Source: Saskatchewan Health Authority
Year: 2019
"The Saskatchewan Health Authority acknowledges Saskatchewan as the traditional territory of First Nations and Métis people, which includes Treaties 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10.
We commit to fostering and maintaining respectful relations with all First Nations and Métis people. The Saskatchewan Health Authority acknowledges the pain, loss, and dislocation caused by the residential school system on individuals, families, communities and nations."
Source: Food Secure Canada
Year: 2020
“Food Secure Canada (FSC) published a policy action plan for renewing the country’s food system in response to Covid-19. The pandemic is magnifying the structural inequalities in our food systems, the insufficiencies of our social protection programs, and the challenges with the dominant food supply chains.
This moment clearly calls for visionary and bold structural change rather than piecemeal approaches based on the status quo. Food Secure Canada’s Growing Resilience And Equity: A Food Policy Action Plan in the Context of Covid-19 charts a way forward, grounded in proposals developed through a process of information gathering, listening, consultation and convening with individuals and organizations involved in ‘food movements’ (social movements advancing food-system transformation).”
With the summer solstice behind us and the prospect of a post-COVID “two dose” summer ahead, many are anticipating a return to normal. But the COVID era has revealed health inequities and structural realities that make return to “normal” untenable.
Incidents in the last twenty months, including the death of Joyce Echequan in a Quebec hospital, a higher death toll from overdoses than from COVID in Indigenous communities, and the continued-unearthing of mass graves of children at Indian Residential Schools, highlight that systemic racism has flourished in our collective silence and inaction.
This is not a baseline to which we can return.
As we reopen, we must all confront a question that stands between a return to normal and advancing toward a future that affirms the self determination of Indigenous peoples.
Read more in the policy brief from Elisa Levi and Hayley Lapalme.
Source: Food Secure Canada
Year: 2011
"We are a group of community-based activists, scholars and storytellers who work on issues of food sovereignty. We come from diverse regions of Turtle Island and share fundamental beliefs towards the land and all she stands for. We represent fishing, hunting, and gathering peoples and bring an understanding of the impact of colonialism on our regions. Indigenous food systems include all of the land, soil, water, and air, as well as culturally important plant, fungi, and animal species that have sustained Indigenous peoples over thousands of years of participating in the natural world. "
Source: Understanding Our Food Systems Project (Thunder Bay District Health Unit and the Indigenous Food Circle)
Year: 2020
The Understanding Our Food Systems Project from the Thunder Bay District Health Unit and the Indigenous Food Circle share a series of resources, including info sheets, guidelines, application forms, and other materials for serving wild game at events.
Source: Provincial Health Services Authority, British Columbia
Year: 2016
"Traditional Indigenous foods are part of a healthy diet. Moreover, traditional foods also have cultural and spiritual value and can contribute to the health of young First Nations and Métis children, many of whom experience food insecurity. Early childhood programs are ideal settings to introduce, explore and share traditional foods. However, in licensed childcare settings, the current food regulatory system effectively excludes the type, frequency and/or where traditional foods can be served."
Source: Robyn Ermine, Rachel Engler-Stringer, Patricia Farnese, Glenda Abbott
Year: 2020
“Our purpose in carrying out this project has been to support the development of actions that can remove barriers to traditional foods in urban environments for Indigenous people. Traditional foods are hunted, trapped, fished, gathered and cultivated to various extents depending on the community and their respective traditional territories. Communities and organizations across the country are finding innovative ways to bring traditional foods to urban residing Indigenous people, but they are often navigating the relevant policies and regulations on their own. This situation places the burden of navigating current policies and regulations on Indigenous communities.”
Source: Yukon Hospital Corporation
Year: n.d.
How does it look like to implement a traditional food program in a hospital, and what are some considerations for food safety? This folder contains policies, forms, and processes for the traditional food program from the Yukon Hospital Corporation.
Source: Yellowhead Institute
Year: 2020
“It has been just over one month since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, calling for urgent and aggressive action to combat the disease and the virus that causes it. Public health responses have focused on flattening the curve to reduce the burden on healthcare systems and reducing transmission rates. Calls for people to self-isolate and practice social/physical distancing have operated alongside demands that we as a society work collectively to protect those who are most vulnerable. These are critically important actions to take.”
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Year: 2008
Indigenous peoples, like everyone else, have a right to adequate food and a fundamental right to be free from hunger. This is stipulated in Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966 and constitutes binding international law. This means states parties to the ICESCR are obliged to implement the right to food domestically, ensuring that it becomes part of their national legal system. The right to food entitles every person to an economic, political, and social environment that will allow them to achieve food security in dignity through their own means. Individuals or groups who do not have the capacity to meet their food needs for reasons beyond their control, such as illness, discrimination, age, unemployment, economic downturn, or natural disaster, are entitled to be provided with food directly. The obligation to ensure a minimum level necessary to be free from hunger is one of immediate effect.
