Vaunted First Nations jobs plan misses target inside Indigenous Affairs Ministry

2016/11/22 Leave a comment

Harder to achieve than it sounds but still striking. As to the comment of the frustrated applicant, there is a distinction between the role of a public servant and an activist:

The Liberals’ vaunted support for First Nations, Métis and Inuit job-seekers appears to be absent in the government’s own hiring practices.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada went on a hiring spree this year — and so far there are relatively few Indigenous workers among the lucky recruits for stable, full-time jobs.

In a 1996 written agreement with First Nations, the department promised to “make every reasonable effort” to hire one Indigenous employee for every two new job vacancies.

But for more than two decades officials have failed to deliver, often arguing that hiring freezes tie their hands or that there are no suitable or willing Indigenous candidates for jobs that do come open.

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has since opened the jobs spigot, with plans to hire 278 people in the department this fiscal year alone to help administer new water-quality and infrastructure programs, among others. Another 184 jobs will be created in the following three years.

‘Extremely frustrating’

But of the 117 new workers hired so far, just 21 are self-identified Indigenous people.

That works out to 18 per cent, far fewer than the long-standing promise of 50 per cent. It’s even lower than the current makeup of the department’s 4,100-member workforce, which is about 30 per cent Indigenous.

“For me it is extremely frustrating, not just as an individual who is more than qualified and looking for a career,” said a First Nations woman with two degrees who has repeatedly applied without success for full-time work at the department.

“But on a larger scale, I find it frustrating for all Indigenous people and for Canada as a whole. Here we have a new government that talks about a nation-to-nation relationship and engagement and all that good stuff.

“But wouldn’t the best way to start that process be to hire more Indigenous staff who are passionate about working with the government and their people to bridge gaps and make positive changes?”

CBC News has agreed to withhold the identity of the woman because she worries any publicity will damage her job prospects.

A spokeswoman for Carolyn Bennett, the minister responsible, confirmed the 50 per cent hiring target still stands, as the government works on “advancing reconciliation” with Indigenous people.

Source: Vaunted First Nations jobs plan misses target inside Indigenous Affairs Ministry – Politics – CBC News

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Advocates for minority Supreme Court judge disappointed by Trudeau’s pick

2016/10/20 Leave a comment

Understandable reactions but equally understandable that the government chose to give priority to regional representation and bilingualism.

However, it will be more important to assess the diversity of future appointments to the lower courts, which I expect will include visible minorities and Indigenous peoples (as did with the initial 15 appointments).

And nice to see my IRPP article, Diversity among federal and provincial judges – Policy Options,  continues to provide useful background data:

The Liberal government may have made history by nominating a Newfoundlander to Canada’s top court — but disappointed advocates say a more critical opportunity has been missed to add racial diversity to Canada’s predominantly white judiciary.

“It’s another white male . . . It’s the exact thing we’ve been doing for years,” said Koren Lightening-Earle, president of the Indigenous Bar Association, adding she would have been “borderline happy with any person of colour.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Justice Malcolm Rowe from Newfoundland and Labrador has been nominated for the Supreme Court of Canada. If formally named to the court, it will be a historic first for the province.

However, scholars and aboriginal jurists had hoped Trudeau’s new selection process might set aside the constitutional convention of regionally based appointments, and focus on putting an aboriginal or black judge into the job.

Lightening-Earle said while Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have waited a number of decades for a representative on the court, aboriginal Canadians have deeper historic claims to a place in the judiciary.

“They (Newfoundland and Labrador residents) have been waiting a long time, but we’ve been waiting a little bit longer,” she said.

Lightening-Earle said in a telephone interview a rare opportunity has been missed, and indigenous lawyers are wondering why they bothered applying to the government’s advisory board for the position.

A report in Policy Options magazine estimated earlier this year that just one per cent of Canada’s 2,160 judges in the provincial superior and lower courts are aboriginal, while 3 per cent are racial minorities — prompting a Dalhousie University law professor to describe the Canadian bench as a “judiciary of whiteness.”

Robert Wright, a black social worker who has served on a Nova Scotia board that recommends judicial appointments, said the announcement is a disappointment given the Trudeau government’s earlier signals it might adjust the system.

“There are an increasing number of Canadians who . . . are not caught up in what I call the historical regional nature of the various Canadian identities we used to focus on,” he said in a telephone interview from Halifax.

