Right To Water In Canada

When people are born there are basic needs that everyone should be accessible to survive. People need to have food, water, clothes and shelter, all these basic needs should be readily available. When it is heard that certain parts of the United States are suffering from basic needs is a huge concern. All people should have access to basic needs such as food and water. But now in the 21st century the United States, is facing problems that are usually seen in third world countries. Flint, Michigan is facing a crisis where their community is unable to access clean drinking water, which people need to survive. This issue is extremely important because everyone needs water to stay alive. But this isn’t the only time when people weren’t able to access basic needs and suffered because of it. In 1904-1908 the Hereo and Nama people had

As The Assembly of The First Nations Regional Chief for British Columbia, I say that the Enbridge Pipeline is a risk to the environment, the ecosystems, the health and the safety to the First Nations and the citizens of British Columbia. We First Nations have had 21,000 people sign off on the online petition “hold the wall”. The pipeline route will interfere homes of where six First Nations live and their willing to put their lives on hold to fight against the Enbridge Pipeline.

Indigenous people were self-governing long before Europeans arrived in Canada but in 1876, the Indian Act came into effect, dismantling traditional governance systems and Indigenous peoples ' lives (Bc Treaty Commission). Today, the Federal government recognizes that Indigenous people have an inherent, constitutionally protected right to self-government, a right to manage their own affairs (Bc Treaty Commission). Self-government agreements are one means of building sound governance and institutional capacity that allow Aboriginal communities to contribute to, and participate in, the decisions that affect their lives and carry out effective relationships with other governments (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada). Thus, this essay explains

The creation of the Indian act put many restrictions on aboriginal peoples. A few include: declared the pot latch ban and other traditional ceremonies illegal, denied first nations the right to vote, restricted first nations from leaving their reserve without permission, etc. the Indian act imposed government control over all first nations. Its main purpose was to control natives and assimilate them into Canadian culture. With the Indian act in place the government can control almost every aspect of their life including: Indian status, land, resources, wills, education, band administration and so on. Additionally under the Indian act, first nations people do not own their own land. They don’t enjoy the same property rights as most Canadians do. First nations live on land that is “a tract of land, the legal title which is vested in Her Majesty.” Absence of property rights is a disaster for first nations communities because it’s hard to do business when people can’t earn equity on a house or use it as collateral to borrow money. It’s hard to create a thriving community when people can’t hand down wealth to their children. It’s also hard to create economic opportunity when people can’t get mortgages without mortgage

Mohawks filed a complaint but were declined due to lack of evidence for “specific legal requirements” (Conflict over)

Indigenous peoples of Canada have been considered inferior to all other citizens, and have been abused and neglected through European history, and can be seen as a form of genocide. In Canadian residential schools, children were removed from the home, sexually assaulted, beaten, deprived of basic human necessities, and over 3 500 women and girls were sterilized, and this went on well into the 1980 's (Nicoll 2015). The dehumanization of Indigenous peoples over the generations has left a significant impact on society today; the generational trauma has left many Indigenous peoples heavily dependent of drugs and alcohol, and the vulnerability of Indigenous women has led to extremely high rates of violent crime towards these women. A report that

The Flint Water Crisis is often described as one of the greatest environmental injustices of all time. The crisis began on March 2013 when the city city switched its water source to Flint River. However, due to inadequate water treatment, more than 100,000 residents were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead in the drinking water and a federal state of emergency was declared. The crisis has sparked debate on where to place the blame. A number of civilians, intellectuals, and politicians have agreed that the Flint Water Crisis is a result of the failure of the government on all levels. An article published by moderately liberal newspaper, The Washington Post, entitled “Flint’s water crisis reveals government failures at every level” offers

Indian tribes appreciate what are known as "winters" reserved rights named after a century-old Supreme Court case. The western states split up water based on "prior appropriation," in meaning that whoever first puts the water to use has the rights to it so basically first come first serve. That’s usually non-Indian farmers and there allowed to take primacy over all other users, even if it means leaving no water for anybody else that could have been using the waters.

