Canada

Treaty Rights are Not Policy Matters, Guest Post by Carrie Garrow

Kate Fort3 Comments

Responding to this article, Prof. Garrow has some thoughts about the role of the Governor General (the Crown’s representative) in Canada regarding treaties. The article implies that the First Nations insistence on working with the Governor General is a misunderstanding of how the Canadian government operates today. In actuality, there are very real legal reasons for this request:

Treaty Rights Are Not Policy Matters

Prime Minister Harper’s insistence on excluding Governor-General David Johnston from talks with the First Nations leaders illustrates Canada’s degradation of First Nations’ treaty rights to a ‘policy matter.’ What Harper fails to understand is that First Nations entered into treaties with Great Britain.  Moreover, Canada refuses to acknowledge many of these treaties signed by Great Britain and the First Nations, claiming they have not been implemented or sanctioned by Canadian legislation.  Thus a representative of the signing country, Great Britain, is imperative at any discussion regarding treaty rights.  Harper cannot claim Canada is not bound by the treaties and then also claim the sovereign bound by the treaties, Great Britain, cannot attend the meetings.  Furthermore, Canada endorsed the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states that Indigenous peoples have the right to recognition and enforcement of treaties.  Yet Harper repeatedly refuses to put forth a mechanism to allow Canada to recognize First Nation treaty rights.  Instead he continually attempts to relegate treaties rights to the status of ‘policy matters.’  Given that First Nations predated the formation of Canada, have inherent sovereignty as recognized in treaties, and are now incorporated into the Canadian Constitution, they are above and beyond simple policy matters.  If Canada decides not to honor its legal obligations by implementing First Nations’ treaty rights, then First Nations have no option but to demand a meeting with Great Britain and Canada, to hold Canada accountable.  Unfortunately, Harper and the Canadian government do not understand the legal foundation of First Nations and as a result, First Nations’ sovereignty and Chief Spence’s life hangs in the balance.

News from the North: Canadian First Nations’ News

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Thanks to one of our senior Canadian correspondents.

Ottawa Liberals: Repeal Indian Act

Tribunal will rule whether Ottawa retaliated against native rights’ advocate

John Borrows and Pam Palmater Interviewed by CBC on the Royals Visit to Canada

Kate Fort

Nice piece–Both Borrows and Pamater have visited MSU to speak and it’s great to see them interviewed by the CBC along with Taiaiake Alfred and Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo about Prince Charles’s visit to Canada and his meetings with aboriginal leaders this week.

Borrows: Indigenous peoples are creative, engaged, problem-solving peoples.

They have the desire and ability to meet the most pressing challenges and questions faced by the world today. They have beautiful languages, exquisite art, wise elders, and strong leaders. They have an immensely deep and profound love for our lands and territories.

Through collective experience, indigenous peoples also know the most about Canada’s failings. They live the stories of Canada’s collapse when it comes to the effects of greed, misunderstanding and ignorance related to Canada’s land use.

They have the lowest rates of formal education and income. They have the highest rates of suicide, incarceration, unemployment and poverty.

Our greatest challenge is getting the world to see the relationship between Canada’s generally high standard of living and indigenous peoples’ troubling experiences throughout the country.

Globe and Mail: All But 2 Recently Appointed Canadian Federal Judges Are White

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Thanks to N.X.

News Coverage of CERD Review of Canada

Kate Fort1 Comment

We mentioned this here.
Coverage from the Montreal Gazette here.

Canada’s international reputation came under fire in Geneva on Wednesday as a UN expert panel delivered scathing criticisms over the government’s treatment of First Nations and recent changes to the country’s immigration system.

Members on the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, all of them human-rights experts from around the world, questioned why headway has not been made in resolving the disparities between First Nations communities and the rest of the country.

“This problem should not continue the same way as it has in the past,” said Noureddine Amir, vice-chairman of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. “How long will this be ongoing?”

