When you're finished struggling, are you free tonight? Did they stick you in here 'cause you weren't working right?

Usually my Sunday night posts are pieces of fluff (like 98% of my posts) about what I did on my weekend and how fabulous everything is.

However, upon reading this article in this morning's Toronto Star, I spent a good deal of time today thinking about the contents of the article and how they relate to my own experience.

The article is about the over-representation of Aboriginals in Canada's penitentiaries. According to the article, aboriginals "make up 19 per cent of inmates in federal penitentiaries but only three per cent of the Canadian population". It is even worse for young aboriginal Canadians: "they represented 33 per cent of young people in custody in 2003, but just 5 per cent of Canada's population, according to the federal justice department".

I have been teaching for five years. Four of my years of teaching have been in Toronto. However, for my first year teaching, I taught and lived on an isolated Northwestern Ontario reserve. I know I've blogged about it once; for me, it's actually one of the most memorable posts I've ever written.

My 10 months in this community changed my perspective forever, and made me very aware of problems facing Aboriginal Canadians. I don't have any answers. During my year up north, I came home a couple of times, and many friends would ask me about what it was like living in such a place, and would ask me what I thought needed to be done. I still don't know, but I do know that the cycle of poverty, crime, unemployment, family break-down, and substance abuse that plague Aboriginal communities is very real, and there needs to be more focus on these problems. Before my year up north, I knew about these problems, but I was completely unaware of the severity, and tragedy of the situation. I used to be like an average Canadian, I suppose, but now I guess I am far more troubled and concerned by articles like the one in today's Star.

The reason why this article resonated with me so much, was that it brought to mind one of my students. Looking back at my situation, I find it mind-boggling. I was 23 years old, and this "kid" that I was teaching was 19, so there wasn't a huge age difference, really. (Aside: I actually had some students who were older than I was that year.) Anyway, this student had come back to the community from jail, I believe, and he decided to enroll and take some courses. To his credit, he actually earned three credits while he attended my program.

Just being in this boy's presence, you could feel the anger and rage pent up inside him. Later, I found out what he went to jail for, and it was such a disturbing crime that I'm glad that I did not know about it while he was in my class, because it would have made me even more uneasy in his presence than I was already. We tolerated each other; he made me nervous, and it frustrated him that he had to ask me for help with his work. I remember talking about how I used to live in Toronto in class. He was quick to ask me if I'd ever seen the Don Jail or the Kingston penitentiary.

The Star article describes how prison culture can breed more violence in Aboriginal prisoners. As I was reading this article, this former of student of mine popped into my head. I'm not sure what happened to him; I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that he is currently one of the imprisoned Aboriginal youths that make up the statistics.

Was I able to make any changes during my 10 months up north? Nothing huge and notable; at the very least I was able to be a support for my students and help them earn some credits. As a teacher, you never really get a sense of how the little things you do impact your students. If you are lucky, you may have a student who lets you know how important you are to them. Often, your job is thankless, but you know that the encouragement and kindness that you show your students will make a difference in their lives. Even if I wasn't able to make change during my 10 months up north, I think the more important change is the change that was made in me. I probably never would have read a newspaper article like this in this past, let alone become positively haunted by it.

I know that in the next election, I am going to pay careful attention to candidates' stances on the issue of the plight of Aborginal Canadians. I just wish that there were more Canadians that had enough awareness of this to make it a bigger issue than it currently is, because it is indeed a national disgrace.