Evidence of meeting #24 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was c-15.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
After the next round of questioning I'll keep a couple of minutes open for you so you can follow up with that.
Liberal
Lenore Zann Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Thank you very much, Chair.
Wela'lin. I come to you today from the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia.
I wanted to say, first of all, thank you very much for your presentations. I certainly agree with everything that has been said here. It is time to change and it is time for governments on all levels to listen to and respect first nations across the country and work with them in consultation to create a better future for all children.
I'd like to just focus now on the free, prior and informed consent. It seems that it is increasingly central to public discourse and policy debate regarding indigenous reconciliation. At the same time, however, the meaning, nature and roots of FPIC are poorly understood, including how it's understood in domestic and international law, its foundations in indigenous legal orders, the relationship of FPIC to indigenous sovereignty and jurisdiction, and how the [Technical difficulty—Editor] governments is connected to the implementation of FPIC.
Could you speak to me, please, Chief Bosum? Is he there, or has he gone?
Liberal
Member, Executive Council, Land Claims Agreements Coalition
On the topic of FPIC, I'm not the most qualified to speak to this whole matter, so I'd defer to—
Liberal
Lenore Zann Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
No worries. Would one of the other witnesses like to speak to this—free, prior and informed consent?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Let me ask Mr. Picard, who's joined us.
Mr. Picard, can you open your mike and give us a brief sample so that we can ensure the translation works?
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Naaman Sugrue
It's difficult to say. Perhaps we'll try to get his answer to the question, and then I'll be able to give an indication.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Lenore, could you repeat the question? We'll ask Mr. Picard to try to respond and that should solve our technical issue.
Liberal
Lenore Zann Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Perhaps I'll put it in another way.
It seems that the most contentious article in UNDRIP for some people is about the right, whether “free, prior and informed consent” means that first nations will have a veto over resource development on their traditional territories, and that the bill would create another avenue for legal challenges for development projects.
The people who oppose this bill seem to feel that this will stop development and resource development under any circumstance, and weaponize UNDRIP against first nations and other rural communities that favour such development. Can you explain to us what “free, prior and informed consent” actually means?
Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador
Thank you very much.
I will answer in French if you allow me.
First, I want to apologize.
Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador
As a matter of fact, I just dealt with thirty minutes of technical difficulties, which prevented me from being with you in time.
If this is an opportune time, we will most certainly share with you the views of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador on the bill as a whole and the amendments that we would like to see adopted. However, we are aware that the Cree regional government has also provided its comments. We believe that these comments deserve our full respect, even if in some cases we do not necessarily agree with their premise. I think it is worth making that clear.
Free, prior and informed consent is an element of the declaration that raises enormous concerns. You have just confirmed that. Still, I think it's worth reiterating that the declaration in its entirety is the responsibility of all parties involved. This applies to industry as well as governments, and first nations governments as well. It is more from this perspective that the principle of free, prior and informed consent should be considered.
That being said, we are extremely vulnerable to various interpretations [Technical difficulty] of what I would call an uncertain climate politically, first of all, as well as in terms of development. I give you as an example some of the interpretations of the current Quebec government. It anticipates that there would really be episodes of darkness if Bill C-15 were passed and the principles of the declaration were recognized in full.
I think we have to be extremely careful, because we are all a little bit vulnerable to what I would call a [Technical difficulty]. So the point is that the future is uncertain in terms of the relationship between first nations governments and Canadian governments, or even between first nations governments and industry.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Mr. Picard, thank you.
I'm allowing some extra time because of the issues.
Ms. Zann, I have a hand up from one of our witnesses. Ms. Inutiq, did you want to comment on Ms. Zann's question?
Kunuk Inutiq Director of Self-Government, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Land Claims Agreements Coalition
It was my understanding that I was appearing as a witness, and that I had six minutes, so I wanted clarification on that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Mr. Johnson and you were part of one particular group of witnesses, so typically that would be six minutes shared, however, in view of the calamities befalling us technically, would you like to add something to the commentary now?
I can't give you six minutes right now, but I could offer you a couple of minutes.
Liberal
Lenore Zann Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Thank you so much.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action not only call on governments to fully adopt and implement the declaration, but number 44 specifically calls for the development of an action plan to achieve the UN declaration's goals.
Could you please comment on the importance of the development of an action plan being part of this legislation and what you believe would be essential to a well-designed process to develop and implement that action plan.
Director of Self-Government, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Land Claims Agreements Coalition
I'm part of the action planning process for the missing and murdered indigenous women calls to justice. The learning from that process and how it could work is really interesting. The action plan is a critical piece of this process, because we don't know how the UNDRIP bill will impact our communities. That piece, in terms of how it will impact our communities, is that action plan.
A lot us who have modern treaties—in our case, we even have a public government that was a product of our modern treaty—are still facing severe poverty and housing crises. Our language is declining. Three quarters of our children go hungry each day. It's obvious that systemic discrimination and racism are still very endemic in our systems, and the bill has the potential to create that conversation and work towards dealing with that systemic discrimination and racism, and that's in that action plan.
