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Originally Posted by Sliver
I have read it and I just spent the last 45 minutes reading it again before replying. How can you call that precise? Most of the demands are vague, meaningless and unachievable or would be impossible to measure.
Plenty are just weird and nonsensical, too. Like, demanding healing lodges for Aboriginal people in federal penetenturies...um, no, sorry, you lost your rights for the stuff you enjoy doing when you were sent to prison. That's stupid. Or demanding equal access to medical care for metis who do not live on reserves. Guess what? They have that. What are you talking about? There is no way metis people are being turned away from the triage desk at the Foothills Hospital. It's absurd. There are so many like that. Wording as though they're lacking rights that they absolutely have. It feels like this document would have made sense if written in 1841, but it's way out of line in 2023 since the gripes aren't relevant.
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Healing lodges aren't for funsies. These institutions are tied to indigenous faith and spiritual culture. Prison chapels have already been converted into inter-faith spaces to accomodate a variety of religious and spiritual backgrounds, so it isn't too much to ask that these spaces be accomodating to rituals like smudging (or whatever else may be inclusive to a healing lodge) for a populace already overrepresented in the system.
It seems like they have implemented this request:
https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/002/003/002003-2000-en.shtml
And on the topic of systemic racism, it has long been a complaint that First Nations and Metis peoples are discriminated against in the healthcare system. Asking for equity in healthcare in the face of racial discrimination and stereotyping seems completely reasonable.
Just because the service is available to them does not mean they will receive equal treatment.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...port-1.4295996