Wright argues the principle of diversity that lies beneath appointing people from different regions needed to be shifted to recognize the increasing number of Canadians from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.

He said as a black Nova Scotian he would have been content to see a black person from any part of the country elevated to the bench, and he also would have been very pleased if an aboriginal judge was appointed.

Wright and Lightening-Earle say the country is losing out on the opportunity to gain from indigenous perspectives on everything from constitutional issues to sentencing to the factors that lead to crime.

Jeffery Hewitt, a legal scholar at the University of Windsor, said he doesn’t accept arguments that there may be a lack of qualified candidates.

“Tell us who applied. Give us the list. Talk to us about . . . whether there were any indigenous people in there?” said Hewitt, a Cree who has provided legal advice to First Nations.

A spokeswoman for the federal Justice Department said the independent advisory board that recommends candidates to the prime minister’s office “will be reporting on this information one month from (an) appointment.”

Hewitt said he’s hopeful that going forward, the Liberals will make more appointments to the superior courts in the provinces.

In Quebec, the Policy Options study noted three visible minority judges out of more than 500, despite bar society figures showing more than 1,800 of its roughly 25,000 lawyers identify themselves as being from visible minority groups. The province said it doesn’t keep figures.

In Ontario, one of the few provinces where the judicial advisory body keeps figures on the lower court appointments, there were 24 visible minority judges out of 334 judges, even though one quarter of the province’s overall population identifies as a visible minority.

There are no visible minorities on the bench in Newfoundland and Labrador, which by constitutional convention was the likeliest province to be tapped for the next Supreme Court of Canada appointment.

Source: Advocates for minority Supreme Court judge disappointed by Trudeau’s pick | Toronto Star

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Why clicking on this story about Indigenous people matters: Neil Macdonald

2016/09/10 Leave a comment

Interesting points about how stories are selected or not, and the biases and influences at play:

Indifference, though, is something more pernicious, and much more difficult to deal with.

Because what’s the point of continuing to talk about something if even people of goodwill aren’t listening?

Insist too much on educating readers and viewers against their will, and they tune out, the way they reacted to overzealous, didactic coverage of the Meech Lake Accord in the late 1980s.

The fact is, editors at news organizations are alive to audience biases and apathy, and have baked them into their editorial choices for as long as journalism has existed.

The elders of our craft deliver speeches to rookies about “news judgment,” making it sound like acquired wisdom, something that develops only after years of experience and sober reflection on important issues.

But really, news judgment is a slipperier thing, freighted with ethnocentrism, tribalism, nativism and the assignment of value to life based on an understood, but undiscussed, hierarchy.

In choosing stories and laying out pages at newspapers decades ago, I quickly learned that one dead Canadian anywhere (even more so, a white Canadian), equalled two or three dead Americans, which in turn equalled 10 or 15 Brits or West Europeans, which in turn equalled 30 or 40 dead East Europeans, who were probably white and maybe even Christian, but came from unpronounceable places, and so forth.

At the very end of the list were Africans, or, say, Bangladeshis. They had to perish in very large numbers indeed to merit any notice.

…But Indigenous people, I’m afraid, haven’t rated very highly on that unspoken hierarchy. Canadians evidently do not consider Indigenous people proximate — and the less proximate the subject, the more indifferent the audience.

As the missing and murdered inquiry will no doubt conclude, police also prioritize cases they believe are of most interest to the public; in a way, they exercise news judgment of their own.

And it’s a safe bet that in turn, predators choose targets that are low priorities for law enforcement: to wit, Indigenous women, especially if they happen to be sex workers, are not only the most vulnerable among us, but the least protected.

So, indifference can also be lethal. And now we have those damned computer apps to remind us constantly of its stubborn, passive presence.

Source: Why clicking on this story about Indigenous people matters: Neil Macdonald – Politics – CBC News

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Canadians open to quotas to boost indigenous representation in government

2016/09/10 Leave a comment

Interesting and significant. Of note that opposition is highest in the two provinces with the largest percentage of Indigenous people, Saskatchewan and Manitoba:

The majority of Canadians are open to designating seats for the country’s indigenous people to boost their representation in Parliament and on the Supreme Court.

A recent survey by Environics Institute and the Institute on Governance found that two-thirds of Canadians are open to improving the representation of indigenous people in federal institutions.

They are divided, however, when it comes to how that representation would be achieved.

When asked about hypothetically designating a specific number of seats for indigenous representatives in the House of Commons, Senate or Supreme Court, one-third backed the idea; one-third opposed, and one-third said it “depends” on how it was done or were unsure.

