Human Rights Commission report points out gaps in aboriginal well-being

OTTAWA – A month after data from Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey painted a picture of a young aboriginal population struggling with social challenges, the Canadian Human Rights Commission is confirming what we know: that this group fares worse than the general population on several measures of health and wellness.

“This is not news that should come as a surprise to anybody,” said David Gollob of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which on Monday published a report that points out stark differences between Canada’s aboriginal and non-aboriginal populations when it comes to indicators of well-being. The document will serve as a benchmark for the commission to monitor how the well-being of Canada’s aboriginal people changes – or fails to change – in the future.

The report compiles and crunches data from a handful of national surveys, including the 2006 census, to look at how aboriginal populations fared in areas such as education, employment, health and housing from 2005 to 2010. Though conclusions are similar to those reached by earlier Statistics Canada reports, Gollob said the new commission study is significant because it brings together data beyond what is collected by the census, such as proportion of people who say they didn’t receive necessary health care because it wasn’t available in their area. That appears in a different study, the Aboriginal Peoples Survey.

The commission report finds that Canada’s aboriginal people see lower rates of university enrolment, higher levels of unemployment, less access to health care and a bigger need for basic housing than the general population. Also among the findings are that aboriginal people are more likely than non-aboriginals to be abused, fall victim to violent crimes and be imprisoned.

Despite the grim conclusions, Gollob said the commission is “quite optimistic” the next report into aboriginal well-being, which will potentially be completed within the next five years, will show that conditions in this group are improving. Specifically, he said efforts to increase economic activity in aboriginal communities should make the population more prosperous. This followup study will likely use information from the 2011 National Household Survey, including data on aboriginal education which is scheduled to be released later this month.

The report is the second in a series being done by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to look at how inequalities affect the country’s vulnerable populations. The commission, which upholds the Canadian Human Rights Act and investigates complaints about discrimination in the workplace, last year published a report looking at the well-being of people with disabilities and will eventually release studies examining the conditions faced by women and visible minorities.