Dozens support 'Jordan's Principle' bill at Manitoba legislature

Manitoba Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard assembled some of the province's top aboriginal leaders and child-welfare experts Tuesday at the legislature as his private member's bill concerning health services for disabled aboriginal children had its second reading.

Private members bills seldom become law, but about 50 people turned out to support Gerrard's, including the head of the Southern Chiefs Organization, Grand Chief Morris Swan Shannacappo and Manitoba's treaty relations commissioner.

The proposed Jordan's Principle Implementation Act would ensure children on First Nations are able to obtain necessary health services while provincial and federal officials decide who should pay for them.

"It's very important, because it talks about the life and death of children," said Swan Shannacappo.

"We look at all the problems that are plaguing all our communities: Are things going to get better or are things going to get worse? Well, certainly they can get better, but it's going to require the help of all governments to make sure that they're serving their constituents properly."

The bill is named for Jordan Anderson, born in 1999 on a northern Manitoba reserve with a complex genetic disorder that required specialized care. He died at age four, having lived his entire life in an institutional setting as the provincial and federal governments argued over who would foot the bill for his care.

Brenda Baptiste brought her 10-year-old grandson, a severely disabled boy also named Jordan, to the legislature Tuesday from their home on the Ebb and Flow First Nation, about 190 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

"We're not getting the same services," Baptiste said. "The physiotherapists don't come into the First Nation. There's a barrier. There's a border line. If you're in this invisible line, [they're] not providing it for you."

Kerry Irvin-Ross, Manitoba'sminister of healthy living, said while the government supports some of theideas behind Gerrard's bill, it doesn't require theagreement of all levels of government, nor does itprovide a dispute-resolution mechanism.

Aboriginal child-welfare experts said as many as 1,000 disabled children across Canada are caught in jurisdictional funding disputes.