Multiple Placements Seldom Represent an Ideal Life Plan for Youths

Despite the fact that the Youth Directorate asked a task force in 1995 to look into different aspects of the problem for children at risk of neglect or neglect, we have had to realize for several years that this did not happen to them. not allowed to claim to develop a plan of life not only permanent but satisfactory for these children.

Good health for Inuit women means addressing poverty and financial insecurity

This is not meant to challenge anyone. It is important that you hear that the Inuit are hurting and I ask you politely to hear me out.

Perhaps, the people of the North haven’t always been listened to like they should because they do not talk like us or think like us and they do not act like us when pushed against a wall, and so, they have not been heard. They are so far away and there is little information trickling south about them.

The plight of the Northern people is easy to dismiss because we don’t see them and like someone pointed out, the information is skewed.

The power to make a difference, but what about political will?

In 1997, the Human Rights and Youth Commission, alerted by the lack of services available to children in need of protection, concluded a five-year-long investigation by pointing out that overcrowded housing in Nunavik posed a very serious threat to the development and well-being of children. This issue, the lack of housing in Nunavik, has been dragging on for years.

The present situation looks the same 

Ten years later, between 2007 and 2010, the situation is similar. There, families and social workers are struggling with the placement of children because available families are often far away from the communities. As Nunavik is a gigantic territory, these communities are often thousands of kilometres apart.

Relative homelessness refers to people living in spaces that do not respond to basic health

In Inuit culture, elders are custodians of a millennial wisdom and knowledge. Only they can transmit the wealth of traditional Inuit culture to future generations. Nevertheless, an element of continuity is necessary to maintain the fundamental values, traditions, language, and resources that characterize Inuit culture. To this end, all of the regional Inuit communities are linked to the larger Inuit community of Canada.

Restoring at risk communities-doing it together in the pursuit of social justice

The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, M.D., P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs says it very well: ‘’Children are our future, and to give them the best possible start in life, we must collectively move from an intervention-based approach of apprehension and protection to prevention-based approaches to community, families and children's rights and well-being. There needs to be better access to mental health services, children need to be protected from sexual exploitation and children’s rights need better protection.

Working in genuine partnership with First Nations is critical to developing community-led solutions for reform that will reduce the number of children in care and result in better health, education and economic outcomes.”

Overcrowded housing of the most northern communities contributes to the maintenance and rise of social problems

The purpose of the project No Child Should Take the Long Way Home in its final objective is to empower mothers in Nunavik communities in Quebec, Canada to become safer, to be aware of their legal rights, and families to understand the risk factors leading to the removal of their children. Safety standards for women and for children must be designed in services offered to the population of isolated communities.

Overcrowded housing in northern communities contributes to the maintenance and rise of social problems and largely affects safety issues in Nunavik and Nunavut's women and children.

Mothers should have a safe place to go to with their children

In April 2016, I embarked on an 8,000-kilometer walk across Canada to:
1- Raise Canadians' awareness of the reality of Inuit women and children in Nunavik, Quebec;
2- Raise funds to build a safe house for the children of a Nunavik village in northern Quebec.

To date, I have covered five thousand five-hundred and eighty-two kilometres in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, parts of Ontario and Quebec.

No Child Should Take the Long Way Home is seeking solutions to counter the number of placements Inuit children are subjected to and to help the mothers recover their children. On September 26th, I had covered 5582 kilometres. The next lap from Rossport, Ontario (2418) should bring me to the end of the 8000-kilometre journey.

Differences and similarities between First Nations and Inuit of Canada.

A few weeks ago, I was asked about the differences and similarities between First Nations and Inuit of Canada.

Faced with a daunting list of seemingly unrelated similarities and differences between First Nations and Inuit people, one may feel confused about them.

So, I propose to look at some of the main differences while exposing some of their similarities.

The perspective of potentially ruining a child’s outcomes claims my commitment

The point I want to make here is that the perspective of potentially ruining a child’s outcomes claimed my commitment when I was working up North in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada.

It was the hardest work I have ever had to do and you have to have done it to say something like: "On Monday mornings, I put myself in button-responsive mode and I will reflect on what I have done when I leave here for good" (my co-worker's words to me when I complained about never being allowed by supervisor to think things through for the best of the people and the children). No Child Should Take the Long Way Home aims to reduce the number of placements children have to face in Nunavik.

