Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Aboriginal Peoples
Issue 5 - Evidence, February 12, 2003
OTTAWA, Wednesday, February 12, 2003
The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples met this day at 6:30 p.m. to study issues affecting urban Aboriginal youth in Canada and, in particular, to examine access, provision and delivery of services; policy and jurisdictional issues; employment and education; access to economic opportunities; youth participation and empowerment, and other related matters.
[English]
Senator Thelma J. Chalifoux (Chairman) in the Chair.
The Chairman: Good evening. Welcome to the Aboriginal room of the Senate of Canada. We are proud of this room. We had it dedicated several years ago. It represents part of Canada's history, and is dedicated to the Aboriginal peoples of this country.
This committee has been mandated to address issues affecting urban Aboriginal youth in Canada. In particular, the committee shall be authorized to examine access, provision and delivery of services, policy and jurisdictional issues, employment and education, access to economic opportunities, youth participation and empowerment, and other related matters.
This evening, we are honoured to have with us in the panel Tom Warner, Executive Director of Regina Native Youth Community Services; John Potskin, Director of the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth out of Calgary; and Chief Patricia Waite, who is an advisor from the Calgary Urban Indian Youth Centre.
Mr. Jonathan Potskin, Director, Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth: When I was asked to speak about Aboriginal youth issues in general, I wrote down some things. I was asked to keep my comments to about five minutes. However, it is a bit longer than that, and I hope that is all right with the committee.
The Chairman: The time is yours.
Mr. Potskin: [Witness spoke in native language]
My name is Jonathan Potskin. I wanted to start off in my original language, which is Cree. It should have been my first language, but my first language is English. I wanted to bring that to the committee's interest of issues. A lot of youth like me do not know our first languages. English or French is usually the first language here in Canada.
Aboriginal youth face a lot of barriers in the urban settings. In my presentation, I will discuss the barriers of employment, education, entrepreneurship, sexuality, sexual health, mental health, addictions, suicide, justice funding, racism, discrimination, homelessness, Aboriginal jurisdiction and representation of Aboriginal political parties and their effects on urban Aboriginal youth.
Education, employment and entrepreneurship all intertwine with one another without the sequence of succession most Aboriginal youth will face: Hardship, frustration, and the ups and downs of success and failures.
Most Aboriginal youth are put into special classes where they are treated and taught like children. When youth are put into an academic situation, they often do not succeed at their first attempt because they are isolated from their people and their culture. A high percentage of Aboriginal youth usually drop out of high school as they are unprepared to deal with the hardships that come from other youths, as these youths have learned hate from their understanding parents.
If an accurate study were done on Aboriginal people having a grade 12 education, you would see that it was actually wrong. The stats say that we have low levels of grade 12 education. If you look into the Aboriginal community, many of us have our grade 12, like myself. We dropped out of high school but went back at age 18 and upgraded in colleges. When you look into the stats, they look at the grade 12 stats of diploma students, which is a great thing to look at, but many of these youth are getting their grade 12 at colleges. The youth are then faced with the challenge of trying to go into post-secondary education and trying to finish there while still having low self-esteem.
I would now like to talk about sexuality and the true spirit of people with the First Nations, Inuit and Metis.
In Aboriginal history, it is not uncommon to have people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. That is why we have the term ``two-spirited.'' These youth face a lot of barriers when in the urban setting. As with a lot of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth from small communities, they go to the big city to find peace and other people like them. Often what they find is a world of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people just like the rest of Canadian society: racist and prejudicial. These youths usually do not have the support of their families, as their families come from the residential school system. Our people have adopted the view that this is a sin of God.
Without the support of family, these youths often find themselves, like our young Aboriginal sisters, on the streets selling their bodies. Even without the worse case scenario, Aboriginal two-spirited youth are lost, and have lower self- worth than the rest of the Aboriginal youth population, due to hiding part of themselves. They cannot understand this part of themselves because they do not have parents to teach them about this side of themselves.
Looking into all kinds of research and stats in this part, we see that youth are usually the carriers of sexually transmitted diseases as well. When I say ``this part,'' I mean all youth and not just Aboriginal youth. Youths between the ages of 15 to 19 are the highest carriers of chlamydia and gonorrhea because they are not protecting themselves. We also have high stats of HIV and AIDS. In the youth community and Aboriginal youth community, it is young women who are getting these infectious diseases from not protecting themselves. We also see that young Aboriginal youth are not protecting themselves through the high numbers of children they are having at the young ages of 15 and 16 years old. We have a growing population, which is great, but I would like the girls to wait until they are older.
I would like to see more education put forward about the use of condoms by both females and males, and more contraceptive awareness by Aboriginal youth and youth in general. Youth are not taught well enough in schools.
Next, I will address mental illnesses such as FAS, fetal alcohol syndrome, and FAE, fetal alcohol effects, which is not really a mental illness but is under the category of mental illness, and the depression that youth face, especially Aboriginal youth. If FAS or FAE is not caught at the early stages of life, youth often go undiagnosed throughout their adulthood. They suffer the effects of dropping out of school and not being able to maintain a job or an understanding relationship. I have seen it in people who were not diagnosed with a learning disability in school. They were not understood, and were abused by teachers and other students. I have seen it through different family matters where these children are not treated the same. They should be treated differently because they have special needs, but that is left unattended because they are not tested. Age does not support people who are FAS or FAE. FAS involves a social program for people with mental illnesses and they do not accept this. That is one thing that we must look into. A lot of Aboriginal youth have FAS and FAE and they cannot maintain jobs, and they need this money.
Addictions are the greatest barrier to Aboriginal youth as well. In our community, we see high rates of addictions. In the Aboriginal youth community, I do not think the addiction rates are higher than in the rest of the youth population, but later on in life, when we are getting into adulthood and a later age, youths in the rest of the population have a system where they have families that are not addicted to alcohol and they have parents who are not addicted to alcohol so they have a way to get out, whereas many Aboriginal youth have relatives, mothers and fathers, who are addicted to alcohol and do not have that support system to stop at a certain age. We all go through the experience of being somewhat of alcoholics as teenagers, but there is a point when we stop. Most of these Aboriginal youths do not have parents to teach them how to stop or to drink responsibly.
Addiction also comes down to drugs. Many Aboriginal youth and youth in general are exposed to drugs like acid or ecstasy, which is more of a raver drug, but I see people taking it all the time on the streets. There is the illusion of living a better life, going back to this addiction of having low self-worth that makes them feel better about themselves. We need to work on their self-worth and esteem instead of trying to fix them so that they are not addicted anymore but are out of this depression, perhaps falling back to the mental illness treatment and having these youth tested.
Through sexual abuse, many youth, especially Aboriginal youth, have sexual abuse issues. From the residential school system, it has carried on to my generation where we are still dealing with those sexual abuse issues. Through that, we end up having sexual addictions. One thing that our society needs to face are sexual addictions amongst youths and Aboriginal youth. Sex and sexuality should be talked about at the kitchen table, with parents. We need to teach them to talk to their children more and keep the dialogue open on sex and sexuality.
I was trying to write something on justice and I thought to myself: Is there any justice for our people? I then went into the Corrections side of it. Everybody knows the statistics and the problems involved with Corrections, so I do not want to go too far into it. It is odd that our youth have to learn about their culture through Corrections. There needs to be more of a healing tool to help them, and more of a pre-employment trades program within Corrections, instead of just learning about their culture and traditions. Sometimes, I think that people like myself, who are still learning, need to go to jail just to learn more about our culture. There needs to be more cultural programming outside of corrections. There needs to be more of a healing tool and pre-employment trade programs in Corrections instead of learning about only cultural traditions. Sometimes people like myself, who are still learning, need to go to jail just to learn more about our culture. There needs to be more cultural programming outside of Corrections for Aboriginal youth.
I want to talk about urban, multi-purpose, Aboriginal centre money, and how important it is to organizations such as mine. These budgets are up for renewal this year so I would like the Senate to push that.
We produce a newspaper that is of great importance to my organization. It is produced with Aboriginal youth money. Otherwise, there is not any money out there that is specifically targeted at Aboriginal youth. If we look into funding, we see that the treaty organizations, the First Nations organizations, the Metis organizations and the Inuit organizations, have their own pockets of youth money. However, you have to be Inuit to get the Inuit money; you have to be Metis to get the Metis money, et cetera.
There are non-status and Aboriginal people who do not want to identify themselves as one of the above. We have to look into having a general pool of Aboriginal money. It is so great to see something like that in urban settings. We are not looked at as either being Metis, Inuit or First Nations. You are seen as an Indian, first and foremost. You are seen as a drunk Indian, and no one will care if you are Metis or First Nation. It is something we can be proud of ourselves, but it is not seen that way by other people. In the urban setting, the greatest thing that we have going for us is having that word ``Aboriginal.'' We all work together, and we are one community.
