The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—Canada is poised to embrace the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—even as the federal government remains under fire for the dire conditions facing the troubled Attawapiskat First Nation.
Indigenous Affairs minister Carolyn Bennett said yesterday that Canada will be changing its position on the declaration, removing its status as a permanent objector and becoming a full supporter of the document.
Bennett made the comments after Justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould called on the United Nations to confront the legacies of colonialism around the world and to help rebuild communities for the world’s indigenous peoples.
The declaration and the work of the UN should be a “means to an end and not the end in itself,” Wilson-Raybould told delegates during a speech in the cavernous General Assembly.
“Let us make it a century where nation states and indigenous peoples work in partnership towards true reconciliation that supports strong and healthy indigenous peoples that are in charge of and in control of their own destinies,” she said.
The declaration, which is not considered legally-binding, sets out the rights of indigenous peoples around the world, including on issues such as culture and traditions, identity, health, education, and language, among others.
Canada was one of four countries—Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. were the others—that voted against the declaration when it was passed in 2007.
The former Conservative government feared the declaration could not be reconciled with Canada’s existing legal framework—a concern that still exists, said Tory indigenous affairs critic Cathy McLeod.
Wilson-Raybould said the ultimate goal of the declaration should be to improve the quality of life for indigenous peoples, and to help ensure their way of life is protected and allowed to thrive.
“The declaration recognizes that indigenous peoples have both individual and collective rights,” she noted.
“Participation in real decision-making is at the heart of the declaration’s concept of free, prior, and informed consent—that indigenous peoples must be able to participate in making decisions that affect their lives,” she added.
Bennett was expected to formalize Canada’s position on the declaration today during the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Romeo Saganash, the NDP’s critic for intergovernmental indigenous affairs who spent two decades working to craft the declaration, also is urging the Liberal government to support his private member’s bill that provides a legislative road map.
“What I am proposing to do is to rather than debate whether it has application in Canadian law or not, I’m just confirming it does have a legal application in Canadian law,” he remarked.
Saganash’s colleague Charlie Angus, whose Northern Ontario riding includes the remote Attawapiskat reserve, was to be part of the Canadian delegation in New York.
But he cancelled his trip in order to visit the community with Ontario counterpart Gilles Bisson.
Conditions in Attawapiskat—an isolated and poverty-racked First Nation near the western shore of James Bay—remain a source of great concern, especially after a shocking string of suicide attempts prompted Chief Bruce Shisheesh to declare a state of emergency.
“We don’t even have a child mental health worker,” Shisheesh said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We are still in a crisis mode here.”
