A successful day means aboriginal opportunity – Globe and Mail

Feb 2, 2015

Ted Hughes is a retired judge who has led numerous child welfare inquiries.

There are reasons why aboriginal children are taken into the care of welfare agencies in grossly disproportionate numbers. That is a Canada-wide trend. In the past year in Manitoba, the percentage of children in care who are aboriginal has risen from 80 to 87 per cent. It’s an alarming statistic.

There are reasons why aboriginal women and girls are much more likely to experience violence than their non-aboriginal counterparts, why they are substantially overrepresented among the ranks of the missing and murdered across the country.

There are reasons why aboriginal people are hugely overrepresented in Canada’s prison population.

There are reasons why aboriginal people attain such lower rates of educational and employment achievement and why they lack opportunities for economic development.

Read More: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/a-successful-day-means-aboriginal-opportunity/article22729587/