Everybody knows and has heard about racism and discrimination towards Aboriginal people and people of colour in this country. Aboriginal youth face racism on a daily basis in schools and everywhere else. They cannot even buy hair spray while grocery shopping in Winnipeg, which is a racist reaction. Some of my friends in Winnipeg cannot get jobs because of the social view of Aboriginal people. Employers do not want to hire Indians.
Aboriginal youth face racial slurs such as ``chief,'' ``squaw,'' ``squaw humper, ``apple,'' ``bush Indian,'' ``drunken Indian'' and ``wife beater,'' to name a few that are not as bad as some that I have heard. With this discrimination, we see that teachers, peers, professors and specialists have prejudice from the start with these youth. We need more professional native awareness teachings across Canada, whether it be in school, native awareness programs or the workforce. The City of Calgary just announced that all of their city employees will be taking a native awareness programs. That is a great start for Calgary, and hopefully all cities will follow up on that great start that the mayor brought into place.
There is a variety of homeless Aboriginal youths. I see them in my office on a daily basis. There are some who want to be there, while others do not. Some actually love the life of being homeless. That is their way of life, and there is no reason why we should try to be helping them. They enjoy it. That is their way. However, there are the youths who do not want to be there. There are the youths who are there because they are on the streets, selling their bodies for their addictions again. There are the youths who are under the age of 17 and cannot go for social assistance. There is nothing for youth between the ages of, say, 14 and 17 years who are runaways. They have to live on the streets because they cannot go back home. They have usually run away from home because it is not a healthy place to be.
When these youths go into social assistance, they are put into foster care. We have all heard from families and friends about all the different abuses that happen in that system. These youth do not want to go into foster care or go home. They will live on the streets without the proper social supports. They cannot go to school because there is no support system for them to be at school, since they cannot get any funding until they are 18. They cannot go home. They cannot go on welfare or else they will be put into foster care. These youth have no options available to them but the street.
We really need to look at these youths between the ages of 14 to 17 years of age. What can we do for them? What kind of programs can we put in place so that they do not have to go into foster care or back home?
Alberta has the lowest minimum wage. In fact, the minimum wage needs to be higher all across Canada. Aboriginal youth, when they enter the workforce, have to live off the minimum wage. That minimum wage barely pays your phone bill, never mind your rent. If you look into the minimum wage for each province, it is not very high, and we need to start working on getting the provinces to raise their minimum wage for youth, in general. Most of these youths receiving minimum wage are homeless and need a place to live.
We also face homelessness for students. Many Aboriginal students in post-secondary schools are homeless. Indian Affairs allocations are $675 a month, which has not changed since I do not know when. I was getting that amount when I was in school. Student loans give you $500 per month to live. Many of these youths cannot work while getting this money, so they end up being homeless and a burden upon their families and friends, thereby ruining relationships. It becomes such a burden that they do not finish school. We as a Canadian society need to look at getting the student loans higher and the tuition lowered.
The national Aboriginal political parties are great, but we are underrepresented on the urban level. I know that CAP, or the Community Access Program, represents urban people but they are not socially responsible to the urban people across Canada. One recommendation that I would make to CAP is to start working with every major urban setting, which would include the six western cities, so that they would be socially responsible back to the urban Aboriginal community.
In southern Alberta, we have Treaty Seven and Metis Nations. We have a lot of jurisdictional boundaries, and we no longer know who we represent as Aboriginal people. Do we represent Aboriginal people in southern Alberta? Metis people have different jurisdictions. Each First Nation has a different jurisdiction than the Metis settlements. When urban youth are trying to go for funding, do they apply to Treaty Seven or their First Nation? Do the Metis people apply to the settlement, the nation or at the national level? All this confusion exists, and needs to be fixed.
My group gets urban dollars so through our program we cannot distribute out to people of the First Nations surrounding us. Scarce land surrounds Calgary, so I would consider them to be urban. They come and use our programs, but we cannot say that they use our programs because of the fact that they are rural. We also have a newspaper that we want to distribute to our youth.
Aboriginal people do not have jurisdictions. We migrate back and forth to our home communities, whether they are reserves or Metis communities. We do not have these boundaries. Our boundaries should be like they are in the J Treaty with the United States: open always and without jurisdictions, even within Canadian boundaries, because of treaties and different Metis locales. We need to start working together as an Aboriginal group. I emphasize that people should use the word ``Aboriginal'' or ``native'' because it is uniting for all of us.
I am Metis. I was raised as a Metis child. However, although I grew up with my father, I also had a First Nations card from my mother. The fact of having that First Nations card means that now I cannot use any Metis services. I have been across Canada representing the Metis nation, dancing — I have actually danced on Parliament Hill for the Canada Day show representing Metis people, but the Metis nation does not recognize me as being Metis because I have that status card. I was born with status, but lived a Metis life. Where do I fit into all these jurisdictions? We need to work on being proud to be Aboriginal and promoting Aboriginal.
I want to mention suicide. Everything I just mentioned in my speech is a consideration in suicide. Many youths attempt suicide or commit suicide because of these issues and many more that I do not even know about.
I will now move on into some recommendations that I have. I actually compiled these on the plane coming here, so I might think of some more as I go along. I would like to encourage the Senate to support educational attainment in the Aboriginal youth community by doing a needs assessment with Aboriginal youth and children in schools to see what they feel would assist them in achieving their goals. We often think we know what they want, but we should ask them what they think they need.
I would urge that we put more support systems in place within the school systems to help Aboriginal youth understand their culture and history. We do not learn about our culture or history in schools. In grade 10, we were still learning that Louis Riel was a traitor. I think things like that need to be changed in our textbooks.
I would encourage the provincial educational systems to make all youth take a native awareness course for at least one semester in high school. If we can force them to take two English courses throughout high school, then they could take one native awareness course.
I would put more programs in place to have Aboriginal youth mentored in becoming scholars and entrepreneurs. We have role models in place, but they are not in the community. We need to create a way for these role models to mentor these youths, and set aside more Aboriginal youth dollars to hire more Aboriginal role models within the high schools.
We also need to have high school and post-secondary summer student positions. We need more internships for Aboriginal youth. We need to set aside an Aboriginal grant program to assist Aboriginal youth who cannot receive funding from their nations whether they be Metis, First Nations or Inuit.
Personally, I would like to see the Senate encourage Aboriginal people — especially the national political bodies — to include two-spirited people in their policies. Two-spirited people are constantly fighting with their provincial governments. I think two-spirited people should start fighting with their own Aboriginal organizations to start putting their names in their policies; and to encourage our Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal governments to include two-spirits in legislation to create specific programs for people with this gift.
I would also like to encourage and support a national agenda to set up programs for two-spirited youth. These youth are the ones who face the most risk of suicide. We do not have specific statistics on this, since most of the two- spirited youth who commit suicide have died without admitting that they are two-spirited. However, that is often the reason why they are committing suicide.
We need to have a national strategy to encourage Aboriginal youth to use condoms. Females, in particular, should be encouraged to insist on their use, as it is females who are catching the viruses. We need a program in place to train Aboriginal youth how to teach one another about proper sexual health. We should have a national Aboriginal youth HIV-AIDS program as well; I think there is one in place already, but it needs to be more focused.
I would encourage more programs and services for young parents, such as counselling, parental classes, information on programs regarding proper diets for their children and themselves, and how to take care of themselves and their children. As Aboriginal people in residential schools, our parents did not know how to parent us. I think we still have to go back and learn how to be parents.
I would institute a national campaign to show Aboriginal parents how to look for symptoms of mental illness in their children. We need to get this started at a young age so that these kids can be diagnosed early, and we can be more understanding of their needs.
We need to encourage changes to the policies on FAS and FAE. I would like to encourage the Senate to get Health Canada to open an Aboriginal, youth-specific treatment centre. We need youth-specific centres because there are special needs inside the Aboriginal community.
I would encourage a national needs assessment for Aboriginal youth on addictions. We need to find out why they are drinking and taking drugs, and why they have these sexual habits. We need to have a study done on sexual addictions within the Aboriginal community. It is something that is ignored, and I think that is why our population will increase by 52 per cent in 10 years.
We need to look at getting parents educated on early signs of addictions. It would be nice if my dad had known when I started drinking — or could have recognized the symptoms that I was showing him — but he just could not see that.
I would encourage lawyers and judges to promote Aboriginal justice circles instead of jail, and look into giving Aboriginal youth the proper means to heal themselves in the Corrections system. There is more than just Aboriginal culture that can help heal them.
