Quebec Coroner compares First Nation reserve system to apartheid in report on suicides – APTN
Jan 16, 2017
A Quebec coroner’s report on five suicides in two Innu communities in the province said a system similar to apartheid is at the root of the problems that led to the people’s deaths.
The 50-page report released Saturday by Bernard Lefrancois examined the deaths of three women and one man in Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam and a woman from Kawawachikamach – both communities are on Quebec’s North Shore.
Lefrancois said the problems in these communities are largely rooted in the reserve system.
“I believe and see evidence that the great fundamental problem lies with the ‘apartheid’ system into which Aboriginals have been thrust for 150 years or more,” Lefrançois wrote in his report. “It is time to put an end to this apartheid system, and for all of the authorities concerned to confront that challenge.”
