Canada likely to face criticism over first nations
Canada likely to face criticism over first nations
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010wintergames/Canada+likely+face+cr...
By Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun, October 15, 2009
Canada's aboriginal fact is now literally etched into Vancouver's Winter Olympics for the world to see.
The raven and orca, the timeless motifs of West Coast aboriginal culture, are the background of the Games' gold, silver and bronze medals unveiled Thursday.
British Columbia's first peoples, who lived here thousands of years before Europeans arrived and largely avoided treaties signing away their lands, are in fact woven into the fabric of the 2010 Olympics as never before.
Vancouver's Olympic organizers and the International Olympic Committee acknowledge the Winter Games are taking place on the traditional lands of "four host first nations" -- the Lil'wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. That official recognition is a first in Olympic history.
On the surface it all seems a wonderful sign of how far things have come, particularly in B.C., in Canada's slowly evolving, often-strained relationship with its poorest citizens.
Yet by making aboriginals the leitmotif of the 2010 Games, Canadians shouldn't necessarily expect praise from abroad. Get ready for some unflattering attention when the world's media arrive in Vancouver in the next few months and wonder what all the aboriginal elements in the Games really mean.
Just as they did in Australia, which has its own troubled relationship with aboriginals and tried to hastily sort things out before the 2000 Summer Olympics, those pesky reporters from afar will want to judge for themselves just how things are really going between Canada's first nations minority and the country's majority.
The facts they will unearth won't be pretty. Here are a few of them, in case you need reminding:
- Aboriginals experience an unemployment rate that is at least double that of other Canadians.
- A male aboriginal dies 7.4 years earlier than a non-aboriginal Canadian. An aboriginal woman will die 5.2 years earlier than her non-native counterpart.
- The suicide rate in aboriginal communities is twice the national rate. Aboriginals between the ages of 10 to 24 are at least five times more likely to commit suicide than a non-aboriginal Canadian in the same age group.
- Only one in four aboriginals between 15 and 44 years of age holds a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree, compared to about half of the non-aboriginal population. Two out of three aboriginal children living on reserves will not graduate from high school.
Premier Gordon Campbell looked at these stunning numbers a few years back and came up with a fitting description of the lot of first nations in Canadian society: he called it Canada's third solitude.
International journalists, I suspect, will simply look at the data and call it Canada's underclass. Let's face it, the statistics speak for themselves.
Of course, it's not the sort of message the Olympic marketing machine or our civic and provincial leaders are hoping for during our international moment. They much prefer to stress the inclusion of first nations into the Games, the performance of aboriginal athletes and the presence of aboriginal art and myths that will be featured in the Olympic pageantry and medal ceremonies.
But here's a thought.
Why don't we simply embrace the obvious? There is an inequality in Canadian society. There has been -- and still is -- racism in our midst. Being born aboriginal puts a child at a deep disadvantage in Canadian society, even today.
We can't credibly deny that as a country.
What we can tell the world this February, however, is that placing the symbols of West Coast aboriginal society on our Olympic medals isn't an attempt to gloss over Canada's social inequity. It isn't patronizing or a marketing ploy.
Rather, putting the orca and raven on our Olympic medals -- as well as the earlier decision to make the high arctic Inukshuk the Games' symbol -- is a sign of recognition. We've taken another step acknowledging the country's aboriginals are essential threads in British Columbia's -- and Canada's -- national tapestry.