I would say continue with the UMAYC, or Urban Multi-purpose Aboriginal Youth Centre money. I would really encourage the Senate to push that money through. It can be a saviour to Aboriginal youth. It is something that helps us guarantee that all Aboriginal youth will join in these programs without having to be asked to leave because they do not belong to a certain Aboriginal group.
I would encourage Aboriginal groups to join together for funding initiatives: for example, have the treaty organizations and Metis join forces to fund one national youth program.
I would urge that we look into homeless concerns and issues, and by that I mean more than just saying that such concerns exist. We need to actually go in there and see what their needs are.
I would also urge that we look into having affordable housing for students, and have an Aboriginal human rights co-ordinator in every urban setting across Canada. Many Aboriginal people do not know about their human rights. They do not even know what human rights are.
I would look for funders to co-operate without using jurisdictions, as Aboriginal people do not have such jurisdictions. I would say that we should train more youth to look for symptoms of suicide, and to assist fellow youth when they are in need. We need more youth as suicide prevention trainers out there.
I would urge that we explore having more media outlets for Aboriginal youth, perhaps by starting their own Aboriginal youth channel. We already have a youth channel; perhaps we need an Aboriginal-specific one.
I would urge that we look into having more Aboriginal youth recreational leagues. Sports were a big thing in Alberta at one time, in the 1970s and 1980s. The Friendship Centres had a big thing about friends and sports. Our youth are not getting what they need in the way of physical activity.
I am a Metis dancer; that is what kept me out of trouble. Even when I did get into addiction issues or trouble with the law, I always had my dancing to fall back on. It brought me to Ottawa a lot of times, and I think coming here has changed my life a lot. I think what we need are more recreational programs out there for youth, whether they be cultural or sports-related. They need something to make them proud of themselves, and I think we need to encourage that. I am not saying the Senate has to do this, but perhaps you could encourage non-profit organizations across Canada to start dealing more with recreation facilities for youth. We have a recreation night, and that is the most successful program that my society has.
We need to have more Aboriginal youth representation on boards and influential committees. Perhaps the Senate could have an Aboriginal youth representative come here and discuss issues with this committee on a six-month basis, or just enlighten you on Aboriginal youth issues. Perhaps a youth should be inside the Senate; it does not have to be an Aboriginal youth, but just someone young in general to bring such issues forward to the Senate. Perhaps you could raise that with Jean Chrétien before he leaves.
We need more elder involvement in youth programming. We are starting to get youth involved in their own programs, but we need to get the elders involved. Our elder population is getting so small and the youth population is getting so big that we need to include the elders more in our programs.
We also need to start looking at government funding to stop questioning elder honorariums. They could get a facilitator in for $5,000 to facilitate anything on management for an hour for the government, but they cannot pay $100 to an elder to come in for a day, which is something I think needs to be changed. I think there needs to be a policy put forward from either the provincial or federal governments to start recognizing elders, not just Aboriginal elders but elders in general, for their knowledge, and to have them more involved in youth programming.
We need to have Aboriginal representatives on a national level, besides the three representative groups of Inuit, Metis and First Nations. I guess the Friendship Centre has one, too. However, those youths are not really used enough. They are not out there, and we need youth who are recognized on a national level. We need to have more youth role- model programs — and not just on TV or on posters. We need these youths in the communities. We need them out there so that the kids can be proud of their people. I applaud John Kim Bell for the work he has done on his show, but we need these youths out in the community more. We need to start a national aboriginal youth achievement awards show where we can have these youths go around the country and represent Aboriginal youth, and role model for them properly.
I forgot to introduce myself properly. I am the executive director for the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth. We are a non-profit organization that serves Aboriginal youth between the ages of 12 to 29. Our board is 100 per cent Aboriginal youth and our staff is 100 per cent Aboriginal youth. The barrier that we faced when we started was ageism. We had all the big guys saying that the youth cannot do anything. Now we have eight programs running, a newspaper, and we are starting a new program through HRDC, a pre-employment program. It has been a year and a half, and I hope that we grow even more. I would like to thank Senator Chalifoux for her support.
The Chairman: Before we proceed to Mr. Warner's presentation, I would like to let you know that I have known Mr. Potskin since he was a tiny baby. I have watched him grow and develop. He also comes from a single-parent family. His father raised him, along with his brother and sister. I am very proud of John and what he has done and what he has accomplished.
Senator Carney: For the record, you introduced yourself, but I do not know where you are based.
Mr. Potskin: I am based in Calgary.
Senator Carney: Good. Another westerner. Thank you.
The Chairman: Mr. Warner, please proceed with your presentation.
Mr. Tom Warner, Executive Director, Regina Native Youth Community Services: Thank you for inviting me to provide input to the action plan for change as it affects Canada's Aboriginal youth. Briefly, I am the executive director of Regina Native Youth and Community Services. My background involves 35 years of working with urban Aboriginal youth and their families. For three years I worked in open and custody care situations. For the next 21 years, I dedicated myself to building an alternative inner city school for disadvantaged youth, of which 95 per cent were Aboriginal. I am presently the executive director of an all-Aboriginal, long-term group home or treatment centre that has operated on a 24-hour basis since 1982. I have been at this centre for 11 years. My perspectives in this presentation are based upon my work with disadvantaged youth in conflict, and some direct, workable solutions for change.
I can certainly attest to the action plan for change. I can also relate to its massive undertaking. More important, I can see how we as a nation could be more successful, given the innate and learned strengths and resilience of the Aboriginal youth with whom I have been associated.
Aboriginal youth grow up all too quickly. To a large extent, childhood is often abandoned for parental responsibilities. School often then gets forsaken and a peer group emerges that provides many youths with all the wrong kinds of opportunities. Thrown into this mix are growing feelings of low self-confidence as they pertain to the status quo and a general feeling of worthlessness. Ultimately, lack of hope for the future looms larger as life spirals downhill.
I will not go too much into the serious causal factors: socio-economics, race and property concerns and that kind of stuff. Certainly, one could go on about all the wrong that has not been resolved in regard to the causal factors presently facing youth in conflict. Rather, I would like to share some information that touches on such causal factors, with a view towards a better understanding of what Aboriginal youth in difficulty require for a healthy future.
Our facility provides long-term, 24-hour residential programming for youth in conflict between the ages of 11 years and 15 years. All are of Aboriginal ancestry, mostly First Nations, and come to us from both urban and rural settings. The average stay is approximately 12 to 14 months, with some residing with us for two or three years, depending on what their issues are and how long it takes for things to become positive. Many of our youth have been in numerous foster homes, and sometimes in holding and assessment facilities, for a long period of time, living in upwards of 22 to 25 foster homes at intervals from home since they were two years old before they come to us.
When at the birth parent's home, parental responsibilities have mostly been carried out by a single-parent mom. Often, one or both parents are deceased or incarcerated. Moreover, one or both parents are addicted to intravenous drugs and alcohol. Very often, one or both parents are involved in the sex trade. All of our residents' families are on social assistance. Thus, all of our residents and their families have numerous social workers: protection, family, young offender, wraparound, financial — and the list goes on. Most of our residents' parents have suffered from parental neglect.
Our residents' issues are multidimensional: Parental neglect, physical and sexual abuse, substance abuse, young offender status, poor school attendance, gang-related activity, and at the end of day, a lot of anger. Thus, on admission to our facility, we begin to address all family and personal issues, school and court-related concerns, as well as the eventual family and extended family reunification plans. These issues are dealt with over a period of time with lots of support and accountability and a strong responsibility emphasis.
The following scenarios, with much input and experience from our residents and their families, touch on what could or should be addressed in the specific inner city deprived communities in order to create healthy lifestyles: Healthy futures that should be implemented through a supportive, hands-on family and neighbourhood base, one that mirrors the support and programming as experienced in many successful group homes and treatment centres; scenarios, then, that speak to problem areas outside the realm of a more controlled environment such as a group home or treatment centre.
The majority of our residents in treatment at Regina Native Youth and in the community are amazingly resilient. You can see, as time goes along, that they have so much skill and talent that has not been tapped. We attempt to bring them around so that they can realize their futures. Despite all of the shortfalls and the despair, they aspire to succeed. When I say ``resilient,'' I mean in the pure form of the word: They want to excel in school but require support; they want not to be in trouble with the law or to be gang related, and so require support and a healthy alternative; they strive to heal from any abuse, and they want to be part of a healthy family.
