Homelessness In Canada

The social issue of immigrant homelessness is the topic our group has chosen for this report. Being children of immigrant parents, we felt more connected to this topic. This issue concerns us because it is an issue of inequality and a crime against basic human rights which simply cannot be swept under a rug. Every human being has worth and deserves a right to having their basic needs met. Toronto, research and data collected on homeless immigrants identifies the unstable realities they face, making immigrants a “high-risk sub-group that face particular challenges and require special strategies in homelessness prevention” (Allen, S. 2003). With an increase in immigrant families moving to Canada to begin a new life, they encounter many obstacles

The impact of colonization on First Nations peoples in Canada is unsurpassable, regarding every aspect of Aboriginal life and well-being. Throughout Canadian history, the government has been aiming to assimilate and annihilate Aboriginal people by way of racist policies, ethnocentric institutions, discriminatory laws and destructive capitalist behaviours. Because of this, Aboriginal people have suffered many losses, both physically and culturally. One of the main perpetrators of enacting this loss is the education system. The education system in Canada has and continues to threaten the relationship First Nations peoples have with the land. The connection First Nations peoples have with the land is crucial to their cultures, traditions, ceremonies and beliefs. Colonization and colonialism jeopardize this relationship and that is what this essay will address.

“Today … there is a growing crisis of women’s homelessness across Canada. The Canadian government has failed to explore the causes of women’s homelessness” (Rahder, 2006, p.38). This growing issue is caused by societies carelessness on the homelessness issue, and the lack of support to change it. Even the Canadian government does not see it as an urgent issue to address because, as stated above, they have even failed to

Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools. The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history. The government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcefully remove children from their homes, and we apologize for having done this. We now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant cultures and traditions, that it created a void in many lives and communities, and we apologize for having done this. It has taken extraordinary courage for the thousands of survivors that have come forward to speak publicly about the abuse they suffered. These objectives were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, ‘to kill the Indian in the child.' Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and had no place in our country. There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian residential schools system ever again to prevail. We now recognize that, far too often, these institutions gave rise to abuse or neglect and were inadequately controlled, and we apologize for failing to protect you.” (Campion-Smith, Bruce.

Canada ­as a nation is known to the world for being loving, courteous, and typically very welcoming of all ethnicities. Nevertheless, the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous population over the past decades, appears to suggest otherwise. Indigenous people have been tormented and oppressed by the Canadian society for hundreds of years and remain to live under discrimination resulting in cultural brutality. This, and more, has caused severe negative cultural consequences, psychological and sociological effects. The history of the seclusion of Indigenous people has played a prominent aspect in the development and impact of how Indigenous people are treated and perceived in today’s society. Unfortunately, our history with respect to the treatment of Indigenous communities is not something in which we should take pride in. The Indian Act of 1876 is an excellent model of how the behavior of racial and cultural superiority attributed to the destruction of Indigenous culture and beliefs. The Indian Act established by the Canadian government is a policy of Aboriginal assimilation which compels Indigenous parents under threat of prosecution to integrate their children into Residential Schools. As a nation, we are reminded by past actions that has prompted the weakening of the identity of Indigenous peoples. Residential schools has also contributed to the annihilation of Indigenous culture which was to kill the Indian in the child by isolating them from the influence of their parents and

The majority of homeless children and females are victims of domestic violence (NCH, 1998). It is estimated that there are 200 000 homeless people who live on the streets of Canada (Globe and Mail, 1998) and an 80 000 more in risk of becoming homeless (National Post, 1998). Of these people between 30% and 35% are people with severe mental illnesses (National Post, 1998). "On any given night, 45% of the 4 200 people filling Toronto's homeless shelters are families with children" (Toronto Star, 1998). An increasing number of the homeless are teenagers of which many are runaways who have been kicked out or felt they had no choice but to leave (Michaud, Margaret, 1988). It is difficult to find out exactly what age categories the homeless fit into because the information is very limited. -3- WHY THEY ARE HOMELESS There is so many different causes of homelessness the largest being poverty (NCH, 1998). Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, health care and child care. It is hard to make choices when recourses are so limited. Unemployment is also a large contribution to the homeless society (NCH, 1998). Another factor contributing to homelessness is the decline in Social Services. Within the last few years, government has made it increasingly difficult for anyone to be approved to get assistance. There is also the factors of domestic violence which forces many out of their home, mental illness which enables the individuals to obtain

When discussing the Aboriginal quality of life within Canada there are several issues that come to mind, such as health, education, housing and our Canadian-Indigenous relationship (First Ministers And National Aboriginal Leaders, 2005, p. 1). However, many times Canadians neglect to distinguish the root of the issue. While residential schools may be addressed and looked upon historically, the traumas and effects are still particularly palpable for many Indigenous communities. For this reason, it is significant for Canadians to be empathetic towards the underlying issues, for obstacles like Indigenous health to be properly handled. Within this essay, I create an awareness of the impacts of assimilation tactics to Aboriginal communities;

The current outcome of the Sixties Scoop is still unresolved; it was only in 2010 that a class action suit was brought to the courts in Ontario and 2011 from survivors in British Columbia. Restitution for this is far from over. According to John Beaucage the former Grand Chief of the Union of Ontario Indians, we have now entered a new stage in the assimilation of aboriginals called the “Millennium Scoop”. In his report commissioned by the Ministry Children and Youth Services he states “Although Aboriginal people make up about 2 per cent of the province’s population (2006 Census); we make up a far greater percentage of the children in care (estimates are from 10 to 20 per cent)” (Beaucage, 2011). While this is information is based on one report it does produce viable solutions and a basis for additional research.