The treatment of natives jumped back onto the federal political agenda after the Red Cross delivered humanitarian aid to the First Nations community of Attawapiskat in northern Ontario late last year.

 

Indian Affairs (Canada) plans on implementing s. 74 of the Indian Act and deposing the customary government of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake

Peter Scott Vicaire2 Comments
 
 
The Algonquins of Barriere Lake is a small First Nation community in northern Quebec.  The Canadian government is preparing to forcibly assimilate Barriere Lake’s customary governance system using an archaic piece of Indian Act legislation – Section 74.  That particular section hasn’t been imposed on any Aboriginal community since 1924, when the Canadian government unilaterally deposed the traditional Six Nations government and shut down the Haudenosaunee Confederacy lodge.
 
Here’s a 2008 documentary (41 minutes) concerning the community.  And here’s the AFN Letter to Minister of Indian Affairs from the AFN National Chief, Shawn A-In-Chut Atleo to the Minister of Indian Affairs, John Duncan.

Indian Affairs imposes new Chief and Council on Barriere Lake

Peter Scott Vicaire

From a press release from Barriere Lake Solidarity:

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) went ahead this week with its draconian drive to impose a new Chief and Council in the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake.

According to Barriere Lake Solidarity, the government received somewhere between six and ten nomination mail-in ballots from a community of more than 450 people.

In effect, less than 2 percent of the community took part in the imposed election; But as far as INAC is concerned, six to ten was more than enough. On Monday, they declared that the new Band Council Chief was Casey Ratt, one of the Algonquins at the center of the community’s long-standing leadership dispute.

However, the acclaimed Chief has refused the position, stating that he does not want to “break ranks with the community’s broad opposition to the Indian Act band elections” says Barierre Lake Solidarity in a recent press release.

“The overwhelming majority of our community remains opposed to the Indian Act band election regime. Almost two hundred people signed a resolution in May rejecting it and supporting our traditional selection process. Does the Minister of Indian Affairs really think that the consent of a handful of people can let them get away with eradicating our system of government?” says Tony Wawatie, a spokesperson for the Algonquin community. “The government has lectured us about democracy. But how can this be democratic if it goes against the will of our entire community? This looks more like tyranny.”

Tyranny indeed. The government used an obscure provision from the Indian act known as Section 74 which let them impose an election regardless of what the community wants and regardless of their supposedly-protected constitutional rights; for instance, their right to self-government, which is defined in section 35 of the Canadian Constitution Act.

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Courtney Jung on Transitional Justice and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Courtney Jung has posted “Canada and the Legacy of the Indian Residential Schools: Transitional Justice for Indigenous Peoples in a Non-Transitional Society” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The framework of transitional justice, originally devised to facilitate reconciliation in countries undergoing transitions from authoritarianism to democracy, is used with increasing frequency to respond to certain types of human rights violations against indigenous peoples. In some cases, transitional justice measures are employed in societies not undergoing regime transition. This paper outlines some of the potential complexities involved in processing indigenous demands for justice through a transitional justice framework. First, governments and indigenous peoples may differ over the scope of injustices that transitional justice measures can address. Second, governments may try to use transitional justice to draw a line through history and legitimate present policy, whereas indigenous peoples may try to use the past to critique present policy and conditions. Third, governments may try to use transitional justice to reassert their sovereign and legal authority, whereas indigenous peoples may try to resist this strategy, and even make competing claims to sovereignty and legal authority.

Canadian Government Apologizes for Abuses

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From WaPo:

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a long-anticipated apology yesterday to tens of thousands of indigenous people who as children were ripped from their families and sent to boarding schools, where many were abused as part of official government policy to “kill the Indian in the child.”

Harper rose on the floor of a packed House of Commons and condemned the decades-long federal effort to wipe out aboriginal culture and assimilate native Canadians into European-dominated society. “The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly,” Harper declared. “We are sorry.”