The assumption that Indigenous people can move on shines light on our heartlessness

Before anyone judges the Inuit of Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, it is important to understand the history behind the issues. We must remember that, as North Americans, our collective ancestry decimated their populations with violence and new diseases.

The turmoil and anguish they had to go through are evident. Yet, they are still not provided the same opportunities we have even though they were "Canadian" even before we were.

Self-perpetuating systems ensure the failure of families

On Thanksgiving, there were more Indigenous children in Canada sitting at stranger's tables timidly eating someone's turkey instead of sharing a special time with their own family, be they aunties, uncles and/or grandparents. Canada’s colonial practice of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families did not end with the closing of Indian residential schools. It continues today in the form of provincial and territorial child welfare systems, which remove Indigenous children and youth at alarmingly high rates.

No Child Should Take the Long Way Home seeks solutions that have been tried by other Canadians to keep apprehended children close to their communities as an alternative to flying them out thousands of kilometers away.

The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, M.D., P.C., M.P., Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs says it very well:  ''Children are our future, and to give them the best possible start in life, we must collectively move from an intervention-based approach of apprehension and protection to prevention-based approaches to community, families and children's rights and well-being. Working in genuine partnership with First Nations is critical to developing community-led solutions for reform that will reduce the number of children in care and result in better health, education and economic outcomes.''

Children are issues of concern for all citizens of Canada

Why are there still more First Nations children in care right now than at the height of the residential school system?

Instead of being at home with their parents, brothers, and sisters, tens of thousands of First Nations children are in foster care, staying with distant relatives or living in institutions.

The outcome of intercultural placement carries the seeds of alienation from self

Policies and practices reflect longstanding and deeply embedded mother-blaming culture and father invisibility ideologies that shape child protection systems. With regard to children in this year of reconciliation, one has to believe another solution is possible, that whatever solution brought about does not stem from ideology, that big changes are going to happen in this lifetime. Children need to be safe, but they also need to be among their people.

Everything is changing-the future needs re-arranging

Transcultural placements of Inuit children are more complex than what seems to meet the eye. Children are often placed in non-Inuit families for years and sometimes never return home.

Policies and practices reflect longstanding and deeply embedded mother-blaming culture and father invisibility ideologies that shape child protection systems. This misuse of power attests to our colonization past when it comes to this isolated population.

Moving Together to Have the Stories of the Inuit Heard

When you want to understand people, the best way to do it is to ask for their stories. When ordinary people can find safe places where they can tell their own stories, they want to know that their voices are heard. My walk of 8000 kilometers across Canada is a wonderful tool for CONNECTION. It is also about connecting people. Events happen. I meet many new people and we share.

A need to focus on girls’ voices, concerns and realities

Violence is a reality for many girls in Canada. There is a need to focus on girls’ voices, concerns, and realities. Physical abuse against children is rarely publicized since they do not have a VOICE.

For example, when an Inuit girl child showed me the marks of physical abuse, I was told not to vent it out it, otherwise, her family would know we were after them and might beat her worse. For men, it is often their inability to provide their families with basic needs and their demands for certain foods, clothes, etc. For women, it is the burden of responsibilities at home and the lack of space and support.

My knowledge keeps me on the path

As you can tell, I will never be Inuit. But when I worked among them, I learned a lot from them.

Unfortunately, in line of my work in protection, I was confronted with a structure that had too much red tape bringing with it many walls for the Inuit women and so much oversight that women did not get the benefits of justice.

Walking bends your mind

My plan is to continue walking from West toward Victoria County, NB. I started in April 2016 to share my Nunavik experience with Canadians and raise money for a safe house-haven for children to remain in their Northern communities.

The spiritual meaning of truth and reconciliation for the tribes

I’m waiting to get walking again. Some people react to the fact that I’m not walking constantly. I get questions like “Aren’t you going to be late in your walk of 8000 kilometers"? What is your agenda? If you’re not walking, what is the sense"?

Major stresses in the Northern households are responsible for social problems

Although dozens of isolated indigenous communities in Canada have recently declared states of emergency due to suicide epidemics, unclean water, and a lack of adequate infrastructure, there is not yet into a common commitment to further the voice, the rights, and dignity of children.