Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as a region, push the national statistics up a long way. And in the East, the Native people have had much longer contact with mainstream society, have assimilated more. They are a little more advanced in that area. Fontaine also explained that the prairies had more residential schools, which deprived children of healthy parental role models and further fractured the community and family structure upon which Native life was built. Children grew up with no proper parental role models, then they become poor parents, then their children will pass on the illness.
Dysfunctional parents rear dysfunctional children.
It is a cycle, and it will take two or three generations to break the chain. It's like a food chain here, with the Aboriginal gangs feeding the top-dwelling bike gangs, such as Los Bravos, who are trying to hook up with the Hell's Angels. Members of Aboriginal gangs like the Warriors graduate to the Bravos after a while. The problems are becoming institutionalized in our Aboriginal community. Alcohol and drug treatment has not been as available.