Tragedy and triumph: a rollercoaster ride of emotion [editorial]

It’s been weeks of extreme highs and extreme lows in our greater community this month. There was a feeling of triumph when the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal acknowledged the inequities of the federally-run First Nations child and family services program across the country.

The Tribunal finally, after a ridiculously long wait, revealed on Jan. 26 that, yes, First Nations children in care—kids from ages 0 to 19—were discriminated against by governments that took them from their homes, communities and families on reserve in order to protect them, but then decided they weren’t worth as much as other kids in similar circumstance living off reserve.

Canadian governments, we remind you—not just the beastly, pinched and miserly Harper government, but the Liberal and other Conservative governments in the past as well— in prosperous times and lean, knowingly and willfully over decades decided to underfund the care of vulnerable little kids, depriving them of necessities, purposely, while they were in the government’s care.

Canada had full understanding and knowledge of this discriminatory practice. It knowingly perpetuated the separation of children and families through legislation and policy. And then under Harper, Canada fought, bullied and sought to undermine the full disclosure of it.

The Tribunal also found that, despite passing Jordan’s Principle unanimously in the House of Commons in 2007, Canada has narrowly applied it, leaving children in need of medical care and services to suffer until wrangling over who would pay was hashed out.

Jordan’s Principle is named for a child, who spent more than two years unnecessarily in hospital, while Manitoba and Canada fought over who would pick up the tab for his home care. Jordan died in hospital at the age of five, never having spent a day in a family home.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has finally called on Canada to end their discriminatory ways.

It was a few days earlier that we felt a great collective low. On Jan. 22, a 17-year-old in La Loche, Sask. made the decision to unleash, through deadly violence, whatever pain and anger he was feeling on his friends, a school full of kids and their educators.

Nothing is so difficult to make sense of than an act such as this. It is particularly painful when such violence occurs against young adults, full of talent and promise, and incomprehensible when it occurs to innocent children and youth.

Most of us understand, however, that there is more to learn before we fully grasp the circumstances that led to the shootings in La Loche. Not just the motivation and mental health of the young shooter, but the disheartening rates of suicide, alcohol and drug addiction, unemployment, poverty and other distresses that are the underpinnings of the community in which he lived.

Most of us understand that this situation is going to have multiple layers of complexity. Journalists know it, as they’ve been pulling at these strings since the tragedy occurred at La Loche.

Most Indigenous leaders know full well the troubles that burden our remote and rural communities, largely ignored by governments who find their votes in urban centres. And we whisper at the news from La Loche with, ‘there but for the grace of Creator go we.’

Most of us would know better than to characterize this incident in any other terms than complicated. So, when we read the knee-jerk statement from one provincial leader, we took considerable offence. She chimed in just hours after the La Loche shootings, and in the most shallow, most intellectually bereft way.

Premier Christy Clark—who is intent on flooding the Peace River Valley for a dam to produce electricity that nobody needs, is intent on building a LNG terminal on sensitive salmon habitat, who strategized to  build “political capital in ethnic communities by taking what will be perceived as thoughtful and caring actions” including apologizing for past wrongs to get votes, whose government unjustly fired eight health ministry researchers, one of whom committed suicide in the aftermath—told us through a press release that

“… there is no comprehending the evil that would drive anyone to harm a child.”

Evil. Evil.

Within hours of the shooting, the premier of a province, who is expected to think deeply about highly complex matters, could only see the La Loche situation in the simplest, starkest terms. She had decided that a boy of 17, who she knew nothing about, whose situation she knew nothing about, was driven to act by profound wickedness and immorality.

No. We won’t let that comment stand. It lacks the dignity and critical thinking that we expect from people who occupy the province’s top job.

The boy will be judged, but that’s not our job, and it’s certainly not the job of the premier of B.C. without any facts before her, without any understanding of the situation on the ground, without a full and proper hearing.

“… there is no comprehending the evil that would drive anyone to harm a child.”

We didn’t, by the way, receive a press statement from Clark on the ‘evil’ done to 163,000 First Nations children in care who have been purposely, and with intent over decades, harmed by the discrimination of the federal government.