Monday, November 23, 2009

I just don't get it

I've already posted today (see below) but have just been listening to a report on The Current (CBC Radio) about the ongoing battle to ensure proper health care for First Nations children.

A law was passed two (?) years ago after a little boy died having spent his entire 2.5 year long life in hospital rather than living at home because the federal and provincial governments couldn't agree on who was responsible to pay for the child's care.The law states that the needs of the child should come first, that the child should received whatever care is required and that governments must haggle later.

Although this law was passed it hasn't been put into practice and the government is now trying to change it so that it only covers children with complex medical conditions.

According to the interviewees, Native families will sometimes be forced to put their kids into foster care because the kids are fully covered when they are in such care. White kids living on reserve are also fully covered.


There is to be a human rights tribunal in Alberta about this as it is a gross human rights violation.

That is, there was to be one. The feds are now fighting to say that there is no jurisdiction for such a case to be heard.

I'm sitting here writing this and I can't stop crying. I know this is true. I know that my fellow Canadians are allowing this to happen.

But it can't be true. We can't be like this.We cannot be a nation of people who turn our backs on the suffering of our brothers and sisters, no, who actually perpetrate this suffering through our bigotry and apathy.

I put myself in the position of a mom whose child is ill and in need of medical attention and my choice is to have my child go to live with strangers in order to get health care. To send my child away.

My tears aren't going to help.

But we all can. What is the difficulty in writing letters to government officials? Blogging? Tweeting? All we need is the tipping point.

I have a couple of links to post below but haven't yet found a link on the CBC site. As soon as I find it, I'll post it.


Edmonton Sun

Turtle Island

Colleen

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