UN declaration can drive positive change for all

Indigenous Affairs Minister Caroline Bennett announced this week that the federal Liberal government would drop the former administration’s opposition to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This is a historic move, in that the government’s support is unequivocal and will be an important component of future First Nations legislation.

The UN declaration is an international instrument developed to enshrine indigenous people’s right to self-determination, as well as their political, cultural, linguistic and economic rights. Indigenous people must also be free from discrimination and have the right to a nationality.

The declaration, adopted in 2007, is the product of 25 years of work by the member organizations of the UN. Canada, along with the United States, New Zealand and Australia originally voted against it. These four nations are settler states that have benefited from indigenous land and resources. Oddly, they are considered among the most mature democracies within the UN.

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government didn’t support the declaration and called it an “aspirational” document, meaning something to which we could aspire. However, there was no guarantee that we would ever gain from it. Canada also was on the record as a permanent objector to recognizing it.

In 2010, the Harper government announced its support for the declaration, but failed to remove its permanent objector status. The public perception at home was that Canada supported the declaration, but the government remained firmly opposed on the international stage. It was this curious position that Bennett reversed this week.

What does this mean? If you listen to some of the Opposition comments, you would think that Canada had given away the store. In reality, this means a new chapter in Canada’s relationship with First Nations. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has stated that a new relationship will be established based on Section 35 of the Constitution and on the UN declaration.

Opposition to this move comes from the remains of the Harper government, which wants to know how it will be implemented. This statement takes me back to the first ministers’ constitutional meetings in the 1980s, where little was accomplished.

Some premiers would not accept First Nations’ self-government because they were unaware what it is and how it would be implemented. Rather than educate themselves, they simply opposed it and today we have a long series of court decisions in our favour. They would have been wise to do more when they had the chance.

The other big concern for the Opposition — and for the former Harper government — was that the declaration would provide conditions for First Nations to veto resource projects. That argument is irrelevant now that the Supreme Court has ruled that resource projects in traditional First Nations’ territories should receive meaningful consultation and accommodation where possible.

This ruling is part of a series of court victories that have placed First Nations in a position of power and control over future resource development. The UN declaration had nothing to do with it. Canadian courts have interpreted Section 35 of the Constitution, the treaties and aboriginal rights with no help from the outside.

Wilson-Raybould has said the Indian Act will be scrapped and replaced with a new relationship based on the Constitution and the UN declaration. This is revolutionary stuff, and Canadians will have to wake up to this new reality. It’s time for Canada to be a truly mature democracy and include all Canadians.

Fears of an aboriginal veto on resource developments are unfounded if First Nations have meaningful economic participation and input, and are able to share in resource revenues, and provide reasoned opposition based on environmental concerns.

Up to now, we have been onlookers in Confederation and shoved aside economically, socially and culturally. Ironically, we also have been viewed as the authors of our own misfortune, even though the entire colonial system was designed to get rid of the “Indian problem.”

The next few years will see enormous change in First Nations-Canada relations, and we will both be better for it.