Youth in the inner city, or ``the 'hood,'' as it is commonly known in Regina, share similar difficulties and aspirations. Much can be done to input positive family mechanisms whereby the family as a whole is supported. Too often, a resident's parent did not know how to parent. This is not to suggest a lack of love, or of trying, but feelings of belonging become lost in the strife. Single-parent moms are increasingly overwhelmed and are lacking the necessary skills and support required to resolve many situations. It is therefore important not to blame the parents, who all too often are also victims in the scenario. What is important is not to allow the children to become non-parented. These families want and need real assistance. The cycle needs to be broken. This cycle is at the root of all advancement and healthy futures for Aboriginal youth in conflict.
All too often, aboriginal youth are taken into care, and for very good reasons. It would be more advantageous, and less costly for all concerned, if we did not allow residents to be taken into care and to develop. Moving to a foster home, or often several, is traumatic. One can only imagine being 11 or 12 years of age or younger and being taken away from home to reside with strangers. These actions, although necessary at the end of the day, only add to the hardship that has already developed. Again, preventive, proactive action is acutely necessary for all concerned. Single- parent moms and their families do want things to be different. Single-parent moms and their families are proud and would like things to be better. They require sincere support. The outcome of this wanted intervention will eventually have destitute families either moving out of the 'hood and on to better days, or at least sustaining a healthier lifestyle where they presently reside.
In the areas of justice for the young people that we deal with, most if not all feel that they will go to jail at some time. They think that jail is inevitable, given the family experiences. It is rather like saying: ``What does it matter? I will go to jail pretty soon anyway.'' However, they are saying that at 11, 12, 13 and 14 years of age. Most young people with whom we work believe that becoming gang-related and in trouble with the law is a matter of survival in the 'hood. If you are not a ``crip'' — and in Regina that is someone who is 13-15 years or older, and a ``baby crip'' is someone up to the age of 12 — and you are not wearing the gang's colours or adhering to the gang's negative direction, harassment and beatings are the result. I have been in meetings where baby crips and crips are scared. First, a principal called a meeting, and that really scared them — gathering at the principal's office. When word got out about the meeting, there was trouble.
For many, trouble actually provides a greater safe haven in the 'hood because criminal charges allow status and safety. Incarceration provides more of life's amenities than previously experienced in the 'hood: getting a good night's rest, half decent meals, clothing and safety — although not completely, but better than in the 'hood. As well, incarceration with peers becomes one's new definition of ``family.'' There needs to be a greater hands-on presence in these troubled neighbourhoods to allow youth to make safe and positive choices. They want to do it but they just do not have the means to do it.
Concerning personal growth, most Aboriginal youth in the inner city do not have access to activity that allows them to hone personal skills. Maybe from time to time, but there is nothing consistent. Having access to skill-building activities, whether it is music, sports, the arts or other healthy interests, is too often not an option due to costs and uncomfortable access. Given the dilemma of the home and neighbourhood environments, such options could only be productive, therapeutic and empowering.
In the area of employment, because our age group of youth is under 16 years of age, employment for remuneration is difficult. They want to maintain a normal lifestyle and they like to spend a little cash, if they have it. They may want to buy that jersey they have been looking for. In terms of life's necessities, we know that poor kids want to earn cash because they do not have any. Again, there needs to be a system in place that allows for healthy pursuits. Presently, involvement with the law and surviving the sex trade remain the most convenient alternatives.
Our program, Regina Aided Youth, is successful. We admit the most needy, in that there are a variety of issues needing to be addressed for youth in particular. Our program is long-term treatment. As stated, there may be issues related to sexual, physical and substance abuse augmented by criminal activity, lack of school success and acting-out in the community. As a result, their emotional scars need healing.
Our centre addresses all problem areas and provides a safe, nurturing environment to allow productive success in all rounds. Our staff, of whom a majority are Aboriginal, develop treatment plans for each individual that focus on each aspect of a resident's aspirations and difficulties. There is much spiritual and cultural input surrounding a strong educational and recreational component. We have an all-Aboriginal board with elders who have input in this respect.
Communication with all shareholders in a resident's well-being is ongoing in order to allow our residents to progress. The network includes elders, all pertinent social services personnel, teachers, family members and Regina native youth's primary and secondary workers in the community at large. With much patience and repetition, supplemented by support and accountability, change occurs, even for the most needy. Our residents' attitudes and life styles change almost immediately. Monitoring school placements and processing court-related concerns, while focusing on emotional and spiritual well-being, allow windows of hope to prosper. Teaching tolerance — self and general, mutual respect — in a caring environment, coupled with understanding and the responsibility of making a positive choice, allows our residents to envision a healthy tomorrow.
As a small example, over the past year, 10 of our 12 clients were discharged and have not re-committed crimes, after being successfully reunited with their extended families, and all of them remain in school. Eight of those 12 boys who were previously allowed admission to our centre had been extensively involved in car thefts and other crimes. They were destined to closed custody institutions. Fortunately, our centre was a positive intervention.
Certainly, there are many other direct accomplishments that our residents achieve while they are in treatment. Advances are attained in relation to life style, world view, anger management, grief resolve, self-harm resolve and a multitude of other healthy fulfilments. With much safety programming and support, success can be achieved for disadvantaged but ever-resilient Aboriginal youth.
Providing a hands-on, family and neighbourhood base to assist and act on difficulties before they are out of control would allow prevention of so many growing inner-city problems. This route is proactive in the sense that there would be initial costs for a refined service, but surely that cost would be lower than the financial fallout at the end of the day if nothing is pursued. More important, such a plan of action is proactive for the lives and sustenance of disadvantaged Aboriginal youth and their families.
The Chairman: Thank you. Your presentation has been insightful and interesting.
Ms. Waite, please proceed.
Chief Patricia Waite, Advisor, Calgary Urban Indian Youth Centre: I am honoured to have been asked to speak to the assembled people here. However, this is not the first time. I came for the American Indian movement to tell our legislators that they have a problem in the west. This is my second time at Parliament. I feel honoured that you would ask me.
I am a lifetime chief and I accepted the responsibility, which I am kind of sorry about now, but I thought it would be a good experiment. Perhaps our western cities need a chief, and with the chief, the buck stops here, and I am still here. I am the presiding chief at the Tsuu T'ina Court, where I am learning a great deal. However that is not the area that I will talk about today, although it is interesting and much of it is new.
I am eagle woman, I am owl woman, I am long-stemmed pipe woman, I am Stoney First Nations. I am also Cree and, you will be interested to know, I am a woman of many feathers. You would be surprised what the Stoney do with that one.
Before I submit my paper, I would like to help my friend, if you do not mind. I read The Globe and Mail because I like the way they cover our problems. I would like to fortify my friend's argument with a piece from that newspaper because they have done a good job. I do not know who wrote the article. Do not count this as part of my 15 minutes because I am supposed to cover a major subject. The Globe and Mail article referenced a study done by the Canada West Foundation and was written by Kim Lunman. It said, in part:
The study found that more than half — 51 per cent — of Canada's estimated one million aboriginals live in cities, while 29 per cent live on the country's 600 reserves. The rest live off-reserve in rural areas.
...but that has not been reflected in policy to finance aboriginal programs...
Last year, 88 per cent of Ottawa's aboriginal program spending was allocated to on-reserve Indians, while urban programming accounted for 3.5 per cent or $270-million. The Department of Indian Affairs has an annual budget of $6-billion.
I am jumping all over with this, of course.
In reference to comments by Prime Minister Chrétien, the article continued:
He also promised to ``close the gap in life chances between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.''
I might tell you, by the way, that I am into my third church because of race relations in Calgary. I will write my paper on that when I have time.
The report also calls for the provinces and Ottawa to work more closely together to address the needs of urban natives, and suggests that it is so bad that it might take as long as 60 years to address. As I said before, a man named Kim Lunman wrote the article for The Globe and Mail.
I am the presiding chief at Tsuu T'ina Court. I am a University of Toronto graduate and the first native woman to have graduated in political science and economics. Many of our people start university, but they do not graduate. That is a crime, because university is very expensive for everybody.
What else do I do? I have two music degrees, which helps me to get into those churches that do not want me.
I want to thank you again for this opportunity. It is a terrible subject, but I presume I am among friends. I came here really to see if you had answers for this one. The Calgary Urban Indian Youth Group was founded in 1971, with its own constitution, and registered in Edmonton, Alberta. Aimed at youth aged from babies to 25, which has now been altered to age 16, the group offers a full program in sports, education, native culture, parliamentary procedure, and field trips, including five to the United States in search of Indian education. It also offers a University of Calgary lecture series, drama, dancing, pow-wows and beading. Its mission statement is to show students that there is much to do in the city without drinking.
Our youth were not eligible to learn English as a second language, like immigrants. Teachers resented the quintuple forms that they had to fill out for Indian Affairs. Thus, English was learned in the playgrounds, streets, school halls and in our own programs. Often, grandparents had to take the children to the playground.
