Columns

JUSTICE NEEDED FOR CANADA'S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

by Maura Hanrahan

As 2005 drew to a close, Canadian leaders signed a historic document. The Kelowna Accord was the result of many months of talks, arguments, negotiations, and pure devotion and slogging. Every single premier in this country and the federal government and heads of five national Aboriginal organizations put their names on the Accord. (The organizations were: The Métis National Council, the Inuit Tapiirit Kanatami, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Assembly of First Nations, and the Native Women's Association of Canada.) How often does that happen?

     Kelowna represented a plan to improve the lives of Indigenous people by bringing about justice in housing, education, and the relationships between Canadian and Indigenous governments.

     Then there was a federal election and the Conservative Party took power, in a minority position. One of the first things they did was trash the Kelowna Accord.

     It is no exaggeration that this decision broke hearts. I know it broke mine. I work as an independent consultant to Indigenous people's organizations. In this capacity, I reviewed the Accord process for the federal government. I found that the Kelowna Accord represented Canada at its best. Finally Canada's leaders found it in themselves to recognize the injustices this country's First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples have suffered, and work towards doing something about these injustices.

     Kelowna was not perfect, but it was a start. It is so important that the Canadian government resurrect this Accord. The premiers knew this when they resolved to bring Kelowna back at their meeting in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, last summer. But the federal Tories did not listen, and now they seemed to have played a part in the recent scuttling of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

     This Declaration is the work of two decades and would have filled a gap in international human rights. The non-binding Declaration encouraged states and Indigenous peoples to work together on land, natural resources, and other justice issues. It would have advanced the status of the world's 370 million Indigenous people.

     Here again, the Conservative government of Canada acted shamefully. Canada had been a supporter of the Declaration, but that support ended abruptly --and predictably. This summer Canada joined with Russia to vote against the Declaration at the UN's Human Rights Council.

     More recently Canada banded together with New Zealand, Australia and the United States, claiming that the interests of non-Indigenous people would be adversely affected if the Declaration was passed. This is nonsense, since the Declaration would have been interpreted through the lens of existing human rights legislation. Indeed, Amnesty International points out that the text already reflects numerous human rights compromises.

     Even worse, at the UN General Assembly the Declaration opponents used Botswana and Namibia (who let themselves be used, and were not involved in the negotiations) to bring forward the motion they wanted. The bad guys won: 82 to 67. Further consideration of the Declaration is pushed to late next year. According to Amnesty International and Kairos, this will "weaken or undermine key provisions of the Declaration."

     How is it that Peru with its economic problems and huge Indigenous population advocates for the Declaration, while affluent Canada opposes it?

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The Government of Canada and the Canadian public seriously underestimate the level of anger in Indigenous communities in this country. The Six Nations' reclamation of land at Caledonia, Ontario, is a forerunner of things to come. So many Canadians do not understand that Indigenous peoples are not merely part of the multi-cultural mosaic that makes Canada proud. Indigenous people are part of sovereign nations that signed treaties with the Crown; Indigenous people have political aspirations and seek control of land that they lost. Every single inch of Ontario is covered by one treaty or another.

     Meanwhile, so many Indigenous people are trying to cope with individual and community dysfunctions that are the result of multiple, multi-generational loss. They have lost land, their languages, their religions (which were outlawed), normal family life, and their ability to parent (through residential schools), as well as their innocence and confidence (gone through the same means). My role models of resilience are Indigenous people in rural Indigenous settlements and on reserves.

     I am constantly in awe of the patience of Indigenous leaders in this country. I know how hard they work to take every issue through existing processes. I've seen first-hand the disrespect shown to them by our governments. This includes chatting idly on a cell phone while an Elder offers up an opening prayer; having the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) follow a band's lawyer back and forth across the country; and everything in between.

     No wonder Indian Affairs minister Jim Prentice was jeered by Indigenous protesters this month. They are still waiting for the recommendations of the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to be implemented, never mind the Kelowna Accord and the UN Declaration.

     There have been conversions at the highest levels in Canada. British Columbia Premier Glen Clark came to support his province's First Nations. He said that working with the Nisga'a toward Nisga'a self-government was the most rewarding part of his political career. Working with Indigenous communities and organizations is slow and difficult, but also transformative and life changing. Any of the 150 Caledonia residents who support Six Nations will tell you this. Our political leaders could learn from a chat with them.

     I am a member of the Sip'kop Mi'kmaq Band on Newfoundland's South Coast, but I am also the descendant of English, Irish, and French settlers. I know how hard it is for Canadians to see the colonizer within. But as more and more people do, this country will unleash its vast potential, something we glimpsed through the Kelowna Accord.

     Meanwhile, the realist in me thinks this federal government has got to go --and fast. A new one has to act justly when it comes to Indigenous people. The treaties are not Indigenous treaties, after all; they are everyone's treaties-- when Canada signed them, she did so on behalf of all her citizens.

Maura Hanrahan's new book is Domino: The Eskimo Coast Disaster. On her website is maurahanrahan.com there are links to numerous Indigenous organizations in Canada.