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.

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.

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"?

The story from here-THE CHILDREN NEED A VOICE

If there is one justice in this world, my project qualifies as one seeking justice. It has everything to do with life and about making sure we bring to others a strong sense of justice and the power of faith to achieve it.

First Nations and Inuit children are made more vulnerable by the impact of many placements

The welfare of children is a responsibility shared by the entire society, but because of their vulnerability and dependence, some children suffer from poverty, abuse, injustice and inequality of access to protection.