On the shores of the Attawapiskat Lake, about 18 hours north west of Barrie, lies the band of the Neskantaga First Nations, where only a portion of the population remains. The other portion leave, because of the large amounts of poverty and the isolation. This First Nations Community has been under a water boil advisory for over 20 years. Their current water filtration system hasn’t worked since 1995, and even when it did work it removed sand and grit, but left in harmful chemicals. The government gives the Neskantaga people $250,000 annually, which goes towards running a water treatment system that continuously tests positive for harmful chemicals after being filtered. The confusing part is, is that the government spends $1,000,000 flying in bottled water. Instead of giving these First Nations only $250,000 to fix their treatment plant give them some of the $1,000,000 that 's spent

The Tsilhqot People have been fighting logging issues since the 1980’s and are still fighting over other issues like mining since 2013 (The Star, Supreme Court Grants Land Title…, 2014). Not only did the Tsilhqot people have property issues arise from resource development but the Haida as well. The Haida Native group in British Columbia also protested and opposed logging on the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1985 (Centre for Native Governance, Haida, 2013). In 1987 the Province of British Columbia signed an agreement to give some land back however, it took six years to complete and during this time frame they continued their developments (Centre for Native Governance, Haida, 2013). Robert William, the Tsilhqot representative in this case, said

In Chapter eight of Byron Williston’s Environmental Ethics for Canadians First Nation’s perspectives are explored. The case study titled “Language, Land and the Residential Schools” begins by speaking of a public apology from former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He apologizes for the treatment of “Indians” in “Indian Residential Schools”. He highlights the initial agenda of these schools as he says that the “school system [was] to remove and isolate [Aboriginal] children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them[…]” (Williston 244). By doing this, colonial Canadians assumed that aboriginal cultural and spiritual beliefs were invalid in relation to European beliefs (244). The problem with ridding the First Nations Peoples of their languages, as Williston points out is to “deprive them of the sense of place that has defined them for thousands of years” (245). The private schooling system was an attack on First Nations identities, and their identity is rooted in “a respect for nature and its processes” (245).

Natural resources such as minerals and precious metals are commodities, sold by those who own land in which they are mined or extracted. Gold a precious metal that has held high monetary value for centuries and has been the means of attaining great wealth and forming great empires. Water, a natural resource has a very different value, that of sustaining life. It is a commodity like other natural resources, to the landowner, in which it is sourced. Water sources are managed by individuals and by the state (government). In urban civilizations, water sources are pumped through a network of pipes into citizen’s homes. Citizens are then required to pay a premium for distribution and usage of the water. Water obtained and distributed by the

Can you stop for a moment and think what would happen if we didn’t have water; clean water? It seems impossible, as we use water to drink, cook, clean, grow things, and for everything else in life. Unfortunately, because of the easy access to one of the most plentiful, and most valuable resources in the world, some people take water for granted. In contrast, other poor people live in places where the only easy way to get water is from a dirty irrigation ditch. Or their only source of water is backyard faucet shared by several homes. So, because of the availability of clean water is being abused, the problem of wasting water started to emerge. Some people thinks that with all the water on our plant’s surface, why are many so worried about water preservation? People who waste water think that it’s from their right to have plenty of water. If one mediates the world around, he/she should have observed that all creatures on earth need water to survive. Furthermore, the shortage of water in the body of any living creature happen to cause health problems and even death. The idea of preserving water is a debatable subject. However, humans should stop wasting water and should not take it for granted in order to survive with a healthy body, and reduce health risks.

Water resources problem areis a serious challenge to the social and economic sustainable development around the whole world. With regards to the predator of fresh water shortage in global scale, Canada also unfortunately falls to its prey. Blessed with abundant fresh water in lakes, streams, rivers and most importantly –the underground water, Canada has long taken it for granted that fresh water supply will never be their concern. However, the approaching of fresh water shortage has only until recently woken Canadians from their dreams.

They are investigating into natural cycles and patterns and trying to figure out its results in measurable terms. However, this measurement is not precise enough to be reliable until other interconnecting factors like greenhouse gases are taken into consideration.