table of contents
Delaying Delivery
by Jenn Ruddy
When will Saskatchewan start funding midwives?
Settler Treaty Rights
by Tyler McCreary
Who benefits from treaties, and who has treaty rights?
Migrant Workers Win OH&S Protection
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by Jenn Ruddy
Briarpatch Magazine
August 2005
Heather Wood will never forget the day when she and a small group of midwifery supporters were granted a meeting with former NDP Health Minister Louise Simard in the early 1990s.
“I remember the excitement, the ‘pinch-me-I-can’t-believe-it’ feeling,” Wood said recently at a Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence forum. “We pitched the need for midwifery, we shared our passion for choice in childbirth, we asked the minister to help us move this agenda forward–and she agreed.”
In 1994, Simard appointed a Midwifery Advisory Committee to assess the need for midwifery in Saskatchewan. After studying the issue for two years, the Committee found there was a need for midwifery in the province and submitted 26 recommendations to the government in April 1996. Among the recommendations was that home birth be an option for low-risk women, that legislation be passed, and that midwifery be publicly funded.
Although the NDP government passed legislation on May 5, 1999, The Midwifery Act has yet to be proclaimed. Perhaps more importantly, the legislation that was drafted failed to fund midwifery services. Consequently, the number of practicing midwives in Saskatchewan plummeted. Disillusioned, several midwives left the province for other jurisdictions, where the profession was both legalized and funded. To date, only four midwives are currently practicing in the province.
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Tyler McCreary
Briarpatch Magazine
August 2005
Treaties are foundational agreements that provide a common framework for peaceful co-existence between First Nations and settlers. Some “treaty abolitionists” argue that treaties grant particular individuals special rights and privileges, creating inequality in our community–and therefore that “treaty rights” should be taken away. But they forget that we are all, in fact, treaty people. Treaties are two-party agreements that bestow rights and obligations upon both parties. Settlers too were granted generous treaty rights that they would be foolish to abrogate.”
A couple of years ago, I took a Native Studies class at the University of Saskatchewan that revolutionized my thinking about treaties. Professor Patricia Monture asked us, who here has treaty rights? I did not raise my hand. Neither did any of the other white students. About half the class raised their hands, and all were registered Indian students. I did not think twice about it. Treaty rights were something for Indians, something Indians talked about. I was not Indian; I was white; obviously I did not have treaty rights. Who ever heard of treaty rights for whites? For settlers? It all seemed so obvious.
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