ITK considers rejecting role on reconciliation oversight body

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed says he's considering pulling his organization out of its role with the new National Council for Reconciliation, calling the oversight body a "melting pot of Indigenous voices" he doesn't want it to be a part of.

The council is the federal government's response to Call to Action 53 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which urged Ot‐ tawa to create an indepen‐ dent national body to track the federal government's ef‐ forts to rebuild the relation‐ ship with Indigenous peo‐ ples.

It will make annual re‐ ports to Parliament, which will also be taken to the Sen‐ ate and the House of Com‐ mons. The prime minister will be required to provide a response to those reports. The council was established when Bill C-29 became law on Tuesday.

Obed said the legislation "has the potential to under‐ mine a lot of the advances Inuit have made with the Crown." He said Inuit leaders have long called for "distinc‐ tions-based reconciliation," which he said the council goes against by combining the interests of First Nations, Inuit and Métis into one body.

The council will be made up of thirteen directors serv‐ ing four-year terms. The four national Indigenous organi‐ zations - ITK, the Métis Na‐ tional Council, the Assembly of First Nations and the Na‐ tive Women's Association of Canada - will get to select one director each. The re‐ maining appointees will be up to the minister of CrownIndigenous Relations and the transitional committee.

Two thirds of the directors on the council must be In‐ digenous, and it must also consist of at least two from Yukon, the Northwest Territo‐ ries or Nunavut. But beyond ITK's one appointee, Obed said "there are no other con‐ siderations in the legislation for additional Inuit."

Obed said the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee is an example of a process that al‐ ready exists to do the same kind of work the council is tasked with.

"We feel very strongly that Inuit rights-holding organiza‐ tions such as Nunavut Tun‐ ngavik Incorporated, Makivvik, the Nunatsiavut Government and the Inu‐ vialuit Regional Corporation are much better equipped to deal with reconciliation … rather than a body that makes very sweeping state‐ ments that go counter to the positions we hold as Inuit or‐ ganizations," Obed said.

Council not a 'homoge‐ nized' group, says Nunavut MP

A spokesperson for Gary Anandasangaree, the minis‐ ter for Crown-Indigenous Re‐ lations, said the National Council for Reconciliation will not detract from existing re‐ lationships with Indigenous partners, such as the InuitCrown Partnership Commit‐ tee.

"We are steadfast in our dedication to the distinc‐ tions-based permanent bilat‐ eral mechanisms," the spokesperson said in a state‐ ment. "The transitional com‐ mittee will continue to facili‐ tate the transition process, by assisting with nominations and ensuring that the selec‐ tion process is fair, trans‐ parent and inclusive."

Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout also backed the new legislation. The NDP had pushed for the inclusion of residential school survivors, elders and legal experts.

"Because of how inclusive the board will be, it's quite a short-sighted view to think that the way that Indigenous peoples are being homoge‐ nized is a completely differ‐ ent interpretation," said Idlout.

"If ITK truly believes that rights-holding groups of Inuit in the different regions should be on the board, then ITK can make sure that when they do appoint somebody, that it is one of those board members".

The office of the minister for Crown-Indigenous Rela‐ tions wouldn't provide a timeline for when the council will begin.