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Why Are Aboriginal Children Being Removed From Canadian Parents at an ‘Alarming’ Rate?

Dec. 11, 2012 11:13am Liz Klimas

Children of Indigenous Canadians Being Taken From Parents at a High Rate

Children play outside the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Reserve school in Canada, across the U.S.-Canada border from Port Huron, Mich., Oct. 21, 2005. (Photo: AP/Carlos Osorio)

It’s not the first time in recent years discussion about the welfare of aboriginal children — or First Nations children — in Canada and their removal from biological parents has been discussed. But with these children being taken from parents at a high rate in recent years due to a law that some find ambiguous in its definitions, the issue is cropping up again.

Press TV reported a mother saying 32 armed officers who were part of a government counter-terrorism team took her children. Press TV pointed out that the Canadian government in Ontario removes an average of 64 children out of 10,000 from parents and in Alberta 111 children out of 10,000 are taken. It calls this an “alarmingly high rate.” For comparison, it stated that Japan takes an average of 17 children per 10,000.

Watch the Press TV’s report:

In the video, one parent says the removal of the children comes down to a “money-making scheme because a lot of children have been sold into adoption.” The parent also said that it is used to eradicate native traditions and aboriginal claims to land.

Press TV doesn’t specify the law that it says parents consider “ambiguous with nebulous allegations of ‘neglectful parenting’,” but one that is integral at enforcing welfare standards for children in the country, including those of indigenous people, is the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The convention was ratified by Canada in 1991. Since then, UNICEF states that “Canada’s governments, schools and other institutions have progressively changed a number of laws, policies and practices to uphold children’s rights.” Recently, the Canadian Council of Child and Youth Advocates (CCCYA), which works to implement the convention in the country, hosted the vice-president of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Marta Maurá, who said the state of children in the country has continued to deteriorate, even after ratification.

“According to the UNICEF scorecard for industrialized countries, Canada stands 24th out of 35, with one in seven children – and one in four First Nations children – living in poverty,” Maurás said, according to a press release from the CCCYA (via the Sacramento Bee). “Issues of low-quality welfare services – particularly for the many children placed out of their homes for care – domestic violence, bullying and ill mental health affect children, especially if they are Aboriginal or Afro-Canadian, immigrants or suffer from some form of disability. Canada can afford to do better.”

In February 2012, the CCCYA released a report in which it said the government needed to specifically address the health, education and other rights of Aboriginal children.

“Child advocates across Canada share a number of concerns, including the over-representation of Aboriginal children in care and the quality of services those children receive, child poverty rates, and the lack of consistency when it comes to youth mental health treatment. We are confident this visit will help further inform the UN on the status of Canada’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Turpel-Lafond, B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, said in CCCYA’s press release.

According to a report by the Canadian Broadcast Company last year, there were more than 27,500 children of indigenous parents removed from their natural homes. This amount, it stated, is more than double the number that were forced into the residential school system in the 1960s. At the time of CBC’s 2011 article, former auditor general Sheila Fraser estimated that although aboriginals only composed 8 percent of the Canadian population, First Nation children were eight times more likely to be apart of the welfare system than other Canadian children. A report by First Nation’s leader John Beaucage found slightly different numbers showing aboriginals composed only 2 percent of the population and 10 to 20 percent of their children were in care.

Beaucage called this the “culmination of decades worth of social ills,” which included poverty and addiction, as well as politics that has conspired to remove First Nations children from parents, CBC reported.

As for how the U.N.’s Rights of the Child convention has played out in the United States, the U.S. is one out of only a few countries not to have ratified the convention.

Measures in the Rights of the Child convention that some advocacy groups like ParentalRights.org take issue with include some of the following:

A child’s “right to be heard” would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.^15.

According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children’s welfare.^16.

Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.^17.

Christian schools that refuse to teach “alternative worldviews” and teach that Christianity is the only true religion “fly in the face of article 29″ of the treaty.^18.

Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.^19.

Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.^20.

Last year, 31 GOP senators signed a resolution that opposed the convention. As of February 2012, 38 senators supported this resolution to oppose the treaty, according to ParentalRights.org. In a similar way, many Republican senators also recently blocked ratification of the U.N.’s Convention on Rights of Persons With Disabilities, which parental rights groups saw as a victory.

Editor’s note: We’ve received a few emails from readers questioning the motives of Press TV running such a story. TheBlaze has found other reports from other sources in the past of similar accounts of indigenous Canadian children being taken from parents and have included them in this report. Here is an example reported on by CBC News last year.