Maryantonett Flumian, president of the Institute on Governance (IOG) , said the nearly 30 per cent who said they could support quotas depending on how they are handled suggests an “openness” among Canadians and a significant shift in attitude.

 “We don’t have comparative data but I … think these numbers represent an evolution in public opinion and in the minds of many Canadians. I would bet that we wouldn’t have had those responses five years ago and that attitudes have evolved that far.”

She also said Canadians seem to recognize that we can’t fix the country’s relationship with indigenous peoples “with good intentions (only) — they have to be in the positions driving it.”

Scott Serson, a former deputy minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, said the survey suggested Canadians are more open today than when a group of seven organizations conducted a major survey of non-aboriginal Canadians in 2014.

That survey was conducted by Environics as a baseline to track changing public attitudes towards reconciliation. It found Canadians increasingly recognize the historic and current challenges indigenous people face, with many indicating support for reconciliation and finding solutions.

“We have always said that First Nations must be at every table where decisions are being made that affect us, including the cabinet table, the boardroom table, the Supreme Court of Canada and beyond,” said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde.

“I am encouraged that many Canadians have confidence in the ability of First Nations leaders, and support the need for us to be fully involved in setting the path forward as partners.”

Emmett Macfarlane, a political scientist at the University of Waterloo, called Canadians’ openness to increased indigenous representation in government a “turning point” in attitudes.

He said the intense media attention around the Truth and Reconciliation Report into the residential school system, coupled with the Idle No More movement and the inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women, have all helped increase Canadians’ knowledge and understanding.

“This is an important development that puts them at the top of mind for non-indigenous people. It’s a bit of a surprise because it’s a departure from historical norms where non-indigenous Canadians have not given a lot of thought to indigenous Canadians.

…According to the survey, 46 per cent of Canadians support more indigenous representation while 16 per cent are opposed. Nearly 30 per cent responded with “depends” how it was done and nine per cent had no opinion.

The level of support, however, divided along East-West lines.

Support to expanding representation was strongest in Eastern and Central Canada, especially in Quebec where 56 per cent said they supported the idea. Opposition was most evident Manitoba and Saskatchewan where 26 per cent were opposed.

The survey asked Canadians who opposed expanding indigenous representation to give reasons for their objections. The most common reason, given by 35 per cent of them, was that all Canadians are equal and no group should be given preferential treatment.

About 10 per cent said indigenous peoples are adequately represented; nine per cent said they were over-represented; nine per cent said they were irresponsible and might abuse the system, and that representation should be based on qualifications not background.

About 28 per cent offered no specific reasons for their objections.

Source: Canadians open to quotas to boost indigenous representation in government | Ottawa Citizen

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Study: The Growing, Disproportionate Number Of Women Of Color In U.S. Jails : NPR

2016/08/20 Leave a comment

In Canada, 15 percent of those admitted to provincial/territorial prisons are women. For Indigenous peoples, the number is 20 percent for federal admissions, 24 percent for provincial/territorial admissions (Indigenous females accounted for a higher proportion of female admissions to provincial/territorial sentenced custody (36%) than did Aboriginal males (25%):

To be sure, the jail population is mostly male. Women represent 15 percent of the jail population in smaller counties, and slightly less in larger counties. But according to the study, the overall population of women in jails has ballooned since the 1970s, from just under 8,000 to nearly 110,000 nationwide in 2014, with low-income women of color disproportionately represented — 64 percent of women in jails across the country are women of color.

And while local jail populations are among the fastest growing correctional populations for both men and women, the U.S. Department of Justice reports that from 2000 to 2010, the female jail population grew at a faster rate than the male population.

….Swavola said existing research does not clearly explain the fast growth of the women’s population in small-county jails, but she pointed out that smaller counties can have fewer resources for social services, mental health resources and employment opportunities. “In those communities, they rely on incarceration to deal with people with mental and behavioral challenges,” says Swavola.

Laurie Garduque, director of Justice Reform for the MacArthur Foundation, which funded the study, says in many places around the country, jails have essentially become warehouses for the poor. Like men, most women in jail ended up there for nonviolent offenses. The study found that in Davidson County, Tennessee, for example, 77 percent of women were booked into jail on misdemeanor charges. The most common charge was failure to appear after receiving a citation.

