s own indigenous people were once strong in their numbers according to the 2001 Census counted 499,605 Aboriginal females, out of a total population of 976,305 (Statistics Canada 2001a). 5 The FN population is young, with over one third 14 years or under. However, the next fastest growing segment of this population is women 65 years or older (4% of the entire population) placing these women in a danger zone with a higher rates of violence, suicide, diabetes and substance abuse than any other ethnic group because of the lack access to funding, land, housing, traditional medicines and foods.

Unfortunately with colonization many First Nations have moved onto the spirit world via premature deaths such as suicides, infant mortalities, and being used as medical guineas pigs. The reports on attempted suicide have been reported as high as seventy percent.

Reference #3

70% more than double homicide rates, compared with non-Indian populations,” according to Bob Kennedy’s of Turtle Island native news report on the Red Lake Minnesota Indian Reservation (n.p.).

Even with the rapid depletion of their population due to any one of these diseases, the number of children ending up in the government’s care has not decreased, since the ends of the wars, residential schools, sixties scoop, the apartheid, First Nations women losing their status through marrying a non-status partner and the legalization of adoption of First Nations children to non-First Nations families. The number of First Nations children living in the care of the government indefinitely has continued to stay high. These children are growing up and expressing confusion about who they are, and about feeling like they are the walking dead, zombies or aliens. These are now some of the adults who feel that they have no other identity except a little piece of paper that says that they are an officially registered adoptee with no cultural history of being Métis, First Nations or bill C-31 person. Some of them literally live in multiple worlds, spending their energy trying to sort out which culture they belong to and which one will they follow.

They are looking for a sense of belonging which is vital for their well being. This slight hesitation of identity does definitely have a rippling effect, and will help determine whether or not they would be entitled to possess a status card. This piece of paper slots and categorizes them, so that basic services like health care and education can be provided to them in accordance to the treaty that was signed over a hundred years ago. Food and housing have fallen off of the top their criteria. I think this has happened because of the increase of food banks, soup kitchens and dependencies on government funds.

First Nations Band offices also benefit by having status cardholders on their list. These bands get paid by the government in accordance to the number of band members registered on their list, not who is actually living on the reservation. Many of these status cardholders have never lived on the reservation or met their chief, because their existence has never been talked about or recorded by the mothers of these children. There are not enough adequate services available to them, or these individuals have become too assimilated to mainstream society, and do not feel comfortable living on segregated land.

To sum this essay up, I personally would agree that any attempts of genocide happening in Canada are happening to its own first people and are being done by its own government’s rules and regulations. These crimes are being done in a slow and systematic process through the loss of, First Nations people’s chance to bond with their own mothers, ability to speak their own language, to claims of cultural identity, access to their community elders and their own lives.

Lacking access to these services and to their traditional elders, these people have been provided minimal support to reflect back on to, so that they continue caring for their offspring in as traditional way as they can. First Nations people have lost access to their traditional teachers (the elders) and foods. It is not highly encouraged for these survivors to seek out these elders from non-status service providers. Access to their traditional foods is almost non-existent due to the over population, pollution, consumption and restrictions imposed by the colonizers. Even the “Traditional” music that is being taught and sung today has been tampered with. Meaning that the original meaning of each song has been changed slightly along with who can and cannot sing these songs.

Some of these songs have started losing their meaning and owners when it was forbidden for these songs to be sung or taught during the time of the apartheid, which was when it was forbidden for all natives to speak in their traditional tongue. Some of these songs are still owned by a particular clan or families and are forbidden to be sung in public without the families consent or have lost their original meaning.

These additional barriers created problems for those who have not grown up knowing their culture. Problems such as “Who do they turn to when they feel the desire to return their ancestral roots or to their traditional way of life? How do they learn what is protocol and whose protocol do they learn?”

Many First Nations songs and stories have expired as colonization progressed and taken permanent roots in a new era where many different cultures have influenced what is considered traditional for this country. New legends that are being created by the people of this time are now being told without the guidance of the elders. These are their own stories of the homeland wars against racism, poverty, sexism, abandonment by their own races, and feelings of alienations towards both races and their own desires for survival.

Being considered First Nations in Canada in the new millennium is not easy. According to a report recently released by CBC reports Aboriginal Canadians are a part of the fabric of Canada (see reference #4). On the global scale under the United Nations Human Rights Act, Canada as a country is not doing well when it comes to ensuring wellness for its own Indigenous people. Under the social and economic scale if these people are to survive into this millennium then Canada as a whole country must ratify its’ social development policies and eliminate all forms of discrimination that are based on one’s skin color and gender.

Canada’s First Nations people must stay strong in their determination to resist total assimilation in order to preserve what is left of their race and traditions.

Reference #4

Aboriginal Canadians are a part of the fabric of Canada, a brave federation of differences: multiculturalism, official bilingualism, minority rights, cultural and geographic diversity, and ancient grievances. Managing these differences is a constant juggling act, like a high stakes poker game, an act of faith. From fishing rights to the creation of a new territory, CBC News has examined a number of issues and stories related to aboriginals in Canada.
1. The Indian Act formed much of the basis for the introduction of oppressive apartheid policies against Black people in South Africa which lasted for decades.
2. In 1969, all Indian Agents were withdrawn from reserves across Canada ending the government's overt paternalistic presence on First Nations land.

Works cited:

Reference # 1 Published on Thursday, June 29, 2000 in the Manchester Guardian
Divided World: Rich Live Longer, Poor Die Younger
Reference #2
United Nations discloses report to Aboriginaltimes.community
“Canada ranked low in UN native report April 11, 2005 - GENEVA Switzerland”
Reference #3
Bob Kennedy. ”Red Lake Minnesota” www.turtleisland.org last accessed April 5, 2005
United Nations Report Human Rights and Developments
And Rose’s own Thoughts