The Ontario First Nations Health Action Plan

The Ontario First Nation Health Action Plan is a $222 million investment over three years (2016-2019), and a commitment to $104.5 million of ongoing funding afterwards. The action plan focuses on four key areas: Primary care, public health and health promotion, seniors care and hospital services, and life promotion and crisis support.

The majority of this action plan focuses on communities in Northern Ontario, and touches on many of the commitments laid out in The Journey Together. For example, the mental health initiatives laid out in The Journey Together fall under this action plan, as is the expansion of home and community services and increased telemedicine services.

When the plan was announced, Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day said, ““It’s not going to be a uniform rollout — there’s going to be a lot of work that will take place so we’re going to have to figure out where’s the most need.” He went on to say that “today’s investment is a good step forward, but there is a lot of work ahead.” Chiefs of Ontario has been working with the MOHLTC to ensure that the work on implementation has proceeded appropriately.

Grassy Narrows and Islington Indian Bands Mercury Pollution Claims Settlement Act

Background

The Anishinaabe community of Asupeeschoseewagong First Nation (Grassy Narrows) has a registered population of approximately 1,511 members, 951 who live on-reserve. Located along the Wabigoon-English River, this Ojibway First Nation falls under Treaty 3 territory. When Treaty 3 was signed in 1873, it included provisions for community members to hunt, fish and trap on land that now fell under Crown control. Land is an integral component of the Ojibway culture and the treaty allowed for the cycle of seasonal activities and traditional practices to continue on the land, regardless of ownership.

Between 1962 and 1970 a chemical plant operated by Reed Paper Ltd (as part of its pulp and paper operations at Dryden) located approximately 100 km upstream from the reserve, began leaking mercury (a toxic chemical) into the Wabigoon-English River. By 1970 approximately 10 tonnes of mercury had contaminated the river.

Although the plant had stopped using mercury in its processes by 1975, the Wabigoon-English river remained one of the most heavily mercury contaminated waterways in the world. Fish (Walleye, Northern Pike and Lake Whitefish) continued to have extremely elevated mercury levels, even with the passage of time indicating methylmercury was still leeching into the river. Scientific studies have shown that over time mercury concentrations in water species will significantly decline, however in the Wabigoon-English river rates of decline were slowing down and leveling off.

Bill 132: Ontario's Fair Hydro Act, 2017

On June 1, 2017, the Fair Hydro Act came into effect. This was the legislative mechanism that implemented Ontario’s Fair Hydro Plan initiatives. Through this act, the province made good on commitments to reduce electricity costs by 25% for residential customers in Ontario and to tie rate increases to inflation for four years.

Provisions within this act represented a significant achievement for First Nations, particularly in eliminating delivery charges for on-reserve First Nation citizens and developing programs that reflect First Nation treaty rights and the nation-to-nation relationship between the province and First Nations. This Act included provisions for First Nation residential customers to further reduce the burden of rising electricity costs by eliminating delivery charges.

Ontario's Blueprint for Building a New System of Licensed Residential Services

“The overrepresentation of young Aboriginal people in residential care and limited access to appropriate services are pressing issues. While Aboriginal organizations, service providers and the Ministry are involved in a number of initiatives to address these issues, we were very concerned by the persistence of the issues that were raised about the experiences of young Aboriginal people placed far from home, community and culture.” – Because Young People Matter, February 2016, p. 74

On July 19, 2017, Ontario released their multi-year plan to strengthen and reform licensed residential services by seeking to improve the quality of care, enhance the oversight of services and ensure that children and youth have a voice in helping plan their care (by 2025). All of the reform activities outlined in this Blueprint (a three-pillar strategy) will impact First Nations, Métis and Inuit children and youth that are in care of a provincially licensed residential facility.

The impact that this blueprint will have on Indigenous communities was central to the strategy itself – which is why the Ontario Indigenous Child and Youth Strategy (OICYS) served as the foundation for co-developing services and supports. The OICYS is a short vision document, and this blueprint represents an exercise of the principles contained within it. The document asserts that this will allow for First Nations to co-develop Indigenous-specific and culturally appropriate strategies and approaches to better serve our children and youth. Furthermore, one of the guiding principles for reform is “Respect for the knowledge, customs and rights of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and urban Indigenous communities”

C-318: Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day Act

The Indian Residential School and Memorial Day Act is a simple piece of legislation which proposes to set aside June 2 as "Indian Residential School and Memorial Day." The Preamble to the Bill explains its purpose is "provide an opportunity to focus on understanding and reconciliation." The date of June 2nd was chosen to commemorate the release of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This Bill would not create a new national holiday. C-118 was introduced as a Private Members Bill on October 26, 2016 by MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette (Winnipeg Centre), and has passed first reading.

While this bill would be symbolically valuable. Mr. Ouellette said when introducing this Bill, "I ask Parliament to support this legislation and work together, as a nation and a country, toward the revitalization of indigenous communities and to affirm the treaty relationship between Canadians and indigenous peoples."

OCAP - First Nations Governance Centre

Data collection is an important mechanism for many private and public organizations to achieve their goals. Historically, research involving First Nations communities was done to them, not with them. Consequently, the research results were never returned to communities and only benefited those collecting the data.

Currently there is no law or concept in Western ways of thinking that recognizes community rights and in their interests in information collection. The principles of OCAP were developed to ensure that First Nations own their information and the way the data is used reflects the cultural value of using and sharing in a way that maximizes the benefit and minimizes harm to a community.

The acronym OCAP stands for Ownership, Control, Access and Possession and is the de facto set of standards that govern how First Nations data should be collected, protected, used and/or shared. 