Our constitution includes a clause regarding conduct not suitable to the group. The first offence for conduct not suitable would mean an expulsion from the group for three months. For the second offence, the penalty would be expulsion for one year. There was a tutoring program involving 75 students on a volunteer basis, with a one-to-one ratio of boy with boy and girl with girl. This was written up in the blue book ``The Indian and the Law'' in the 1980s, although I could not find it in my files. The main thrust was, and still is, education. There was a letter of recommendation from Harold Cardinal and a constitution based on that of our umbrella organization, the Indian Association of Alberta, the first provincial Indian program in Canada.
The Calgary Urban Indian Youth is the oldest Indian youth program in Canada. The group was located in the inner city at various locations, after which the Riverdale address that is mine became the office. It was then moved up to the north east of Calgary, in a kind of ghetto situation, which I did not like. I disliked it so much I would not even move the youth group up there. This is partly where our problems occurred.
Four years ago, on September 20, I was to meet with the youth for a meeting at the downtown Friendship Centre. The Calgary Indian Friendship Centre was not aware that there was to be a meeting. When I arrived, the night watchman, an aide and I set out the table and put out the minutes at each place. We waited. I had a clipboard with the names of youth from the previous meeting. A copy had been given orally to City Hall. The names, including 13 girls, were on the board. At 7:30 p.m., we realized they were not coming. I left a note on the visitors' book for our police officer, who did not get there either, and started to walk to my car across the Chinese parking lot, going west.
The Chairman: I do not like to interrupt you, but Senator Carney has to leave. She has an early flight and she would like to ask a couple of questions.
Ms. Waite: Very well.
Senator Carney: Are you just about through your presentation?
Ms. Waite: I only have four pages.
Senator Carney: Could I just leave the subject for you to pursue, because I do not want to interrupt your presentation? Before this meeting was set, I had booked a flight.
Ms. Waite: The next part was just to prove that south of the Bow River is no longer safe for Indian women or Indian children.
Senator Carney: Your points are extremely important and I do not want to divert you at all.
Ms. Waite: We were dealing with a felony.
Senator Carney: The issue I wanted to raise simply was to comment on Indian schools, if you could answer that later. In British Columbia, there seems to be some disagreement about whether the aboriginal youth want to be part of integrated schools or whether they should be part of ``Indian'' schools.
Ms. Waite: We just leave it up to the individual.
Senator Carney: I wanted to ask for your comment, and I will leave it with you. Please continue. Why is that area not safe for women and children?
Ms. Waite: It is unsafe because I had a threatened rape, among other things. On the avenue, there was an Associated taxi, with three little Asian faces — I later found out they were Vietnamese — painted with white theatre paint and straight black hair brushed from right to left across their heads. They were at the window in the back seat. At first, I thought it was a joke. Blackfoot humour is amazing. Then, I realized I had a threatened gang rape on my hands. A voice in me said, ``keep walking'', which was towards the French Maid, a local restaurant. I did not type this out at the restaurant. That is more than just a restaurant; I would not normally have gone within ten miles of that place.
We had trouble with the Vietnamese before at an LRT station, with our boys being attacked with knives. This had been reported to the police, as was the above incident.
The taxi moved toward me. I realized they wanted the names of the pretty girls on my clipboard. They were wanted by the men for their own use. The parents of the youth trusted me, as I have a long record of working with youth. I am afraid the girls were to have been victims of the cocaine trade. Forty-nine per cent of the Vietnamese have dealings with cocaine in one way or another. That statistic comes from the Calgary police department.
Cocaine is a real native felony and problem, especially on this occasion. Three years before, I had seen an Indian pusher handing out the stuff to a native girl in Robson Square in Vancouver, Senator Carney. Now, this traffic had arrived in Calgary, with pushers certainly old enough to know better and a list of receivers of the insidious drugs. They are not youth any more; they are middle-aged men. I have been able to watch them go through it.
Among those taking part were the program director of the Calgary Friendship Centre, so we closed the centre first. On September 18, he had phoned me with the most irrational call I have ever had in my life. I knew two of the men had trouble getting to their appointments, the pusher and the program director, because they kept phoning me. Also included should be the past president of the Calgary Urban Indian Youth, whom I saw begging on 17th Avenue and 13th Street West in the inner city. I drove by; fortunately, I was not walking. Also, the former youth group treasurer, who is Blackfoot, became involved. The Cree were represented by the Strawberry family of Sunchild-O'Chiese, as well as by a Cree member of my youth group. I was shocked, to say the least, and in a sense felt guilty. Since we had taught the group about drugs, they had not selected cocaine. Maybe that was my mistake, but I had never thought, even with the help of the police: How had they come to make this awful decision? I went to the city police. I felt that they had to ``think native'' as to its distribution. Most police forces think white, but now this is an Indian crime. I found one police officer whom I really trusted and did not have any trouble conversing with, so I went to him regarding this distribution of cocaine. I was sure the group had used and would further use the pow-wow trail they have to use where natives gather — pow-wow means a coming together of the people — if they had not already done so.
By the way, that weekend they phoned for me to go to Alexander — where is she? That is right; they wanted gas money, of course. I realized that the Blackfoot, the users of cocaine, may be a large group in this cocaine market. I was right about the method of distribution. I have not done a survey, but I have received very suspicious phone calls. I think the Blackfoot are in danger here as a people; I really do. I have not done a survey. I have not had time.
We had been so poor for years that pushers never bothered us. Tsuu T'ina was the first to have money for drugs. Cocaine is a terrible way to die. It eats the brain. I once performed a funeral for a neonate baby of a mother who had been dry for four years. Cocaine is dangerous.
I do not really know what to do. I have stalled for two years. Will a new group go this way, or will it be a target for discrimination? The name of the group is no longer being used. We have taken it off the Internet, et cetera, including our symbols that were given to us by Indian groups.
I am afraid that this drug invasion has gone deeply into the Blackfoot. Race relations have deteriorated, but the kids would like to meet where they can be themselves. There is still the need there. With drugs, for example cocaine, there is no public safety. It is a turf war and there is no methadone to be used for cocaine. There is no legend about cocaine in the Plains Indians mythology, although this is a felony committed by Indians. Discrimination is insidious also. Where do we go for our youth?
That is why I agreed to come today, because it is so horrible. I welcome questions. Thank you so much for this opportunity — and I do not mean to be sarcastic. I had never expected to have ever given a paper like this. It is a horrible situation.
That completes my submission, Madam Chairman. It is a horrible thing. I cannot say why, because in Indian, we do not have a word for ``why'','' but I can say: How come this happened? Where did we go wrong? I do not feel guilty because I think we did everything right. I was proud of the group. I still am because many of them are around, as far as I know. There are only two women, which is rather interesting; it is the men who are involved. As I said, this is my problem because I agreed to take the responsibility, but I do not know what to do with it.
The Chairman: Thank you very much. We will go to questions.
Senator Pearson: It is hard to know where to start on the questions. I am very much moved by your account.
In the middle, I see someone who has found a way that seems to be successful with that particular group. From Mr. Potskin, I get a real sense of the complexity of the issues. I am interested because I am hearing the same thing from non-Aboriginal young people.
I was talking to some young people on Monday because we are looking at some over-arching issues for young adolescents. There is a tremendous interest among the adolescents to have better programming around sexual and reproductive health. What you are saying reinforces what they said, that even among the general population of young people, the amount of sexually transmitted diseases is quite extraordinary. One of the young women — this was from Calgary — was saying in an anonymous survey we were looking at, that in that school close to 50 per cent of the young people had had sexual experiences and also had infections. I think this is a dimension we have not adequately explored in our study. I am getting some help on how to go about it.
Mr. Potskin: We are actually doing a study on HIV and AIDS, and attitudes and perceptions of HIV and AIDS and sexuality with Aboriginal youth in the City of Calgary. This is in partnership with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. We did a survey, and we had two focus groups of ten Aboriginal youth and also ten individual focus groups. We are getting from the youth a way to bring to the educational system their needs and what they want to learn about sexual health and reproduction.
The one thing that we were really surprised to see was that all of the youth said that they had sex education within the school system, but it was a 10-minute program where the nurse came in and kind of put the condom on the stick, and that was it. She did not really want to mention anything more about sex. I think that is where we have to look at our sexual education programs within each province and have them explore other ways of teaching the youth, because we see sex on TV. We could go on the Internet and connect to sex explicit web sites just with a search engine. We have to be more open in the way we talk about sex now because it is not something that is hidden behind the bedroom doors but is in our face every day and hour.
Senator Pearson: Would you feel the need as we talked about the relationship of sex to human relations? Is that an area that seems to be missing?