“Much of the problems that bring women into the criminal justice system…tend to be low-level offenses or nuisance behavior that do not pose a risk to public safety,” says Garduque.

In their analysis, the researchers also found that 32 percent of women in U.S. jails suffer from serious mental illness, including major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Garduque says the trauma of being in jail can make it harder to cope with existing mental health problems. She says police officers, corrections officers and other employees in the criminal justice system need better training on how to interact with people with mental illnesses, and that this new research shows that mental health programs need to be more accessible outside of jail.

“Our aim here is not to improve mental health programs in jails,” says Garduque. “Our aim is to provide those resources on the community-based level to prevent women from penetrating the system.”

What’s more, many women enter the jail system having already experienced significant trauma. “There is a history of physical and domestic abuse for a lot of our moms,” says Samuel Luddington, deputy director of programs at Children of Inmates in Miami, which helps incarcerated parents stay connected with their children. Luddington says the current system wasn’t set up to provide that sort of care.

As for life after jail, re-entry programs that are developed with gender in mind are among the most effective, says Swavola, the co-author of study. For instance, Connecticut tried out a pilot probation program along those lines from 2007 to 2010. The project was based on the Women Offender Case Management Model developed by National Institute of Corrections. It was designed to take into account risk factors that girls and women tend to face at higher rates, such as domestic violence and mental illness. and partner abuse. It also encouraged women to have a voice in their own case management.

A review of women on probation who participated in the Connecticut program found those women were about 11 percent less likely to be arrested again after one year compared to women who did not participate in the program.

Source: Study: The Growing, Disproportionate Number Of Women Of Color In U.S. Jails : Code Switch : NPR

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Teacher lobbying for Ontario schools to eliminate racist team names, mascots

2016/08/18 Leave a comment

Recognition that names and related stereotypes matter:

The Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians and Chicago Blackhawks are just a few of the teams that have come under fire for cultural appropriation south of the border. A Brampton teacher is now leading the charge to try to get rid of racist stereotypes among sports teams closer to home.

Debbie White, who has family ties to Magnetawan First Nation, Henvey Inlet First Nation and Manitoulin Island, said she wants cultural appropriation to stop being promoted in schools through sports team names, logos and mascots, calling it disrespectful.

The resource teacher, who helps students in kindergarten through Grade 5 in the Peel District School Board, is putting forth a motion Wednesday at the Elementary Teachers’ Association of Ontario annual meeting in Toronto. She hopes to get teachers from across the province on board.

“The more that we are vocal and speak out and lobby school boards to address that issue… then that mushrooms out to the community teams. So if it’s in the newspaper that Peel’s changing their (team) names, the community teams are going to start to look at that, and then perhaps in a larger picture, the national teams,” said White.

White’s motion urges ETFO to “lobby all district school boards to stop promoting stereotypical representation of aboriginal people including team names and mascots.” It’s one of 147 motions on the docket and she hopes it makes it to the floor, despite the packed schedule for the four-day conference.

Two schools from her district — Port Credit Secondary School in Mississauga and Chinguacousy Secondary School in Brampton — recently promised changes to their sports teams’ names and logos, after an indigenous advisory committee deemed them disrespectful.

Chinguacousy finalized changes to their team name and logo last week. The team formerly known as the Chiefs is now going by the Timberwolves. The maximum cost of their re-branding effort — which included getting a new logo, jerseys and sports tents for games — was $20,000, said Brian Woodland, a spokesman for the school board.

Port Credit is keeping its team name, the Warriors, but changing its logo — which was similar to the Chicago Blackhawks’ logo — and removing feathers painted on the gym floor. The advisory committee said they were fine with the Warriors’ name, but didn’t approve of the name being paired with designs that included sacred aboriginal symbols, Woodland said.

 Using symbols like headdresses and feathers out of context is troubling, said White.

“It’s about the context and it’s also about (the fact) that it’s not related to the team itself,” she explained. “If I were to look at First Nation teams … they have names that would be considered stereotypical, but it’s relevant or in context to who they are.”

Concerned parent, Brad Gallant, launched a human rights complaint against the City of Mississauga in the spring, over their financial support of sports teams with names and logos he deemed offensive to indigenous people.

There were five teams cited by Gallant: the Mississauga Braves, Mississauga Chiefs, Lorne Park Ojibwa, Meadowvale Mohawks and Mississauga Reps. The Lorne Park Ojibwa have since changed their name to the Lorne Park Wild. Gallant’s case is set to be heard in November.

