Barrier Free Manitoba

Having celebrated Aboriginal Day yesterday and while we continue our push to secure government's commitment to develop an accessible education standard, we'd like to reflect on the disproportionate and unjust impacts that disabilities have on Indigenous People in Manitoba and across Canada.

For one thing, disability rates are much higher among Indigenous People than the general population. This was recognized by our provincial government almost two decades ago in the 2001 major Full Citizenship policy document:

"While the 1991 Health and Activities Limitation Survey (1991 HALS) indicates 16 per cent of Canada’s population has a disability, the 1991 Statistics Canada Aboriginal People’s Survey indicates that 31.3 per cent of Aboriginal people were persons with disabilities. The term “Aboriginal” is used in this paper and in the Statistics Canada Survey to include First Nations (status Indian), Inuit, non- status, and Metis persons. In the 15 to 34 year old group, the disability rate for Aboriginal persons was 23.1 per cent as compared to a rate of 8 per cent in the general population. For those aged 35 to 54 years, 32.8 per cent of Aboriginal persons were disabled compared with 14 per cent of the general population."

Second, the services and assistance available in rural and remote Indigenous communities, particularly on reserve, are often much more limited than for persons with disabilities living in our towns and cities. And in our cities, many of the services that are available are not culturally appropriate.

The accessibility issues faced by Indigenous Peoples living outside our cities, the same issues that BFM has been working so hard on for 8+ years, are much more severe than for most Manitobans and citizens across our country. That includes everything from education, through to infrastructure, employment, health and transportation.

Third, many of the disabilities experienced by Indigenous Peoples are directly connected to the past history of colonialism and both recent and current government and corporate practices that perpetuate discrimination and disadvantage.

As but one illustrative example, just east of the Manitoba border and a bit north of cottage country for many Manitobans, is the case of Grassy Narrows. This is a picture of Bill Fobister Sr., a band member and former band administrator, who is living with the effects of mercury poisoning. The poisoning has come from the steady drip of the neurotoxin mercury that originated from paper mills and that has percolated through river sediment, the food chain and generations of Grassy Narrows First Nations residents for more than four decades, killing a community’s livelihood and then contaminating its people.

The Toronto Star recently did a fine job of covering this story of neglect and denial of basic human rights at Grassy Narrows. You can read the article at: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/07/24/disability-board-approves-mercury-poisoning-claims-from-grassy-narrows-first-nation.html

As the Manitoba Government's 2001 Full Citizenship document concluded:

"These higher rates of disability among Aboriginal persons, together with the significant representation of Aboriginal peoples in the population of Manitoba underscore the importance of addressing the needs of Aboriginal persons with disabilities."

We are all Treaty people. Those of us from the mainstream who work on disability issues, in our respect for the need for reconciliation, have a special responsibility to acknowledge and promote actions to address the needs, interests, rights and aspirations of Indigenous persons with disabilities, and to reach out to, and meaningfully engage with Indigenous People as we move forward.

You can read the section of the Full Citizenship document related to Indigenous Peoples at: https://www.gov.mb.ca/dio/citizenship/aboriginal.html