Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2011

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

They certainly provide a vital service in a large urban centre where there's a sea of cultural differences, and we don't hear a lot about the distinction and the history going back for the Métis themselves—outside of Louis Riel, which is a golden opportunity here to do that, not just to engage youth, but also to educate the public. I see these groups, like the friendship centres and others, as being the best vehicle to do that. Perhaps when we discuss talking about our 200-year celebration, maybe one of those young persons will come in and talk about how these centres were able to provide information and outreach to the community itself.

When it comes to Métis history, over the past 30 years what has been the best vehicle we've used to teach other Canadians about Métis history?

[Clément Chartier]

Well, one of these successes we've had in Saskatchewan under the Gabriel Dumont Institute, which has been in place for a little over 30 years, is SUNTEP, the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

SUNTEP?

[Clément Chartier]

Yes, SUNTEP. And we've graduated well over 1,000 graduates with a bachelor of education degree. So they go into the schools and they're basically now reaching out and teaching Métis history and Métis studies in the classes they're in. That's one—

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

All classes, you mean?

[Clément Chartier]

All classes, yes.

A lot of them are also in universities now as well. We've had that kind of outreach.

We need more than that, and I think a national museum is going to help. I would think that the capacity for the youth to be organized, and to be able to have meetings, and so on.... We used to have annual awards as well, which we don't have any more. There are things that can be done, but they require some resources.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Simms.

Mr. Young.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for coming here today, gentlemen.

Mr. Cyr, something you said really grabbed me, really caught my attention, and that is taking the 150th anniversary of Canada celebrations and making them—in part, at least—about getting our youth more involved in our economy, especially aboriginal youth. We have superb colleges and universities in Ontario and across Canada.

We all know that education is the great equalizer. I'm wondering if you have any ideas or if you agree that it's a good idea to get more aboriginal youth into programs that suit their aptitudes and interests. They start out life on a road to success in the colleges or universities, or both, because sometimes there are articulation agreements between the colleges and universities. They would have to leave home, in many cases—in most cases. Most students do leave home in Ontario, even if it's a shorter distance. Would that be worth pursuing, and how might we encourage that to happen?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

Yes, it's worth pursuing. I think it's perhaps slightly more complex than it looks on the face of it.

Aboriginal students have very low grade 12 education rates, and low rates passing through secondary school and getting to universities and colleges. There's a host of reasons why that is. I think addressing them across the spectrum is really what's required.

Doing programs that suit aptitudes is bang on, of course, and doing programs that suit the location of the labour market is critical as well, of course. You need to match those two things up.

There's a first nations education summit closing panel going on at the conference centre today talking about education in particular. Aboriginal students need a host of programs and supports just to get there, and to make it through college.

It's great to have those programs that are suited, adapted, and have special entrance streams, and all of those sorts of issues. But, for example, housing in centres where there are colleges, which is generally urban centres, is a huge issue for aboriginal students. Where are they going to live?

There are also cultural supports that are needed for them when they come. This is the issue friendship centres were created from in the 1950s. When you're coming from a rural or remote or reserve area to a city, it's like coming to a foreign country.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Do you provide satellite services on campus anywhere?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

No. Well, potentially. There are 119 friendship centres, and I don't have all of the programs at the tips of my fingers. There are some, but not on campus. There are a lot of aboriginal student associations on campus, but they don't provide.... There isn't a large host of services for that.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

So providing services might be the solution to make this happen.

[Jeffrey Cyr]

Sure.

There have been piloted projects. The Métis have done them in the past, and first nations, and other areas, where you can provide support to students going to college to help that transition that's going on. Essentially, they are coming to a city, and they need to know how to eat, how to get from point A to point B, where to get their books, where to find money, and where to bank.

You need that structure in order to get them through college, and have that economic participation that we require.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Chartier, I wanted to ask you if you saw the opening ceremonies to the Vancouver Olympics, and the closing ceremonies on television, because they were spectacular. There was a very significant role there for aboriginal people from Vancouver and the Vancouver area.

What did you think of it, and is there anything you saw there that could be built on for ceremonies in 2017?

[Clément Chartier]

I was there for the opening. I did see the closing on television.

The engagement of the four host first nations right from the outset, in terms of the bid and getting support from the national aboriginal organizations, I think was precedent-setting, and it was something that could be potentially looked at in terms of major events that will be taking place in Canada.

I haven't given it a whole lot of thought in terms of how the engagement would be, but I would think one of the things that could be looked at is the major event. I'm sure there's going to be some kind of major event on the Hill in that particular year, and I think engagement of aboriginal youth in some way would enhance that.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

It's good timing now, because we have lots of time to plan ahead for that.

Thank you.

Mr. Cyr, in seven out of ten provinces a majority of high school students learn no Canadian history. That is to say, they're able to get their senior matriculation without studying Canadian history. This is a shame. Then one or two years later, they're allowed to go out and vote, having only studied Canadian history as children, without a mature view of Canadian history.

