Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Jan. 28th, 2021

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Maybe I'll ask Mr. Obed if he wants to say something or add anything to that.

[Natan Obed]

Yes. ITK does not object to the term “Constitution” being in the oath. The only reason why ITK put.... Its position in its amendment there was to ensure that each group in this country—first nations, Inuit and Métis—was included within the citizenship oath text. That's why “constructive arrangements” was the term that we put in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

That brings us to time. Thanks, Mr. Powlowski.

Madame Bérubé, please go ahead for six minutes.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm on the traditional territory of the Anishinabe and Cree people of Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik-Eeyou.

Good evening, everyone. I'm happy that you're here as witnesses. The discussions taking place in the committee right now are very worthwhile.

Ms. Wilson, can you give us some background on the development of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's call to action number 94?

[Marie Wilson]

Am I to talk about 94 and why it's important? Is that what she said?

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Yes. I'm talking about the context for the development of call to action number 94.

[Marie Wilson]

I think that I touched on it in my presentation. However, I can tell you where it comes from, if you want.

A number of calls to action focus on education and training, both for the general public and for children in our schools. However, newcomers are missing out on all this. They won't go to school once they arrive here, of course. I'm talking mostly about the adults who take the oath of citizenship. We wanted them to be included in the great work of the country, the work of relearning our history. We wanted them to understand that the indigenous peoples in Canada also founded this country, and that these peoples have special treaties and rights included in the legislation and the Constitution of Canada.

We didn't want them to be forgotten, so to speak. We wanted them to be included.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Earlier, when my colleague also raised this issue, you spoke about the Canadian Constitution.

Do you think that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action number 94 refers to the Canadian Constitution?

[Marie Wilson]

No. We didn't refer to the Constitution in call to action number 94, but I wouldn't object to it. I know that this complicates things for Quebec. However, the spirit of the call to action is in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution. There are fundamental agreements with a number of indigenous peoples in the country. We want newcomers to be well informed on the matter and to swear that they'll respect all this. We don't want them to start rejecting this without understanding that these agreements have a historical and legal basis.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

As you said earlier, we also mustn't forget that Quebec has never adhered to the Constitution. This raises an issue for the Quebec communities.

What do you think about omitting the word “Constitution”?

[Marie Wilson]

These are political issues. For me, the essence of what we're trying to accomplish is what matters. We need to find the right words for this, whether it involves treaties, the wording proposed by Mr. Obed or something else. The only thing that we're stressing today is that we mustn't start from scratch each time. We must agree on the intent behind this and find the right words to express it.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Wilson.

I have a question for everyone.

In your opinion, do aboriginal rights or treaty rights stem from the Constitution or are they inherent?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Are you going to try that, Mr. Obed?

[Natan Obed]

I'd rather not get into that here. We're here to talk about the citizenship oath and the guide. I don't think there's any productivity in getting into that at this moment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you.

Do you have anything to add, Ms. Wesley-Esquimaux?

[Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux]

Hopefully you can hear me. I'm having difficulty with my microphone.

I would agree with Mr. Obed. That's a big conversation that needs to be had, and I don't think it has anything directly to do with putting this together.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You have one minute, Madame Bérubé.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Do you think that the bill should elicit broader support, or are you fine with it the way it is?

Ms. Wilson, do you want to respond?

[Marie Wilson]

I'm fine with it the way it is, but I'm not the one passing laws here. The spirit of it captures the spirit of what we were trying to say—that there are legally binding commitments that exist in Canada historically and that are captured in various ways in modern-day treaties and in the Constitution itself. They are not all in one place. You have plenty of examples in Quebec, as well, that are binding and that people need to respect. That's what we're trying to get at. They need to know that they exist and respect them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you very much.

We go on now for six minutes to Ms. Mathyssen.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As Parliament has come back, I'm actually in Ottawa, so I come to you from the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. I certainly think of all the incredible first nations in my home area.

I wanted to get back to the conversation that Ms. Dancho began in terms of the timelines. We are concerned about the length of time that a fairly simple bill has taken. We've covered that, but I would also like to talk about, before there's another potential election.... We've already seen an incredible bill introduced by MP Romeo Saganash fall under the timelines of elections, unfortunately, and be held up in the Senate. Luckily and thankfully, it has been reintroduced, but I would like to hear about your hopes for that quick passage.

In addition, when we talk about timelines—I sit as the NDP critic for the status of women—there are many references to the missing and murdered indigenous women inquiry and the fact that the report has been out for over a year now. We haven't seen any action from this government. There are a lot of delays and many excuses.

How does that play into how you feel overall about all these delays? What do you think that means in terms of these processes and how we can improve them? Do you have advice for the government, going forward?

[Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux]

You say you haven't seen anything, but I've actually been sitting in on a lot of the conversations on the missing and murdered across Canada. I've heard that a lot of organizations and women across Canada are actually actively engaged in looking at that and trying to put those pieces into place. It feels to me like there's a lot of activity going on, so I don't really see that as being an issue.

Is it happening at the government level? Maybe that's where there are difficulties. I know at the community level and in consultation with the federal government, they're telling the federal government there are a lot of things that are actually happening, a lot more that need to happen and a lot of funding needed as well to ensure that they can keep happening.

[Marie Wilson]

I would say something about it as well.

As you probably know if you've read them both, there's actually a significant amount of relationship between the calls for justice in the report on the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and the TRC calls to action.

As I started to say before we ran out of time, the other job of the national council for reconciliation is to help us assess whether things are getting better or worse on things like protection of indigenous women and girls, violence against indigenous women and girls, incarceration, rehabilitation of offenders and alternative justice. There are a whole lot of things around all of that, and they go together.

We know, and Cynthia just talked about it too, that there is a tremendous amount of good work happening all over the country. But not a single one of us—not me as a commissioner or Cynthia working at the centre, at the governors' council level, or the president of our national Inuit organization—has a complete picture, because there's no mechanism for tracking the whole story and telling us as a whole country that we're getting better or worse, or that we're getting better in these ways and worse in these ways. This what we need to zero in on.

We really need that. I don't want to understate it, because it's so vital. People literally gave blood, sweat and tears to do this work to educate our country and to wake us up to ourselves. They are dying. It is not a sign of respect or dignity for us as a country to not have them see the fruit of their efforts in the fulfillment of some of these calls to action.

We were very intentional directing our calls across all sectors of society, and it would be wrong not to register that there are many sectors of society that are doing great things. We just need to encourage each other to move faster on the things that can be done where we're at—in this case, in government.

[Natan Obed]

I'll jump in quickly on this as well.

In regard to UNDRIP legislation, Inuit would be very disappointed if this work was not completed and the bill wasn't passed before the next election. That would be very disappointing, considering the priority the current government has put on the legislation. Quite simply, this is about human rights, about the acknowledgment and then the implementation of indigenous peoples' human rights in Canada. I don't think I've met a Canadian yet who explicitly states that they're against human rights implementation in this country. There are all sorts of debates about indigenous peoples. It would be wonderful if Romeo Saganash's bill and the iteration that we see now, which is in keeping with the spirit of his bill, finally makes it into law.

In regard to MMIWG, we need an action plan. There is ongoing work to create an action plan, and there have been point-in-time commitments—most recently on shelters for Inuit women, which was announced last week—so we are seeing fits and starts of progress, but we certainly would like to have an action plan finalized and the full force of the federal government's fiscal capacity and human resource capacity towards implementing the calls for justice.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thanks very much, Mr. Obed.

I'm going to ask the clerk if we have a particular restriction on extending the meeting past 8:30 this evening.