(The following article is from the May 16-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, May 16-31, 2008

As preparations gear up for the Aboriginal National Day of Action on May 29, the advocacy group Campaign 2000 says that First Nations children suffer the greatest levels of poverty of all children in Canada. According to Statistics Canada, one in four Aboriginal children lives in poverty, but the actual figure would undoubtedly be much higher using a more inclusive definition.

     Campaign 2000 also reports that one aboriginal child in eight is disabled, double the rate of all children in Canada. Among First Nations children, 43 per cent lack basic dental care. Overcrowding among Aboriginal families is double the rate of that for all Canadian families, and mould contaminates almost half of all First Nations households. Almost half of Aboriginal children under 15 years old residing in urban areas live with a single parent. Close to 100 First Nations communities must boil their water. Of all off-reserve aboriginal children, 40 per cent live in poverty. The highest Aboriginal child poverty rates occur in B.C. (23.5 per cent) and Newfoundland and Labrador (23.1 per cent).

     Decade after decade, these appalling numbers rarely shift. But instead of taking decisive measures to improve living conditions, the Harper government scrapped even the Kelowna Accord's limited fiscal supports, and rejected the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Instead, the Tories and their police agencies are criminalizing Aboriginal youth, claiming that opposition to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is driven by "Native terrorists." In Ontario, the KI Six remain in jail for the "crime" of opposing corporate exploitation of their traditional territories.

     Those who refuse to accept injustice and oppression are not "terrorists" or "criminals." The real criminals are the corporations and governments which profit by the theft of Aboriginal lands while children live in desperate poverty.