SURVIVING CANADA

SURVIVING CANADA explores the present day challenges faced by the Mushuau Innu community of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Filmmaker Ed Martin provides a searing look at how these people cope with the well-chronicled problems of substance abuse and substandard living conditions in the Mushuau Innu community. The documentary highlights the social and political ramifications of the January 2003 relocation of the Mushuau Innu in Davis Inlet to the community of Natuashish, Labrador.

For thousands of years, the Innu roamed strong and free, surviving on one of the harshest lands on earth, the tundra of the great Labrador. But in recent years, they've been forced to live in unimaginable squalor-in houses not much better than cardboard boxes, with no running water, or sewage disposal. As their sense of worth disintegrated, the Innu engaged in a process of self-destruction. Ninety per cent of the community became addicted to alcohol. Many of their children sniffed gas. Many more suffered from chronic disease. Stripped of culture, meaning and hope, the Innu killed themselves at a rate among the world's highest. But their tragedies did not occur in a third world country. These tragedies happened in a country with a reputation as one of the world's best places to live-Canada.

From 1967 to 2002, Davis Inlet, Labrador was the home of the Mushuau Innu. In 1993, the Canadian Human Rights Commission released a report condemning the Federal government's treatment of the Innu. It found the federal government had been in violation of their constitutional rights by failing to recognize them as Indians within the meaning of the Indian Act.

In January of 2003, the first of 700 Innu moved to Natuashish, a mere 20-minute skidoo or boat ride from the slum of Davis Inlet. Built by the federal government of Canada for more than $150 million, the modern community was to mark a new beginning, a fresh start for the much-plagued Innu. It was to be a time of sobriety, and hope. But by the fall of 2003, one thing had become abundantly clear. The problems of Davis Inlet had moved with them to Natuashish. Community leaders Chief Simeon Tshkapesh, Prote Poker and Luke Riche continue to grapple with large-scale social problems.

SURVIVING CANADA reveals the devastation of the Mushuau Innu by a neglectful Canada, and their continuing struggle to heal and survive. SURVIVING CANADA is narrated, directed and written by Ed Martin, a Best Boy Productions, in association with OMNI Television.