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Ethics: Decolonizing social work - Issuu

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Within Indigenous peoples' context, social work is highly problematic. Especially so given the notable absence of our profession in advocating for Indigenous collective rights and against human rights violations, and for our significant role in the abduction of generations of Indigenous children from their families, communities, and cultures.

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Decolonizing Global Health and Drug Policy | Colleen Daniels | TEDxGVAGrad

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BC's Office of the Human Rights Commissioner

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Decolonization is central to the work of human rights in our society, and consequently to the work of BC's Office of the Human Rights Commisioner. Decolonization is the dismantling of the process by which one nation asserts and establishes its domination and control over another nation's land, people and culture. It is the framework through which we are working toward undoing the oppression and subjugation of Indigenous peoples in what is now known as British Columbia and unlearning colonial ways of thinking and being.

To make transformative and systematic change, it is important to learn about decolonization. We are all responsible for ongoing decolonization work and together we can imagine a new reality that honours Indigenous perspectives, culture and peoples.

What we're doing

Our Office is committed to listening deeply to Indigenous peoples, supporting self-determination of Nations and working to dismantle structures that impede the full, equal and just participation of Indigenous peoples in all aspects of economic, social, cultural and political life.

Here are some of the examples of our work in this area.

Transforming the human rights system

We are committed to transforming B.C.'s human rights system to better respond to the needs of Indigenous peoples across the province. We begin this work through ambitious commitments to build relationships with First Nations governments and Indigenous communities in all corners of B.C.; we seek to connect with dozens of Nations each year in the hope of meeting with representatives from nearly all Nations in B.C. over the course of the Commissioner's five-year term.

In early 2020, the BC Human Rights Tribunal released a transformation report from Ardith Walpetko We'dalx Walkem, QC, entitled Expanding our vision: Cultural equality and Indigenous peoples' human rights, which aimed to make the province's human rights system more accessible and effective for Indigenous peoples.

We are working in collaboration with the Tribunal and other actors in the human rights system to implement the key recommendations of this report-including policy and legislative change and public education-to make the human rights complaint system more relevant and useful to Indigenous peoples. This includes calling on government to amend the Human Rights Code to include a prohibition against discrimination on the basis of Indigenous identity.

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

In fall 2019, the provincial government enshrined the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ( UNDRIP) in provincial legislation. The passage of this legislation presents a momentous opportunity, and potentially a seismic shift in relations between the Province of B.C. and the governments of Indigenous nations across this province, as well as urban Indigenous populations. However, most of the hard work of giving meaning to this legislation remains in front of us. It is a critical time to ensure the spirit of this legislation is embedded into law, policy and regulation. BCOHRC is committed to monitoring the implementation of these important human rights commitments in collaboration with Indigenous leadership.

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Decolonization - BC's Office of the Human Rights Commissioner

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What is decolonization? Decolonization is central to the work of human rights in our society, and consequently to the work of BC's Office of the Human Rights Commisioner. Decolonization is...

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May 10 is Spirit Bear's birthday and an important date in the history of Jordan's Principle at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
The Tribunal's first non-compliance order called for Canada to fully implement Jordan's Principle by May 10, 2016. Unfortunately, it took several more years and many non-compliance orders ( September 2016, May 2017, November 2017) against Canada before real progress was made.

Jordan's Principle is a child first principle and legal rule named in memory of Jordan River Anderson. It ensures First Nations children receive the services and supports they need, when they need them.

Celebrated annually, Bear Witness Day honours Jordan River Anderson and invites people of all ages to "Bear Witness" to ensure Jordan's Principle is fully implemented!

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May 10 is Spirit Bear's birthday and an important date in the history of Jordan's Principle at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The Tribunal's first non-compliance order called for Canada to fully implement Jordan's Principle by May 10, 2016.

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This exhibition has ended, but you can see Witness Blanket: Preserving a Legacy in the Level 1 gallery from April 30, 2021 to January 16 2022.

Inspired by a woven blanket, this large‐scale art installation by Carey Newman is made from pieces of history - hundreds of items reclaimed from residential schools, churches, government buildings, and other cultural structures all across Canada.