As residential schools were discredited, the child welfare system became the new agent of assimilation and colonization (Russel, 2015). The introduction of section 88 in the Indian Act made it possible to enforce provincial child welfare legislation on-reserves (Knozlowski, Sinha, Hoey, & Lucas, 2011). This allowed provincial child welfare authorities to apprehend Indigenous children living on these reserves, which resulted in a sudden acceleration in child welfare workers removing Indigenous children from their communities (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996). Before Section 88 emerged less than 1% of children in care in BC were Indigenous but by the early 1960s, 34% of children in care were Indigenous (Knozlowski et al., 2011).

Today in Canada, a rise in youth homelessness is being observed across the country. Despite common assumptions, the issue of street youth is not isolated to Toronto or Montreal, but has become pervasive across the country. Although accurate statistics are impossible to come by, the disturbing reality is that both urban centers and rural communities nationwide, are struggling to provide their youth with adequate, affordable housing. Issues surrounding the supply and affordability of housing, combined with personal circumstances characterized by instability, are distancing youth’s access to housing. These causes and their overall consequences, must be faced before lasting solutions can be shaped by society. Housing Canada’s street youth will

Unfamiliar with extended family child-rearing practices and communal values, government social service workers attempted to ‘rescue’ children from their Aboriginal families and communities, devastating children’s lives and furthering the destitution of many families. Culture and ethnicity were not taken into consideration as it was assumed that the child, being pliable, would take on the heritage and culture of the foster/adoptive parents (Armitage, 1995). The forced removal of children and youth from their Native communities has been linked with social problems such as “high suicide rate, sexual exploitation, substance use and abuse, poverty, low educational achievement and chronic unemployment” (Lavell-Harvard and Lavell, 2006, p.144). Newly designated funds from the federal to the provincial governments were “the primary catalysts for state involvement in the well-being of Aboriginal children…as Ottawa guaranteed payment for each child apprehended” (Lavell-Harvard and Lavell, 2006, p.145). Exporting Aboriginal children to the United States was common practice. Private American adoption agencies paid Canadian child welfare services $5,000 to $10,000 per child (LavellHarvard and Lavell, 2006). These agencies rarely went beyond confirming the applicant’s ability to pay, resulting in minimal screening and monitoring of foster or adoptive parents (Fournier and

The main historical force that has contributed to Tom and his family’s situation, is the lasting effects of the residential school system on Aboriginal parenting. Although it is unclear in this case whether or not Tom’s parents are victims of residential schools, the lasting affects caused by residential schools still exists within every member of the Aboriginal community. The common misconception during the time of residential schools was that Aboriginal people were unable to care for their own children, and this responsibility must be put in the hands of the state. This misconception continues to exist within contemporary Canadian society, as the intergenerational trauma that exists within Aboriginal communities, which was caused by residential schools and the sixties scoop, has caused some members of Canadian society to believe that Aboriginal people are still unable to parent their own children. The misconception that Aboriginal parents, in this case Tom’s parents, are unable to parent their children grew due the fact that the development of effective parenting skills and child rearing behaviours within the Aboriginal community was ruined due to the residential school system, as children were separated from their family and were not able to be taught and shown how to properly handle parenting (Collins

Residential schools in Canada were present for over 100 years and were created by the government to eliminate the Indigenous culture. These schools successfully separated families while creating huge cultural barriers between children and their Native culture (COHA, 2011). These children were forcibly removed from their families and taken to residential schools because Canadians saw Indigenous peoples as “backwards” or “savage” (COHA, 2011). They also believed that they were inferior to Natives and that these schools would help “civilize” aboriginals by replacing their Native traits with Western values (COHA, 2011).

Many youth who have or are still living on the streets have faced sexual or physical abuse from an adult at some point in their lives and the data states that 61% of all youth face this (McKay, E, (2009). Seeing the Possibilities. The Need for a Mental health Focus Amongst Street-Involved Youth: Recognizing and Supporting Resilience. Toronto: Wellesley Institute.). Approximately 1,500 – 2,000 homeless youth make up the total amount of homeless people sleeping on the streets every night in Toronto; this number is considerably large and it continues to grow because the issue of youth homelessness or homelessness in general is not thought of as a priority by various levels of government and therefore

The target population for this study will be urban Indigenous youth aged 16-19 living in Metro Vancouver who are currently in the process of transitioning out of the foster care system. Recruitment will be undertaken through networks and programs associated with the Lu’ma Native Housing Society, such as the Lu’ma Aboriginal Youth Mentorship Program and other organizations who provide services to Indigenous youth in the foster care system.