By Wardah I. HYI Community Builders Volunteer
January 19, 2021
Youth Hosts talk with Federal MP, Pam Damoff, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services.
The Halton Youth Initiative conducted a podcast with the federal MP of Oakville North-Burlington, who also serves as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Hon. Pam Damoff about her role involving politics and indigenous communities. The episode touches on some steps toward reconciliation in hopes to shed light on several prevalent issues through an engaging conversation.
Damoff states her point of view regarding systemic racism that ranges from policing to healthcare, particularly emphasizing the government’s plan to ensure safe and reliable access to water. Additionally, she discusses the significance and progress of Bill-C92 that prevents Indigenous children from being taken through child and family services in detail. The municipal and provincial governments are also working to end mandatory minimum sentences, which contributes to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prisons.
The podcast digs deeper into her experiences working with Indigenous communities and how it started. Damoff has always been vocal about the amendments needed in the constitution that often gives Indigenous people an unfair disadvantage. She conducted a study on the relationship between Indigenous women being the fastest-growing prison population in Canada and the inadequate social support for them. Moreover, she believes that Indigenous voices are not always heard in parliament, which calls for a need to elect more Indigenous people.
The discussion concluded with how residents in Halton and the youth can facilitate the government in their goals to amend previous-wrong doings.
As a youth podcast host, I thought that it was an insightful discussion as there is not a lot of conversation regarding Indigenous communities in Halton. I got to learn about the areas the government is lacking to support the First Nations and how the youth can facilitate their goals.
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