Gallant, who is Mi’kmaq, welcomed White’s motion to stop schools from promoting racist stereotypes, but he doesn’t think lobbying should be necessary — schools should know to stop appropriating, he said.

Source: Teacher lobbying for Ontario schools to eliminate racist team names, mascots | Toronto Star

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Helping College-Bound Native Americans Beat The Odds : NPR

2016/08/16 Leave a comment

Not as familiar with similar initiatives in Canada as I should be, but university graduation rates for Indigenous peoples in Canada are 13 percent, half of the average rate for all Canadians:

Native American students make up only 1.1 percent of the nation’s high school population. And in college, the number is even smaller. More than any other ethnic or racial group, they’re the least likely to have access to college prep or advanced placement courses. Many get any little or no college counseling at all. In 1998, College Horizons, a small nonprofit based in New Mexico, set out to change that through five-day summer workshops on admissions, financial aid and the unique challenges they’ll face on campus. Its director, Carmen Lopez, sat down with NPR to talk about the obstacles that bright, talented Native students face.
You say there’s an implicit bias among college admissions officials who seldom, if ever, deal with Native American students. Is that why you’ve partnered with 50 top-tier institutions, to “educate them” by inviting them to the student retreats?

Something happens when you’re sitting face to face with a teenage native student and you’re hearing their story.

We give counselors an appreciation for what Native students experience, the inequities they face. Admissions counselors realize, “My gosh, you have only two AP classes you’ve been offered! Your school has never offered any test preparation or you’re not getting any advising!”
After spending time at one of your retreats, I noticed that you repeatedly told students: “You are desirable. Colleges want you. You’re not a number.” But don’t admissions officers rely heavily on GPA, class ranking and standardized test scores?

I want you to want my students because they’re going to contribute to your institution.

A test score, the GPA, the ranking, are things that an admissions officer doesn’t remember. l’m not just looking for a diamond in the rough or the hard-knock life. They’re not always in crisis. They’re doing beautiful, amazing things. And I want colleges to recognize that.

Source: Helping College-Bound Native Americans Beat The Odds : NPR Ed : NPR

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ICYMI: Indigenous people overrepresented in justice system a ‘sad reality’: Jody Wilson-Raybould

2016/08/16 Leave a comment

The numbers are indeed shocking – our equivalent of US incarceration rates for Blacks:

The overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada’s justice system, both as offenders and victims, is a “sad reality,” Attorney General and Justice Minister Wilson-Raybould said in a speech at a Canadian Bar Association conference in Ottawa on Friday.

While Indigenous people in Canada make-up 4.3 per cent of the population, they represent more than 25 per cent of inmates, Wilson-Raybould said of the most recent findings by Canada’s prison watchdog.

“This is totally unacceptable,” she said.

The justice minister also pointed to the following findings:

  • Between 2005 and 2015, the Indigenous inmate population grew by 50 per cent compared to the overall growth rate of 10 per cent.
  • Indigenous women comprise 37 per cent of all women serving a sentence of more than two years.
  • Incarceration rates for Indigenous people in some parts of Canada are up to 33 times higher than for non-Indigenous peoples.

She called the statistics “shocking.”

Source: Indigenous people overrepresented in justice system a ‘sad reality’: Jody Wilson-Raybould – Politics – CBC News

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More indigenous judges needed in lower courts to develop skills for Supreme Court: Beverley Mclachlan interview

2016/08/12 Leave a comment

Valid points and hence the focus should be more on the yet to be formalized new process to appoint federally-appointed judges that better reflect Canada’s diversity, and the actual implementation by the government (for those who missed my analysis of the current baseline, see my Diversity among federal and provincial judges – Policy Options):

Canada’s top judge says the best way to one day see an aboriginal person named to the Supreme Court of Canada is for governments to appoint more indigenous judges to lower courts.

In an exclusive interview with the Star, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said the country’s highest court requires high-level judging and “considerable” judicial experience, and while she welcomes ethnic diversity and more aboriginal judges in the system, she suggested they must work their way up.

She said the challenge for aboriginal aspirants to the high court is the same that women faced three or four decades ago when there were “virtually no women on the bench. And so how did the government go about changing that to the point now where we’re four women on the Supreme Court of Canada? They started appointing people at the trial level.

“But the difficulty we have with racial minorities, indigenous people is that we’re just beginning this process of getting the judges in place on the trial benches and so on.”

