Interesting passage from a Globe story:
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/courts-falling-short-on-effort-to-keep-natives-out-of-jail/article1412973/?service=mobile
Statistics tell a dismal story. Aboriginals amount to fewer than 4 per cent of the Canadian population, yet accounted for 24 per cent of those admitted to provincial or federal custody in 2006-2007 – up from 21 per cent the previous year. In Ontario, twice as many aboriginal youth are being jailed as non-aboriginal youth who commit the same offence.
5 comments:
How is this surprising, exactly? The government does everything in its power to keep aboriginals in reservations or in jail.
Anon, you have things a bit backwards. Its the Native band councils and leadership who do everything in their power to keep the Reserve system going. Any attempt or mention of abolishing them is met with cries of "racism, assimilation!" As for the aboriginals in jail, the government never forced them to commit crimes. However, I guess it is more fashionable among the left to blame it all on "the white man" than to actually address the real problems.
Tory,
I agree that each individual makes a choice and to say aboriginals don't make a choice is to belittle them; that said, there is a real issue about incarceration and crime rate. What is happening in First Nations is not good and the system itself has to change. How I am not qualified to say; but I know a trainwreck when I see it... .
This is a complex matter. I have a hard time seeing how the amount of money they get - in billions - seems never to make it to ALL members of a "tribe". Tory is right in many instances and the real problems are not addressed.
I did a show on a reserve and the store keeper said that the number one problem is that they get money at the end of the month and never have to work for it. If something is broken, white man will fix it.
Education is the only way the situation will be fixed. Learning how to budget would be a good start and then self-respect. First for themselves then for others. I have been on some reserves where the natives are very well off and about an hour away there is poverty. " Its the Native band councils and leadership who do everything in their power to keep the Reserve system going. Any attempt or mention of abolishing them is met with cries of "racism, assimilation!" Sad to say, this seems very true, yet they refuse to open their books. Either somebody is skimming money off the top before it even gets to them, or the band leadership pockets the money. With the trillions they got over the years there should be no problem and they should be living better than all Canadians. Education (university/colleges) is free; health care is free; housing is free; legal help is free etc.
The children are the ones I worry about. They are like every other child, they dream to be better, they try to do better, they want to do something with their lives, yet money does not seem to be the answer.
I wish I knew the answer.
I think there's a saying that goes "The fastest way to kill a man is to pay him to do nothing."
The problem with the argument of personal choice is that it assumes that circumstances allow for multiple equally valid choices. If 4% of the population makes up 24% of the prison population, personal choice is no longer a factor. There must be something about the way the system is set up that makes crime look like a more valid choice than the other options.
If you look at a marginally simpler problem like drug addiction in homeless people, the three options available come down to 1) go to rehab, 2) beg for money to pay for drugs, 3) steal or 4) go into prostitution. Because of the way the system is set up, rehab is often seen as less viable, so people turn to one of the other three.
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