When American's think of Canada, we think of single payer healthcare. We think of gun restrictions and lower incidents of accidental deaths or even murders when attributed to fire arms. Some of us even think of long wait times for tests, completely ignoring that we have the same wait times, because no matter what health care system you have, availability for tests is based entirely on demand.

What if I told you that Canada has a serious problem with racism?

Let's start with The 60's Scoop.

You might have heard about this already, you might not have. The 60's Scoop is a term used to refer to the practice in Canada of "scooping" up aboriginal children and giving them up for adoption. The practice actually started in the 1950's, but didn't become very prominent until the 60's, and didn't stop until the 80's. It's estimated that 20,000 aboriginal children were taken from their homes and given up for adoption during this time period. All without their parent's consent. Why? Compulsory assimilation. This wasn't just about the residential schooling either. Many children were taken from their mothers as newborns, forbidden to speak their own language, physically and sexually abused by caretakers and schools, including one school, notorious for it's electric chair use.

It was only this year that a class action lawsuit was filed over this blatant disregard of basic human rights. The children abducted by the Canadian government now as adults suffer from significant physical and mental disorders due to their mistreatment, and often times can only find relief in substance abuse due to the lack of assistance from the government. The class action lawsuit filed, with any luck, will provide these victims with the care they need.

I said let's start with The 60's Scoop, but what could be more awful than that?

The missing and murdered Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

To this day, the abductions continue. Though not government sanctioned, nor carried out by the government. Perhaps these crimes are perpetrated by citizens who miss the way things used to be, perhaps these crimes are perpetrated by racists who seem themselves superior to Aboriginal peoples. I don't know. So why is this Canada's problem? Because Canada is doing nothing about it.

In cases where foul play would normally be suspected, deaths are being ruled accidental. Missing persons are being actively ignored.

Currently, Thunder Bay Police are under fire for their handling of First Nation missing and murdered youth. The death of 17 year old Tammy Keeash was ruled to be an accidental drowning without investigating how she ended up in the flood-way to begin with, and police haven't been able to locate 14 year old Josiah Begg who has been missing since early May.

In addition, many of the indigenous peoples are treated poorly by society. A man with a kidney ailment was recently kicked off a Grey Hound because the driver presumed him drunk and wouldn't accept that he truly had a kidney ailment. He was forced to walk.

Certainly Canada is great in many ways, but the treatment of Aboriginal peoples is a crime against humanity.

Do you have information on aboriginal mistreatment? Feel free to send any information you have on developing stories to Luciuxness@gmail.com subject title "The Odyssey Online".