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Cindy Blackstock

Cindy Blackstock is the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and a professor of social work at McGill University.

The colonial toxicity of the ‘be patient’ speech

MONTREAL—What does it feel like when the Canadian government does not feel like you are worth the same amount of money as other children

Opinion | BY CINDY BLACKSTOCK | September 21, 2020

Shannen Koostachin, pictured Nov. 26, 2008, at the Attawapiskat Human Rights Forum shorty before she spoke to 600 youth activists in Toronto as part of the Attawapiskat fight to close underfunding gaps of First Nations schools on reserve. Koostachin died in a car accident when she was 15 years old. She and her Grade 8 classmates had launched the campaign when they were being educated in squalid, broken down portables and her campaign later became the largest youth-led human rights movement in Canadian history. She was nominated for the 2008 International Children's Peace Prize. Koostachin's campaign was made into the 2013 documentary film, Hi-Ho Mistahey, directed by Alanis Obomsawin. The fight for Koostachin's dream of equal rights for First Nations children continues. Photograph courtesy of Janet Doherty

The colonial toxicity of the ‘be patient’ speech

Opinion | BY CINDY BLACKSTOCK | September 21, 2020

MONTREAL—What does it feel like when the Canadian government does not feel like you are worth the same amount of money as other children

The colonial toxicity of the ‘be patient’ speech

Opinion | BY CINDY BLACKSTOCK | September 21, 2020

MONTREAL—What does it feel like when the Canadian government does not feel like you are worth the same amount of money as other children

Shannen Koostachin, pictured Nov. 26, 2008, at the Attawapiskat Human Rights Forum shorty before she spoke to 600 youth activists in Toronto as part of the Attawapiskat fight to close underfunding gaps of First Nations schools on reserve. Koostachin died in a car accident when she was 15 years old. She and her Grade 8 classmates had launched the campaign when they were being educated in squalid, broken down portables and her campaign later became the largest youth-led human rights movement in Canadian history. She was nominated for the 2008 International Children's Peace Prize. Koostachin's campaign was made into the 2013 documentary film, Hi-Ho Mistahey, directed by Alanis Obomsawin. The fight for Koostachin's dream of equal rights for First Nations children continues. Photograph courtesy of Janet Doherty