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]