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Apprehension
2-22-2017
We continue to live in uncertain times and for many Muslims and other minorities there is sense of apprehension. There is increasing suspicion on all sides and we wonder what will happen next. Thankfully, we have allies who stand firmly in solidarity offering words and acts of warm friendship, compassion, and trust.
Amid all the turmoil and uncertainty, my mind continues to return to the experience of Canada’s Indigenous peoples and the many lessons we all can learn. The past treatment of Aboriginals in Canada and the still present aftereffects offer powerful warning signs if only we pay attention and draw the parallels.
Take the word “apprehension”. It means being anxious about the future, anticipating misfortune and having fear – a feeling many of us are experiencing. But it also means the act of seizure or arrest, when you forcefully have something valuable taken from you. When hearing the word “apprehension” most First Nations people will automatically think of the second meaning, because they know the pain of having the most precious thing ever forcefully seized – the apprehension of their infants and young children – taken away never to be seen again.
In a previous column, we studied Canada’s Residential School System where over 150,000 students were required to leave their homes and communities to live in boarding schools designed to “take the Indian out of them.” For over 100 years, with the last school closed in 1998, families where ripped apart and communities left lifeless. This by itself is atrocious, but the tragedy is further compounded by a sinister practice that arose out of the legacy of Residential Schools – the permanent removal of over 20,000 children from their Aboriginal homes and placement into the foster care system.
Termed the seemingly quaint “Sixties Scoop” due to the overwhelming number of children seized during the 1960s, literally “scooped” out of their communities, sometimes without their parents’ knowledge but often straight out of their helpless arms, the harm done is just now beginning to be recognized by the government.
A few days ago, a landmark decision in a class action suit in Ontario finally gave victims hope that their pain will be acknowledged. Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba ruled the Federal government breached its “duty of care” by failing to protect the cultural identity of Indigenous children removed from their homes between 1965 and 1984.
His ruling unequivocally declares, “The uncontroverted evidence is that the loss of their aboriginal identity left the children fundamentally disoriented, with a reduced ability to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. The loss of aboriginal identity resulted in psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, unemployment, violence and numerous suicides.”
Imagine being a small child and having your whole world turned upside down. One night you fall asleep in your bed next to your parents and siblings, the next night you are sleeping in an unfamiliar room surrounded by strangers never to see your family, home, or community again. Not only that, the strangers – your new guardians – don’t speak your language, understand your customs, accept your spiritual beliefs, or even cook the food you love. Your name is changed, hair is cut, clothes exchanged, and past wiped away – sometime your birthname is even recorded as “deceased” and only your new “white” identity officially exists. Imagine being the mother or father watching your child loaded into a car, or in some cases a bus full of children apprehended wholesale from a village in a day, crying for you to protect them while you cry your own tears of angry frustration and pain. Even after they are gone, you have no recourse, no attempts are made to improve your situation in order for your children to return, you have been deemed an unfit parent because you are Aboriginal.
Disturbingly, it’s still happening. In 2011, there were more than 14,000 Aboriginal children aged 14 and under in foster care. Even though 7% of all children in Canada are Aboriginal they make up almost half of the children in foster care nationwide. In B.C. in 2013, 8106 children were in care and 55% of them were Aboriginal. Clearly something wrong and further steps must be taken.
While Muslims may be apprehensive about the future, very few of us worry about our children being apprehended simply because of our religious beliefs or nationality. At least not yet. And hopefully not ever, due in part to the proactive work of people like David Ali and Farida Bano Ali and others who several years ago formed the Muslim Advisory Committee for the Ministry of Chidren and Family Development (MCFD-Muslim Foster Children) to increase understanding regarding the care and protection of Muslim children.
Yet, in these troubling times, we can look to the past to provide warnings and guidance so that the same mistakes are not repeated. The lessons of Canada’s Indigenous peoples are there, if only we are willing to see.
Zainab Dhanani can be reached at z_dhanani@yahoo.ca
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