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Child sex abuse allegations highlight need for immediate help on reserve: NDP

Nov 15, 2016 | 2:45 PM

OTTAWA — The issue of sexual abuse in indigenous communities, documented during an investigation by The Canadian Press, was raised in the House of Commons on Tuesday, where the federal government faced pressure to commit $155 million more to improve child and family services for children on reserves.

A number of leading experts including researchers, former Truth and Reconciliation chairman Sen. Murray Sinclair and the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations have flagged the issue of sexual abuse and incest in some indigenous communities.

There is no way to protect vulnerable children without appropriate resources, NDP indigenous affairs critic Charlie Angus said Tuesday, noting discriminatory underfunding practices by the federal government were confirmed last January by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

Two compliance orders from the tribunal have been issued following its original findings.

“We have communities that are struggling with serious allegations of sexual abuse,” Angus said. “This is money that is urgently needed.”

“The tribunal made a very clear statement that what is happening to these kids today is an echo of the residential school impacts,” said First Nations child advocate Cindy Blackstock.

Blackstock, who has spent more than nine years advocating for improved child welfare services, said dollars are needed to ensure sexual abuse does not happen and to respond to it when it does.

A motion put forward by Angus in late October on child welfare services for reserve children called for an immediate injection of $155 million and a long-term fiscal plan.

Children are waiting for the government to act, Angus said, adding the prime minister’s own credibility is on the line.

“Is he going to flow that money or is this just going to be another, in a long line of broken promises, to indigenous kids in Canada?” he said.

For its part, the federal government argues a phased-in approach for spending is necessary while it overhauls a broken system.

It earmarked $71 million in the last budget for “immediate relief” and appointed a special ministerial representative — a 2011 Liberal candidate and Lakehead University professor — to advise the government as it works with provinces, territories and child welfare agencies to reform the system.

“We take the tribunal’s ruling very seriously and we took the vote in the House of Commons very seriously,” Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said during question period on Tuesday.

The issue of sexual abuse is also very serious, she added.

“It is going to be increasingly important that we talk openly about this and have First Nations leadership deal with this in a way that we can share this and deal with the 80 per cent of addictions, 80 per cent of incarceration attributed to child abuse,” Bennett said. “This has to stop now.”

—Follow @kkirkup on Twitter

 

Kristy Kirkup, The Canadian Press