Cuts contribute to protest camp conundrum

Services for Indigenous people need better support,

Were one to judge an issue solely by the hand wringing of a government, it could be a forgivable mistake to believe that the political conundrum the Sask. Party government finds itself in is a broadside by an angry group of radicals.

But a quick survey of the past few years suggests that tensions have been building to this moment.

These tensions involve balls dropped and boats missed.

The protest camp outside the Legislative Building has raised concerns over myriad issues that are affecting Indigenous communities across generations.

From issues in the Ministry of Justice to child welfare, social services, health, housing and education, the complaints are vast but the focal point is clear: The Sask. Party government is failing Indigenous people.

Should you be one of the 43 per cent of Indigenous youth who graduate from high school, your post-secondary options might have been derailed with the shutdown of the Northern Teacher Education Program (NORTEP) in 2016. That same year, the government shut down the Buffalo Narrows Community Correctional Centre, a lowsecurity facility that offered culturally appropriate rehabilitation programming for Indigenous offenders.

So whether you were considering higher education or finding yourself in the foster-to-prison pipeline, your chances of improving your lot got a lot harder that year.

And let’s not forget the

2016 budget slashed funding for the Aboriginal court worker program by 32 per cent. This program helps Indigenous people facing criminal charges navigate the justice system to access supports.

In 2017, the Sask. Party cut the parent mentoring program, which eliminated supports for families that could benefit from early intervention.

And while we were noisy about many other dreadful cuts, we must remember that the Indigenous student retention program was eliminated in Saskatoon due to cuts to education as well.

The Sask. Party government has decided not to heed the warnings of the Children’s Advocate, who issued reports about preventable deaths in the child welfare system and the lack of transitional supports for children aging out of care.

Calls to address Indigenous youth suicide rates in the north seem to go unanswered.

Parents like Richelle

Dubois and Dinah Papequash from the camp still don’t have the answers they are looking for regarding the circumstances involved in the deaths of their children.

Considering the recent report on the Office of the Chief Coroner — which contains no fewer than 44 recommendations (many of which involve inadequate funding of core operations) — it’s not hard to see that frustrations can lead to a boiling point.

And with only one Gladue report writer in the province, whose job it is to compile a background assessment of Indigenous offenders for consideration in their sentencing, it is dismaying to learn that such reports can cost $8,000 per person should the trial judge not order one.

Now, what are we to make of the recent news that cuts have come to Legal Aid, the office charged with representing the under-represented and underserved?

Is this really something we should tolerate right now, given the racially biased issues in our justice system?

As a network, Stop the Cuts hasn’t always done the best job of highlighting the particular ways in which Indigenous people are affected by cuts and short-sighted government decisions, which is why we now lend our unwavering support to those camped outside the legislature and call on the Sask. Party government to engage in a respectful dialogue that produces meaningful outcomes.

While the camp hasn’t raised monetary issues in their negotiations, what is quite revealing is the attitude of the government.

As things get worse for Indigenous people in Saskatchewan, at best we have a government that is perfectly fine to delay and wait and see.