Aboriginal Peoples persistently disadvantaged

Canada's Aboriginal Peoples still face barriers to equality of opportunity, in comparison to non-aboriginal people, according to a report by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The report, entitled "Equality Rights of Aboriginal People," found Aboriginal Peoples continue to experience conditions of persistent disadvantage, including a greater likelihoodofsuffering violent crimes and physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

The commission also found Aboriginal Peoples have lower median after-tax income, and are more likely be incarcerated while less likely to be granted parole.

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The reportis based mainly on data collected by Statistics Canada, comparing Aboriginal Peoples and non-aboriginal people across a range of indicators, including education, employment, economic well-being, health and housing.

The report compiles a number of studies from 2005 to 2010 and aimed to be as comprehensive as possible.

However, Aboriginal Peoples living off-reserve are better represented in thestatistics available. On reserves, data aremuch harder to come by and in some cases,were not available at all.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission expects to repeat the report in future years to monitor change in the well-being of Aboriginal Peoples.