Issues, Conundrums, Misery

First Nations communities in Canada are assailed with world-class problems. High unemployment, isolation, drug and alcohol dependency, dysfunctional families on reserves, high levels of resentment, boredom, lack of educational opportunities, sometimes-inadequate medical treatment, and high rates of suicide plague all too many of them. Children are born with fetal alcohol syndrome, into families unprepared to adequately nurture and support their offspring.

Out of this sad and sorry reality results a high rate of criminal activity and incarceration, far surpassing their numbers within the country on a community-percentage scale. One of the other offshoots of these circumstances is that resentment that breeds a special kind of social divestiture. There is the First Nations insistence on being sovereign, as First Nations, answerable to their own distinct cultural imperatives and system of justice.

A social distance and values-inheritance that sets First Nations apart from the larger community is considered part of their treasured inheritance.  Not so treasured is the wide-ranging violence that emanates from these communities, an inchoate rage sometimes turned inwardly through the plague of self-harm through addictions, neglect and criminal activities. And predation on women and children. The plight of children left to their own devices and harming themselves represents an agonizing misery.

It is hardly surprising that groups of young aboriginals become involved in serious crimes, from drug smuggling, to tobacco smuggling, gun-running to casual violence. And then there are the occasional confrontations with other elements of the Canadian identity, with young armed men in volatile situations reacting to what they see as the casual take-over of traditional native lands awaiting treaty obligation fulfilments.

These situations bring bands of young aboriginal 'warriors' in direct confrontation with corporate interests, with other members of Canadian society, and with government agencies and the law. Invariably, the law will step back, not wishing to accelerate any kind of incident that will swiftly get out of hand. In Ontario there have been such incidents in the past, and they have not ended with good will being extended on both sides.

The issue of First Nations children not having access to equal educational opportunities compared to those of other children not living on reserves; the issue of aboriginals living in remote communities having to be flown out to established medical institutions for medical treatment far from home, the issue of high suicide rates within the communities, the issues of sexual predation, violence and killing, the issue of social prejudice.

These communities fail themselves by refusing to step into the larger society and meld with it, taking advantage of all the opportunities equally available to others, while still retaining those parts of their cultural awareness that have meaning to them. They are failed by their national elected chiefs who are not adequately representing their full interests. They are failed by a government hemmed in by its own inability to act conclusively.