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Expanding the Circle: Monitoring the Human Rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis People with Disabilities in Canada: Site Report (Word – 260 KB)
Expanding the Circle: Monitoring the Human Rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis People with Disabilities in Canada: Site Report (PDF – 689 KB)

Title

Expanding the Circle: Monitoring the Human Rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and  Métis People with Disabilities in Canada: Site Report

Authors

Emily Gillespie, Research Assistant, Expanding the Circle
Marcia Rioux, Principal Investigator, York University
Samadhi Mora Severino, Graduate Research Assistant, Expanding the Circle
Melanie Moore, Project Coordinator, Expanding the Circle and Centre for Independent Living Toronto
Sandi Bell, EMPOWWORD Inc.
Linda Williams, Toronto Monitor, Expanding the Circle
Robin Simmons, Toronto Monitor, Expanding the Circle
Debbie Lipscombe, Steering Committee, Expanding the Circle and Grand Council Treaty # 3
Sandra Carpenter, Director, Centre for Independent Living
Christine McFarlane, Toronto Monitor, Expanding the Circle
Laura Vukson, Research Assistant, Expanding the Circle
Emily Hostland, Project Coordinator, Expanding the Circle, York University

Publication Date

March 2016

Report Content

Summary

Expanding the Circle is a project undertaken by Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI) that focuses on expanding the conversation about what access to human rights looks like for Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities in Canada. DRPI has engaged indigenous peoples in many of its projects including New Zealand and Bolivia. It is important that the Canadian indigenous experience be added to this search for knowledge where the rights of people have been neglected. Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people experience disproportionately high levels of disability compared to other Canadians. Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities historically, and at present, experience exclusion and various forms of discrimination. This discrimination may take place at the level of individual interactions, but people may also experience discrimination at a higher, systemic level, by their needs not properly being addressed in laws, policies and budgets. This project uses an intersectional point of view, to understand the experiences of people with disabilities who are also Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis and considers the unique challenges and victories this population experiences in accessing rights.

Expanding the Circle considers the rights outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), in conversation with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). International human rights legislation not only focuses on specific rights, but also highlights five general human rights principles. These key principles: dignity; autonomy; participation, inclusion and accessibility; non-discrimination and equity; and respect for difference were considered in relation to areas of people’s lives: social participation; health; education, work and privacy and family life, information & communications; access to justice; and income security and support services.

This report combines two aspects of this project, first-hand experience through interviews, as well as an analysis that is based on a review of laws, policies, programmes and budgets to have a larger context to understand people’s lived experiences. This project uses a Canadian framework, but focuses in communities in Ontario. Expanding the Circle worked with community partners in Toronto, Grand Council Treaty #3, and Historic Saugeen Métis to conduct interviews with 15 individuals to consider how Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities are experiencing their rights.

Participants in interviews spoke most often about areas of their lives that included social participation, family life, health, education and work. This report also looks at how people spoke about intersectionality and positive experiences. Other themes such as information and communications and access to justice were less commonly brought up during the interviews.

Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities have the same rights as other Canadians, in relation to things like access to healthcare and education. This is supported through international, national, and provincial legislation. However, what this means in theory and practice differs. Location between urban and rural Ontario as well as reserve or off-reserve and social networks shape the ability to access rights. Overall, funding and attitudinal barriers such as racism and ableism were significant obstacles for accessing rights. Another barrier was the lack of accountability on the part of the various governments regarding who was to provide a specific service. People stressed the lengthy, convoluted advocacy work that was often needed to access rights afforded to other people in Canada.

In the interviews, people also addressed positive experiences, and highlighted the most satisfying aspects of their life. Family and community networks were acknowledged as a way of assisting people with disabilities in addressing their disability related needs. The interviews and the systemic research highlighted the multiple layers of barriers that people who are Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis experience at the personal level, and at all levels of the government when trying to access rights. There was somewhat of a divide between the systemic research, which provides an overall context to understand rights, and what people in the interviews were passionate to speak about. Primarily, people wanted to be able to access services, and they wanted to feel like they were being treated with dignity and respect during this process.

Recommendations

The following list of recommendations was developed with the aim of improving the lives and hearing the voices of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities in Canada, regardless of whether they are a “status” or “non-status” Indian. These recommendations are intended to impact the ability of all people with disabilities to access their rights. Based on the research, interviews, monitors, and community leaders, the following is a list of recommendations that emerged from the project:

1. Ensure adequate funding regardless of geographic location.
2. Improve access in all sectors: Improve the ability to access resources and improve transparency in the system so people understand what resources are available and how to attain them.
3. Work with and engage communities to understand the specific needs of each particular community and provide them with tangible aid.
4. Provide inclusive education about Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people, and people with disabilities.
5. Empower and consult Natural Helpers who are individuals within the Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis communities, who provide advice, emotional support, and tangible aid.
6. Address poverty for Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Metis people with disabilities.
7. Ensure greater access and funding for healthcare and overall culturally appropriate care.
8. Facilitate community research, undertaken by Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis communities to understand community disability needs.
9. Implement, deliver, and support Indigenous home care services.
10. Support grassroots organizations that help to understand specific needs.
11. Address attitudinal barriers toward Indigenous People and People with disabilities.
12. Promote access to culture for Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities.
13. Provide access to information about human rights and resources.
14. Change needs to occur from the bottom and the top: Structural changes can occur with policy makers and government bodies, but changes should be done in direct consultation with the stakeholders, elders, knowledge keepers, healers and the community.
15. Consider a national legislation that includes specific recognition of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities.
16. Monitor human rights to be done by and for Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people with disabilities.
17. Ensure that all laws and policies that focus on advancing the rights of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis people are also inclusive of people with disabilities.

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