Mr. Potskin: We asked the youth whether they thought sex was sex or making love. They told us that, well, they do not know love. To honestly tell you, at my age — and we have asked youth from the ages of 16 up to 24 — even 24 year olds said that they were having sex. They like to think of it as making love, but it is just sex. We need to tell the educators to teach the way it is. It is sex, not making love. Most of these youth do not know what love is. We have to bring back the concept of making love and teaching youth how to love themselves. We could do that through sex education. It is a matter of doing a needs assessment with those youth and doing a national needs assessment on sex education and having Health Canada head it up. That would be a great thing to do.
Senator Pearson: In the work that you are doing, Mr. Warner, you imply, from what you said, that most of the young people you are working with are boys?
Mr. Warner: That is correct.
Senator Pearson: Are they all boys?
Mr. Warner: Yes.
Senator Pearson: Is this an area you work on with them?
Mr. Warner: Sex education, definitely. I would agree with what Mr. Potskin said about the love and sex comparison. You must remember, too, that we are not only dealing with the love and sex part of it, we are dealing with what is appropriate. We are dealing with male prostitutes for money, at times, and we are dealing with kids who do not really know where their sexuality is at, albeit male or female. It ends up being another problem for them to deal with, depending on what area their abuse came from.
Senator Pearson: It is combined. You talked about sexual addictions. Obviously, everything is intertwined.
Mr. Warner: Yes, and things are often very skewed.
Senator Pearson: Some kids have been abused in the first place and they have not known love.
Mr. Warner: There are lots of emotional things that travel through the whole viewpoint of what sex is, and whether the individual is male or female. All that kind of stuff is very confusing for them.
Senator Pearson: Jonathan is good at making recommendations. Maybe he can give us another one. Thank you.
Senator Hubley: Jonathan, how long has the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth been in existence?
Mr. Potskin: Legally, they have only been in existence for two years. We are in our second year now, legally, but they have been together for four years. We are also the Mayor's Aboriginal Youth Advisory Committee; we advise the mayor of Calgary. Mayor Al Doer actually formed the Mayor's Aboriginal Youth Advisory Committee and then encouraged them to become a non-profit society. That is how they were created, from the encouragement of the mayor to start an Aboriginal youth organization.
Senator Hubley: Would you be the only society in Calgary for urban Aboriginal youth?
Mr. Potskin: We are the only society that is 100 per cent Aboriginal youth, governed and managed. Every Aboriginal organization deals with Aboriginal youth issues. We make sure that we are not duplicating services that are already out there, but we also assist other organizations with their youth programming.
Senator Hubley: Mr. Warner, I will ask you the same question about the Regina Native Youth Community Services. How long have you been in existence?
Mr. Warner: Since 1982.
Senator Hubley: Did you replace another organization or were you new?
Mr. Warner: We were a new organization that developed out of difficulties in the inner city.
Senator Hubley: Chief Waite, you have been teaching for a long time?
Ms. Waite: Yes, and I want some answers. Should we open up the education of cocaine? I kept it very quiet. I did not even tell the newspapers. I really hushed it up, but not because I was ashamed. I realized I was not responsible but —
Senator Hubley: I have to be fairly general in my question but I would like to focus on education. The young people that you are seeing and that you are trying to help are young people who are already at risk, I assume?
Ms. Waite: That is right.
Senator Hubley: They probably have not gone to the kindergartens or the Head Start programs or things of that nature, or have they?
Mr. Warner: Those who have attended Head Start in Calgary would still be young children. It was a brilliant program. I did not think so at first because it is teaching two cultures at once: Blackfoot in the morning, Cree in the afternoon, and then non-Indian all day long. I thought children could only learn so much, so I went to find out. I went in the morning for the Blackfoot. That was fine. I speak Blackfoot. Then in the afternoon, I learned Cree and I have passed Cree, with the music and everything.
By the way, I closed down the pow-wows in Calgary. You have a lot of power if you want to use it. I did not really want to use it but I could just see that we could damage the image of the pow-wow. Two of them have round dances but there are no pow-wows which have religious overtones.
Senator Hubley: Do you see that education is a really important component here?
Mr. Potskin, you might be able to comment. You are grown up, but you are younger. You are the age we are looking at. You live in an urban setting. We are all looking for a key; we are all looking for answers and I do not think we have answers. We need to work hard to come up with the right strategies in order to be of any long-term help.
Jonathan, can you tell us what part education played in your growing up? You mentioned that you dropped out of school but that something then brought you back?
Mr. Potskin: What brought me back to educating myself was the need to create that knowledge for myself. I will tell you that I dropped out of school three times before I actually finished. I dropped out at the age of 12 in grade 6, which is surprising but a lot of Aboriginal kids do that. I was growing up in a small town with three reserves near by. I lived with my mother and we could not deal with the racism, so I just quit going. My mom did not know for the first month that I was not going, but she figured it out. I ended up dropping out of grade nine twice and then going into high school and dropping out of high school.
When it comes to education, in Edmonton we had an Aboriginal junior high. Now there are two Aboriginal junior highs, one high school and two elementary schools to educate the Aboriginal community there. Going through that Aboriginal junior high system was comforting. There were youth that I got along with and I really grew socially. I was a quiet and timid person growing up in the urban settings. I always had Caucasian friends.
One comment that never leaves my head was something I heard in elementary school: ``You are one of the good ones.'' I remember being proud at the time, being a child, but now I feel stupid for being proud of it. As a kid, you are proud of that. I remember seeing the other native kids in school. Some were my cousins. I felt proud that I was better than them.
Then I went into an all-native junior high where all of us were the same. That was a really different experience. I ended up dropping out of there because there is also racism within our own communities. I do not have a native accent. I do not speak my language. I went through the experience of racism by being an ``apple.'' I was not accepted in either place.
I would say that it is a matter of finding your own ground, and being who you are. I am Metis, so I found my comfort in that. I do not know the First Nations culture but I do know the Metis dance. I think the education that we really need is to teach the youth about their culture, first, before anything.
Senator Hubley: Would you not, as a person, seek out your culture along with education? That is where I was coming from with my next question. When you went back to school, did you go back because you realized that having a better education gave you a better chance in life to earn a living; that having an education ensured, perhaps, a better job; you could go on to university? Or was it just the fact that you needed to have a cultural component in your life?
Mr. Potskin: The reason I went back to further my education was to help my community. That was the main reason.
Senator Hubley: You wanted to become educated so that you could go back and do programs as you are now?
Mr. Potskin: I have always sat on committees since I was of a young age. I remember Senator Chalifoux was the one who encouraged me to sit on these committees: ``You are a young kid; you get out there and do some work.'' I was not in school so I was sitting on a bunch of committees. I decided that I would not make it anywhere unless I went back to school. That is where I came from.
Senator Hubley: That was your motivation?
Mr. Potskin: Yes, it was the community.
Senator Hubley: You realized that?
Mr. Potskin: Yes. I realized that the only way we could work within Canadian society was if we had our education.
The Chairman: Mr. Warner, regarding the children that you deal with, I would ask the same question that Senator Hubley has asked of Jonathan. Do you have any comments on the children you look after?
Mr. Warner: From the histories we get on our kids before they come to us, we have to decide who to admit and who not to admit. All of them are needy but, educationally, they are extremely needy. They have pretty much been the examples of failures in classrooms, from what I read in the admission forms. They are in the specialized classrooms. There is lots of behavioural acting-out.
We have on-school visits twice a week, which is almost at the harassment stage, to find out how our kids are doing. Ninety per cent of the time they are in what are called structured learning classrooms and special classrooms. They do not go to school for a long time. No one is sending them. They might not want to go because they do not have a lunch. It is embarrassing to sit there with a potato peel sandwich at lunch hour. Again, there is racism.
When they do finally come to us, we provide hands-on support for all our kids to ensure things are going well. If they are not, we try to resolve the situation. If we cannot resolve it, we will move them so that things are healthy in the school.
Our philosophy is that for as much time as a young person spends in school, it should not be hell while they are there. They have enough going against them at the time. Therefore, we really try hard to establish good relationships with schools and tell it like it is, if it needs to be told as it comes up. Consequently — and you might find this hard to believe — our kids do not skip school and they do not miss school. It has to do with the support involved.
We even have a nasty little consequence if school is skipped. It is called MUT, or makeup time. We travel them back and forth with a communication book based on work, attendance and behaviour so that we can get a good handle — not only from the on-site visits but daily — on where there are difficulties. The schools love it. We love it. Ultimately, our residents succeed in it.
The Chairman: You provide support, support, support?
Mr. Warner: It means a lot. When this happens, it is not like it is the first time it has happened, but so often parents become frustrated. We have a bigger club when we go there. Many parents are intimidated to go through some of the problems that develop on the schoolyard or in the school. We are not intimidated. We are used to supporting kids. We do not go in there with an attitude. The only attitude we have is diplomacy, and we get a lot done.
