Chiefs urge preventative action

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Saskatchewan chiefs are telling the provincial government that, when it comes to fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects, it's a question of pay a little now or pay a lot later.

Acting to support a controversial ruling by Native judge Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond, (who is married to Saskatoon Tribal Council chief Harry Lafond) the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations passed a resolution calling for action that will stop children suffering from the affliction from falling through the cracks in the system.

First Nation leaders believe that fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects are a root cause of justice, education and health problems for Aboriginal youth.

"We don't have the numbers and a percentage as to how many are affected with FAS," said First Vice Chief Morley Watson of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. "There is not a lot of programming provincially or federally out there. It is almost like starting from scratch."

On May 30, the chiefs of the FSIN passed a resolution to aggressively take action on the issue and are asking the Saskatchewan government to focus on the issue and provide programming.

"The number one thing that we have to be most cognizant of is that it is very serious and the governments and public are uneducated about it," said Watson. "A lot of these young people don't realize the severity of their actions and find themselves on the wrong side of the law. In a lot of cases the education system doesn't realize they don't have the same learning capabilities and as a result they are looked at as being slow and they can't keep up. Then quitting is the easy way out for them. So in the areas of justice and education we want to bring some light to the situation."

Some tribal councils unofficially realized the severity of the situation and did some preparatory work. On June 1, the chiefs legislative assembly gave the official go ahead to address the issue.

"Hopefully, we can pull in the feds with the province and set something in place to help these young people," said Watson.

The national average for children born with FAS is one to three per 3,000 children and between 160 to 600 births per 1000 for FAE.

A recent provincial court decision ruled that the issue be addressed properly in regards to youth possibly affected with the disease. The Crown appealed the decision by Judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond saying that she was steering social policy.

"Judge Lafond said, because there was no programming and no help available to the young individuals, that she was not going to continue to incarcerate young people," said Watson. "What the province wants to do is to continue to put them in youth detention centres as opposed to sending them to get help for FAS and FAE where they can get treatment. So, with no programming in place, the province just continually wanted to have Judge Lafond incarecerate them and she didn't want to do that."

Although the First Nations have not heard anything more in regards to the appeal they plan to continue to pursue discussions with the government to take a closer look at the problem.

"Like everything else government is always hesitant because it is going to cost money," said Watson. "I think when we talk of social programming this fits right in because the longer that they don't help then the longer they are still going to have high overhead costs for education, justice, and health. So the big thing that we want to do is convince them that it would be a better investment for us to work with these young people now."