The federal government has launched a new judicial selection process, striking an independent advisory board to recommend candidates to fill the top court vacancy announced in March by retiring Justice Thomas Cromwell, of Nova Scotia, who steps down at the end of August.

Trudeau wants the seven-member advisory board to recommend jurists “of the highest calibre” who must be functionally bilingual and “representative of the diversity” of Canada.

The new process has again shone a light on the lack of diversity in Canada’s judicial ranks.

McLachlin was consulted by the government as it devised the new selection process. She will also be consulted by the advisory board as it canvasses for Cromwell’s replacement. She was careful not to express an opinion on the government’s changes, saying reforms to judicial selection for greater transparency have been an ongoing project, and it is up to the government to set its criteria, including the bilingualism requirement. “I’m not about to comment on that because it’s not my business.”

 However, she did endorse the functional bilingualism prerequisite as “desirable” even though she herself was not fully, functionally bilingual when first appointed in 1989 to the Supreme Court of Canada by then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. That came after she actually started working in the law in French, she said.

Most of the judges at the top court are “completely bilingual now and those who might lack something are working very hard to improve their skill and the court works very well this way,” she said.

“Let me put it this way. It’s possible for the court to function without everyone being bilingual. We’ve done it in the past and I think we’ve done our job well. However, I believe that functional bilingualism is very helpful and desirable.”

But the question of diversity on the court is more complicated.

McLachlin pointed to her own experience. She was first appointed to the County Court of Vancouver “where I thought maybe that’s where I’d spend the rest of my days. And then I worked my way up through the trial court and through the court of appeal, and finally to the Supreme Court of Canada.”

Now women make up about 35 per cent of Canadian judges, she said. “We’ve been able to achieve a significant measure of diversity on the gender front and,” she stressed, “have judges who are reflective of this high calibre of judicial experience, intellectual experience and judgment and familiarity with the law and judging. So we’ve been able to have it all.”

McLachlin is encouraged by “a host of very accomplished indigenous lawyers and professors” who she said are the result of proactive programs in law schools and universities and better educational standards. However, she did not suggest any of those are in a position to be vaulted onto the top bench from the bar, as has been the case with some Supreme Court judges in the past: Suzanne Côté, Ian Binnie, John Sopinka.

Asked if there are any current sitting aboriginal judges that could sit on the high court, McLachlin dodged.

“I can’t say; I haven’t done a survey. We’ll see who applies, and what comes of it.”

Source: More indigenous judges needed in lower courts to develop skills for Supreme Court: Beverley McLachlin | Toronto Star

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Taiwan’s President Apologizes to Aborigines for Centuries of Injustice – The New York Times

2016/08/02 Leave a comment

Learn something every day, not aware of this history:

President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan offered a formal apology on Monday to aboriginal peoples for centuries of “pain and mistreatment,” and she promised to take concrete steps to rectify a history of injustice.

In a ceremony at the presidential office in Taipei attended by aboriginal community leaders, she said that although Taiwan had made efforts to end discrimination against hundreds of thousands of indigenous people, a formal apology was now necessary.

“Unless we deny that we are a country of justice, we must face up to this history,” Ms. Tsai said. “We must tell the truth. And then, most importantly, the government must genuinely reflect on this past.”

Taiwan has 540,000 residents who are members of aboriginal groups, or about 2 percent of the population of 23 million. The Council of Indigenous Peoples officially recognizes 16 groups with three — the Amis, Atayal and Paiwan — making up 70 percent of the total indigenous population.

Taiwan’s earliest known residents are believed to have come to the island 6,000 years ago or earlier from Southeast Asia and are part of the Austronesian peoples who range from Madagascar to Polynesia. When Han settlers from mainland China began arriving in the 17th century, indigenous peoples, particularly those on Taiwan’s western plains, faced assimilation, loss of land and outright violence.

Today, indigenous groups face high levels of unemployment, low wages and less access to education and other services.

“Another group of people arrived on these shores, and in the course of history, took everything from the first inhabitants who, on the land they have known most intimately, became displaced, foreign, non-mainstream and marginalized,” Ms. Tsai said.

Capen Nganaen, 80, a representative of the Yami, said he was happy to receive the government’s apology.

“Taiwan has had many presidents during its history, but never before has one been willing to offer an apology to the indigenous peoples,” he said during the ceremony.

Source: Taiwan’s President Apologizes to Aborigines for Centuries of Injustice – The New York Times

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