Over-representation of Indigenous children within the Canadian child welfare system
CURRENT SITUATION: There continues to be a high over-representation of Indigenous children within the Canadian child welfare system. According to Statistics Canada, approximately 7% of the Canadian population consists of Aboriginal children. (StatCan, 2011.) However, Aboriginal children represented almost half of the population within the child welfare system at 48% (StatCan, 2011.) The population of Indigenous children within the child welfare system is approximately triple the attendance of students that were in the residential school system. (Blackstock, 2005). To present date, approximately 4,300 of Aboriginal children aged four and under are living in foster care.
BACKGROUND:
- The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal had issued a ruling against the Canadian federal government stating that the federal government had …show more content…
- Jane Philpott (Minister of Indigenous Services) has proposed an emergency meeting regarding the issue of Aboriginal child welfare in an effort to to find strategies to merge Indigenous children back into Indigenous communities. The goal of the meeting is to unite stakeholders (such as Indigenous leaders- First Nations, Metis and Inuit) and child and family services agencies in order to create cohesive resolutions as a team.
- The over-representation of Indigenous children within the child welfare system is due to the intergenerational remnants of the negative impact between Canadian social workers and Indigenous Peoples. Social workers withheld racist beliefs towards Indigenous Peoples and deemed their parenting practices as “unfit”; this provided them reasoning for unjustly apprehending Indigenous children from their families. The residential school system existed to “remove the Indian from the
CURRENT SITUATION: There continues to be a high over-representation of Indigenous children within the Canadian child welfare system. According to Statistics Canada, approximately 7% of the Canadian population consists of Aboriginal children. (StatCan, 2011.) However, Aboriginal children represented almost half of the population within the child welfare system at 48% (StatCan, 2011.) The population of Indigenous children within the child welfare system is approximately triple the attendance of students that were in the residential school system. (Blackstock, 2005). To present date, approximately 4,300 of Aboriginal children aged four and under are living in foster care.
BACKGROUND:
- The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal had issued a ruling against the Canadian federal government stating that the federal government had …show more content…
- Jane Philpott (Minister of Indigenous Services) has proposed an emergency meeting regarding the issue of Aboriginal child welfare in an effort to to find strategies to merge Indigenous children back into Indigenous communities. The goal of the meeting is to unite stakeholders (such as Indigenous leaders- First Nations, Metis and Inuit) and child and family services agencies in order to create cohesive resolutions as a team.
- The over-representation of Indigenous children within the child welfare system is due to the intergenerational remnants of the negative impact between Canadian social workers and Indigenous Peoples. Social workers withheld racist beliefs towards Indigenous Peoples and deemed their parenting practices as “unfit”; this provided them reasoning for unjustly apprehending Indigenous children from their families. The residential school system existed to “remove the Indian from the