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In Manawan, an Atikamekw community more than two and a half hours north of Montreal, leaders are calling the housing crisis in that village, and in Indigenous communities across the country, an injustice.
“They don’t even always have good water, they don’t even have their own bedroom, some parents have to sleep with five of their kids, their grandparents,” said Doreen Petiquay Barthold, communications officer for the Atikamekw Council of Manawan and the Office of Joyce’s Principle.
“Twenty-one people in one house is intense.”
A report by Amnesty International, commissioned by the Atikamekw council of Manwan, is revealing specifics about the housing crisis in that community.
It says that about half the families in a population of 3,000 lack a proper place to live.
Authorities there stress that the situation is similar in several Indigenous communities across Canada.
“This report is very important to denounce what’s happening in our community,” Chief of the Atikamekw Council of Manawan Sipi Flamand told Global News.
Pointing to the overcrowding in many homes, he said it is “very difficult” for families to “live in peace and harmony.”
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“They can have some violence. Many young people stop going to school because they don’t have space to do their homework.”
Researchers admit the housing situation in Manwan was known to be terrible, but according to France-Isabelle Langlois, CEO of Amnesty International Canada’s francophone arm, the study is meant to highlight how it impacts civil and human rights.
“Not only in terms of adequate housing,” she explained, “but also on education, health, safety, privacy and even life.”
Officials note that the death of Joyce Echaquan — a woman from the community who died at the Joliette hospital hours away after filming herself being racially taunted by staff — is directly related.
There are no hospitals in Manawan.
“It’s a package of systemic racism and lack of public services,” Langlois said.
It’s why one of the report’s recommendations is for the Quebec government to fully adopt Joyce’s Principle and recognize systemic racism in provincial services.
Jennifer Petiquay-Dufresne, executive director of the Office of Joyce’s Principle, agrees that the underfunding of resources and services in communities like Manawan is systemic racism.
“How can we truly enjoy the best possible state of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health if we lack even the bare minimum, which is not only a decent roof over our heads, but also a dignified home, a place where we feel safe and where we don’t fear for our health and well-being?” she wrote in a statement.
The housing crisis in Indigenous communities has existed for decades, Indigenous leaders stress.
Francis Verreault-Paul, chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL), agrees with the report that both provincial and federal governments need to invest massively in housing and public services immediately.
He emphasizes the need to put jurisdictional squabbles aside.
“Right now, Quebec government has invested in policing infrastructure on First Nations communities. So, why not in housing? What about that jurisdictional argument?”
Verreault-Paul said more than 10,000 new homes are needed in Quebec communities alone, and that demanding resources isn’t about creating confrontation with governments, but rather about finding solutions.
Indigenous leaders hope the report will finally get politicians to recognize the urgency of the situation, and see that the billions of dollars needed in investments would benefit Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike.
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