The Mistreatment Of Aboriginals In Canada

In the early sixteenth century, Europeans sailed and searched for land beyond Europe. As a result of these searches, the area now known as Canada along with the rest of North and South America was settled by Europeans, with the British and the French settling in Canada. However, the British and the French were not the first people to settle in Canada. Prior to them, several groups of people, referred to today as Aboriginals, Native Americans, First Nations, or Indigenous people, lived in the area. With the arrival of the Europeans, the Aboriginals were treated poorly in many ways, including being removed from their land in order to make room for settlers. To add insult to injury, assimilationist policies including residential schools were put …show more content…
This can be seen in the high poverty and unemployment rates in Aboriginals today, with the unemployment rate being up to 80% in some communities, and the poverty rate being 26% (Waldman, 2009) (Malley-Morrison, 2003). These statistics indicate that the economic situation of Aboriginals remains poor, and also indicate that the quality of life on reserves is poor. In fact, many communities today even face water contamination issues (Sawchuk, 2011).With the harsh economic state of aboriginal reserves, Aboriginals are unhappy and as a result have a high prevalence of suicide and alcoholism. The rate of suicide among Aboriginals is approximately five to six times Canada’s national average, and the rate of alcohol-related deaths is about four times higher than average (Sawchuk, 2011) (Waldman, 2009). The prevalence of suicide and alcoholism in Aboriginals further emphasize the poor conditions that Aboriginals live under today. Obviously, the poor conditions on reserves are not the only factor causing Aboriginals to be unhappy. The poor mental health and trauma that many Aboriginal people suffer from due to history contribute more to the low quality of life. As studies of Jewish people have shown that trauma is passed down through generations, it is believed that trauma from the historical treatment of Aboriginals has been passed down to current generations, meaning that newer generations continue to feel the effects of the poor treatment endured by their ancestors (Duran, 1998). The poor mental health of many Aboriginals along with poor reserve and economic conditions today support that Aboriginals have been treated unfairly in the past, considering that several of the issues Aboriginal people suffer from today can be linked to unintentional but negative results from assimilation policies and