Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on March 22nd, 2018

[Natan Obed]

Within the provisions of the United Nations declaration, there is so much hope and promise for social equity for our people in the provisions where they're talking about our rights for governance, democratic processes, our health and our education, and our language. We still live in a country where we're trying to get back to self-determination and also trying to create social equity in our communities across a number of those fronts.

We would imagine that full implementation of the declaration would demand that we work systematically to allow for our rights to be fully exercised in this country. That's a very large undertaking and is one that I've characterized as the final step in building Canada because of the vast social inequity that exists in Inuit Nunangat and within the Inuit Nunangat Inuit-specific population, which has a life expectancy of 10 years less than Canadians. Our median income is $70,000 less than those who work in Inuit Nunangat and are not Inuit. In terms of our educational attainment and our lack of Inuktut, the language of instruction in the K-to-12 system, which ends at grade 4 at the very best.

These are all things that we hope to work on with this government to show the rest of the world that Canada is serious about the implementation of the declaration in this country.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you.

You indicated earlier that the relationship right now primarily is based on modern treaties. Can you advise us as to whether this legislation and the broader framework will require amendments to those treaties and renegotiations? If so.... You started by saying that in the last 40 years or so you watched this whole process through your dad, and now it's you. Do you see this happening in your lifetime?

We've had quite a bit of discussion in this committee about modern treaties, and one of the concerns is the length of time they take. With this, do you see the process being expedited in order to be able to start on the full contents of the rights that are available?

[Natan Obed]

I hope my children have long and successful careers in whatever path they choose to take. I hope it isn't in the minutiae of implementing our rights in this country, especially our basic rights. There will always be conversations about our rights and their implementation in this country, but we're still at the basic level of implementation of land claims, of the respect for our rights as human beings. I do hope this will be a springboard into a better place for all indigenous peoples in this country, but especially for the generations to come, who perhaps can spend their time and energy making their communities a better place and being loving, caring parts of the Inuit community, rather than being mechanisms of our rights movement.

Really, if you think about this in terms of a human effect, we have small communities. There are only 65,000 Inuit in this country. The time and energy that our leaders, our top minds, have spent on trying to exert just a basic sense of our rights, of our self-determination, is time that we don't spend in making our own society, our own language, our own communities better places. It will take a new way of thinking of the world and a new respect for indigenous peoples' rights in this country.

We are not a threat. Our rights are not a threat to this country and the success of Canada. In fact, it's the exact opposite. The UN declaration allows a path that we all can take to build a better Canada; a more prosperous Canada; a Canada that is free of the human rights abuses toward our first peoples, the indigenous peoples of this country; and a Canada that we all want to see now, in 2018.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

The questioning goes to the Conservative Party, if they want to take a couple of minutes.

MP Viersen.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to our guests for being here today.

Madam Chair, you probably don't need to set the time. I'll probably run the clock out anyway.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Yes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Natan, thanks for being here. To go back to your comments, you talked a little bit about where human rights exist and where they come from. Can you just go through that again? I would like to talk through that a little bit with you.

[Natan Obed]

I'll ask Will to start.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Okay.

[William David]

Where do human rights come from?

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Yes. I think Natan in his opening comments talked about how they're not held by the Canadian government but they're overseen by an international body. I found that a very interesting comment.

[William David]

I don't want to belabour you with a lecture on international human rights law, but just very quickly, most of the modern conceptions of human rights come from the post-World War II era. The idea was that the atrocities from the war, from previous actions even, culminated in a global need to actually have an idea that people, and peoples, have certain fundamental rights that should insulate them from the atrocities of that particular war and others. That, in turn. founded the drive to develop more specific standards to govern and regulate the conduct of states vis-à-vis individuals within the state, and in more modern times, peoples within the state, including indigenous peoples themselves.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

It's fascinating to me that we use the United Nations to demand the right to self-determination. There's a great irony in that. Does Canada not have the right to self-determination? Self-determination has to come from the self, right? The UN can recognize the right to self-determination, but you cannot use the UN to demand the right to self-determination. Do you get that irony there?

[William David]

One thing I'd really like to clarify is that self-determination is a right that's held by peoples. The Canadian people hold the right to self-determination. Canada, as a state, is the manifestation of that. With indigenous peoples, you might say that indigenous peoples have very different and distinct ways of manifesting their self-determination vis-à-vis states.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

That's just about it, Arnold.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

All right. Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

I see you're right on the edge of something so profound, but we'll have to carry it over.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Yes. I'll have to digest that one a little bit yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you very much. Meegwetch.

Thank you for coming. I don't know how to say thank you in Inuktut. One day, you'll have to teach me.

[Natan Obed]

It's nakurmiik.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you so much for coming.

The meeting is adjourned.