The worst part of last week's "body bag fiasco," which saw dozens of body bags included along with protective masks and hand sanitizer in shipments of supplies from Health Canada to the remote Northern Manitoba communities of Wasagamack First Nation and Gods River First Nation, in the Island Lakes region that was hit hard by the first wave of H1N1 influenza, isn't the insensitivity of the federal government department or even the lack of communication between the government and these vulnerable communities that exposes.
It's the amount of time and energy that's been expended dealing with it, with little to show for the efforts apart from a new communications protocol agreed upon by Health Canada, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Assembly of First Nations to "affirm their commitment to work together on pandemic planning efforts."
It's not that the protocol isn't good, though obviously it has come a little late. It's just that it won't actually stop anyone from contracting the virus or ensure a better chance of survival for those who do.
If all the manpower and communications devices that had been applied to sending out press releases denouncing the shipments and responses promising to get to the bottom of what happened had been spent making actual pandemic preparations, everyone - and especially the First Nations communities that seem to be at greatest risk from the disease - would probably be at least a little better off.
Symbolically, apologies are important, as Stephen Harper's formal apology for residential schools in the House of Commons proved. In practical terms, they don't do a lot to address the problems that made them necessary. They aren't solutions.
Grand Chief David Harper of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak came to Thompson Sept. 17 to denounce the shipment of body bags and to demand the resignations of Jim Wolfe, regional director with the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, and Pam Smith, the First Nations Inuit and Health Branch director for Manitoba.
The two have already apologized for the body bags being shipped to the communities without any prior notification, an act which horrified the chiefs of the communities and raised fears that Ottawa was privy to some information they weren't passing on about the severity of an expected second wave of infections, or perhaps that the federal government had no strategy to deal with it. Or it may simply have been a situation of preparing for the worst, though not necessarily expecting it or accepting it as inevitable.
Would having two people who help oversee planning for and dealing with this pandemic achieve anything, apart from forcing a re-organization at what may be the worst possible time?
When news of the shipment first broke, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq ordered her deputy minister to conduct an immediate inquiry into the situation.
That could also be a waste of resources at a time when First Nations people and all other Canadians need Health Canada to focus their energies on what do to about the pandemic. The investigation is fine, but is it really a priority?
Politicians are also getting in on the act, with Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff calling for an apology from Aglukkaq and NDP MP Niki Ashton, whose Churchill riding includes the Island Lakes region, asking, "Are First Nations to understand that the federal government's plan is to wait for people to die?"
This is not the time to try to score cheap political points.
Everyone involved in the situation would do well to take their cue from what the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs did this summer when it set out to raise $1.5 million in corporate donations to buy 15,000 medical kits for isolated and remote First Nations.
The reasons the body bags caused such an uproar has a lot to do with historic grievances and problems in First Nations communities that are not going to be solved before the flu season hits, like inadequate crowded housing, lack of medical facilities and inferior infrastructure that means many First Nations people may not even have access to running water. Correcting those is a goal for the long term. For now, Health Canada, First Nations and the other groups involved should work together to achieve what's possible.
The accusations and apologies can be dealt with later.
