Kirsty Duncan

[World Autism Awareness Day, April 1st, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to bring to the attention of this House that tomorrow, April 2, is World Autism Awareness Day.

Autism is a pervasive disorder which affects one person in 110, and millions of people around the world, including thousands of Canadians.

We need a national strategy in this country to help those who are living with autism and their families, a strategy to address the challenges brought on by autism, with child, adolescent and adult supports. We know this will not solve autism. However, if we can make people aware of the importance of early diagnosis and early intervention, maybe we can make lives a little easier.

The importance of World Autism Awareness Day is to give a voice to all those undiagnosed, misunderstood and looking for help. Children and persons with autism must be given the opportunity to lead full and meaningful lives.

[Aboriginal Healing Foundation, March 30th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I will start by saying again that a mistake has been by the government. Will the government do the morally right thing and restore funding?

I will talk again about the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal. The executive director explains:

Your mother didn't go but your grandmother went [to residential schools], so she couldn't raise your mother. It trickles down, and it has resulted in loss of dignity, loss of parenting skills, loss of community, loss of traditional ceremonies.

She states that the people who have suffered these losses cannot be helped by traditional Western healing. She says:

If you carry a lot of grief, your doctor won't prescribe a sweat lodge. But we do, and the women who participate can speak their traditional language and sing traditional songs. It's about releasing the pain in a healthy environment. They come back--

[Aboriginal Healing Foundation, March 30th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I think we all agree that this is such an important program. It is evidence-based, it is cost-effective, and there is almost unanimous agreement among those canvassed that AHF has been very successful at both achieving its objectives and in governance and fiscal management.

The Native Women's Shelter of Montreal held a policy meeting with the leader of the official opposition to call on the federal government to reinstate its support for AHF. The shelter depends on AHF for funding.

The executive director said:

We have been receiving funds from the AHF for the last 10 years, and it goes toward our healing program, and the basics, a roof over the head and food to eat...A lot of people are out of work, and we are going to be grasping at straws now to try to meet the needs of the women.

According to an MLA in Nunavut, many of Nunavut's health and social problems, such as addictions and suicides, have improved. He says:

The momentum towards healing in our communities has begun.

Why take away this program?

[Aboriginal Healing Foundation, March 30th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, a few weathered crosses scar a barren field. The old man who tends to them remembers coming with the religious leaders to bury the small boxes. He has spent a lifetime trying to come to terms with what happened at residential schools, how they shattered his family and how he spent decades trying to rebuild ties. The stolen children, who lay beneath his feet, many friends, never had that chance. Sadly, no one actually knows how many are buried, hundreds if not thousands, their names or how they died. They are the voiceless.

The white crosses paint a bleak picture of a terrible tragedy: children poorly fed, poorly clothed, with little medical help and ideal conditions for the spread of tuberculosis.

One woman remembers being sick along with three other children for days before the religious leaders called for help. When the child came to, the other three beds were empty. The only words, “You are the lucky one. You pulled through”.

I rise today to urge the government to honour the Prime Minister's 2008 apology for the federal government's role in the Indian residential school system with real action, namely to continue funding the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which has been very successful at both achieving its objectives and in governance and fiscal management.

In the 19th century the Canadian government believed it was responsible for caring for and educating the country's aboriginal people. Ideally, children, who were easier to mould than adults, would pass along their new lifestyle of Canadian customs, Christianity and English to their children. Aboriginal traditions would diminish or be abolished in a few generations.

About 150,000 first nations, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend schools. Children were discouraged from speaking their language, and if they were caught doing so they would experience severe punishment. Children rarely had opportunities to see examples of normal family life as brothers and sisters rarely saw one another due to gender segregation. Children were away 10 months of the year. All correspondence was written in English, which many parents could not read.

When children returned to the reserve they often found they did not belong and were even ashamed of their traditions. Frequently they did not have either the skills to help their parents or to function in an urban setting as the skills they learned were often substandard.

As a result of residential abuses suffered in the past, aboriginal people today endure many effects of unresolved trauma, including alcoholism, depression, lack of capacity to build and sustain healthy families and communities, lack of parenting skills, violence, poverty, suicide and weakening or destruction of cultures and languages.