Have you any ideas of what we could do, leading up to 2017, to explore and expose especially our young people, but all Canadians, more to our history and how it helped form Canadians as a people, how it made us a nation?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

The first thing is to adapt curriculum. That seems to be the obvious choice, working with provincial governments, of course, to adapt educational curricula to include the history of the different aboriginal peoples in the country and exactly how Canada was formed, including Métis, first nation, and Inuit.

Without having given it a great deal of thought till now, I would suggest probably a series of events or a series of ways in which they can celebrate different events. If you have a five-year window, you could lead up to the 2017 marker. For example, there have been some resources put toward the War of 1812, and the same sorts of resources, I would say, would be put toward the different aboriginal events throughout history, whether is it the Battle of Batoche or whether it is different first nations or Inuit historical events, so that students can at least see and participate in these events.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

That's very helpful.

Mr. Chartier, the geography of Canada, the size of Canada, our natural resources, and our natural beauty all help form our national character, and aboriginal people have traditionally been connected to the land and respectful of the land. Are there ways, once again leading up to 2017, in which we can raise awareness of that and celebrate that, making Canadians more aware of how the land itself has helped formed our national character?

[Clément Chartier]

That's a very good question.

Of course right now we're in battle in the courts in terms of land rights for the Métis. But for the Métis in Alberta, who have eight Métis settlements set aside by the province in 1938, the Métis do not have a land base, but Métis do have a rich history of having worked on the land, with the land, living off the land, and also part of the fur trade economy, a substantial part, including the buffalo hunt, the provision of the pemmican, the freighters, and so on and so forth.

I was trying to think of something as we were talking. I would think that during that year in Ottawa, perhaps there could be an opportunity for pavilions to be established in which aboriginal peoples could share their culture and history with those people who will be visiting Ottawa from around the world, and from the rest of Canada. I think that would be a great place to explain these kinds of things. For example, in northwest Saskatchewan we have done traditional land-use mapping. I interviewed our elders, and they have done it in various other parts as well.

Things like that could be put forth for the public to look at. Of course, for us the biggest thing that could happen is if we signed a massive land claim treaty with the government that would enable some of the return of our lands within that year.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Mr. Benskin. And now we're into the five-minute rounds.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Thank you, gentlemen, for your presentation.

I think it was you, Mr. Cyr, who talked about participation and reconciliation. I'd like to explore linking that with education. It was brought up by my colleague Mr. Young, who mentioned the fact that in schools today Canadians do not learn either a lot of factual information or factual history about the relationship between the building of Canada and the first nations people.

We heard something about that from some of our previous witnesses, the need to explore history without going back and saying you did this, you did that, but exploring history to gain an understanding as to where the current relationships come from. The 150th seems to be a good possibility to make that happen. How would you respond to that? How would you see that?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. It's a great statement in terms of exactly where we would need to go. There's of course a truth and reconciliation commission working right now in the country dealing with residential schools and specific aspects of that. But reconciliation, in my opinion, is about reconciling the history of aboriginal people with the Canadian public, not with governments. The government is fairly educated about what happened. It's the Canadian public in general.

The 150th anniversary provides a great opportunity to share information about what really went on in a neutral fashion, and how we have arrived at this position and how our country was built as it is today. It explains a lot of the things to young Canadians, and even young aboriginal Canadians, who aren't sometimes aware of their own history as well, about why, perhaps, there is a blockade going on over here, or why aboriginal people are protesting there, or why we're in court seeking a land claim on x number of issues. I think it's critical for the rest of Canada to provide that support to its aboriginal population and that it learns and goes through the process.

The friendship centres are a huge network within this country, in 119 urban centres. It's the largest in the world. It's a best practice in the world. We often get called to make presentations about how we're structured and govern, and that sort of thing.

We have 2.5 million points of contact with non-aboriginal and aboriginal people through our programs every year. It's a great way to get the word out as well. Part of the education goes to the aboriginal population and part goes to the non-aboriginal population as well. It's a great milestone or touchstone by which to start educating the rest of Canada about our history.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Chartier, would you care to weigh in on this?

[Clément Chartier]

Yes. I think that's very good.

In terms of the Métis Nation, there's a lot of misunderstanding, and there's been of course quite a long period of suppression of the Métis Nation and Métis rights. I would think projects that enable aboriginal nations or peoples to deal with their histories would be good, and particularly for the Métis Nation.

I know we have a difficult time in terms of just the term “Métis”. Some people view that as meaning just anyone of mixed ancestry, from coast to coast to coast, throughout Canada and the United States. We talk about the historic Métis Nation, a people that evolved as a distinct entity in basically western Canada. For example, in the east, the mixed-ancestry people evolved as the Acadians. The mixed-ancestry people in Quebec evolved as the Québécois. It's only in the west that the mixed-ancestry people evolved as a distinct nation.

We need to look at that. We need to look at representation. When we're at the table it's only our government that can speak on behalf of the Métis Nation, and we don't purport to speak for anybody else. As I said before, the friendship centres certainly have a role to play. The friendship centres are not a government and will never be a government but do provide valid and much-needed programs and services. The Métis government needs to find some way to work in collaboration with the friendship centres to enable programs and services to take place that the Métis Nation itself doesn't provide or where it would provide them jointly.

So major projects of that nature would be very helpful.