First Nations and the Trudeau Liberals

Canada’s First Peoples are not going to wait much longer to take their rightful place

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau has, so far at least, talked a good game about rebuilding goodwill between Ottawa and Canada’s First Peoples. He has said publicly on more than one occasion that he wants to re-establish a “nationto-nation” relationship with aboriginal communities.

Trudeau has promised to end decades-old boil water advisories on countless native reserves in Canada within five years, earmarking roughly $1.8 billion to the task. Additionally, he has acknowledged the need to develop a mental health or suicide strategy for dealing with unconscionable rates of suicide amongst aboriginal Canadians.

Most significantly, he has launched a wide-ranging inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. And he pledged to not move forward on major resource development projects in Canada that don’t have sufficient social licence — especially from indigenous communities.

The government has also indicated its intention to follow through on the 94 “calls to action” of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. A young First Nations girl walks past Britain’s Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Governor General David Johnston, left, during a welcoming ceremony at the Heiltsuk First Nation in the remote community of Bella Bella, B.C., on Monday. But it has been silent recently on how exactly that objective will be accomplished, and how much money will be allocated for doing so.

As Perry Bellegarde, the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, recently stated: “On certain issues and files, they are doing good things. On others, they’re not.”

First Nations leaders know, of course, that just about anything is better than the way things were when the Stephen Harper government was in power. But they are also starting to have serious doubts about the precise intentions of the Trudeau Liberals.

Toward the end of July, the Liberal government granted approval permits for work to begin on the Site C hydro dam in northern British Columbia, which First Nations have been vigorously opposing for environmental and cultural reasons.

And on the thorny question of implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Ottawa has waffled more than it has clarified its true position on free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). At this point, it doesn’t look like the Liberal government is going to allow aboriginal peoples to have veto power over natural resource development on ancestral lands in Canada.

Even on the very painful issues around the so-called “Sixties Scoop” — where some 20,000 aboriginal children were forcibly removed from native reserves in Canada and sent abroad for purposes of adoption — the federal government has looked tone deaf and hardhearted.

Most citizens of this country have little understanding of the endless indignities that were (and continue to this day) visited upon the First Peoples of Canada by European settlers and then by Canadians themselves. But aboriginal peoples have not — and they have long memories.

Still, it is true that indigenous peoples in Canada are patient, resilient and slow to anger. But their patience is surely wearing thin by now. They are not going to wait much longer to take their rightful place in Canada.

Recall that First Nations comprise a very young, growing and educated demographic. More to the point, they are most assuredly not going to go away any time soon.

The last thing that we want to see in this country is anything resembling the violent standoff around Oka in 1990. And if governments at all levels have been paying any attention to indigenous issues in Canada, they will know that the Supreme Court has been rendering decisions lately in favour of aboriginal communities.

So, if not the Trudeau government, then the next government after that.

But sooner or later, Canadians will need to establish a respectful, collaborative and mutually beneficial partnership with Canada’s First Peoples.