UNDRIP - United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) outlines the fundamental rights that Indigenous peoples hold. While the Working Group on Indigenous Populations was mandated to set minimum standards to protect Indigenous peoples in 1982, UNDRIP was only adopted on September 13, 2007 after years of development and revision.

Importantly, the final vote at the UN on UNDRIP included opposition from the four settler states (Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia). Special Chiefs Assembly Resolution 09/38 called for Canada to ratify UNDRIP. - Canada  did reverse their position in 2010, officially endorsing UNDRIP, but in a limited capacity; it was defined as an "aspirational document" by the Governor General in the Speech from the Throne. This  removed any prosecutorial or judicial powers within UNDRIP. 

Still, UNDRIP is a recognized piece of international law that has been used as a tool in negotiations with the Canadian government. While the federal commitment is lukewarm, there have been initiatives that have pushed the government to honour the commitments required under UNDRIP. This is why so many of the Chiefs in Assembly resolutions include explicit references to UNDRIP.

Ontario's Approach to Federal Cannabis Legalization

Background
On April 13th, 2017, the federal government introduced Bill C-45, or the Cannabis Act, which is new legislation that will establish the legislative framework for cannabis, identifying permitted and prohibited activities. Generally speaking, the federal framework is less extensive than that of alcohol and more extensive than tobacco while maintaining its criminal law effectiveness (see figure 1). The Government of Canada's goal is to keep cannabis out of the hands of Canadian youth, and to prevent organized crime from continuing to profit from the illegal cannabis market. Canadians continue to use cannabis at some of the highest rates in the world. In 2015, 21% of youth and 30% of young adults reported using cannabis within the last year [1]. A baseline study still needs to be established in order to better capture how prevalent cannabis use is among youth and at-risk people in First Nation communities. The concern of abiding to OCAP principles during such data collection have been raised.

Segregation in Ontario

"Prisons and jails have rules about everything. There are rules governing every moment a person spends in custody and every movement that person makes. There are rules about everything staff does as well. In spite of this, and with apologies to Justice Louise Arbour, although rules are everywhere, the rule of law is too often absent." – Howard Sapers, the Independent Review of Ontario Corrections

“This is a glaring example of a broken system.” – ORC Isadore Day, on Adam Capay’s solitary confinement

Background

The correctional system in Ontario, more specifically the use of segregation in prisons, is currently in a state of crisis. In the past twelve months there have been several high-profile events that drew attention to the flawed use of segregation in Ontario, and indeed across Canada. The Ontario Human Rights Commission called for an end to the use of solitary confinement in Ontario. In November 2016, McLean’s published a story on Adam Capay’s case, where a young man from Lac Seul First Nation had served 1,560 days in segregation, using his story to shine a light on the practices of segregation in the province. The resulting public uproar coincided with an internal review of the provincial use of segregation in prisons.

The Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) has in response appointed Howard Sapers to conduct a review of the use of segregation in Ontario prisons as stage one of a three phase reform plan.[1] Sapers has worked in the field of corrections for over 40 years, and has served as the Correctional Investigator at the federal level. He argued that overuse of segregation is symptomatic of wider systematic issues to be addressed in the second report. This report on segregation was done on a quick timeline so that it could quickly respond to these concerns. Sapers had 60 days to complete his report, which was released in March 2017. This was a remarkably fast timeline.

Bill S-212: Language Revitalization and Preservation

The preservation of Indigenous languages is fundamental to protecting Indigenous culture. As far back in 1986 COO resolved to “reverse the degradation” of Indigenous languages because “the preservation of aboriginal languages is synonymous with the preservation of First Nations’ culture and the security of First Nations governments.” (Resolution 86/23) This commitment was once again reiterated in the 2017 AOCC with resolution 40/17 (First Nations’ Ownership and Control of First Nation Languages).

More recently as a result of advocacy done by COO, the PTOs, and others, the federal and provincial governments have initiated First Nations language preservation strategies.

Bill S-212 and Language Policies

In December of 2016 the Prime Minister announced that the Government of Canada will jointly develop legislation (Bill S-212) for the revitalization and recovery of Indigenous languages. This Bill is currently at second reading in the Senate. The goal of the act is to advance the Indigenous languages of Canada, and recognize Indigenous Peoples right to use, preserve, revitalize and promote their languages. The department of Canadian Heritage confirmed that the federal government intends to table the draft legislation in the spring of 2018.

There is also funding available for Indigenous language revitalization at the Federal level through the Aboriginal Language Initiative. The purpose of this program is to preserve and revitalize Indigenous languages through community-based projects and activities.

National Indigenous Peoples Day

National Indigenous Peoples Day is a day for all Canadians to celebrate and acknowledge the distinct heritage, language, cultural practices, spiritual beliefs and valuable contributions of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.

Created in 1996 through the Proclamation Declaring June 21 of Each Year as Aboriginal Day, the day came about after consultations and statements of support from;

• The Sacred Assembly, a national conference of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people chaired by Elijah Harper, called for a national holiday to celebrate the contributions of Indigenous People
• The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples recommended the designation of a National First Peoples Day
• The National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) called for the creation of National Aboriginal Solidarity Day

June 21, the summer solstice, was designated as the office date. The reasoning behind this was that many Indigenous Nations traditionally celebrated their culture and heritage on or around the longest day of the year. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau renamed the day National Indigenous Peoples Day.

There have been arguments made that National Indigenous Peoples Day should be a statutory holiday, as taking this step would send a message of national respect and action. To date only the Northwest Territories have made this a national and regional holiday. This day is important as a tool to educate non-Indigenous Canadians about Indigenous Peoples' cultures and histories.

Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day recently made a statement supporting National Indigenous Peoples Day, and views it as an opportunity to educate Canadians on First Nations culture.