Coast Salish Territory (West Vancouver) – The Leadership of the First Nations Summit is distressed over statistics contained in BC Coroner’s Service Child Death Report which was released this morning by Chief Coroner, Terry Smith. In every category of the report where the data identified ethnicity, aboriginal children were disproportionately high.
“We are extremely concerned that Aboriginal children are dying, whether it is by suicide, accident, natural causes or other circumstances, at rates that far exceed other ethnic groups” said Grand Chief Edward John, a member of the First Nations Summit Political Executive. “We agree with the recommendation contained in the report that suggests all levels of government, educators, parents and aboriginal leaders and communities work together to forge new relationships in an effort to address this disturbing statistic”.