Six women sit in at Indian Affairs Minister's office: pledge to stay until Conservatives restore funding to Aboriginal Healing Foundation
Six women sit in at Indian Affairs Minister's office: pledge to stay until Conservatives restore funding to Aboriginal Healing Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 29, 2010
Six women sit in at Indian Affairs Minister's office: pledge to stay until Conservatives restore funding to Aboriginal Healing Foundation
“It's been less than two years since Prime Minister Harper's apology to survivors of the residential schools, yet the Conservative government is ready to shut down programs specifically aimed at helping the healing the Prime Minister spoke about,” says Maya Rolbin-Ghanie, a member of Missing Justice, a Montreal-based grassroots organization.
The Conservative budget did not renew funding to the 134 AHF-supported healing projects across the country, forcing many organizations to shut down as of March 31, 2010, when the cuts take effect.
“Strahl says the government will support residential school survivors in other ways, but these cuts will jeopardize many vital programs and interrupt all the progress being made towards health and well-being,” says Nakuset, the Executive Director of the Native Women's Shelter in Montreal, which will lose a third of its funding and be forced to cut three employes, including a sexual assault counselor.
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