{"id":1220,"date":"2024-11-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/?p=1220"},"modified":"2024-11-14T16:09:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T21:09:03","slug":"chief-benedict-abram-transforming-first-nations-child-and-family-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/2024\/chief-benedict-abram-transforming-first-nations-child-and-family-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief Benedict Abram: Transforming First Nations Child and Family Services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Chief Benedict Abram: Transforming First Nations Child and Family Services\n <\/h1>\n \n \n \n\n

Speaking to a crowded room at Carleton University, Regional Chief of Ontario Benedict Abram described the recent negotiations between the Assembly of First Nations and the Government of Canada over the First Nations Child and Family Services Program (FNCFS).<\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n

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\u201cIn 2016, the government was found to be discriminating against First Nations kids living on reserve,\u201d said Abram, citing a finding from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that the program was flawed, inequitable and discriminatory. \u201cIn June 2024, we announced a settlement of $47.8 billion to reform the system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Abram shared his experiences as a chief of the Mohawk nation of Akwesasne as well as the Regional Chief of Ontario during the Katherine H. Graham Lecture on Indigenous policy on November 4, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Abram said it\u2019s challenging to address policy issues\u2014whether in Akwesasne or across Canada\u2014within a tangled web of jurisdictions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAt Akwesasne, we were dealing with child welfare in three jurisdictions: Quebec, Ontario and New York State. Our community had a mandate to protect children, but child welfare is different in every province\u2014and even within the province.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Chief Abram has seen that challenge multiplied across Canada as he\u2019s witnessed the negotiations over the First Nations Child and Family Services Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHalf of the communities are remote communities in the North where you have to fly in child protection workers. It\u2019s very difficult there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Chief Abram is hopeful the settlement will help transform child protections on reserve, he recognizes the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a very emotional topic because children are our most valuable resources. But we\u2019re trying to ensure our communities are going in the right direction.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Chief Abram\u2019s talk was followed by a presentation of postdoctoral research on Indigenous topics, hosted by the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation (3ci).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Peter Andr\u00e9e (on stage) and Dr. Howard Huynh (on-screen) during the 3ci Panel on Research for Community Innovation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The presenters included Dr. Giuseppe Amatulli, Dr. Howard Huynh, Dr. Carola Ramos Cortez, Dr. Kyle Plotsky and Dr. Joshua Steckley speaking on the results of several Carleton-based community research partnerships, including the Rebuilding First Nations Governance project, the Fostering Indigenous small-scale fisheries for Health, Economy and Food Security project, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Katherine A.H. Graham lecture is held annually and provides a vehicle for examining a wide range of policy issues, cases, models and tools related to First Nations, M\u00e9tis and Inuit communities across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking to a crowded room at Carleton University, Regional Chief of Ontario Benedict Abram described the recent negotiations between the Assembly of First Nations and the Government of Canada over the First Nations Child and Family Services Program (FNCFS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[60,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-katherine-graham-lecture","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1220\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fpga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}