People across Canada call attention to many issues

Hundreds of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people gathered in solidarity in downtown Vancouver on May 29 to march together through the busy streets of the city to call attention to human rights issues facing First Nations people across the country.
Traffic was held at bay by a police escort as the sign-bearing train of people wound its way to the Vancouver Art Gallery, where First Nations leaders took the podium to join the voices of their counterparts across the country in calling for change.
The event held in Vancouver for the second National Day of Action was one of nine organized in communities across the province and among many happening across the country. This year's theme was "Our Children, Our Future, Our Responsibility".
"The national executive (of the Assembly of First Nations) has determined that there has been no appreciable progress made over the last year since the last National Day of Action," explained Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs. "So we obviously need to continue to march and rally to draw public attention to the crushing poverty that represents the everyday reality of the Aboriginal people across this country."
The issues at hand are ones of social responsibility, justice and human rights, Phillip told the crowd of supporters gathered at the rally.
"We live in a country that has incredible wealth and enjoys this wealth," he said. "However, there is an absolutely enormous human rights abuse that has been going on in this country since the beginning. Of course, I'm talking about First Nations poverty, which unfortunately has become institutionalized in this country."
The tragic dimensions of the problem include rising infant mortality rates, increases in the number of children being taken into care, deplorable housing conditions, health issues and deteriorating or non-existent infrastructure, Phillip said, noting it amounts to racism for lawmakers not to commit resources to this problem and instead blame victims.
"It will only be when we unify our voices across this country that we'll be able to bring about a new reality in Aboriginal communities," Phillip said. "A reality where our children will grow up in safe homes, where they will be able to go through an educational experience that takes them on through university, where water systems and infrastructure will be there in order to service their homes - all of the issues that most Canadians take for granted will begin to become a reality.
"And most importantly, the government of Canada and the provinces and specifically the province of British Columbia need to understand and recognize our inherent rights and our Aboriginal rights and title interests in the lands and resources. The economic marginalization of our people has got to come to a stop."
"Justice for one and justice for all is what is being asked for," Phillip said.
"This is a human rights issue. It is the most disgraceful abuse of human rights in this country, the institutionalized poverty of Aboriginal people," Phillip said. "As human beings, we must make this journey together, and we must close the horrible and tragic chapter of oppression and poverty of Indigenous people in this country."
"The issue of Aboriginal poverty is an absolute disgraceful stain on this country. Certainly the United Nations recognizes that fact and has chastised the Government of Canada for this abuse of situation, but obviously Canada is stonewalling our voices and those observations at the international level," Phillip continued, referring to events of last year related to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
On September 13 of last year, the United Nations General Assembly - the highest body of the UN system - voted to adopt the declaration, which was the product of more than 20 years of intensive negotiations between nation-states and Indigenous Peoples.
However, despite being a member of the Human Rights Council, Canada voted against the declaration. With an overwhelming majority of 143 states voting in support, Canada was one of only four countries - the others being the United States, Australia and New Zealand - to vote in opposition.
Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit of BC worked for years to advocate for First Nations in the drafting and passage of the Declaration, and spoke at the National Day of Action from his perspective of taking First Nations issues internationally.
Survival, dignity and well-being are the key concepts both in the declaration and around which calls for action need to be focused, John said, the crowd chanting "shame" as he explained how Canada voted against the declaration at the UN.
John went on to note that the majority of members of parliament support the declaration, but the minority government does not. He also called the government to ask for disparities in funding for First Nations education and child and family services.
"Unless we stand up, no one is going to, and that's the reality in this country," he said.
First Nations organizations will also be strengthening relationships with human rights and other "like-minded" groups, including organized labour groups, health care workers, environmentalists, educators and the multi-faith community, Phillip said.
"They will join with us to increase our numbers, and to increase the public profile of the appalling abuses of the human rights of the Aboriginal people in this country," Phillip explained.
Such support indeed existed at the National Day of Action rally, with social justice groups of all stripes on hand to call attention to a variety of specific issues which affect Aboriginal people and to simply to offer the support of their organizations.
"Certainly the prime minister and all of the premiers aren't going to rush into their offices tomorrow morning and begin to enact legislation, and change policy frameworks that have proved absolutely ineffective, but that they have relied on for generation after generation.
"But as time goes on and the profile continues to build, they're going to be pressured to make concrete changes and will no longer get away with the political rhetoric and public spin they are putting out at the moment."