Real Reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples
We need to deliver restorative justice to Indigenous peoples in Canada so that we can move forward with a relationship of true equals, grounded in Aboriginal control of the disposition and uses of their traditional lands.
Two centuries of bad faith dealing, denialism and extinguishment have left a lingering wound on the Canadian body politic. We need to make right the gross injustices of the past that linger within the living memories of Indigenous peoples in Canada today.
The problem
It is difficult to fully convey the scope and scale of the historic injustice and disadvantage that weighs heavily on the lives of First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples who reside in Canada today. So many studies, reports, enquiries, post-mortems, and investigations testify to the magnitude of the social, cultural and economic ills visited upon the Indigenous peoples of this country, that the public record is, on the whole, a testament to a massive failure by all levels of government. The responsibility for this multi-generational trauma lies in a set of deliberate policies whose basic goal was to extinguish native title to land and ultimately promote Indigenous assimilation and absorption. We continue to live with this legacy of historical exploitation, in which Indigenous territories and resources are seized or leveraged despite international standards guaranteeing their rights to self-determination, lands, and resources. We must now take responsibility for that record of colonial and assimilationist institutions, laws and policies that have been responsible for the poor housing, inferior nutrition, loss of culture, language and identity, and lack of educational and economic opportunity among the Indigenous people of this land which, together, have resulted in ill heath, diseases of despair, substance addiction, and ultimately, shortened lifespans among aboriginal peoples.
“Confronted with the reality that rote, feel-good land acknowledgements are part of the problem, not the solution…What are the courts and mainstream politicians doing to undo hundreds of years of violence and denial? What is being done to ensure…that Indigenous Peoples benefit from their lands and are actively involved in deciding how their lands are used?”
Bruce McIvor, Standoff - Why Reconciliation Fails Indigenous People and How to Fix it, 2021.
Our solution
Canada Vision 21 believes that we must treat Indigenous peoples in a manner that is consistent with their inalienable dignity as original occupants of this land. This means identifying and implementing respectful and constructive approaches to fulfilling Canada’s legal and constitutional obligations arising from First Nations Treaties and Agreements. In fact, these Treaties with First Nations ought to be upheld with the same degree of integrity and consistency as the signatories to the Treaty of Paris 1763 (Great Britain, France and Spain) and Jay’s Treaty 1794 (Great Britain and the United States) respected the provisions of those international treaties. Indigenous peoples, who had previously known settled communities and villages, dominion over the land and resources found within their territorial groupings, established patterns of commerce and trade, a system of original law, and a reverence for the environment and other species with which they co-existed, have been forcibly prevented from thriving. To truly foster the spiritual and material reconstruction of Indigenous peoples, we as non-Indigenous Canadians must accept that for sovereignty to exist for Indigenous Nations, sovereignty by Canada must be partially relinquished. To repeat, we must honor, respect, and abide by the written commitments that the Crown, colonial authorities, and modern governments made to native peoples in earlier times. This will inevitably result in the ceding or transfer of land and resources, of restitution in some instances, and of compensatory payments and transfers of wealth in others, but there is no other just approach that can be adopted in the circumstances. Specifically, we must rid ourselves of the last vestiges of our post-Colonial state and create something fairer and more equitable on the northern half of this continent.
To do this though, we must first make a concerted effort to improve the education, human rights & legal entitlements, and basic living conditions of Indigenous persons. In brief, CV21 believes the Federal government must take the following steps:
Honor the duties and obligations we owe Indigenous children and youth under the terms of the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights in Canada. This means (as per Articles 22 – 27) ensuring that their families are equipped with the necessities of life: pre-natal and early childhood care, appropriate housing, adequate nutrition, a standard of primary education comparable to that in the south of the country, participation in cultural activities & sports, and a commitment to preserving native languages in a manner consistent with the support given to families in the south who wish to educate their children in one or the other of our two official languages;
Ensure that as many First Nations, Inuit and Metis youth complete and graduate from high school as possible. For Indigenous youth living in remote communities in which high schools are not located, this means ensuring that transportation to, and accommodation within, host communities is as conducive to continuing secondary education as possible, and that such communities provide a welcoming integrative environment, in psycho-social terms, to Indigenous youth living away from home;
As a result of the damage done by denominational educational and health institutions to both native and non-native persons, it is time to require that, henceforth, public funds will only be directed to institutions that are secular in nature. CV21 believes Canada must ensure that clerical dogmas no longer feature in the governance, policy, pedagogical and clinical practices that take place in our schools and hospitals respectively;
Repudiate the spurious concepts of the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius from all Federal governance structures, laws and policies that have been used to deny, distort or extinguish Indigenous claims to title;
Fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as the framework for reconciliation in Canada going forward;
Implement as a matter of urgency the Call to Action 92(i) of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. This demands that Governments and others, ‘Commit to meaningful consultation, building respectful relationships, and obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects.’ (Pressuring Indigenous peoples to approve environmentally destructive resource projects in order to alleviate their present impoverished circumstances hardly amounts to freely given consent.);
Inculcate what were traditionally Indigenous values around respect, reciprocity and stewardship of the land into our resource end-use policies so that we better protect our natural endowment of soils, grasslands, forests and bodies of water for future generations. Furthermore, Indigenous peoples need to be recognized for their vital role in supporting and affirming Canada’s sovereignty, rights and ongoing claims in the North and Arctic regions. CV21 believes that their presence, traditional knowledge and stewardship, in fact, have been essential to the legal, constitutional and geopolitical foundations of Canada; and,
To enhance Indigenous people’s confidence in the Canadian legal system and to strengthen the courts’ increasing engagement with Indigenous law in their judgements, qualified Indigenous people should be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.