Premiers to act alone on aboriginal issues
Federal absence draws criticism at gathering
HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY. — Canada’s premiers support the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations and will act on them with or without Ottawa’s help, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Paul Davis said Wednesday.
“We will together, jointly, make this happen,” Davis told a news conference after hosting provincial and territorial leaders and the heads of five national native groups in Hap- py Valley-Goose Bay, N.L.
Davis said the provinces have not only pledged to act on the commission’s 94 recommendations but, in some cases, have already started.
“They’re important commitments that we need to follow up on.” Otherwise, what Davis described as the commission’s important work could be wasted, he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s long- standing absence from first ministers’ meetings is a missed chance for collaboration, Davis said.
“We all believe that the federal government should be providing that leadership. In the absence of the federal government, instead of just letting it sit and wait, we’re going to take those steps.”
Davis said Manitoba will host a second national roundtable on missing and murdered aboriginal women to follow up on last winter’s Ottawa event.
The RCMP has reported that almost 1,200 aboriginal women have been murdered or have vanished since 1980.
The premiers made a united push last summer for a public inquiry into the issue but Ottawa has refused.
Federal officials who attended the national roundtable in February said justice investments and a five-year, $25-million plan to reduce related violence are a better approach.
Dawn Lavell Harvard, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, said she was pleased with Wednesday’s meeting despite what she called a lack of respect from Ottawa.