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Comments (29)

jegier
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 10:12am
Press TV is a state-owned propaganda wing of the Iranian government. Iran has been trying to paint Canada’s treatment of Natives as genocidal/apartheid/human rights crime etc. in an effort to attack the west and an increasingly critical government. This is NOT a story about government overreach and is instead a concerted effort by the Iranians to deflect criticism of themselves onto Canada.

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charleyrocks
Posted on December 12, 2012 at 7:05am
Sometimes whether we like it or not children need to be rescued. From drunken dads who do not want to join the rest of society but will accept the money. They either want to be part of canada or not. If they don’t then they need to go back to what they want to be a Indian but they don’t do that. Children are waiting to be rescued from the likes of Jeff warrens and his old man camps that buy girls to marry. Who will stand for them? they are not allowed to read or listen to the outside world the sons are dumped out on the streets when they come of age. I thought educated was everyone’s right??

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Auntie izlam
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 4:08pm
This “story” couldn’t possibly have anything to do with that moron ex-chief’s recent “victim” visit to Iran could it? If it sounds like propaganda it is.

The reality is that many, many aboriginal people are NOT good parents due to issues with substance abuse and an unwillingness to work toward a better future for themselves & their children. I’ve been on the reserves & seen how they don’t take care of their free homes, how they use their yards as refuse dumps, how they wreck cars & simply buy new ones instead of getting repairs. There was a minimum of 3-4 cars parked in front of most houses I saw. All of the cars were 5-10 years newer than mine, the one I had to work for & pay for myself.

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Bill Wallace
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 2:13pm
Until you have lived in Canada and seen the First Nations people in operation, don’t jump to conclusions. Lived there for 26 years (Alberta). The poverty, the lack of pride, etc., is alarming.

A high amount of using **** spray and warm water for a cheap buzz, huffing, gold paint drinking…all of these were common and normal occurrences among the First Nation tribes (the Blood tribe in southern alberta). Parents leaving young kids at home alone while they went out drinking, etc.

Is horrific.

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- Deliverance_from_the_left_now
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 3:13pm
  Sounds like you’re describing every democrat states/cities…Detroit, Chicago, every city in California, New York, Cleveland…and the list goes on and on and on and…
  
  Report this comment
GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 1:34pm
Social-democracy at work!….and the problem is bigger than that. Look what is happening in Norway and Finland…… is just MONEY!

http://english.pravda.ru/society/family/22-11-2012/122894-finland_children-0/
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/12-08-2011/118735-norway-0/

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- UNALIEN
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 1:44pm
  citing PRAVDA is not good for critical thinking
  
  Report this comment
- GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 1:55pm
  Yes, I knew somebody was going to say that, but you can’t deny there is something in those stories. You must read the other side nevertheless, and compare….
  
  Report this comment
- UNALIEN
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 2:11pm
  It is true that Socialist states want to control the children, however, this posted story is complete Propaganda from PRESSTV the Iranian state media, to discredit Canada…
  
  Many of the Aboriginal, not all, but many are little communist States within Canada, funded by the Government and are controlled by the native band leaders who entrap their own people within an entitlement system…
  
  The leaders live like Kings and everyone else lives in poverty, there is massive alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide,,, based on the premise of self Government.. Unfortunately it doesn’t work for all of them….
  
  The problem is cultural suicide by corrupt Native leaders using self government as an extortion tactic.
  
  Report this comment
- GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 2:27pm
  That´s also true. And one must have in mind that Canada is one of the last countries really backing Israel, so we can expect such things from the Iranian government.
  
  On the other hand, the Socialists trying to put their claws on the children is a very scary thing!
  
  Report this comment
sizzlinsexybeckster
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 1:18pm
I don’t get it? They are taking Indian Kids away from Muslim parents??? Did these parents adopt the kids or something? The kids are probably being sold into sex slavery. And yes, this year there are newly worded programs in the public school system in the USA where the government acts like a “doctor” and if they think your kid is “mental” they can take your child away from you. Yes, that is already here and already made into laws… you know, for the greater good of your child and the classroom. They have wildly untame naked profanity in the children’s media to provoke the children into being nutty, then they make the laws to take them away from you… of course, the laws are hidden inbetween programs with useful caring wording. I emailed you people all this information, apparently you never pay attention since everyone on the damn blaze staff is only 20 or 30 years old and unmarried without kids. Why the hell would they care. Wake up.

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Brainmuffin
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:44pm
Government child services are run by pedophiles.

