Mistreatment of the Canadian Indigenous

Topic: Mistreatment of First Nations People in Canada

Research Question:What are some of the issues and challenges that the First Nations People in Canada undergo?

Introduction

   Since the discovery of Canada, the mistreatment of First Nations people has been embedded in our history, with many families effected by the generational trauma of their ancestors from the residential school system striping them from their culture. I consider this an important current Canadian issue because First Nations people are still getting mistreated in Canada starting with the lack of clean water in the reserves that they live in, increased food prices, and the lack of care they receive from the Canadian healthcare system that was shown on the news. I am also going to be making a correlation between the issues they face against the government. 

Annotated Bibliography

Batal, Malek et al. “First Nations Households Living on-Reserve Experience Food Insecurity: Prevalence and Predictors Among Ninety-Two First Nations Communities Across Canada.” Canadian journal of public health 112.Suppl 1 (2021): 52–63. Web.

This article explains the issues of food insecurity in First Nations reserves and the barriers that occur in their traditional food consumption. This article studies the correlation between income-related challenges and the household’s food consumptions. In this study, the author explains that families with more children experience higher risk at food insecurity in the reserve than any other non-indigenous family in Canada living on the poverty line. It also explains that majority of families on reserve lack traditional food in their diets due to their financial income. Not only that, but food prices are much more expensive on reserve than in urban cities in Canada, causing First Nations to have a lack of nutritional food in their diets making them have a weaker immune system. The lack of traditional food access disables them to have a less indigenous experience, which Is not only caused by their financial status, but also industrial activities, government regulations against certain animals that are part of their diets, and climate change also plays a major role in this issue.

CBC/Radio Canada. (2022, March 13). Indigenous leaders hope new required high school courses in B.Cwill help combat racism | CBC news. CBCnews. Retrieved March 20, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/secondary-schools-bc-indigenous-courses-1.6380578

This newspaper article talks about how implementing high school courses that teach indigenous culture will help the future generation to live united in Canada. The First Nations chief explains that this new curriculum in the High school education is providing their community with gaining the equality that they deserve, as well as it gives non-indigenous people the fundamental right to understand the history of the land that they live on. This information is significant to my research topic because it points out the fact that indigenous history was not taught in schools across Canada and people where unaware of the importance of First Nations people in building Canada. Now with this new information being taught to the young people of Canada, the discrimination and inequality towards the Indigenous people will decrease and our new generation will combat racism.

Paige Miraglia, et al. “The Continued Mistreatment of Indigenous People – the Case of Joyce Echaquan.” Inter Alia, 27 Oct. 2020, inter-alia.ca/2020/10/27/the-continued-mistreatment-of-indigenous-people-the-case-of-joyce-echaquan/.

This article goes on about an Indigenous woman, Joyce Echaquan, who made a trip to a hospital in Quebec due to a minor stomach-ache but died two days later under staff supervision. Before her death, she posted a video on Facebook that showed the racial and discriminatory slurs and offensive remarks the staff were saying instead of giving her the proper treatment that required. After her death, her video had gone viral and people all over Canada voiced their opinions on the hospital staff’s racist remarks towards her due to her ethnicity. This incident has reached news broadcasting stations and has opened many people’s eyes about the mistreatment that goes on in Canada towards the First Nations people. Not only does it prove that there is still racism and discrimination towards them, but it also is a prime example leading back to the idea that Indigenous culture should be taught in schools to decrease racism and discrimination towards the Indigenous people in Canada.