Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm appearing here as an independent academic, which I have been for 26 years. Intermittently in the last eleven years, including in this round, I have been an adviser to the Assembly of the First Nations on the creation of the new specific cla

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  On question one, ideally I would have preferred to see some sort of formalized statutorily established joint appointment process. And you might infer that this was a subject of candid and frank exchanges of opinion at the discussion stage. The federal government has concerns, as

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The need to be discreet and confidential.... There was a good debate on both sides. Ideally, if you could work out a mechanism that would address the federal concerns and still make it statutory, that would be better. In the real world right now, I anticipate that it would be a r

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That was the landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that decided that when the federal government mismanages first nations' lands and assets, it can give rise to a legal remedy--that is, a remedy in the courts. You see, before then there had been a debate: While the f

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll try to be extremely brief, as you requested. This advisory body will have no impact whatsoever on how any individual case is dealt with; it will only advise on the general rules. As far as I understand, it's not unusual when a court--whether it's the Manitoba Court of Quee

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  A province will not be liable to pay any award where it wasn't a participant. If the tribunal says “This was 100% the Province of Quebec's fault and 0% Canada's”, Quebec would have every legal right to say “We don't care. We weren't there. We weren't a party to the case. It doesn

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I understand the provisions about intervenors to be giving an opportunity to somebody who wants to participate, and it's the same thing for a province. I don't see any interpretation of the statute that forces a province to participate ever, or that ever makes a province liable t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are several points of entry for elders under the statute, one of which is the stakeholders advisory committee. You could have elders as well as technocrats who have experience in this area. Another is that this advisory committee is going to make proposals on what the tribu

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There is provision for fast-tracking certain claims that have already gone through the Indian Claims Commission process. Beyond that, it is one of those debates about a larger roster or a smaller roster, where reasonable people can argue it both ways. Some would say to prioritize

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's one of the issues that's supposed to be discussed at the joint liaison and oversight committee. I think you very well expressed what the concern is. I don't think mediation works very well unless you have some sort of compulsion at the end of it, such as binding adjudicati

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, they are.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The joint task force report, which I was party to, recommended that it be an ordinary administrative tribunal, with people appointed for that particular purpose. It's an arguable position. I actually do see some merit to the judges-only approach. You will thereby have people wh

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The initial interpretation of phrases like “unilateral undertaking” will be made—if it gets to the tribunal—by whichever judge is appointed to hear that particular case. If either side disagrees with that, they have access to judicial review. That means that a three-member panel

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are a couple of points. The detailed negotiation of the bill was done on a confidential basis, with occasional reporting on the broad picture to the constituency Assembly of First Nations. But I do want to take pains to say that you have to see the bill that emerged as the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not so sure the AFN has made any specific proposals about being part of the tribunal. I don't think it has made any suggestions one way or the other on that in the sense that you would not only have a judge deciding, but somehow you would have a panel of elders being a consul