May 30, 2008
By DHARM MAKWANA, 24 HOURS
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2008/05/30/5718161-sun.html
An end to abuses against aboriginal people must begin by healing their young men, a rally heard yesterday.
David Dennis, with the United Native Nations, made his plea during a speech outside the Vancouver Art Gallery for A National Day of Action in Support of First Nations.
“We as a people look at our young men as criminals,” he said. “We allow our government to criminalize our young men. We allow them to criminalize them up to a point that we don’t as indigenous people feel that it’s important to pass down indigenous principles.”
Dennis said with young native men struggling, young native women are left at risk.
“Over 3,000 of our women, of us as a people, have gone missing without a word,” he said. “There’s no front page for our missing women.”
The Assembly of First Nations, which organized the event, is calling on the federal government to work with aboriginals to protect the future of a generation of young First Nations people.
Dennis also spoke of systemic poverty plaguing aboriginals in the shadow of the 2010 Games.
“I think today we look today at the extravagance of what the Olympics represent to us as indigenous people and quite frankly we’re pissed off,” he said. “We’re angry to the bones at the poverty that our young people go through.”
Filed under: All News, Events Section