Senator Sibbeston: I would like to ask for a synopsis from each of the witnesses. Sitting here and hearing the witnesses, it is difficult to gauge the state of the situation. You all work in various areas and so you speak about your experiences. To a certain extent, the situation is bleak.
I come from the North where things are not so bad, I believe, but when I hear about the plight of Aboriginal peoples in the city, it sounds so bleak. It is so difficult to move from the rural to the urban setting. It is a different way and style of life, with Aboriginal people coming from the land, trying to fit in somehow in the urban centres.
I appreciate your knowledge in the areas in which you work. I recognize as well that the movement of Aboriginal people from the rural to the urban centres is a phenomenon that is likely to increase. It will not decrease. Is there any hope? What would you like to see done? What can the government do to help you address the plight of Aboriginal people? You are most familiar and experienced in this setting. What can be done? Is there any hope? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Is there any future at all for us as a country and for Aboriginal people fitting into urban life?
Ms. Waite: In answer to your question, I think things are better. The first families had the rough time. I used to try to find homes for them. The houses that we were shown — by the Metis Association, by the way — were so awful. They were the only ones available. I thought, well, as a woman, if I can work in the kitchen, I guess I will take this house.
It is not that way at all now. The housing is better. I know it is not perfect, but it is better. There are now families who will be cushioned from the culture shock that occurs when they leave the reserve.
Social workers pose a problem. I have screamed so much about social workers that I get good ones now. We had our own social work system, which worked well. I used it for years in Calgary. Now, the social worker will step in — I have had it happen several times — and botch up everything because they are using non-native, middle-class standards. You cannot combine the two societies that way. You will fall back on the native solution, and it achieves the same end.
I thought the Head Start Program, which Senator Hubley discussed, was interesting. We do open up things. My problem is whether I should go ahead and open up and let the papers know that we have a cocaine problem. It is really as blunt as that.
Mr. Warner: I seriously think there is hope for the future. One can identify where some of the problem areas are and provide the support for same. People come in from the rural areas, much like going in to Edmonton and hanging around with guys that you know. Maybe you end up hanging with Metis rather than Indian. In Regina, people from the reserves will come in and hang around the people they might know.
Unfortunately, who they know and who they are hanging around with is in the 'hood. The socio-economics are terrible. All you have to do is walk in there — not that you would want to do it — and go through some houses and find out what is inside. You would be appalled at what is going on. It becomes your community, however. There is the odd social worker who goes in there to try to make things right, but there is no feeling of community whatsoever. Things are very destitute. There is no cash, no food, little furniture. There is trouble in the 'hood and trouble at school. There must be an intense neighbourhood base.
Places like our centre, and I know of others, were built and started off with one family and then another family. We have many families coming to us for that kind of assistance. There has to be a presence of health and safety in the community that people can count on. I want to go back to the resilience of families and youth. They will do that. They can do it. Right now, they feel there is nowhere to go. They want to go. We should get them going there because they do want things to be better, and I agree that things could be better.
Mr. Potskin: My focus is all about creating more awareness among Aboriginal people about their own cultures, creating awareness among non-Aboriginal people about Aboriginal cultures, and the transition or migration of First Nations and Aboriginal people coming into the urban settings.
Creating a bigger emphasis on National Aboriginal Day would be a great start. I think that is done through DIAND. Many cities have Native Awareness Week, as do many colleges. We could put more emphasis into encouraging more people to participate in those weeks.
The death of Louis Riel was November 16, and every year most Western cities celebrate Metis Week. There could be more promotion of Metis Week.
Creating an Aboriginal youth centre in each city would be a good idea. I did not get to go to the White Buffalo one in Saskatoon. I wish the executive director could have made it. They have a great Aboriginal youth centre, which every urban settling needs in order to assist urban Aboriginal youth moving into urban settings. At one time we needed friendship centres in every city. Now we need Aboriginal youth centres because the Aboriginal population will double within the next 10 years.
It would be good to increase awareness among Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people about our culture.
Senator Chaput: I think I heard one of the panellists say that over 50 per cent of Aboriginals live in cities. Did I hear that right?
Mr. Warner: Yes.
Senator Chaput: I think Mr. Potskin said that there was nothing for the 14- to 17-year-old Aboriginal kid who was not going to school. There is no place to go and he does not get help from welfare, so that young person is on the streets. When we talk about the 50 per cent of Aboriginals who live in cities, do we know if a higher percentage involves those young people aged 14 to 17?
Mr. Potskin: I do not think we can get exact stats there. From what I am seeing with the youth on the street, a lot are at that age, or they came to the city at that age and they are now in their twenties. If you are on the streets, it is hard to get off once you get into those addictions.
Ms. Waite: I worked on the mayor's committee for over five years. It was interesting in Calgary, because we did not have a large Indian population. They were going into Indian homes, horrible homes in some cases. Homeless youth, not just natives, are kind of like natives. They do not care what your agency is, they care about the person. They work in fear and with no money. They are a bit like little white Indians. We did not have that many natives in Calgary involved in this group at all. I found that the agencies that sat around the table were the ones who said, ``I am from so and so. Why can you not accept me as the best agency in the business?'' You cannot do it that way with these kids. They will look at you and judge you. If they like you, they will work with you. It does not matter whether they are white or Indian. It is a problem generally among the homeless.
Senator Chaput: Someone talked about teaching young kids about their history. Is it being done in your schools?
Mr. Potskin: What is lacking is regional history of the Aboriginal cultures. From what I have seen in Edmonton and Calgary, we are learning about the Iroquois, whose lands were down east here, and we are learning about Louis Riel, and he is still considered a traitor in the history books. However, there is no local history for the Aboriginal groups. It is up to the provinces to localize their history and cultural training within the school systems.
Ms. Waite: Separate schools are taking natives from their own areas in the school and putting the family into the school to teach. I taught in Calgary for 30 years and that is why it was quiet for a long time. You have to let people like John Potskin do this. They are capable of going into the classroom. That is why Calgary was quiet for so long, and then suddenly everything popped.
The Chairman: Mr. Warner, do you have any comments on Senator Chaput's comments on the schools and education?
Mr. Warner: What was the question again?
Senator Chaput: You talked about how you wanted the kids to get their own identities. To do that, you need to know where you come from, and you have to be proud of what you are. Otherwise, it is as though you do not have any roots. I was wondering if history was taught in the schools.
Mr. Warner: That is a totally good idea. We had a lot of kids who were coming back from schools and not learning anything about their own history. Along with education, you are talking more about history, especially with a strong cultural emphasis. That is something the youth that we work with would be involved in, especially if a lot of culture was involved with the history.
Senator Chaput: Yes, traditions, culture and interests.
Statistics Canada just released its 2001 statistics. A disproportionate majority of the Aboriginal people in urban areas are under the age of 14 years.
Mr. Potskin: The Aboriginal population under age 24 is 50 per cent. Out of that 50 per cent, 60 per cent are under the age of 14.
Senator Léger: In the article you were reading, Ms. Waite, the 51 per cent of Aboriginal people in urban areas is not just youth, is the correct? It must be families that moved out.
Ms. Waite: I would think so.
Senator Léger: Adults are included in that figure. About 88 per cent of the government money goes to the reserves for programs on those reserves, and 3.5 per cent goes to the city?
Ms. Waite: Yes
Senator Léger: Do you think the government reads statistics? Are we lost?
Ms. Waite: I am the one who graduated in economics.
Senator Léger: It is funny. That is the government part. Why do we have that imbalance? We will ask another department about that.
I know this committee wants the youth in urban areas, but parents have a residential education, you said, or whatever. Is anything being done to help the adults in the urban areas, at the same time as helping the youth?
Ms. Waite: It is. I had three people coming to my office who could not read. I went to what is now Bow Valley College. It was then AVC, Alberta Vocational College. One was a man who wanted to be a taxidermist, and he knew he had a two-hour examine coming up. He could not read for the exam. Another was a woman whose children were in school and she could not help with the homework, and so on. This is a slow process. You expect sparks and fireworks but you will not get that. Those three learned how to read, and they were valuable citizens as a result.
I want to tell you something else: Out of that Head Start program I had three gifted students. How could I tell they were gifted? At the age of two, they were using very structurally complex English sentences, although the homes that they came from were traditionally Blackfoot. That is tricky business, and they were very gifted children.