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AmericaMustBeFree
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:43pm
History repeating itself.. this did this sort of thing in Australia with half aborginial children.. took them away and put them where their parents could not have them. There is a movie called the Rabbit Proof Fence. I suggest people watch this as it certainly was an atrocity. Evil men and their secret combinations!

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4XGrace
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:19pm
I hate to say it but really the children belong to the state not to the parents. It’s another issue of applying to the government for licensing. That’s why they invented the “common law marriage”. There is no way to escape the state’s ownership of you and your progeny.

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- BasketFullOfPuppies
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 1:46pm
  That “may” be the way it is. But, it is also what needs to change. If you allow them to take control of your children, there is no hope to prevent them from taking control of you.
  
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toto
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:12pm
Not a good article Blaze, the leftist tack of selective information and half truths is troubling. What are the specific charges, and who are the native peoples are involved, (and why don’t they have eyes that resemble native peoples), and where do they live. Fishy story at best, expect much better from the Blaze, don’t become what you are supposed to be rivaling.

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- UNALIEN
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:27pm
  yes, I emailed Scott and Liz about it,, the story is pure IRANIAN State propaganda…
  
  Errors of judgement can happen, but will they correct it when it is exposed???
  
  Report this comment
toto
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:07pm
Those eyes did not look Native North American. Eskimo, or Inuit. So who are they? And what were the charges. Definitely not enough reporting, Blaze, please not deteriorate into the leftist style of half truths and misinformation with small dollops of true hard to distinguish.

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MolonLave
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:06pm
People have a right to be different. Why can’t these socialist asshats wrap their heads around this? They claim to be “tolerant” and yet at every turn display nothing less that utter intolerance. They attack the right for their crony capitalism and yet sell innocent children who’s only crime is to be born into a family who chooses to live life differently. But let’s be honest. Who really gives a crap about some aboriginal children getting sold to families who will take “better” care of them then their parents anyway? Hey if we’re lucky they will be ostracized in school and grow up hating their heritage and grow up to hunt and eradicate all of them.

WTF happened to the dream that started with America’s founding fathers? The dream that is universally pissed on today? I can’t believe what I’m seeing tolerated universally these days.

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deploy-the-nukes
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:39am
This reeks of the child relocation programs of England and the U. S. of the 1920′s and 30′s.
My biggest argument is that the parents of these children are in poverty because of too many entitlement programs and low wage jobs or no jobs. And then employers complain that no one wants to work, but don’t finish their statements with the truth that no one wants to work those jobs at those wages. Same as here in the U.S. I won’t work for minimum wage and both political parties are to blame.

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- G-WHIZ
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:43am
  The NAZI’S took kids AWAY FROM MOST BLUEYED PARENTS and gave them BROWNSHIRTS FOR THE “PARTY”!!
  
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Cavallo
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:38am
The “family services” system in the United States is no better, and in many cases, far worse. The State can seize your children for any number of empty and political reasons. If you send them to public school it is that much easier to kidnap them. While things are not near as bad as they are in the fascist utopia of the United Kingdom, they are on their way.

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dfissell
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:37am
is it just me or was both woman wearing he-jabs? last i knew muslin is not indigenous And no self respecting native american would practiced Islam

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- guntotinsquaw
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:04pm
  Thank you, and no we would not.
  
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- Ducky 1
  Posted on December 11, 2012 at 12:15pm
  That is exactly what I noticed. This is not their normal clothing and they did talk about Islam. I get the feeling that there is a lot more to this story than one can see on the surface. That said, it is alarming when you can remove children from their families.
  
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UNALIEN
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:32am
WOW, this is a pure piece of PROPAGANDA by PRESSTV, the IRANIAN GOVERNMENTS PR front to discredit Canada. Canada has become increasingly critical of IRAN and publicly supportive of Israel so they are trying to discredit the Canadian Government.

I am part Canadian aboriginal and these two women DO NOT look to be aboriginal at all. They look middle eastern..

The real story is the use of Iranian state propaganda to influence public opinion…

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rvsample
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:31am
If the U.N. is involved, it is guaranteed that corruption is first and foremost.

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paulusmaximus
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:28am
Read it Agenda 21

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DougHuffman
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:22am
Remember Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’, a modest proposal for easing the Irish Potato Famine. The Canukistanians are setting the table, so to speak, for the coming Modern Minimum famine.

Good people ought to be armed as they will, with wits and Guns and the Truth. God Bless Bitter Clingers, damn progs.

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