Why did Canada separate Indigenous families from their children?

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Why did Canada separate Indigenous¹ families from their children?

Transcript²

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to advocate Andre Bear about the root causes of child separation in Canada, and what needs to be done. The country promised more than $30 billion to the child welfare system.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Canada plans to reform its treatment of children of Indigenous families. The country promised more than $30 billion to fix the child welfare system. That system has often separated children from their parents. Many people know the United States' own version of this story. Generations ago, this country used to put many Native children in boarding schools. Canada did the same and much more recently, as recently as 1996. Even today, the government continues to put many Indigenous kids in foster care, and does that far more often than the kids of other families. Officially, children are separated due to poverty or substance abuse. We called an advocate on this issue. And we're about to hear him talk of practices that some will find disturbing. Andre Bear is 27 and described the policy that Canada now acknowledges to be wrong.

ANDRE BEAR: It's intended to address the systemic discrimination of Indigenous children in Canada. And this all started with the Indian residential³ schools in Canada. You would call them boarding schools in the United States, where the intention was to kill the Indian in the child and assimilate Indigenous children into the dominant⁴ body or society. And so following the Indian residential schools in Canada, Indigenous children were further being taken from their families, usually justified⁵ through means of poverty or addictions⁷. And they would be placed intentionally⁸ with non-Indigenous families.

INSKEEP: I guess we should describe how these policies were promoted at the time. It was thought that it would be better if kids learned English, if kids learned what we would think of as Western culture and not learn the culture they were born into. And that's what would happen first in these schools and then in foster care. Is that right?

BEAR: Yes. Absolutely. The assimilation policies, many believe, even have evolved. They're not as explicit⁹. But it is more on the down low where these children are discriminated¹⁰, underfunded and where the provinces will not let go over the jurisdiction¹¹ that they have. We have an alarming rate of First Nation children that are apprehended¹². Birth alerts also are still occurring today.

INSKEEP: Birth alerts, what are those?

BEAR: When a First Nations mother has an addiction⁶ or is in poverty, the child welfare system in the province will send a notice to the hospital. They put the woman on notice that when they are going to give birth to this child, it will immediately be apprehended and placed under the care of the ministry¹³.

INSKEEP: Apprehended is a grim word for that.

BEAR: Absolutely. And speaking of apprehended, I myself am one of the children that was apprehended as a child. And I distinctly remember the time of being with my mother, who was an alcoholic¹⁴ due to being abused in Indian residential schools. And because of her alcoholism, and we lived in poverty, I guess it made it very easy for the ministry to cast my mom as a high risk. And I remember being placed with a white family and feeling like I was with strangers.

INSKEEP: How long were you with that other family?

BEAR: It wasn't long, actually. It must have been about six months that I was with the other family. But I was lucky that over time, my mom was able to attend rehabilitation¹⁵ and get into school and try her best to get her children back. It happened twice in my life and due to the same things, addictions and poverty.

INSKEEP: Did you say that your mother herself, when she was young, was taken away from her parents and put in one of that era's residential schools?

BEAR: Yes. So when my mom was young, they were forced to attend Indian residential schools. And so it was, again, a different version of assimilation policy. Her parents were also taken and placed into Indian residential schools. And around that era of about, I'd say, 50 years ago or maybe 60 years ago - last year, I had worked with a law firm in Saskatchewan. And we had sea cans full of files from Indian residential school survivors¹⁶. And every single file that I've read as a lawyer in training was about being sexually abused in these schools, the constant torture and bullying¹⁷ that would happen. And these were kids. These survivors had shared their stories of what they had faced. And so the intergenerational trauma¹⁸ and the effects from these schools is very real. It's just as real as the policies that continue to evolve and eradicate¹⁹ Indigenous families.

INSKEEP: If we were able to go find the child welfare worker or person from authority who took you away from your mother when you were 3, I wonder if we'd face a hard question - because that person might say, well, this was an unsafe home for a child with someone who is abusing alcohol. I had to do something, they might say. What do you think they should have done?

BEAR: I think that is the most important and key question that these social workers need to ask themselves when entering child protection in Canada. When we look at social work, we have to look at rebuilding the nationhood of Indigenous peoples. And that starts with the family and making sure that we are not doing more to destroy those families, that we are doing the best that we can to keep them together.

INSKEEP: So now the Canadian government has committed $40 billion to address this problem, 40 billion Canadian dollars. That's 30-some billion U.S. dollars. What could that money do?

BEAR: Well, half of the money is meant to reform the child welfare system. And that is what I think is most promising²⁰. And I'm hoping that money will go specifically towards decolonizing these policies and the behaviors and mindsets of government decision-makers, policymakers, that have created this vicious industry for Indigenous children that are apprehended. But again, I don't think money will ever solve the problems from the harms caused by the child welfare system. There's going to be still people that are going to fight to keep Indigenous children apprehended even today. They're going to fight to keep birth alerts happening. And this kind of mindset is, to me, anyways - it's like an entitlement that people that work in the child welfare industry begin to feel that they have over Indigenous children because they've had control over them for so long.

INSKEEP: Andre Bear, thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it.

BEAR: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to have my voice heard.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALABASTER DEPLUME'S "VISIT CROATIA")

1 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

4 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

5 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

6 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

7 addictions   

瘾( addiction的名词复数 )； 吸毒成瘾； 沉溺； 癖好

参考例句：

• He has removed the stigma of drug addictions. 他已经洗去吸毒的污点了。
• Intelligent people are good at using reason to control excessive addictions. 智慧的人善于用理性来控制过度的嗜欲。

8 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

9 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

10 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

11 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

12 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

13 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

14 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

15 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

16 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

17 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

19 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

20 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。