First Nations Child Welfare Agreement review – Ontario

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First Nations Child Welfare Agreement review – Ontario
Name: Trisha Chandratilleke
Student Number: 0581649
TA: Tia Cavanagh
Course: INDG – 1002H
February 28, 2018
Introduction
Relative to the national Canadian census that was conducted in the year 2016, the population of the Iindigenous children is at 7.7%. This is the population of children that are between the ages 0 and 14 years of age within Canada (Government of Canada). However it is estimated that over 52.2% of the children are being brought up in foster care homes. Ironically aA good majority have been registered as Status Indians and they are at an estimated 69.1% (Government of Canada). There are discriminatory approaches that are embedded in the law and the foster care system, and one has to only look at the subtle processes. This is best expressed in the First Nation Child Welfare, where children are taken away from their families ("The Aboriginal Advisor's Report on the Status of Aboriginal Child Welfare in Ontario"). The irony of it all lies in the fact that the interestsinterests’ ideology of the welfare system serves in a way to show that, the processes are directed at making sure the level of apprehension for Ffirst Nnation children and their families is not reflected as a coercive and destructive process (Kline, pg. 388). It is shown as a rather, as legitimate, necessary and natural to have the children placed away from their families (Legislative Assembly of Ontario). The legal processes that guide these are indicated as neutral and universal and directed at protecting the interest of the Ffirst Nnation children (Bennett, and Zimmer). What is more astonishing is the level of difficulty of for beating the system (elaborate here- who is beating the system?). As such, it is crucial for the Ffirst Nnation children and adults to be empowered to form their own welfare services outside of the existing framework (Kline).
HistoryYesterday
In the very first attemptsThe first flaws in the system led to at separating the children of the first nationFirst Nationindigenous Children from their families, this was coated marketed as assimilation attempts, where the aboriginals Indigenous were being integrated into the Anglo European culture. In effort to show the element of solidarity, an Act was enacted coined the Indian Act of 1867 of 1920, A10. This would see all the children between the ages of seven to fifteen attend school, provided they were physically able. The Act also gave the enforcing officers the right to enter any premises they felt or had information could be harboring Indian children that meet the standards. Then came the 1951 Section 88 t the Indian Act. This is an Act that made it possible for the enforcement at the provincial levels for the children that were living in the reserves (Statistics Canada). Ideally tThis was an approach that would see enforce the children taken away from the families and placed in care centers. It was then Iin the year 1965, when the Indian Welfare Agreement was signed by INAC, coined called, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (Kline, pg. 383). It was not until the 1970s that the aboriginals Indigenous peoples started to formally complain of the provincially ran welfare services citin...