E DEN H IGH S CHOOL

T HE C ANADIAN I SSUES
O WEN J EFFRIES

I SSUE NO . 2

W ILL C ANADIANS BE AS GENEROUS TO F IRST

N ATIONS AS THEY ARE TO S YRIAN REFUGEES ?
The Trudeau Government
has promised to resettle 25
000 Refugees from Syria,
seeking protection in Canada from threats in their
homeland such as Islamic
State and the ongoing civil
war there. While this action
is applauded for its generosity, it raises an important
question: are we ready to
give to our Aboriginal peoples inside Canada, the most
marginalized people in the
country, the same aid that
we send to the marginalized
of other nationalities? Many
experts, among them the
executive director of the First
Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, Cindy

Blackstock, do not think so,

and neither do I. Canadians
will not give aboriginals the
same amount of charity they
pour internationally because
they are prejudiced against
the nations aboriginals,
they feel more can be accomplished with their money abroad, and because the
current situation of the Syrian Refugees seems more
dire and better attracts the
attention of the media than
aboriginals and their plight
does, thus attracting more

potential donors.
Canadians are prejudiced
against aboriginals because,
at least on paper, they, as an
ethnic group, appear to
have special privileges as
compared to other groups
of Canadians; advantages
such as no taxation or free
reign of vast tracts of Canadian soil are common misconceptions of advantages
aboriginals hold over nonindigenous citizens. In fact
of all aboriginal groups,
only the Amerindians do
not pay taxes, and even they
must do so under certain
conditions. Furthermore,
Aboriginal Reservations
compose of no more than
746.4 spare kilometers of
Canadian land, a tiny fraction of Canadas total area.
Aboriginal groups, in spite
of these advantages and
largely due to the prejudice
against them, are marginalized far more than any other
ethnic group, and one in
four aboriginal children like
in poverty as opposed to
one in ten average Canadian
children. Even so, the long
built-up prejudice against
these suffering people is

The Syrian Refugee Crisis

(pictured above) is among the
worst refugee crises in history,
with over three million displaced persons.

unlikely to end son and

therefore Canadians will not
soon show aboriginals the
same financial generosity
that they currently are
showing towards the Syrian
Refugees.
Canadians are also unlikely
to give so generously of
their finances towards aboriginals as they are towards
Syrian Refugees because
they feel it is a hopeless
cause, and their money is
better spent on charitable
needs in other countries.
Aboriginals have always
been the most marginalized
of Canadas ethnic groups,
and many people see it as a
fact that shall remain and

not one that can be eradicated. The Syrian Refugees,

meanwhile, are being led
by the millions into Europe
to a better life; Angela
Merkels drastic philanthropic plan in Europe
seems to be working to
help the refugees, so why
could this not be a problem
in the world that is fixable
by Canadians and the industrial nations as is demonstrated by Europe? Canadians are not going to aimlessly donate their hardearned dollar (low against
the American currency it
may be) in charity to aid a
cause that is unwinnable;
they will only do so to aid a
worthy cause, a winnable
fight, in their eyes, and the
fight against the displacement of the Syrian people is
being won, unlike that
against poverty among our

Aboriginal children campaign

for a school to be built in
their community, an example
of one of many social barriers
they face in Canada.

T HE C ANADIAN I SSUES

P AGE 2

The final reason Canadians

are unlikely, in the near future, to show the same spirit
of generosity in helping the
marginalized aboriginal community as they do towards the
Syrian Refugees is because
Canadians are simply bombarded by references to the
refugees in all household media and how their predicament is dire and how financial
aid is necessary to find them
adequate sanctuary. True
facts about how there are
three million displaced persons in Syria and others are
emphasized by the media in a
way that the aboriginal need
has never been. No videos of
aboriginals babies washing up
dead on beaches or children
being gunned down exist, as
do concerning displaced Syrians, and it is in this extreme
and violent media that Cana-

dians see a greater need for

aid than in the quiet, strangling aboriginal poverty that
exists here at home. In the
words of Cindy Blackstock,
executive director of the First
Nations Child and Family
Caring Society of Canada and
mentioned earlier in this article: "Canadians' imagination
for what they can accomplish
internationally is much sharper than it is for what they can
do at home."
Canadians should give charitably towards the many marginalized first nations Canadian
citizens because it will
strengthen the nation and give
them the stair to step out of
poverty. Canadians, however,
will not give to the first nations as generously as they do
to the Syrian Refugees because they are prejudiced

against them because they

believe, untruthfully, that the
people already and unjustly
have special privileges that
make life easier for them.
They also will not be as charitable towards them because
they believe the Syrian refugee crisis seemingly demands
more attention and is more
important than plight of the
aboriginal peoples. Therefore
I conclude that although the
problem of properly aiding
the financial needs of the aboriginal people is solvable,
Canadians, for the reasons
above, are unwilling to aid
their fellow Canadians and
leave the problem unsolved
and instead are willing to direct their generosity towards
the sufferings of the Syrian
Refugees.

O WEN J EFFRIES

P AGE 3

I NSIDE S TORY H EADLINE

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One benefit of using your
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If the newsletter is distributed

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Organization

N IAGARA R EGION
Primary Business Address
Address Line 2
Address Line 3
Address Line 4
Phone: 555-555-5555
Fax: 555-555-5555
E-mail: someone@example.com

This would be a good place to insert a short paragraph about your organization. It
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history. You could also include a brief list of the types of products, services, or programs your organization offers, the geographic area covered (for example, western
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W E RE ON THE W EB!
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BUSINESS TAGLINE OR MOTTO

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