Spirit Bear and Children Make History

[Applause]

in 2009

spirit bear who’s a teddy bear that

represents all first nations children

and i sat in a courtroom alone

we were there to challenge the canadian

government’s long-standing policy

of providing first nations children with

lesser public services and all other

canadian

kids you received it’s been going on

since confederation

the federal government funds services on

reserve

and since confederation it’s known it

funds it at far lesser levels

it’s known the harms that it creates

like unnecessary family separations

contributing to the deaths of some

children contributing to the harms and

hopelessness of many children

it has solutions to fix it and yet it

wasn’t fixing it

so along with the assembly of first

nations in 2007 we had filed a legal

case

and we had asked why canadians

to come into the courtroom to fill

their offices of their members of

parliament to demand

equity and an end to this long-term

systemic discrimination that was piling

up on hopes and dreams of children

and yet spirit bear and i were alone in

that courtroom

why was that was it that canadians

didn’t care

that first nations kids did they think

they weren’t worth the money

well just as those thoughts were

glimpsing past our minds

in came a group of high school students

and as one young man told me they were

from alternative school which means they

got into trouble a lot

and i said good because so do i you see

one of the things about getting into

trouble like john lewis has said

is you can get into trouble for doing

the wrong thing

and that’s really easy to do that’s for

amateurs

by getting into trouble for doing the

right thing like john lewis did in the

civil rights movement

or like spirit bear who is trying to

counter the racial discrimination by the

canadian government

that’s for experts and children are

experts in love and fairness

and so these youth could see what many

adults in canada could not see

that giving first nations children young

people less of an opportunity to live

well in this country was unfair and

someone needed to do something about it

so not only did they stay in the

courtroom for that entire hearing and

i’m telling you sometimes it was pretty

boring listening to the lawyers

but they came back at the next set of

hearings with their younger brothers

and sisters with their grandparents with

their parents and with their friends

and by 2012 there were so many children

and young people in the hearing room

that we had to have an overflow room and

some children

had to remain outside where they stood

in front of parliament with signs

demanding fairness for first nations

children

you see the worst thing about systemic

discrimination

is when it becomes normalized in a

society

and that’s happened in canada we have an

indian act

which is been with us since

confederation

it’s the same act that where children

were removed and placed in residential

schools

and today the canadian government under

that act still imposes first nations

governments

it still uh does things like decides who

is a first nations or non-status

child can you imagine a non-status

anyone and the government of canada is

making that call

that’s systemic discrimination

when you see first nations children

being given

less money by the canadian government

and the canadian government wanting us

to be patient and thankful for its

ongoing discrimination

that’s systemic discrimination when you

see

law enforcement and the judiciary not

respecting the humanity of first nations

maintaining wheat peoples

that’s systemic discrimination and when

you

hear the word indigenous being overused

in ways that really mask the unique

differences

between and among first nations metis

and inuit peoples

that’s also a form of systemic

discrimination

the good news is that children can see

it at age two

developmentally children understand

fairness of all diversities

and if we nurture that and don’t allow

the systemic discrimination to become

normal

and then equip children and young people

with peaceful and respectful tools to

address

it then we can actually live in a world

where we honor

difference and where systemic

discrimination is vanquished to the past

but we have to remain vigilant you see

in what

when we won the court hearing in 2016

when the canadian human rights tribunal

said that what canada was doing all

those years was racial discrimination

and ordered it to stop

the children young people we held a

celebration to mark that occasion but

also to redouble our efforts

because we understood that there had

been a lot of legal rulings in the past

that the canadian government had not

implemented so we used that party to

write more letters to the canadian

government

and thankfully we did that because

there’s been about 10 non-compliance

orders issued against the canadian

government since 2016.

and while things have improved a bit

that inequality is still there

just last week there were first nations

children in northern ontario that had to

leave their community because there was

no water

so we need to remain vigilant when we

see systemic discrimination

one of the biggest enablers of systemic

discrimination

is when folks like you don’t do anything

you have an opportunity to change this

country for the better

by not normalizing the discrimination

and following the example

of the children and young people who not

only came to those hearings but continue

to speak out about the unfairness

you have a chance to co-create a society

where every child

matters where every child is worth the

money

it’s worth the effort is worth the time

but you also have a choice just to

continue like your forefathers did

to normalize it to look the other way

because it’s not about you

but i have hope and i believe in each

and every one of you

and your ability to make a difference

children have power i’ve seen it

spirit bear has seen it and i know that

each of you have seen it

so stand up and be counted and go onto

our website www.fncaringsociety.com

where you can find seven free ways to

make a difference

and you can be a part of history because

the crazy thing about history

is you don’t know you’re in a historical

moment when it’s happening

but you can be part of the movement

that pushes canada through a threshold

where we would look back on this period

of racial discrimination and think how

did we put up with it for so long

and thank heaven for everyone who stood

up for justice

i believe in you get to work

[Applause]