Module #4 Weblog #1

Chan, Laurie. 2005. Health and Environment Issues with Canada’s Aboriginal communities. Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment, McGill University. Access via:

http://www.fnehin.ca/uploads/docs/Health-Enviro-Canada-AboriginalCommunities-Chan2005.pdf

In understanding health and wellness within Aboriginal communities, environmental issues and connectivity is a recurring theme. As Chan outlines in his document, Health and Environment Issues with Canada’s Aboriginal Communities,

“activities such as hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild resources are important to  strengthening and maintaining the social fabric among individuals, families and generations within a community… harvesting and using traditional/country food provide a number of benefits such as physical fitness, community well-being an the dissemination of cultural knowledge such as survival skills and lessons in food preparation.”

What were once community based processes in hunting and gathering food, preparing it, creating things such as clothing, tools etc, has slowly diminished. Culture centered on community, experiential-based learning and skilled trades/crafts where communities are now based on the market economy, commodities and individual success. I want to point out the significance of this point, that, as Chan calls it, the social fabric of Aboriginal community and culture is deteriorating due to a loss in tradition and values that they identify with and associate to and much of which is blamed for high suicide rates in Aboriginal communities (Chan, Laurie. 2005. pp. 4).

This article is very scientific in that it examines point source pollution, chemicals and industry associated to various communities within Canada that are impacted by contaminated environments, water, soils, animals, fish and air. Industry in the south has great impacts of the concentration and flow of pollutants in the North, thus showing us how far our reach is. The author also connects certain pollutants to diseases and illnesses most common in Aboriginal communities and provides comparisons between non-Aboriginal health incidents and Aboriginal health incidents. For example, there is a gap of 6.1 years in life expectancy for First Nations people in comparison with First Nations people in Canada in 2001, or First Nations and Inuit are 3 times more likely to get heart disease than the rest of the Canadian population (Chan, Laurie. 2005. pp. 3).

Module #4 Weblog #2

Collins, L. (2010). Protecting Aboriginal Environments: A Tort Law Approach. Critical Torts. Accessed via:

http://www.commonlaw.uottawa.ca/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=2614

In understanding the role of the environment and land within Aboriginal culture, we need not forget that a significant role of colonization was to acquire and commoditize valuable land and convert it to a common law system. The article, Protecting Aboriginal Environments: A Tort Law Approach provides an analysis of the way in which Aboriginal groups have engaged in land rights/ treaty disputes in the past and an avenue that may produce greater results. Collins proposing that accessing the Tort Law approach, it allows for

“an Aboriginal group that explicitly opposes a particular environmental decision in the course of consultation can later proceed to tort litigation without fear that the consultation process will undermine its claim…” (Collins, Lynda. 2010. pp. 70)

whereas through constitutional law

“Aboriginal peoples are required to participate in the consultation process if they wish subsequently to allege an infringement of their Aboriginal rights or title, and further that where adequate consultation is conducted, the Crown need not obtain the agreement of the Aboriginal people before proceeding. Thus under section 35 approach, it may be possible for an Aboriginal group to be consulted, to adamantly oppose the proposed conduct, and yet to find that its subsequent section 35 claim fails on the grounds that adequate consultation has occurred” (Collins, Lynda. 2010. pp. 69).

Section 35 is referring to the Constitution Act, 1982. I wanted to include this article, because it speaks to bureaucracy and systemic nature of colonial powers as they exist today in enforcing their supremacy. Having Aboriginal communities navigate these bureaucracies in an attempt to reclaim and preserve their land and culture is an oppressive task within itself. When reading this article, I find myself lost in the system and the lingo, however am continually interested in discovering more about it, as it seems like a system of great cyclical injustices.

Just to quickly define Tort Law, which I had to explore myself, Tort Law simply refers to a civil wrong which results in wrong going done to someone else, causing them to suffer some kind of loss. What is unique about Tort Law is that it may simply be a result of negligence rather than criminal actions and less amount of proof is required (as opposed to proof beyond reasonable doubt). Definition sourced online through a Google search and consultation with various sites.