First, you must convince grandmother that a gifted child does not mean she is spiritually gifted, but that she is academically gifted. You must separate the two. We finally got that message through, but then grandmother stepped in and sent the girl back to the reserve. That is the hardest place for a gifted child to work. I kept her in class because I knew she would run away eventually; it would be too much for her. The social workers will not let us follow through with these children. We need every gifted student we can get. When they came out with Head Start, we wanted permission to help with the child and ensure that she got the books she needed to re-enforce the academic atmosphere. We did not get that permission from the social workers at all, and the support was cut right off.
Senator Léger: That brings in my third question. Mr. Potskin, you mentioned the ``awareness.'' Is there anything being done? I feel I am fortunate as a senator to be here to learn what I have been learning for the past year and half. I am fortunate to become aware. Is anything being done to help these social workers, to help the other kind of mentality? We are not judging or blaming, but are we in the white schools also sharing the Aboriginal cultures, the awareness?
Mr. Potskin: The greatest awareness of every culture that I have seen would be in Edmonton, at the Heritage Festival, and that should be promoted, not only from the aspect of native awareness but also to ensure that everyone learns about their own culture.
A friend of mine is dating a Chinese woman who is really into her culture. He said that she is a Chinese fanatic. I asked him what he is and he said, ``I am Canadian.'' I said that watching hockey every day does not make him a Canadian, so he said he was Polish. I asked why he did not go to the Polish church. I told him that there was a Polish youth centre up the street where he could volunteer, but he said he was Canadian, not Polish.
I think that our Canadian society has to go back to its own roots. I think that if you learn about your own culture, you will be more aware of everyone else's culture as well.
Senator Léger: There are no courses in schools that teach us about our culture.
Mr. Potskin: There are some native specialists.
Senator Léger: Is there a course? Do you learn that from history books?
Mr. Potskin: I made a presentation to Hedy Fry when she was the Minister of Multiculturalism. I said that we should encourage every province to start educating on native awareness. I think Ontario has Black Awareness Month. We need native awareness classes all across the country.
In the United States, Black Awareness is working to help black people with self-esteem, and it would work here with Aboriginal people.
Senator Léger: Mr. Warner, you said you had an all-Aboriginal board?
Mr. Warner: Yes, including two elders.
Senator Christensen: Mr. Warner, is your youth community a live-in situation?
Mr. Warner: Yes, it is.
Senator Christensen: How many boys do you have?
Mr. Warner: We have a maximum of six boys at any one time.
Senator Christensen: You have the children but you also work with their families, where possible?
Mr. Warner: That is correct.
Senator Christensen: How do they come to your centre?
Mr. Warner: A lot of times they contact us directly.
Senator Christensen: The children do?
Mr. Warner: It is usually a parent who will contact us when they are having trouble with a young person. We have liaison with the Department of Social Services. They are steered that way, and admissions come in based on where the needs are. We meet as a committee and decide who to admit. From that point on, there are reviews with the family and the child in the group home every four to six weeks, or as need be, depending on how things are developing.
Senator Christensen: When a parent — probably usually a single parent — is having a problem with a child who is out on the streets and out of control, or whatever, they would come to you and ask for help?
Mr. Warner: Yes, or their worker. Sometimes they do not come to us or the worker. Sometimes it is via their history; there is just too much acting-out.
Senator Christensen: You said that some of them are with you for a lengthy period of time?
Mr. Warner: Yes.
Senator Christensen: With only six spaces, you are not able to deal with a lot of children, are you?
Mr. Warner: That is right.
Senator Christensen: It is a very small community.
Mr. Potskin, you spoke about homelessness and said something that we hear often when people are talking about homelessness: that is, they are homeless because they want to be out on the street. You mentioned that that is the lifestyle that some people want, and that those are not the people we should be dealing with.
Could you elaborate on the subject of those who are happy to be homeless and out on the street? I have never really bought that argument and I would like you to expand on it.
Mr. Potskin: Maybe it is the culture of the gypsies. They did not like to be in one place. We have an Aboriginal newspaper in the community and one Aboriginal woman writes to us every month. She writes about how she enjoys living on the streets and not having to pay rent. She stays at a place where they pay $10, and 20 of them sleep in a bachelor apartment.
Senator Christensen: Then they are not truly homeless.
Mr. Potskin: They are not truly homeless, but she spends all day on the streets selling her artwork. She goes from apartment to apartment. Depending on the month, they live in abandoned houses.
One reason she enjoys it is that she does not have any boundaries or limits. She does not have a full-time job that she is committed to, and she enjoys travelling. She has been all across Canada and through some of the United States. She is only 22 years old and says that she has learned more already than most people will ever learn in their lives. She enjoys the lifestyle, as do some other youths. Some of us enjoy stable lives, owning our own homes and having a cat; some like to roam around the country.
Senator Christensen: I would assume that she would be an exception.
Mr. Potskin: There are a few who really enjoy that life style, but most of them do not want to be there.
Senator Hubley: Mr. Warner, parenting skills is a theme that has been recurring. What has happened to parenting skills? Is it just this generation where we have very young parents and single-family parents?
Mr. Warner: That is a very good question, and I would say it is intergenerational. It goes back two or three generations. It is interesting that you ask that question because I used to teach the mothers of two of the last four admissions at my agency when they were at the alternative school at Cornwall. Now, after a long period of absence, they have surfaced and their kids are in trouble. That is one generation that I know of, but I think it goes back before then. I recall some of their circumstances when they were younger. Their socio-economic and lifestyle lot was as difficult then as it is now. There has not been much change in that regard.
Another senator asked earlier who is providing these services and whether they are available. Through the Department of Social Services there are parental upgrading and life skills courses. However, the courses are offered periodically rather than constantly. The younger generation of mothers today is flying by the seat of its pants, and not out of lack of love or effort. It is just that many youth who are growing up are uncontrollable.
Support has to be all encompassing. There has to be more of a holistic approach. It has to include housing and they need to have someone whom they trust to talk to about their problems. This develops over time and through word of mouth, and it can be done.
In the Department of Social Services in Saskatchewan, social service workers have huge caseloads. Their jobs include dealing with finances, family protection and family care. The job does not focus only on families; they have many more things to cover. There has to be more community-based support.
Ms. Waite: Mr. Warner comes from a stable community. Winnipeg is stable, too; it does not grow.
Calgary is probably one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada, and it is appalling to those of us who grow up there. If I said this in Calgary, they would say, ``These are just the problems you have with a big city, dear.'' I do not like that answer, but it is probably true. We have the problems of a big city now.
We have traffic problems. It may take you two hours to drive home. People's tempers are short now. Language is used that you never heard before in Calgary. Fights occur all the time; we never had that before. They just say, ``Well, it is because you are a big city now and everyone has to grow up.'' The natives are caught in the middle, too. I am not complaining bitterly for myself, but Calgary is a big city. Where do you go for this and that? I have manuals here that tell you what to do for survival in the city, but they do not really cover the problem.
The Chairman: Mr. Warner, you are the Executive Director for the Friendship Centre in Regina; is that correct?
Mr. Warner: No, the Regina Native Youth Community Services.
The Chairman: That is the special group home that you are running, is that correct?
Mr. Warner: Yes, that is correct.
The Chairman: There is a Friendship Centre in Regina, though, am I correct?
Mr. Warner: Yes, that is correct.
The Chairman: Do you access any of that? What is happening in the Friendship Centre?
Mr. Warner: We have our own programming within our centre. Our daily routines travel week to week within our place and in the community. We do not access the Friendship Centre. On occasion, when something comes up that we find valuable, we will access that. We try to keep our eyes open for things going on in the community. There are also inner city schools in Regina, too, community schools that have large Aboriginal populations. Just in terms of cultural awareness, that is evident in the schools. Right now, we do not have kids attending those schools, although we have in the past. That has to do with what area you are from and that sort of thing.
Ms. Waite: Winnipeg has three Friendship Centres.
The Chairman: They have one, and they have many agencies there, some very exciting ones.
Ms. Waite: We patterned ours on the one in Winnipeg. Winnipeg was first and ours was third. They were very cooperative in letting us have their material.
Senator Hubley: Mr. Warner, in regard to the curriculum at your school, the six youths that you have at the centre, do they go to school at your institution?
Mr. Warner: No, they do not.
Senator Hubley: Do they not go to school while they are there?
Mr. Warner: No, we access a school for them that is mostly in the jurisdiction where we are located. That also means something as well. However, they all go to school. Often, this is the first time they have gone to school regularly.
The Chairman: If there are no other questions, I would like to thank our panel for an enlightening, interesting and important presentation for this action plan for change for urban Aboriginal youth. We do not have any answers. This is an action plan for change. By the time we are finished with this, it is to be hoped that we will be in a position to give you the ammunition you need to be able to access funding, and to give the government the statistics to prove how important this issue is.
Thank you very much. This session has been very interesting.
The committee adjourned.