Advocacy: Jordan's Principle

The organizations involved in Many Hands, One Dream are promoting a national advocacy campaign encouraging federal and provincial/territorial governments to adopt a child-first principle to resolving jurisdictional disputes involving the care of First Nations children. A news release was issued on May 28, 2007.

Under “Jordan’s Principle,” children would no longer face delays or disruptions in essential medical and health services while governments argue over who will pay the bill. A recent research report indicates that jurisdictional disputes involving the costs of caring for First Nations children are common, with nearly 400 occurring in 12 sample First Nations child and family service agencies in just one year.

Jordan’s Principle honours a young First Nations child from Norway House, Man., who was born with complex medical needs and languished in hospital for two years while the federal and provincial governments argued over who would pay for his at-home care. Jordan died in hospital, having never spent a day in a family home. You can read more about Jordan’s story here.

Here are some simple steps that you can take to ensure governments adopt Jordan’s Principle:

• Send a letter to the federal Minister of Health, Tony Clement
• Send a letter to your provincial or territorial Minister of Health
• Call your Member of Parliament to discuss this issue, or set up a meeting
• Encourage members in your network to advocate for Jordan’s Principle

Some resources to help:
A template letter to ministers that you can use
A list of contact information for health ministers
A short item that you can use for your print or electronic newsletters to encourage others in your network to get involved
Please contact manyhands@cps.ca if you have any questions, or to keep us up-to-date on your activities: