The October Just Posts

Greetings. Welcome to the October Just Posts, a feast of calorie-rich social justice candy.



Each month, Jen, Hel, Susanne and I shell out social justice posts that appeared in the parenting blogosphere during the preceding month while also writing about the spooky hobgoblins in the world around us. Make sure you trick or treat to all three of their houses as well as knocking on the doors listed below.

OK, enough silly extended metaphors. The issue I want to write about this month could not be more serious nor a more concrete example of a social justice system broken at the core.

In 1999, a First Nations baby was born in Northern Manitoba. He had severe physical and developmental delays. His name was Jordan. Four years later, Jordan died without ever having been released from hospital. You see, even though there was a foster situation arranged for him with caregivers able to handle his complex needs, and even though his condition allowed for his release from hospital at age two, governments and policy makers spent two full years arguing over who should pay the bills for his foster care. The quibbles were as petty as fighting about the price of the custom shower head needed to bathe him. He died waiting for a home. He never had a home in four years of life.

This only happened because he was Aboriginal. Why? In Canada, the Federal Government covers health care costs for Status Indians living on reserves. For all other Canadians, health care is paid for and managed at the provincial level. The trouble is, the federal monies set aside for Status Indians are not as extensive when it comes to treating disabled children as they are in the general health care system. As a result, each year numerous Aboriginal children are denied treatment or suffer delays in treatment while the Government Suits try finagle the accounting. Some families go so far as to surrender their children to child welfare to ensure their children get access to the services they need, services that all other Canadian children are entitled to. This situation is a travesty.

A group called Many Hands, One Dream has begun an advocacy project to resolve this situation once and for all. They call it Jordan's Principle and it reads as follows:

"Under Jordan’s Principle, where a jurisdictional dispute arises between two government parties (provincial/territorial or federal) or between two departments or ministries of the same government, regarding payment for services for a Status Indian child that are otherwise available to other Canadian children, the government or ministry/department of first contact must pay for the services without delay or disruption. The paying government party can then refer the matter to jurisdictional dispute mechanisms. In this way, the needs of the child get met first while still allowing for the jurisdictional dispute to be resolved."

The work of putting this principle in place needs our collective help. The Many Hands, One Dream folks are asking people to write to their MPs and their Provincial Ministers of Health. They have even gone so far as to write one of the best advocacy letters I've ever seen that you can use as a template. Heck, they even provide a detailed contact list of all the Health Ministers in the country. Just go to their website, download the document, sign it, and pop it in the mail. All it will cost you is a couple of minutes and a stamp. Maybe, just maybe, if enough people care about this situation, our collective advocacy will work and no more disabled Aboriginal children will suffer as Jordan did and no more families will feel the added anguish knowing their children are not receiving the care they deserve.

Thank you.

The Just Writers
Aliki with Affordable Guilt and on unreasonable expectations
Blog Antagonist with Not a drop to drink
bon with Dear Margaret Trudeau
Chani with Restorative Justice ... and when community comes together
Crazymumma with Untitled and i just left my yoga class
Get in the car with Philanthropy Thursday
Glennia with why poverty matters
Her Bad Mother with No Shame
Jen with Respect Your Mother, 13 million reasons, little boy lost and
my first mothering
Jennifer with potatoes for dinner
KC with A physician's perspective on universal health care
Mary Alice with Philanthropy Thursday
Mother Woman with On
the library strike
Painted Maypole with My Pink Ribbon and gratitude and giving
Slouching Mom with Smog
Sober Briquette with This pacifist gets all patriotic
and Sunday dinner left-overs
Susan Wagner with Wrinkle in Time, or Thoughts on Turning 40
Susanne with Art and creativity are pivotal
Suzanne Reisman on BlogHer with More Contraceptive Use, Fewer Abortions and with Combating The Stereotypes and Injustice Surrounding Male Rape
Thordora with Mentally ill lighter sentences
Maggie with Respect and Old Age and environment
League of Maternal Justice with Mission #3
It's Not A Lecture with something good in facebook for a change
Mom's Speak Up with American People = Bush's ATM
been there with BlogDay for Mothers ACT
From the front lines with Philanthropy Thursday
Cecilieaux with what makes pedophiles look good
A Commonplace Book with nooses: why now?
Snoskred with please help do what you can to stop internet scammers NOW
Jenn with do you know me
Julia with what's in a number
Thordora with It's not so easy being hard
Julie with Imagine, tie a red ribbon round my daughter's wrist and take me to toxic town
Biodtl with no child insured, either and why I can never vote Republican
Mimi with brave new boobs post
Jangari with another pseudo apology and more white exceptions to grog bans
Roy with let's have a wake! chivalry is dead
Mrs. Chili with shouting it from the rooftops
Mary G. with ouch that hurt and letter to danier leather
Alejna with hungry
Ancors and Masts with how would you deal with it?
Beansprouts with I believe
Fortune and Glory with Oneness and Bomb, bomb Iran
Riversands Feeding and Gardening project with Mothers who volunteer
Princess Mouse with The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Permaculture in Brittany with Houston, we've had a problem
Small Meadow Farm with Reduce Reuse Recycle
The coffee house with Positive Thinking/
The chickens have escaped! with No eggs, just rats
Beyond the fields we know with Mama says Om - Divided
Trailer Park Girl with what if

Some of the many Just Readers
Izzy
De
Jess
Jen
Bon
Joanne
Mother Woman
Alejna
Jen
Mad
Susanne
Hel