of, heavy weapons on the reserves in Quebec and eastern Ontario, but the RCMP hasn’t been allowed to confiscate them.”
Conway paused just long enough to let Riley absorb that message then continued. “We believe that many leaders have had professional training in the Canadian Forces regular and reserves, and in U.S. Army units, including airborne battalions and special forces units. In fact, the American forces have been more successful in recruiting Canadian natives than we have over the years. We have tried to track the natives recruited by the Americans, but it is difficult to do, and in any case, the effort, though we thought it was clandestine, was challenged last year before the Privacy Commissioner by the Council of Native Leaders and the government lost the case.
“Our problem, minister, isn’t just that a significant paramilitary force has been assembled on the reserves. The problem is more profound. So now I’d like to run briefly through the main issues relating to the native population.” He glanced towards one of the two screens just behind his lectern as if to direct the minster to his slides.
“The aboriginal population of Canada – North American Indian, Inuit, and Métis – numbers nearly 1.2 million people – four per cent of the Canadian population. And it’s growing very rapidly. Between 1996 and 2006 the aboriginal community grew by forty-seven per cent, six times faster than the non-aboriginal Canadian population.
“According to the 2006 census, approximately 700,000 people identify themselves as North American Indians and most identify themselves with one of 615 First Nations. This Indian community is expected to increase to 730,000 individuals by 2021, but the statistics are a bit dated and some scholars and policy analysts think the population is already larger than measured and will increase more dramatically by 2012.
“Approximately forty per cent of the population live on one of the 2,720 reserves of vastly different sizes that are scattered across Canada. The strongest concentrations, more than forty-eight per cent of the total Indian population, live on reserves in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
“In 2006, the median age in the national Indian population was twenty-five. In other words, exactly half the population is older and half is younger than twenty-five. The norm in the general Canadian population is forty. The on-reserve population is very young – thirty-four per cent are children under fourteen years of age.
“Although there are exceptions, as you know, the majority of the natives on reserves live in miserable conditions, are poorly educated, and have few employment opportunities on and near the reserves. The 55,000 young people between fifteen and twenty-four years of age – that’s a full twenty per cent of the on-reserve population – present a looming problem for education and health and employment planners everywhere, but it’s greatest in the Prairie provinces. They present also a significant potential threat to national security and public safety.
“Now let me turn to the other segment, the off-reserve Indians, who represent some sixty per cent of the total Indian population. Off-reserve aboriginals include individuals residing on non-reserve rural land and individuals residing in Canadian cities. Of these two groups, the populations in cities make up the largest concentrations of native people anywhere in Canada, on or off reserves.
“Winnipeg, for example, contains more than 26,000 First Nations people and Vancouver and Edmonton each have more than 20,000 within their boundaries. In the smaller cities on the Prairies, the concentrations are even greater. In Thompson, Manitoba, and in Prince Albert and North Battleford, Saskatchewan, for example, fifteen to thirty per cent of the total population is Indian. These figures, of course, are dynamic, but the trend is toward increasing concentrations of these large urban, generally young populations in identifiable sections of the cities. Again, minister, the figures are not always trustworthy, especially in this case as many of the young people don’t exactly take to filling in census forms and so on. So we’re guessing about how many kids are in the urban populations.
“The problem of disaffected youth, both with natives and non-natives, is related to poverty and lack of education; however, these issues are of particular concern in the native population. As you well understand, there is a strong correlation between success in school and future employment. School enrolment for all natives between the ages of six and sixteen has remained stable at around eighty-six per cent since 1990. However, high school graduation rates on reserves remain low.
“For instance, on Manitoba reserves, only thirty per cent of aboriginals between twenty and twenty-four have completed high school. Among Canadians generally – including off-reserve natives – eighty-four per cent of the same cohort have completed high school. The general failure of young people on reserves to finish high school has an inevitable negative impact on their individual lives, of course. But it also has a cumulative wasting effect on the reserve community. Failure in school leads to failure in the work place, which leads to frustration and grievances, which leads to security vulnerabilities for the individual, the community, and the nation. It’s no exaggeration in the context of on-reserve natives to speak of a ‘lost generation’ or more realistically about an unrecoverable, lost society.”
Ed Conway took a breath. “Gentlemen,” he said, “there is some cautionary good news in the data. Post-secondary enrolment rates remain low as well, but show marked improvement from historic figures. Today, the number possessing post-secondary degrees has increased dramatically.”
“At least,” Riley put in, “they offer role models for youth.”
“Unfortunately, minister, while the data does show that these people are better off in many ways, it shows also that better-educated natives don’t just leave the reserves but they tend to live outside urban aboriginal communities once they have completed their studies. That out-migration, in turn, leaves the worse-off, the uneducated young people, perhaps the most aggrieved, on the reserves and in the inner-city slums. It creates unbalanced communities, at least by Canadian standards.
“Sir, the employment figures support these general observations. Unemployment for on-reserve Indians remains far higher than the rest of the population, at 27.6 per cent. The unemployment rate of off-reserve Indians is markedly lower but, at 16.5 per cent, still over twice the general figure. The unemployment rate for fifteen- to twenty-four-year-olds, the most vulnerable group for radical propaganda and recruitment and therefore the main security concern for the Canadian Forces and the police, is 40.1 per cent on-reserve, against 9.2 per cent national average. This is indeed a worrying fact as native leaders have repeatedly pointed out over the years.
“Minister, General Bishop, that concludes my portion of the briefing.”
As Riley began to lift his hand the CDS cut in quickly. “If you agree, minister, I suggest we go right into the next briefing. I’ve asked Colonel Ian Dobson, the Director of the National Defence Operations Centre, to cover the criminal native gangs aspects of this situation for you. Then we can move to your office to handle any questions and consider our planning options.”
Riley reached for his water glass. “Sure, fine, whatever you suggest. It’s a lot of information at once. And it’s not good news, you know, especially the way you guys think of things – what’s the old saw? For soldiers, nothing is ever safe enough.”
Riley took a drink and turned towards the next briefing officer. Bishop’s lean jaw clenched perceptibly.
Ian Dobson adjusted his reading glasses and took his classified notes from a folder. “Minister, there is another series of details you need to know. They’re related, as General Bishop suggested, to the sometimes conflicted relationship between NPA and native gangs, or what officials term Aboriginal-Based Organized Crime, ABOC.”
Riley nodded, relieved by the change of topic, even to this unpleasant subject.
“The
