Her son, Noah Buffalo Jackson, has a severe case of Cerebral Palsy.  He cannot walk or talk and needs help just to hold a crayon.  Canada’s health care system claims to provide universal coverage to all Canadian citizens, but most of Noah’s healthcare costs have to come from Buffalo’s own pocket because they live on a reservation. 

“If my son was put into a foster home,” she says, "the foster parent’s needs would be met. They would not be expected to spend a dime.”            

Two years after the House of Commons passed a private members motion called Jordan’s Principle – to ensure all aboriginal children receive equal access to government services – Buffalo’s son is still falling through the cracks in Canada’s healthcare services.  

Aboriginal kids with special needs especially affected           

Healthcare is a provincial responsibility, but healthcare on reservations fall under the federal government’s jurisdiction. 

Aboriginal children get caught in the middle of bureaucratic bickering.

Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director at First Nation’s Child and Family Caring Society of Canada in Ottawa, says this jurisdictional dispute exists because the federal government has underfunded heathcare on reservations for years and provinces are not willing to pick up the federal government’s costs. 

Parents with special-needs children are especially affected due to the high costs of their child’s healthcare.

The Society partnered with the Assembly of First Nations to advocate Jordan’s Principle after the death of five-year-old Jordan River Anderson, in Manitoba.  He suffered from complex medical conditions and died in a hospital because the federal and provincial government could not agree who should pay for his healthcare needs in a home.

The province of Manitoba didn’t want to set a precedent to pay for a federal cost, Blackstock says, adding “and the federal government didn’t want to set a precedent to pay for a provincial cost.  Children became lost in the bureaucratic process.” 

Jordan’s Principle is supposed to save children from this bureaucracy.  It states that whatever level of government is contacted first by the family – provincial or federal – is responsible to pay for the child’s needs first and work out the finances later.            

Blackstock says that the principle is not legally binding because it is a private members motion, and therefore the government is not under pressure to apply it. As a result, Buffalo’s son is still waiting to escape the bureaucracy.

Provinces hesitate to set precedent

“I’ve met with officials from both the federal and provincial government and no one can tell me definitively whose responsibility these children are,” Buffalo said.  “The only answer I get is it’s not their problem.”            

Alistair Sinclair, a spokesperson from Health Canada, says the federal government is currently working with provinces to ensure the needs of First Nations children with multiple disabilities are being met even if there is a jurisdictional dispute.           

Health Canada’s solution is to use an intergovernmental group to review the needs of First Nations children case-by-case and compare their care to other children in a similar location. 

This has led the Assembly and the Council to file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Feb. 2007, which has yet to be considered by the commission.           

Regional Chief of Ontario Angus Toulouse from the Assembly of First Nations says there are currently 400 children tangled up in this dispute.

 “Case-by-case didn’t help Jordan, why would it help now?” he asks.

Advocates say health care system discriminate

Some provincial governments – British Columbia and Manitoba – have been implementing Jordan’s Principle, and Toulouse says Ontario will hopefully adopt it this April.  However, the government of Manitoba has restricted the Principle to children with multiple, complex needs.  He says he is concerned this will become widespread across Canada.   

Fighting for their school In Northern Ontario, Aboriginal children are fighting for the same quality of education as all Canadian children. Requires FlashPlayer

The Government of Alberta – where Buffalo lives – has yet to adopt the principle in any capacity.   John Tuckwell, from Alberta Health and Wellness, says it has been contacted by Health Canada to discuss the implementation of Jordan’s Principle, but is awaiting further notice before moving forward. 

When asked why it has taken so long, Tuckwell says it is a “complex situation when dealing with children with complex medical needs.” 

However, Blackstock adds, “The government is already doing it for non-aboriginal children, why not apply the same principle to aboriginal children?”

Canada’s health care system, she says, should not be based on discrimination. Instead, the federal government should be setting a precedent for equality.  With little publicity and little pressure from the Canadian public, Blackstock says there is no reason for the government to push past the “dollars and cents” of the matter.

With the recession, Chief Blackwell sees no end to money taking precedence over human lives.

“Children like my son,” said Chief Buffalo, “have three strikes against them: they are children, handicapped and First Nations.

Related Links First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada Many Hands, One Dream: New perspectives on the health of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children and youth 2006 Census: Aboriginal Peoples (Statistics Canada)