Jordan’s principle: Editorial update

On December 12, 2007, the House of Commons unanimously passed a Private Member’s Motion 296 tabled by Member of Parliament Jean Crowder (The New Democratic Party of Canada) in support of Jordan’s Principle. This child-first principle ensures that federal and/or provincial funding disputes do not interfere with First Nations children accessing government services that are available to other Canadian children. Jordan’s Principle is one of the most widely supported children’s policy movements in Canadian history. However, as Jordan’s father, Ernest Anderson, cautions, Motion 296 will only be a moral victory unless it is fully adopted and implemented by all Canadian governments. This is the story of how one boy and his family helped end long-standing discrimination against First Nations children.

Jordan River Anderson, of Norway House Cree Nation, spent over two years unnecessarily in hospital because federal and provincial governments could not agree on who should pay for government services to status Native children on reserves, even when the services are provided to other Canadian children without question.

Jordan was born with complex medical needs, and because the federal and provincial governments provide so few services to support families with special needs children on reserves, Jordan had to be placed in foster care. In a government policy that baffles common sense, the federal government will pay foster parents to look after First Nations children with special needs, but will not provide support for the child’s own family to care for them at home, even when there is no abuse or neglect.

Jordan spent the first two years of his life in hospital while his medical condition stabilized. During this time, Jordan’s family and community dreamed of the day that doctors would say that Jordan could go back to his family home, and they worked to make that a reality. The Kinosao Sipi Minisowin Agency (Winnipeg, Manitoba) found a loving, specialized foster home for Jordan, and the Norway House Cree Nation leaders raised money to refit a van so Jordan could go to cultural gatherings, family visits and medical appointments. Just after Jordan’s second birthday, doctors said Jordan was well enough to go home, but as Drs Noni MacDonald and Amir Attaran noted in their 2007 editorial, “bureaucrats ruined it” (1). Provincial and federal government officials decided that Jordan should stay in hospital while they argued over expenses related to his at-home care. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years, and governments kept arguing as Jordan watched the seasons change outside of his hospital window.

Caring staff at the Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg (Manitoba) became worried that Jordan was growing up in a hospital when it was medically unnecessary, and they joined a dedicated circle of First Nations advocates to get the federal and/or provincial government to pay for Jordan’s care and figure out the payment dispute later, but to no avail. Jordan passed away in hospital at five years of age, never having spent a day in a family home.

Sadly, Jordan’s case is not an isolated one; research has repeatedly shown that hundreds of First Nations children are caught in payment disputes within, or between, the federal and provincial governments each year. The problem is lived out in the lives of children everyday, and even though Motion 296 was passed in the House of Commons in December 12, 2007, it would take a national news story in May 2008 to compel the federal government to meet the critical medical and social needs of 37 children in Jordan’s home community of Norway House Cree Nation, and this is just one of the over 600 First Nations communities in Canada.

With the loving support of Jordan’s family and community, a child-first principle to resolving jurisdictional disputes was created, called Jordan’s Principle. It is a simple and just concept requiring the provincial and federal governments to meet the needs of the child first and figure out the jurisdictional dispute later. Over 1700 Canadians and organizations have joined the Canadian Medical Association Journal in registering their formal support for Jordan’s Principle including the Assembly of First Nations, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the Norway House Cree Nation, the Canadian Paediatric Society and UNICEF Canada. Jordan’s Principle embodies the best of our national traditions of equality, fairness and good government, and if it were in place when Jordan was alive, he would have spent at least two years in a loving family home.

There are times in the history of all great countries when the moral temperature of the nation is taken. For Canada, and particularly its leaders, December 12, 2007, was one of those times. The good done on December 12, 2007, in Jordan’s memory will not end the discrimination faced by countless numbers of First Nations children unless the Prime Minister takes the courageous and necessary step of declaring that the Government of Canada will fully and immediately implement Jordan’s Principle. And if he does, the families from Norway House Cree Nation and many other communities across Canada could go to sleep tonight without the worry that their children will be denied life wellness and life-saving government services because of red tape. While we are encouraged that the Western premiers have announced their support for Jordan’s Principle, no province or territory in Canada has fully implemented Jordan’s Principle.

As Ernest Anderson said on the day Jordan’s Principle passed through the House of Commons, it is up to all of us to ensure the motion is not just a moral victory. You can make a difference by going on-line to register your individual or organizational support for Jordan’s Principle at <www.fncaringsociety.com>, and then in writing to the Prime Minister and the provincial and/or territorial premieres urging them to immediately and fully implement Jordan’s Principle.