Life in Canada

Apathy Reigns in the South....

A national analysis of health data suggests tuberculosis is 185 times more common among Canada's Inuit than it is among the mainstream population - and getting worse.

The trend is another escalation in the rate and that should make Canadians concerned, particularly as the trend in the rest of the country goes down said the Public Health Agency of Canada.

While the agency hadn't yet released its report on the actual infection rates,
it is another wake-up call to healthy Canadians, "There must e much more attention paid to the rates of TB among Inuit." Who is gong to do it Canada

It's the first time that national data on the incidence of TB in Canada's North has been closely examined,thanks NOW to the Public Health Agency of Canada, which now has access to all the Canadian data including at last the Inuit population

What has been found is that Canada's four main Inuit regions had a TB incidence rate in 2008 of 157.5 for every 100,000 people. The rate in southern Canada is 0.8 per 100,000. Inuit are 185 times more likely to contact TB

The analysts also found southern aboriginals had a tuberculosis rate 31 times higher than the national average and that tuberculosis seems to be getting worse in the North. The rate of Inuit infection in 2004, for example, was 90 times higher.

The analysis I believe does not include people who may have been exposed to the disease but haven't yet developed it nor does tell you the rate of latent infection. If these people don't remain in good health, that could become the actual disease.

Tuberculosis is also spreading to different age groups. While the highest rates of infection were found among the elderly, who may have first been exposed during the great TB epidemics of the '50s and '60s, the next highest rate was found in the 20-to-25 age group.

The rates varied widely from place to place. Analysts found some communities had no tuberculosis at all.

Tuberculosis is usually considered a disease of the poor. It flourishes in overcrowded homes filled with poorly nourished people who have substandard access to health care. All three conditions apply across the Arctic.

A recent study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that 70 per cent of Inuit preschoolers live in homes where there isn't always enough food. The number of people per household is 50 per cent higher than elsewhere in Canada, and houses are smaller and older.

Inuit also have high smoking rates. In Monday's budget speech in the Nunavut legislature, Finance Minister Keith Peterson said 53 per cent of Nunavummiut light up at least once a day.

The population of 55,000 people scattered across a very large section of the country, needs a concerted effort from all more fortunate Canadians with a strong political will that truly will focus on reducing the rate of TB among Inuit.

The new information joins a long string of disturbing Inuit health indices. Recent studies have revealed that Inuit infant mortality is nearly four times the Canadian average and that Inuit children have the highest rate of hospital admission for lower respiratory tract infections in the world.

The rate of premature delivery is three times what it is in the south. Inuit suicides - 43 per cent of which are committed by youth under the age of 20 - are 11 times more common than the Canadian average.

Do you care Canadians ?

Budget: $200 million for residential school victims

OTTAWA — The Conservative government is adding another $200 million over the next two years in compensation for former students of the residential school system because of "higher than expected funding needs."

See my blog on Class Actions

That and a host of other initiatives for aboriginal people in Thursday's budget won some praise from the Assembly of First Nations.

"There are some elements there that suggest that even in a time of great fiscal restraint, there's a recognition of the need to work with First Nations," said AFN national chief Shawn Atleo.

Among the budget measures were improving infrastructure on reserves, renewing funding for First Nations and Inuit health, expanding child and family services and addressing violence against native women.

As part of the government's 2006 settlement to compensate victims of the residential school system, $199 million is being added over two years.

Aboriginal children placed in residential schools, typically run by religious groups, were told to abandon their native culture, and many were physically and sexually abused.

"I'm just really pleased that the issue of continued support for residential school survivors is still a priority," said Atleo.

Thursday's budget also included renewal of federal programs for water and infrastructure projects in First Nations communities, at $331 million over the next two years.

As well, under the second phase of the government's economic action plan, $285 million was set aside for schools, water systems, health, policing and other infrastructure on reserves.

The budget also anted up $285 million over the next two years for renewal of five aboriginal health programs, including the aboriginal diabetes initiative, a suicide prevention strategy for aboriginal youth, and maternal and child health programs.

Atleo said that a lot of the funding in Thursday's budget was renewal of previous programs.

However, he praised the budget for providing $10 million over two years to address the "disturbingly high number" of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

"It's been decades of push," he said. "It's time this was recognized as a national issue."

The budget provided no details of how the government intends to address the issue.

The Native Women's Association of Canada, which receives federal funding to research violence against aboriginal women under their Sisters in Spirit initiative, also praised the new dollars.

"While the specific details pertaining to how this funding will be allocated are still unknown, NWAC is pleased to learn that the Harper government has made fundamental rights of aboriginal women a priority," the group said in a written statement.

The organization says more than 520 aboriginal women have gone missing or been murdered across the country.

Liberal aboriginal affairs critic Todd Russell said he was disappointed that some budget measures -- such as a food mail program to help alleviate costs of flying food to northern communities --were part of previously announced initiatives.

"In my opinion it was a do-little, good-for-nothing budget," he said. "It's detrimental to aboriginal families and aboriginal communities. I believe you will see the gap widen between aboriginal people and the rest of Canadians."

Class Actions in Canada

Founded in the 19th century, the Canadian Indian residential school system was intended to force the assimilation of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada into European-Canadian society. "When Amerindians had asked for schools during treaty negotiations, they had envisioned them as a means of preparing their children for the new way of life that lay ahead." The purpose of the schools, which separated children from their families, has been described by many commentators as "killing the Indian in the child."

Although Education in Canada had been allocated to the provincial governments by the British North America BNA act, aboriginal peoples and their treaties were under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Funded under the Indian Act by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, a branch of the federal government, the schools were run by churches of various denominations — about sixty per cent by Roman Catholics, and thirty per cent by the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada, along with its pre-1925 predecessors, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Methodist churches. This system of using the established school facilities set up by missionaries was employed by the federal government for economical expedience. The federal government provided facilities and maintenance and the churches provided teachers and education.

Largest Class Actions in Canada

The largest class action suit to date in Canada was settled in 2005 after Nora Bernard initiated efforts that led to an estimated 79,000 survivors of Canada's residential school system suing the Canadian government. The settlement amounted to upwards of 5 billion dollars

The foundations of the system were the pre-confederation Gradual Civilization Act (1857) and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869). These assumed the inherent superiority of British ways, and the need for Indians to become English-speakers, Christians, and farmers. At the time, Aboriginal leaders wanted these acts overturned.
The attempt to force assimilation involved punishing children for speaking their own languages or practicing their own faiths, leading to allegations in the 20th century of cultural genocide and ethnocide. There was an elevated rate of physical and sexual abuse. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a lack of medical care led to high rates of tuberculosis, and death rates of up to 69 percent. Details of the mistreatment of students had been published numerous times throughout the 20th century, but following the closure of the schools in the 1960s, the work of indigenous activists and historians led to a change in the public perception of the residential school system, as well as official government apologies, and a (controversial) legal settlement