Contributions to the Witness Blanket were donated by residential school survivors and their families, band offices, friendship centres and governments. Other items were reclaimed from former residential school sites. Those responsible for the school system - churches and the Canadian federal government - have also donated pieces for this installation as a gesture towards reconciliation.

More than 800 items from 77 communities were gathered for this artwork. They include letters, photos, stories, books, clothing, art and fragments of buildings.

The Witness Blanket stands as a national monument to recognize the atrocities of the Indian residential school era, honour the children and symbolize ongoing reconciliation. More than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced into residential schools in Canada between 1870 and 1996.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights hosted this exhibition between December 2015 and June 2016 in its Level 6 Expressions gallery.

To explore this powerful installation, you can download an iOS mobile app (free) created by the Witness Blanket team to explain the stories behind the objects you'll see.

Pieces of history: Eight objects from The Witness Blanket

The following are examples of the hundreds of items that make up The Witness Blanket - each with their own powerful story.

Braids of hair
Marion and Ellen Newman - sisters of the artist and daughters of residential school survivor Victor Newman - grew their hair for over a year, then cut their braids during an eight‐day traditional ceremony. "It was a way to honour our dad, but a way to honour all the children...because it was just a universal experience," Ellen told The Globe and Mail. Children had their hair cut or shaved on their first day of school - a traumatic practice for many Indigenous children whose hair was a large part of their cultural identity and cut only in mourning.

Dive Deeper

Childhood denied

A story about Indian residential schools and their legacy

The Witness Blanket

This monumental work of art honours Survivors of Canada's residential schools. A new website lets you learn from their experiences and bear witness to their stories.

July 1: Celebrating our Indigenous strength and Canadian connections

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This exhibition has ended, but you can see Witness Blanket: Preserving a Legacy in the Level 1 gallery from April 30, 2021 to January 16 2022. Inspired by a woven blanket, this large‐scale art installation by Carey Newman is made from pieces of history - hundreds of items reclaimed from residential schools, churches, government buildings, and other cultural structures all across Canada.

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In graphic novel format, Indigenous writers explore the untold stories of the past, present, and future in what is now Canada.

Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.

Each story includes a timeline of related historical events and a personal note from the author. Find cited sources and a select bibliography for further reading in the back of the book. The accompanying teacher guide includes curriculum charts and 12 lesson plans to help educators use the book with their students.

This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts' New Chapter initiative. With this $35M initiative, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

Winner, McNally Robinson Book of the Year 2020

Winner, Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher 2020

Winner, Cybils Award, Young Adult Graphic Novels 2019

Winner, Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award, Graphic Novel 2021

Nominated, Doug Wright Award for Best Book 2020

Nominated, Gene Day Award for Anthology Collections 2020

This Place is the graphic novel I've waited for my whole life, and the graphic novel Canada has needed for 150 years.
The stories contained within its pages are both beautifully rendered and vitally necessary. They represent a history not only largely untold and unknown, but one obscured, hidden from sight, so that other stories may occupy a privileged place in defining a national story. Their importance is exquisitely captured on these pages, told by some of the leading artists working today. This is an essential book, for comic fans, teachers, and anyone who wants to learn the stories of this place we now share. Jesse Wente, broadcaster and film critic

[A] breathtaking comics anthology. ..this mix of powerful storytelling and memorable illustrations is a place to begin a dialogue with Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Jeffrey Canton, The Globe and Mail

This is the power of storytelling. It's going deeper and truer than the history books and the newspaper accounts. It's bringing the stories to the people for the people and doing it for the right reasons: to teach and to illuminate. This Place: 150 Years Retold is the dawn to a new storytelling tradition that doesn't need to be held back. It should be shouted forward from now on.
Helen Kubiw, CanLit for LittleCanadians

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In graphic novel format, Indigenous writers explore the untold stories of the past, present, and future in what is now Canada. Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel.

