The following are more excerpts from statements made during Week Two of the second session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

ON EDUCATION

Jiten Yumnam, Centre for Organization Research and Education, Manipur, India:

The Northern Contaminants Program, funded for 10 years by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), will shortly lose funding, despite having recently made striking and disturbing discoveries. The levels of mercury and PCB found in arctic marine mammals are quite high, and the research program recently discovered “subtle” neurological effects on the babies of mothers who eat a traditional diet of “country food” - marine mammals, fish, and other subsistence foods.

Federal money for health care in Canada has always been provided to territories and provinces on a per capita basis. Yet providing an equivalent amount of money per person in every region of Canada makes arctic health care suffer. Costs in the arctic are dramatically higher than they are in the south and in urban areas, leading to what some have called a “Third World” health care situation. Recently, a proposal to reconsider the per capita strategy has been approved by the various Premiers of Canada. It is not known yet whether Prime Minister Jean Chrétien will accept the proposal.