Today some 30% of first nations people have felt blue, depressed or sad for two or more weeks. A statistical profile on the health of first nations in Canada for the year 2000 showed that suicide and self-inflicted injuries were the leading causes of death for first nation youth and adults up to 44 years of age, and first nations youth committed suicide about five to six times more often than non-aboriginal youth.

Tragically, the suicide rate for first nations males was 126 per 100,000 compared to 24 per 100,000 for non-aboriginal males. For first nations females the suicide rate was 35 per 100,000 compared to only 5 per 100,000 for non-aboriginal females. Suicide rates for Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average.

Former national chief, Phil Fontaine, has said, “The memories of residential schools sometimes cut like merciless knives at our souls”.

First nations people and Inuit face other serious health related challenges, such as high rates of chronic and contagious diseases and shorter life expectancy.

Compared to the general Canadian population, heart disease is 1.5 times higher, and type 2 diabetes is 3 to 5 times higher among first nations people, and rates are increasing among the Inuit. High rates of diabetes are linked to key health determinants, such as education, employment levels, income, social conditions and access to health care, all impacted by the residential school experience.

While it has been more than 100 years since the former chief medical officer at Indian Affairs sounded the alarm over horribly high rates of tuberculosis in residential schools, TB continues to be a major concern in aboriginal communities. Aboriginal people in Canada face a third world risk of the disease. The tuberculosis rate among status Indians is 31 times higher than that of non-aboriginal Canadians. The rate among Inuit is 186 times that of Canadian born non-aboriginals, equivalent to the rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although not the subject of this debate, the rate of tuberculosis among Canada's aboriginal peoples is an embarrassment that demands a real government strategy, the what, by when and how, and resources. We must call upon the Prime Minister to take immediate action on this 100% preventable disease.

After over 100 years of abuse and neglect, churches implicated in abuse apologized. The United Church of Canada formally apologized to Canada's first nations people in 1986 and offered a second apology in 1998.

Archbishop Peers offered an apology on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993, stating,

I am sorry, more than I can say, that we were part of a system which took you and your children from home and family.

Four leaders of the Presbyterian Church signed a statement of apology in 1994 stating:

It is with deep humility and in great sorrow that we come before God and our Aboriginal brothers and sisters with our confession.

In 2009, the Pope expressed his sorrow to a delegation from Canada's Assembly of First Nations for the abuse and deplorable treatment that aboriginal students suffered.

The Government of Canada finally apologized in June 2008. The government recognized that the assimilation of aboriginal children was wrong, and “has caused great harm and has no place in our country”.

The school's policy and legacy includes social problems that persist in communities today and was profoundly damaging to the language and heritage of aboriginal peoples.

Most important, the Prime Minister said, “We apologize for having done this”, and asked for forgiveness.

Words are not enough. Words must be backed up with action and particularly engaging in a meaningful way with aboriginal community leaders, former residential school students and their families.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation provides resources that promote reconciliation and encourage and support aboriginal people and their communities in building and reinforcing sustainable healing processes that address the legacy of cultural, mental, physical, sexual and spiritual abuses in the residential school system, including intergenerational impacts.

In December 2009, INAC released a report that stated,

The Government of Canada should consider continued support for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, at least until the Settlement Agreement compensation processes and commemorative initiatives are completed.

Will the Prime Minister honour INAC's recommendation and continue the healing so all those who seek healing can access it, so some mothers can build self-esteem, can teach their children and in some cases end the cycle of abuse and addiction?

These programs must be ongoing. It is impossible to erase 150 years, the generations and unspeakable abuses against children without healing. A mistake has been made. Will the government do the morally right thing and restore the funding?

[Tuberculosis, March 24th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, today is World Tuberculosis Day. Tuberculosis is Canada's forgotten disease. The tuberculosis rate among status Indians is 31 times higher than that of non-aboriginal Canadians, and the rate among Inuit is 186 times higher.

Why does the government think that sub-Saharan TB rates are acceptable among aboriginal Canadians?

[World TB Day, March 24th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, today is World TB Day, an international call to action, to mobilize political commitment to reduce the burden of tuberculosis. Yet, today, TB is Canada's forgotten disease.

Aboriginal people in Canada face a third world risk of the disease. The tuberculosis rate among status Indians is 31 times higher than that of non-aboriginal Canadians. The rate among Inuit is 186 times that of Canadian born non-aboriginals, equivalent to the rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

This information from the Public Health Agency of Canada comes as the Prime Minister is preparing to make child and maternal health in the developing world a priority at the G8 summit this year.

The rate of tuberculosis among Canada's aboriginal peoples is an embarrassment that demands a real government strategy, the what, by when and how and resources.

We call upon the Prime Minister to take immediate action on this 100% preventable disease.

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the material that I presented is based on historical fact. CDC, the Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization recognized the history that took place in the United States. If action were taken in 1981, the epidemic could have been slowed. Sadly, the word “AIDS” was not even mentioned until 1985.

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, this is not a laughing matter and of course we support the increase in ODA, our official development assistance. I also want to take the opportunity to explain that when the condom campaign was finally launched by the CDC in early 1994, the campaign promoted condom use. It was the first campaign involving government agencies, state and local organizations. Through a series of advertisements on national television networks, cable networks and radio stations, the advertisements were frank about sex. In 1997, it was reported for the first time that AIDS decreased in the United States since the start of the epidemic in 1981.

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the material that I presented is historical fact. The facts that I presented come from the World Health Organization and from the United Nations. I will take this opportunity to talk about preventing the transmission of HIV-AIDS as stipulated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

Abstain from sex...until you are in a relationship with only one person, are having sex with only each other, and each of you knows the other’s HIV status.

Talk about HIV and other STDs with each partner before you have sex.

Learn as much as you can about each partner’s past behavior...and consider the risks to your health before you have sex.

[Get tested] for HIV--

Use a latex condom and lubricant every time you have sex.

If you think you may have been exposed to another...STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection), such as gonorrhea, syphilis, or Chlamydia trachomatis infection, get treatment. These diseases can increase your risk of getting HIV.

Do not have sex when you are taking drugs or drinking alcohol because being high can make you more likely to take risks. To protect yourself, remember these ABCs: A = Abstinence B = Be Faithful C = Condoms

[Business of Supply, March 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Vancouver Centre.

Every day almost 7,000 become infected with HIV and almost 6,000 die, mostly because they have no access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services.

In Canada someone in the country becomes infected with HIV every two hours. Women account for one-fifth of Canadians with HIV-AIDS, up from one-tenth in 1995. By the end of 2005, there were 58,000 people living with HIV-AIDS in Canada. Of those, an estimated 15,000, or just over 25%, did not know it.

Today AIDS remains the most serious infectious disease challenge to global public health and undermines six of eight millennium development goals: reduce poverty and child mortality; increase access to education; gender equality; improved maternal health; and efforts to combat major killers, such as malaria and tuberculosis.

My remarks will focus on what can happen when a government fails to implement evidence-based medicine, but instead invokes ideology over science. This happened during the early days of the AIDS pandemic and the response of the United States to it.

Protecting our children is personal to me. I taught infectious disease and women's health at the university. I used to have Casey House, the first free-standing HIV-AIDS hospice in Canada, come and talk to my students. As the years passed, I stopped inviting the organization because I knew I had students living with HIV in the room and the talk would be devastating to them.

My students came to me when they had nowhere else to turn. They confided in me about being HIV positive. They were 17, 18, scared with no hope. They could not fathom how this could happen to them. They did not want to go home. They did not want to tell their parents, and they were afraid to get help.

I heard from the parents. I remember one parent who came to me in desperation. He just kept saying, “If only I had talked about it. It shouldn't have been that hard. The ABC's abstinence be faithful condoms...my baby might not have been infected today. How do I ever say I'm sorry?”

My wish is that no parent, friend, loved one or teacher would ever have to hold a young person sobbing because they have received the terrifying, life-changing diagnosis of HIV positive, at that time a death sentence. We cannot, we must not return to the fear and ignorance that once defined the world's response to the AIDS pandemic.

