I want to come back to a comment made by Ms. Brown about the problems related to developing skills programs. I am going to try to give you a very practical example.
Several years ago, we decided to all focus on development. We looked at Aboriginal families and decided that Aboriginal parents had a real parenting deficit. We found it unbelievable that they would leave their children alone without supervision, that they were all dirty, that 17 children would be living in the same house, and that their daughters would be pregnant at the age of 15.
So, the child welfare system decided to try and develop parenting skills among Aboriginal mothers. But the problem with these parenting skills is that, once again, white people will be defining the appropriate skills and what it means to be a good parent.
I'd like to give you a very concrete example. Recently, at a discussion group on maternity with 10 or more Aboriginal women, one of the women in attendance told me that she had always been able to grow in her community. For her, going to the neighbours to ask for butter was not a problem, because everyone does that there: they never lock their doors and they help each other out. It's a form of community solidarity.
She told me that it was the same thing for their relationship with the land. She said that often, when there are meetings of Aboriginals, you can see one person's children over there in that corner, another person's children over there in another corner, and that all the children are outside. She explained that the relationship with the land is a fundamental value among the Aboriginal people. Children are very free to explore.
In the youth protection context, leaving a child without supervision like that or letting the neighbour look after your child is tantamount to parental negligence. So, the youth protection authorities came into her life. They told this Aboriginal woman that her cultural system amounted to parental negligence. As a result, she was caught up in the youth protection system, and her children were taken away.
And the wonderful social response in Quebec was to amend the Youth Protection Act in 2007. Now it imposes certain timelines. Now they have latched on to the child attachment theory. So, depending on the age of your child, you have a certain period of time to work on or correct your bad parenting. If your child is aged from 0 to 5 years, you only have six months. If your child is between the ages of 6 and 11, you have 12 months, and if your child is aged from 12 to 17 years, you have 18 months.
But is it realistic to impose these timeframes, considering all the things we have been talking about together this morning? Is it realistic to demand that an Aboriginal woman acquire proper parenting skills in 18, 12 or 6 months?
And, if you are not able to rectify or improve your skills within that timeframe, your child will be subject to adoption until the age of majority. That is what happens when you focus on skills and it shows the extent to which this is all part of a government-based post-colonial system of domination.
Right now, we are reliving the 60s scoop. Many Aboriginal women saw their children taken away, supposedly because they were incapable of looking after them. As a result, we are now witnessing an overrepresentation of Aboriginal youth in institutions, youth centres, friendship centres and group homes. Aboriginals are overrepresented in our prisons and penitentiaries. And the women are in safe houses.