Trudeau and Indigenous people: I love you…me neither

A bit like his political record, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is leaving his position as Liberal leader, will have had difficulty keeping up the pace: after a fanfare departure and high ambitions in terms of reconciliation with the people indigenous people, the main stakeholders have observed for several months a certain stagnation in several important issues.

When he came to power in November 2015, the 23^e Prime Minister of Canada makes a promise during his first speech to the Assembly of First Nations: Reinventing our nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous peoplesin a spirit of respect, cooperation and partnership.

At the same time, he confirmed the launch of the National Commission of Public Inquiry into Murdered or Missing Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada (ENFFADA), which will conclude in 2019 that this crisis is akin to genocide.

But five years later, the 231 calls for justice from theENFFADA are struggling to be implemented and one of the two chief commissioners, Michèle Audette, admitted this summer that she and her colleague Marion Buller were “frustrated and disappointed”.

We have lost confidence in what [les gouvernements et les institutions publiques] said they would.

The same goes for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission launched under the Conservatives, but whose recommendations Prime Minister Trudeau had promised to follow. Of the 94 calls to action, 15% were successful and 9 years later, a third are blocked or not started, according to the organization Indigenous Watchdog.

Family services and child protection issues have also occupied the Trudeau administration over the past 10 years. The Canadian government has found itself in court many times, but it has also promulgated legislation so that indigenous communities who wish can adopt their own youth protection systems.

He also proposed a $47.8 billion agreement to reform the indigenous youth protection system.

But this offer was rejected this fall by a majority of Indigenous leaders who had doubts about the proposed governance model, or because they feared that Ottawa could extricate itself from its legal obligations.

Blowing hot and cold

It must be said that in several cases, the government blew hot and cold. As for drinking water, for example, the 4 billion invested have made it possible to drastically reduce the number of boil water advisories in the long term. But around thirty communities are still affected and are suing Ottawa.

Even though during the campaign, Mr. Trudeau had promised to remedy this for 2021, the government now affirms that the commitment to access to drinking water is a political commitment and not a legal one.

According to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), First Nations people are 90 times more likely than other Canadians to not have access to running water, and more than 30 long-term drinking water advisories remain in effect for decades in some communities.

The situation is such that the indigenous organization addressed MPs directly to ask them to prioritize the advancement of Bill C-61, which recognizes that clean water is a fundamental human right and a fiduciary duty of the Crown.

When it comes to education, none of the 11 calls to action CVR was not carried out. In 2019, Ottawa promised to invest $2 billion per year to provide educational support in Indigenous communities similar to what the provinces offer, an objective which was not achieved, according to Indigenous Watchdog.

Same mixed observation on the side of boarding schools. If the Prime Minister apologized, then sided with the Indigenous people asking the Pope to apologize to survivors, in addition to offering monetary compensation, the government also tried this year to cap the amounts allocated searching for anonymous graves.

Furthermore, if Canada ended up adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the adoption of the law (C-15) allowing its implementation was the subject of criticism, in particular because Ottawa has still not abolished the Indian Act.

More than consultations, it requires consent […]. The colonial government of Canada can no longer be the one that decides the future of the territories that we have occupied for millennia.

Economically, the Trudeau government is an ally, lending the necessary money to several nations wishing to invest in energy projects (pipelines, wind turbines, solar energy), thus ensuring them a certain economic independence. But is it enough? A recent report from the Assembly of First Nations estimates the infrastructure deficit on reserves (particularly housing) at $349 billion compared to the rest of the country.

We cannot repair 150 years of colonialism in one mandate

Some also criticize Prime Minister Trudeau for putting the country’s economic and political interests ahead of Indigenous issues in the event of antagonism. This was particularly the case with the first Indigenous Minister of Justice Jody Wilson Raybould, who slammed the door of the government in 2019 after being the subject of pressure from the Trudeau cabinet in the bribery file at SNC Lavalin.

This is also the case for the Wet’suwet’en, along the route of the future gas pipeline Coastal Gaslink in British Columbia, who were the subject of heavy-handed repression by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

For some jurists, this type of protest illustrates the lack of frameworks for conflict resolution, while others see it rather as a discrepancy between Prime Minister Trudeau’s desire for reconciliation and resistance, whether within indigenous communities. or the state.

We cannot repair 150 years of colonialism in one mandatesummarized Martin Papillon, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Montreal, in 2020 on -.

A bitter end to the honeymoon

The last few weeks have been particularly damaging for relations between Trudeau and the first peoples, a sign that a third mandate, albeit a minority one, will not have been sufficient to make the expected catch-up.

Meeting in Ottawa earlier this month, chiefs and representatives of the Assembly of First Nations unsuccessfully asked the Prime Minister to launch a national inquiry into systemic racism in police forces. At least 11 indigenous people lost their lives this fall during police interventions, according to a count by Espaces nationaux.

Present at the meeting, Mr. Trudeau was directly questioned during the public question period.

Something must be done. They target ussaid Edith Wells, the mother of Jon Wells, who died during a heavy-handed police intervention in Calgary.

The Prime Minister responded that he wanted to do everything to change the systemic discrimination and racism that exists in our systemsbut did not comment directly on the holding of a public inquiry, to the great dismay of certain indigenous leaders.

Barely two weeks later, the episode of a larger than expected budget deficit added a layer of bitterness. In the economic update presented Monday, Ottawa now put the deficit at 62 billion, an increase of almost 22 billion.

To justify this increase, Ottawa notably mentioned projected expenditures of $16.4 billion for commitments already made, especially in respect of indigenous claims.

These statements are misleading because these claims stem from Canada’s failure to meet its obligations to First Nationsprotested in a press release Cindy Woodhouse Nepinakthe national head ofAPN.

She then mentioned the recurring underfunding in several areas, including community infrastructure. Fundamental areas like policing, clean water, housing, education and economic reconciliation remain seriously underfundedshe concluded.