Indigenous Canadians remain trapped in poverty, poor infrastructure, and epidemic-level sexual abuse
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Nine years of reconciliation have not led to “any tangible improvements in the quality of life for Indigenous people,” according to a Privy Council report cited by Blacklock’s Reporter.
In-house focus-group research found Indigenous people questioned government reconciliation efforts, given that many reserves continue to suffer from undrinkable tap water, high food costs, inaccessible health care, homelessness and poor infrastructure.
In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission stated that true reconciliation requires “awareness of the past, an acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted, atonement for the causes, and action to change behaviour.”
Yet, this one-sided statement denies that Indigenous people also need to reconcile with non-Indigenous Canadians, given that reciprocity was a foundational feature of historical treaties.
It is also difficult to see how additional reconciliation through monetary transfers could effectively address many of these adversities and pathologies.
 Government efforts have failed Indigenous Canadians and it’s time for real solutions. |
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A conspicuous example is sexual abuse. A 2013 APTN investigation identified dozens of sexual abuse victims across reserves within Treaty 3 territory in northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba—an epidemic survivors described as largely unaddressed for generations.
Between 2017 and 2022, the federal government reported 485 sexual assaults across 23 communities with a combined on-reserve population of 8,685 as of December 2022.
In 2022 alone, there were 93 reported sexual assaults, representing more than 1,000 assaults per 100,000 people. The national average is 90 per 100,000.
The same pattern of intra-Indigenous sexual exploitation has been reported across Canada, underscoring a need to reconcile inter-Indigenous relationships rather than solely blaming colonialism or the legacy of Indian residential schools for this and other tragedies.
Similarly, Indigenous informants’ perceptions about water quality, food costs, health care, housing and infrastructure on reserves require examination, as they are sometimes contradicted by statistical evidence.
According to the 2024 Fraser Institute report titled An Avalanche of Money:TheFederal Government’s Policies toward First Nations, author Tom Flanagan states:
“Since 2015, the federal government has significantly increased annual spending on Indigenous peoples by almost tripling it from 2015 to 2025, growing (in nominal dollars) from roughly $11 billion to more than $32 billion.”
Flanagan concludes that these reconciliation initiatives have left Indigenous peoples “less financially independent and more dependent on government transfers.”
Evaluating this conclusion prompts critical questions: Would the adversities affecting descendants of Canada’s First Peoples have been greatly reduced had they not been offered over 200 years of treaty-making, alongside federal offices, laws, programs and policies exclusively devoted to their perceived needs? Or have the billions annually provided as special government benefits under the paternalistic Indian Act, combined with billions more in provincial and municipal grants, subsidies and programs, actually made Indigenous peoples worse off?
The answer is a resounding yes, according to the now-reviled 1969 White Paper tabled in Parliament by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau and his minister of Indian affairs, Jean Chrétien. The White Paper advocated abolishing the special legal relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state, asserting:
“For many Indian people, one road does exist, the only road that has existed since Confederation and before, the road of different status, which has led to a blind alley of deprivation and frustration. This road, because it is a separate road, cannot lead to full participation, to equality in practice as well as in theory.”
To this end, the White Paper proposed eliminating Indigenous status, dissolving the Department of Indian Affairs, repealing the Indian Act, converting reserve land into privately owned property and gradually terminating existing treaties.
None of the White Paper’s recommendations were enacted due to a firestorm of opposition from Indigenous leaders.
Central to the White Paper was the idea that special Indigenous treatment itself was the root cause of adversities and pathologies observed from first contact to the present—a viewpoint rejected by Indigenous leadership. They instead asserted that reserve segregation rooted in the confluence of First Nations identity and special status outweighed any perceived benefit from autonomy, personal responsibility and reduced dependency.
In short, endless dependency ensures Indigenous peoples will never realize their deservedly equal place in Canadian society.
Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of Manitoba, and a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
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