Harper’s disregard for aboriginal health
by André Picard
The Globe and Mail
April 9, 2012
When governments make a decision that is stupid,
embarrassing, overly partisan, or risks causing an outcry, they tend to do so
late in the day and late in the week, preferably on the eve of a holiday long weekend,
when citizens — and journalists — aren’t paying much attention.
So, late Thursday, the government of Stephen Harper dropped
this bombshell, as related in a brief announcement posted on the web site of
the National Aboriginal Health Organization: “NAHO funding has been cut by
Health Canada.
It is with sadness that NAHO will wind down by June 30, 2012.”
This travesty of public policy only came to light because of
feisty publications like Windspeaker and Nunatsiaq News.
Founded in 2000, NAHO oversaw many research and outreach
programs, in crucial fields such as suicide prevention, tobacco cessation,
housing and midwifery. It collected an invaluable series of audio and video interviews
with elders recounting traditional tales and knowledge. The group also
published the Journal of Aboriginal Health and was home to one of the best
collections of aboriginal health research in the world.
There are many political and policy differences among
aboriginal groups, but NAHO managed to bring them together at one table, with a
common purpose, improving the health of the unhealthiest, most disenfranchised
people in the country. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but it was an
achievement in itself.
We are destroying this asset for what reason exactly? To
save a few bucks?
NAHO received $4,955,865 from Health Canada
last year.
In the world of $25-billion (and counting) fighter jet
contracts, that’s a pittance.
And what does it say about the federal government’s
priorities?
If you want to trim the Health Canada budget – and the plan
is to shed $200-million – then trim some bureaucratic fat at the Tunney’s
Pasture headquarters – don’t cut grants to groups that actually do useful things.
If we want to fight a war, why not a war on poverty and
health disparity in aboriginal communities?
The abysmal health status of First Nations, Inuit and Métis
peoples is Canada’s
greatest shame.
Taking an ax to an organization that highlights these health
issues — and, better still, pursues solutions — is not going to make these problems
go away. It is merely going to sweep them under the carpet, where they have
been for far too long.
One cannot help but see this as part of the continuing
attack this government has waged on information, particularly information that casts
the government in a bad light.
Here’s the kind of information we need to know about the
health status of Canada’s
1.2 million aboriginal people, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us:
Life expectancy: Aboriginals can expect to live, on average,
a decade less than other Canadians;
Disability: Native people have higher rates of disability
and live, on average, about 12 more years with a disability;
Infant mortality: Aboriginal children die at three times the
rate of non-aboriginal kids, and are more likely to be born with severe birth defects
and debilitating conditions such as fetal alcohol syndrome;
Injuries: Members of First Nations and Inuit communities
suffer traumatic injuries at four times the rate of the general population;
Suicide: The rate is six times higher;
Chronic disease: Natives have three times the rate of
diabetes; suffer more heart disease and at a younger age;
Infectious disease: Tuberculosis rates are 16 times higher
in first nations than in the rest of Canada;
HIV-AIDS rates are growing fastest in the native population; medieval
water-borne illnesses like dysentery and shigellosis are still commonplace in
native communities;
The unemployment and poverty rates are five times those in
the non-aboriginal community;
Education: Only 4 per cent of natives have a university
education, one-quarter the rate in mainstream society. One-third of aboriginal people
do not graduate high school, three times the rate for non-aboriginals;
Housing: More than one-third of First Nations people have,
in government jargon, a “core housing need,” meaning their homes do not meet
the most basic standard of acceptability;
Infrastructure: Overcrowded houses, lack of running water
and inadequate sewage are the norm in many native communities;
Environment: The contaminants that stalk some communities
are frightening: Mercury, PCBs, toxaphene and pesticide levels are all higher
in the bodies of aboriginals than non-aboriginals.
NAHO’s role is the “advancement and promotion of health and
well-being of all First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals, families and communities.
Clearly, NAHO’s work — “the advancement and promotion of
health and well-being of all First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals,
families and communities” — is not done; heck, it has barely begun.
There’s a disturbing pattern here. The government has also
cut funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. And the First Nations and
Inuit Health branch at Health Canada
oversees what is without question the worst health system in Canada,
making every effort to slough the responsibility off onto the provinces and
territories.
Jack Hicks, an Iqaluit-based suicide researcher summed it up
this way: “The Conservatives want out of the aboriginal business.” Who can forget
the historic apology proffered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to survivors of
the residential schools? But words are not enough, and a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission is not enough.
Concrete actions need to be taken to help the 150,000 Inuit,
Métis and First Nations children who were forcibly separated from their families,
but action must be taken too in their broader communities, where another
million or so aboriginal people, who did not go to residential school, also
need help.
The healing process may take generations, true
reconciliation even longer. But the ultimate goal must be healthy communities.
Closing the gap will not be easy, or quick. But it starts
with small steps, the kind that can be found every day in the contributions of groups
like NAHO.
Those footsteps of progress should not be silenced.
——-
Health Canada
should not have closed National Aboriginal Health Organization
editorial
The Globe and Mail
April 9, 2012
By almost every indicator, Canada’s
aboriginals are facing a public health crisis. They have abnormally high rates
of diabetes, infant mortality, teen pregnancy and tuberculosis at a time when
they are also the fastest-growing segment of the population. The suicide rate in Nunavut is 12 times higher the
national one. And research in the area of aboriginal health is still in its
infancy.
That is why closing down the National Aboriginal Health
Organization (NAHO) is a serious misstep. Its paltry $5-million-a-year budget
is a small saving for Health Canada.
If the government has a better idea about how to more effectively, and
economically, address the critical health disparities that First Nations, Inuit
and Métis people face, it should certainly make these ideas public.
In the meantime, however, NAHO has played a crucial role in
advancing research on aboriginal health, collecting and analyzing data, and leading
community initiatives, such as programs to help people quit smoking, prevent
suicide and avoid teen pregnancy. It has produced 12 issues of the Journal of
Aboriginal Health, and had already put out requests for research papers for
this fall’s edition, to be devoted to “Inuit health and wellness in its
broadest sense.”
Aboriginals face unique challenges that seriously impact
their health, including a traumatic history of family separation and
residential schooling; inadequate housing; difficulty accessing clean water and
food; high rates of alcoholism and unemployment; poverty; and exposure to
environmental contaminants.
One would imagine that the federal Health Minister, Leona
Aglukkaq, herself an Inuk and Nunavut’s
MP, would be perfectly positioned to recognize the severity of these problems.
Instead, in a cruel irony, she has been unwilling to protect the only research
organization of its kind dedicated to improving health outcomes for
Aboriginals. The closure of NAHO will reverse a decade of progress, and leave a
gaping hole for those who are most in need.
