Recognizing Indigenous rights
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett visits Cape Breton
Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett visits Cape Breton.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett says the first step to untangling the bonds created by 150 years of colonialism and is for Ottawa to step back.
Bennett was in Cape Breton on Monday as part of the federal government’s plan to better recognize Indigenous rights in the Constitution.
She said when she first set out on the nationwide consultations in February, it soon became clear that legislation and bureaucracy had always been the biggest stumbling blocks to true Indigenous independence.
“One of the questions was, ‘What is the biggest barrier on the progress to self-determination?’ And one the regional chiefs wrote one word: ‘You,’ meaning the Canadian government,” Bennett told the Cape Breton Post during a brief interview before she attended a dinner at Cape Breton University hosted by president David Dingwall.
“What we are trying to do is create the space so that the First Nations can reconstitute as nations and move much more quickly out from under the Indian Act.”
Bennett said she saw earlier in the day in how giving Mi’kmaq people in Nova Scotia control of their education 20 years ago has benefitted Eskasoni First Nation.
During a visit that included a tour of a new crab processing plant and a popular tour that immerses visitors in the Mi’kmaq culture, she also visited the local school where several university-bound students were brushing up on their literacy and math skills before the fall.
She said Chief Leroy Denny told her that ever since the community got its own school, the high school graduation climbed from 33 to 89 per cent.
“When you’ve got communities absolutely responsive to the needs of a community, you just get better health, education and economic outcomes,” she said. “When kids have a secure cultural identity, they’re proud of who they are. We know that’s their resilience, that’s their selfesteem and that is their success.”
Bennett, whose consultations on the framework for the legislation continue today in New Brunswick, said the legislation is expected to be tabled later this year and fully implemented in October 2019.
“What we are trying to do is create the space so that the First Nations can reconstitute as nations and move much more quickly out from under the Indian Act.” Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett