Indigenous rights

This year Montrealers once again took to the streets in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and called on the Canadian government to take action to protect Canada’s Indigenous population. On October 4, about five hundred people gathered at Place Emilie Gamelin for the eleventh memorial march for missing and murdered Indigenous women. The march, which was organized by the Centre for Gender Advocacy, aimed to raise awareness about murdered and missing Indigenous women, as well as put pressure on the government to “deliver real systemic changes,” in response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Support for the Indigenous community continued on Monday, September 29, when roughly sixty people gathered for a vigil for missing and murdered Indigenous women. The event was organized collectively by Consent Mcgill, First Peoples’ House, and Indigenous students, and was held on lower field behind the Hochelaga Rock.

On Monday January 16, several dozen people gathered at New Chancellor Day Hall for a presentation by three administrators of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Canada’s first independent Indigenous court, discussing the structure and nature of the court. The Mohawk community of Akwesasne is located near the St. Lawrence River at the intersection of the Quebec-ontario and Canada-u.s. borders, causing them to face more challenges to their sovereignty than most Indigenous communities. In the past, judges at the Akwesasne Court were appointed by the federal government under the Indian Act of 1876. However, once that ended in the mid-1990s, the people of the community were expected to transfer to the jurisdiction of the provinces in which they were located, which would involve two different provincial systems. Instead, they set about the process of codifying their legal and cultural traditions into a body of law that would be faithful to the values of the Akwesasne, and make sense to external authorities. Two decades later the process has finally been completed, and the new legal system was officially voted into law by local authorities last summer. This achievement represents significant progress for the autonomy and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples in Canada.