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Seven Truths - Abilities Canada - Abilities Magazine

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By Tanya Talaga Love, respect, honesty, bravery, humility, wisdom and truth. These are the seven truths taken from the Seven Grandfather Teachings handed down orally through generations of Anishinaabe elders. They are guideposts, directions and, as award-winning author and journalist Tanya Talaga explains, they're how the Anishinaabe see the world and themselves in it.

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Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education is a practical handbook will introduce readers to social justice education, providing tools for developing "critical social justice literacy" and for taking action towards a more just society. Accessible to students from high school through graduate school, this book offers a collection of detailed and engaging explanations of key concepts in social justice education, including critical thinking, socialization, group identity, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, power, privilege, and White supremacy. Based on extensive experience in a range of settings in the United States and Canada, the authors address the most common stumbling blocks to understanding social justice. They provide recognizable examples, scenarios, and vignettes illustrating these concepts. This unique resource has many user-friendly features, including "definition boxes" for key terms, "stop boxes" to remind readers of previously explained ideas, "perspective check boxes" to draw attention to alternative standpoints, a glossary, and a chapter responding to the most common rebuttals encountered when leading discussions on concepts in critical social justice. There are discussion questions and extension activities at the end of each chapter, and an appendix designed to lend pedagogical support to those newer to teaching social justice education. Includes chapters about sexism, gender orientation, racism, prejudice and discrimination, oppression and power, and socialization.

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Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education is a practical handbook will introduce readers to social justice education, providing tools for developing "critical social justice literacy" and for taking action towards a more just society.

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Neoliberalism

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Nick Hanauer: The dirty secret of capitalism -- and a new way forward

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Rising inequality and growing political instability are the direct result of decades of bad economic theory, says entrepreneur Nick Hanauer. In a visionary talk, he dismantles the mantra that "greed is good" -- an idea he describes as not only morally corrosive, but also scientifically wrong -- and lays out a new theory of economics powered by reciprocity and cooperation.

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May 1, 2024

Mayor Bryan Paterson
City Councillors

City of Kingston
216 Ontario Street
Kingston, Ontario K7L 223

Dear Mayor Paterson and Councillors:

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) understands that the City of Kingston has announced plans to require unsheltered homeless persons at Belle Park to dismantle their shelters and pack up their belongings during the day. I am writing to urge Kingston instead to adopt a human rights-based approach to respond to the issue of encampments.

The growing reality of encampments and unsheltered homelessness raises issues of public importance squarely within the OHRC's expertise. The OHRC has been monitoring Ontario municipalities' response to the crisis of unsheltered homelessness.

The OHRC recognizes the challenges municipalities face in addressing intersecting needs related to housing and homelessness, mental health and substance use issues, and poverty. All levels of government share responsibility, but municipalities are often on the front lines of addressing these systemic social problems.

There are almost 1400 encampments across the province and that municipalities are not adopting a consistent response to this growing concern. Some municipalities are seeking to implement a respectful and compassionate human rights-based approach. Others have emphasized enforcement which can involve municipal officials or police removing people, seizing, or disposing of possessions.

Some municipalities, including Kingston have applied to the courts for orders allowing them to enforce by-laws prohibiting encamping. Notably when municipalities have done so, courts have found that if there are not enough accessible shelter beds, the state cannot prevent homeless people from building their own shelter on public land without violating their Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) right to life, liberty and security of the person. Courts have said that shelters are not truly accessible if they cannot accommodate couples, provide necessary services, accommodate mental and physical disability, or if they impose rules that cannot be followed due to addiction disabilities.

The OHRC is concerned that enforcing the daytime ban on camping could lead to breaches of the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Charter. Substantive equality means that municipalities must ensure their actions do not create or exacerbate disadvantage based on one or more prohibited grounds.

Demonstrating insufficient daytime shelter spaces is not the only way to establish discrimination. Adverse effects based on disability and sex, among other grounds, can result from having to take down shelters, pack up and store belongings or carry them around and then re-establish adequate shelter from the elements every night. Encampment residents, most of whom have physical, mental health and substance use disabilities, may suffer extreme hardship and increased risk of physical and Psychological harm. If they cannot comply, they may be subjected to Trespass to Property Act notices, fines, and arrests.

