News & Events
Parole changes will hurt Indigenous young people
June 23, 2010
Indigenous people will suffer even more if the federal government makes obtaining parole more difficult, or even impossible, says Grand Chief Morris Swan Shannacappo, a guest speaker at a press conference held by several organizations.
On the one hand the government is making a big deal out of its Truth and Reconciliation efforts, but on the other hand it hasn't learned anything, Swan Shannacappo says.
"Many of the young people who would be hurt by the changes the government is planning are the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the people who had been sent off to residential school. Now the government wants to lock them away without hope of finding their way back through healing."
The press conference was one of two events, dealing with social injustice issues, that SCO took part in during early June.
A week earlier SCO Justice, Ka Ni Kanichihk, Onashowewin and Kookum Gaa Dam Ma Waad Abinoojiig (Mothers Protecting Our Children) organized an event where grandmothers held a pipe ceremony and people prayed for peace. The event was held on Victor Street in Winnipeg and the event was held in response to episodes of extreme violence.
Speakers at the event said there was a need to understand the young adults and teenagers who were engaging in violence. They needed healing, not an increase in harsh penalties.
Grand Chief Swan Shannacappo has often said that many issues are part of the same overall picture: child and family services, poverty, unfair policing, discrimination in many forms and governments acting as if they know what is best for Indian people. The solutions must be those that Indigenous people develop for themselves.
That is why Southern Manitoba leadership has endorsed the pursuit of full and fair participation in natural resource revenue sharing, addressing critical housing shortages, health concerns, employment, education funding and economic development opportunities and child welfare issues.
"We owe it to our children, our grandchildren - we need to be strong and stand together to ensure there is a future for our people!"