Jordan River Anderson

For this assignment, I wanted to do something different by telling the story of a young boy who sparked the child-first initiative called Jordan’s Principle through my organizations social media instead of my own. You can see the short story video about Jordan on our organizations Facebook page here.

Jordan’s Principle is an initiative to ensure that all First Nations children have fair and equal access to health, social and education services as other children in Canada.

Jordan’s Story

Jordan was a young boy from Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba born in 1999 with various disabilities. For example, he had a rare, genetic, muscular disorder called Carey-Fineman-Ziter Syndrome which includes facial weakness or paralysis, and a small or retracted chin among other symptoms that range from mild to severe.

Due to these health conditions, Jordan had to stay in the hospital for over two years and then the doctors approved Jordan to have in-home care. This is when a dispute started between the provincial and federal government about who was responsible for paying for Jordan’s care. Essentially, pointing fingers at each other without taking accountability.

Why was this a dispute???

• Status First Nations people have access to something called “Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB)” which is federally managed. These benefits help cover basic prescriptions, dental care, medical supplies and equipment, etc.
• Non-Status, Status First Nations and, non-Indigenous people also have their general healthcare (Hospital visits, doctors visits, etc.) managed provincially, for example, through Alberta Health Care.

Due to this dispute… Jordan was not able to stay in a real home with his loving family. Jordan stayed in the hospital unnecessarily for over two more years until he passed away in 2005 at the age of 5. Jordan’s mother also passed away six months later. It was a truly devastating time for their family.

Jordan’s Principle

Jordan’s life, his story and his family have sparked this child-first initiative intended to prevent any other First Nations children from falling through the cracks like this again. To ensure that jurisdictional disputes won’t interfere with a child’s ability to be home with their family and to have fair and equal access to social, health and education needs.

In Alberta, the First Nations Health Consortium helps families with submitting Jordan’s Principle requests to Indigenous Services Canada to ensure that First Nations children in our province are given fair and equitable treatment.

To learn more about Jordan River Anderson, his life, his family and Jordan’s Principle, I invite you to watch the documentary “Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger” by Alanis Obomsawin.