I remember that first summer in the early 1980s. Radio reports from California and New York drifted in about a small number of men who had been diagnoses with rare forms of cancer and/or pneumonia. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first described the condition in 1981 by detailing the cases of five young gay men hospitalized with serious pneumonia and yeast infections.

By the end of 1981, five to six new cases of the disease were being reported each week. By 1982, a total of 20 states had reported cases and the disease was no longer solely affecting gay men. There were a small number of cases among heterosexual men and women.

Initially the American government completely ignored the emerging AIDS epidemic. In a press briefing at the White House in 1982 a journalist asked a spokesperson for President Reagan if the president had any reaction to the announcement that AIDS was now an epidemic and had over 600 cases. The spokesperson responded, “What's AIDS?” To a question about whether the president or anybody in the White House knew about the epidemic, the spokesperson shockingly replied, “I don't think so”.

While the government took no action, the numbers of infected and dying continued to increase. By the end of 1983, the number of AIDS diagnosis reported in American had risen to over 3,000, and of these, over 1,200 had died. Shamefully, it was not until September 1985 that President Reagan publicly mentioned AIDS for the first time. This was unconscionable.

Public health officials had a model for how quickly a sexually transmitted disease could spread. It was syphilis, which emerged 500 years ago in western Europe during the late 15th and 16th centuries, quickly reaching a prevalence rate of 20% in any urban areas.

The U.S. political sector's slow response to AIDS contributed to the explosive growth of the epidemic. In some instances, federal officials actually ruined efforts to slow the epidemic. Former Surgeon General Koop stated:

Even though the Centers for Disease Control commissioned the first AIDS task force as early as June 1981, I, as Surgeon General, was not allowed to speak about AIDS publicly until the second Reagan term. Whenever I spoke on a health issue at a press conference or on a network morning TV show, the government public affairs people told the media in advance that I would not answer questions on AIDS, and I was not to be asked any questions on the subject.

President Reagan also refused to advocate for safer sex and condom use. Instead, he chose a ban on HIV-positive immigrants entering the United States and then later sexual abstinence as the keys to preventing the epidemic.

At last, in 1986, the surgeon general's report on AIDS was published, outlining what the nation should do to prevent the spread of the disease. The report urged parents and schools to start frank, open discussions about AIDS. Finally, in 1988, the first national co-ordinated AIDS education campaign was launched in the United States. There were 107 million brochures entitled “Understanding AIDS” mailed to every household across the country.

Tragically, nearly 83,000 cases of AIDS had been identified in America and over 45,000 people had died. Six other nations had set up similar leaflet campaigns before America chose to do so. A condom campaign was finally launched by the CDC in 1994. It promoted condom use, the first among government agencies, state and local organizations, and through a series of advertisements on TV networks, cable and radio. In 1997, for the first time since 1981, the start of the epidemic, the numbers dropped substantially.

Harvey Fineberg, then provost of Harvard University and co-chair of the 2000 Institute of Medicine committee, stated: “Thousands of new HIV infections could be avoided each year if we gave greater emphasis to prevention”. The report also criticized government spending on abstinence-only education as there is no evidence that such programs are effective in preventing the spread of HIV.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, almost 60 million people have been infected with HIV and 25 million have died of HIV-related causes. In 2008, 430,000 children were born with HIV.

We have a long way to go to defeat HIV-AIDS and to protect maternal and child health. We must reduce HIV infections, increase access to treatment and care, and reduce HIV-AIDS related health disparities. We must ensure that all people understand that HIV-AIDS is incurable, but that it is also 100% preventable. Far too many people have become infected because they lack basic information about how this disease is spread.

My thoughts and prayers remain always with my student, who is sadly no longer with us, and to the father, I honour my promise, namely, to tell families how they can best protect their children.

Now I call upon the government to respect the words of its Public Health Agency, namely, that condoms are a vitally important way to save lives and protect our health. This is a global public health issue to reduce the spread of HIV-AIDS and save lives. We cannot return to fear and ignorance, which led to infection and death.