Notably, enforcing the daytime ban may also make it very difficult for people to live in the encampment at all, effectively, resulting in forced evictions. Displacing persons to living conditions where they are more exposed to the elements or at increased risk because they cannot access healthcare, social and harm reduction services raises human rights concerns. Women and gender diverse persons experience challenges finding accessible and safe spaces and face heightened risks of gender-based harassment and violence if displaced from chosen communities where they feel safest.

Municipalities need to take extra measures to ensure that their response to homelessness reflects their duty to respect, protect and fulfil Indigenous peoples distinct rights and a commitment to reconciliation. Indigenous peoples have rights under treaties, the Constitution and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). All encampments in Ontario are located on Indigenous
peoples traditional territories, engaging their distinct rights concerning land and self-determination. Also, Indigenous peoples are overrepresented among homeless people and more likely to be part of outdoor or unsheltered populations. Indigenous encampment residents and local Indigenous organizations, including those serving encampment residents or other unhoused residents in Kingston, must be meaningfully engaged in any measures regarding encampments. Actions that result in the forcible displacement of Indigenous persons in the absence of their free, prior, and informed consent violate UNDRIP.

In managing municipal parks and enforcing by-laws, municipalities are providing a service to the public. This public includes the unsheltered homeless population, as recognized in the Kingston decision. Any health and safety issues with encampments should be based on objective evidence, and not stereotypes. Steps to address legitimate health and safety concerns should be humane and tailored so that any adverse impact affects the rights of encampment residents as minimal as possible.

The OHRC encourages all levels of government to work cooperatively with each other and affected stakeholders, including encampment residents, community agencies and Indigenous organizations, to determine how best to fulfill the urgent need for housing and shelter services while addressing legitimate health and safety concerns. This, approach will help governments meet their legal obligations.

The OHRC's Human Rights Based Approach Framework (HRBA Framework) helps those designing policies and programs meet these standards. Further guidance on how a human rights-based approach applies in the context of encampments has been provided by the Federal Housing Advocate and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing. The federal government has recently released Canada's Housing Plan and announced funds to support human rights-based community action plans that commit to a housing-first approach to ending encampments, and include supportive and transitional housing, housing-focused services, and rent supplements specifically dedicated to individuals living in encampments or experiencing homelessness.

The OHRC understands that Kingston and municipalities across the province want all their residents to have affordable, accessible, and dignified housing. However, requiring encampment residents to remove their shelter and belongings during the day exacerbates their marginalization and makes it more difficult to achieve this essential goal. Thus, the OHRC joins many other concerned citizens and organizations in calling on Kingston to adopt a human rights-based approach which focuses on the needs of the encampment residents and supports them to permanently transition out of homelessness.

The OHRC hopes that this letter is useful as the City of Kingston takes a decision in this complex, difficult societal challenge. The OHRC welcomes the opportunity to discuss and provide more information about the HRBA Framework and how it can be applied to the needs of Kingston's unsheltered homeless population.

Sincerely,

Patricia DeGuire
Chief Commissioner
Ontario Human Rights Commission

cc: President, Association of Municipalities of Ontario

The City of Kingston, with support from community partners, will begin applying the Parks Use By-Law (#2009-76) during the week of April 2. This work begins today in a respectful, safe and empathetic manner. For people who have been sheltering in parks, this means that tents and other temporary shelters must be removed one hour after sunrise and cannot be erected until one hour before sunset.

Following a court decision in late 2023, City staff will be applying the Parks Use By-Law in all municipally owned parks. Further, staff have been implementing procedures for dismantling permanent and/or semi-permanent structures erected in City parks, enforcing fire bans in City parks and establishing other procedures intended to protect the security of the City's parks and infrastructure, address life safety concerns and promote the safe use of City parks.

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Homelessness in Kingston, Ontario - timeline of actions - Open Council

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May 1, 2024 - Open letter to council from the Ontario Human Rights Commission warns that their approach could violate the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms May 1, 2024 Mayor Bryan PatersonCity Councillors City of Kingston216 Ontario StreetKingston, Ontario K7L 223 Dear Mayor...