Source: Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby; Yellowhead Institute
Year: 2020
December 15, 2020, marks a full five years since the release of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. It was a momentous day that saw residential school Survivors, their families, and representatives of the institutions responsible for overseeing the horrors of Canada’s Indian residential school system gather in Ottawa to chart a new path for the future guided by the Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. Governments committed to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal counterparts to, “fully implement the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” But five years later, that commitment has not materialized. In 2020, a tumultuous year for many reasons, our analysis reveals that just 8 Calls to Action have been implemented, this is down from 9 in 2019.
Source: Legal Services Society
Year: 2017
In Canada, Aboriginal rights are protected under section 35 of the Constitution. Aboriginal people may also have treaty rights protected under section 35 of the Constitution. The extent of treaty rights depends on the terms of the treaty. They may apply within the entire traditional territory of your Aboriginal community or only within a certain area described in the treaty. Aboriginal rights are practices, traditions, and customs that are unique to each Aboriginal community. Aboriginal rights are based on traditional activities that: • were practised before contact with Europeans (for First Nations and Inuit) or were practised before Europeans took control over the area (for Métis); • are important to the distinct culture of each Aboriginal community; and • have continued to present day (although they can be in modern form — for example, you can hunt with a gun instead of a bow and arrow). Generally, Aboriginal rights only apply within the traditional territory of your Aboriginal community. This means the area where your Aboriginal ancestors lived. Aboriginal rights are held by:
First Nations, including status and non-status Indians,
Inuit, and
Métis.
Author: Food Secure Canada
Year: 2017
A national food policy for Canada must acknowledge the history and ongoing legacy of colonialism and prioritize reconciliation and decolonization as key guiding principles of our food system. Food was often used as a tool of oppression and marginalization, including through the use of starvation and malnutrition in residential schools and the assumption, upon the arrival of European settlers, that Canada was largely an empty, uninhabited land (“terra nullius”). For many years, it was the Canadian government’s practice to provide only enough food to Indigenous communities on-reserve for basic survival. In addition, policies were implemented with the intention of limiting Indigenous people’s ability to engage in hunting and fishing activities, thereby eroding the food sovereignty and food security of many communities.
Source: Brenda Gunn
Year: n.d.
Widespread health disparities continue for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Indigenous peoples experience lower health outcomes than non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, which is exacerbated by the lack of access to quality health care and lower socio-economic situation (as confirmed by the social determinates of health). Indigenous peoples also lack access to adequate health services, especially in remote communities. In 2015, the Auditor General in Canada concluded that “Health Canada did not have reasonable assurance that eligible First Nations individuals living in remote communities in Manitoba and Ontario had access to clinical and client care services and medical transportation benefits as defined for the purpose of this performance audit.” There is a failure to implement existing policies and strategies.
Source: Yellowhead Institute
Year: 2019
The Red Paper follows a tradition of Indigenous analysis and agenda- making reports, like the first Red Paper released in 1970 by the Indian Association of Alberta in response to Canada’s 1969 White Paper. Our report, “Land Back,” breaks down the current status of land dispossession in Canada, focusing on alienation through resource extraction. We examine various forms of redress and recognition by governments and industry to incentivize Indigenous participation in resource development, while pointing to the gaps in these models. Finally, we consider meaningful Indigenous economies outside of federal and provincial policies and legislation to foreground examples of land reclamation. This report is ultimately about Indigenous consent.
Source: Yellowhead Institute
Year: 2021
The federal government held two days of meetings in 2021 on developing Indigenous health care legislation. These virtual meetings included some, but not all provincial and territorial health ministers, along with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation representatives, including Indigenous doctors, and was partly in response to the racist treatment and death of Joyce Echaquan of the Atikamekw Nation in a Quebec hospital in September of last year. If and when this legislation materializes, it will be a first in Canadian history. This country has never developed a law around Indigenous health care.
Source: Nourish
Date: 2018
Nourish conducted a pan-Canadian scan and create an inventory of existing health, agriculture and procurement policies that guide food in health care settings in order to better identify opportunities for policy innovation that can help shift hospitals and other care centres toward more healthy, delicious, local, sustainable and cultural food. This report aims to highlight policy gaps and opportunities before us.
Download: Pages [Best for printing]; Spreads [Best for online reading]
Source: Gordon Foundation
Year: 2018
On 25–26 October 2017, The Gordon Foundation convened their first Northern Policy Hackathon (NPH) in Nain, Nunatsiavut. The NPH brought together northerners from across the three territories and Inuit Nunangat, to develop innovative policy recommendations on country/traditional food. Participants were from a wide array of backgrounds, including hunters, elders, nutritionists, as well as representatives from government, and the not-profit sector. These are the recommendations from that event.
Source: HealthcareCAN
Date: 2017
Issue brief discusses the current state of food in hospitals in Canada, as well as the barriers and opportunities to improving food in these institutions. It explores healthy eating initiatives, local food procurement, and innovations in Canada and internationally.
Source: Capital Health, Nova Scotia
Year: 2011
Nova Scotia’s Capital Health is the first health authority in Canada to adopt a healthy eating strategy and policy. This journey toward healthy eating began in 2004 when we, as an organization, took a critical look at the role we play in supporting healthy living within our locations and our community.
Download the Journey to Healthy Eating.
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