Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As you surely understood from my statement, I don't think it is necessary to mention the Constitution, and the way it is mentioned is certainly not useful. The indigenous and treaty rights of indigenous peoples are fundamental, and that's what we want to recognize. However, it is

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right. As I said, many indigenous nations are still engaged in the claims process. The term “claim” means the recognition of rights that exist but have not yet been incorporated into Canadian law. While the Constitution can, in principle, recognize these rights, until they

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  An inherent right is a right that exists independently of state or constitutional recognition. For indigenous peoples, this is very important. As you know, before the Europeans came here and created New France, New England and eventually Canada, there were peoples who had lived o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to testify in the context of your work. I am doing so in a personal capacity while wearing several hats. I wear the indigenous law lecturer's hat first. For the past 15 years, I have had the great plea

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are many things that can be done. The government should first finish modernizing the procurement strategy for indigenous businesses. Among the recommendations to reach 5% is a very simple idea of going from a wish to a standard. The 5% target should be set in every departm

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The database currently consists of more than 250 businesses, and more continue to be added to it weekly. It is managed by CANDO with the assistance of Aboriginal Business Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada. This database is unique because it constitutes the larges

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  When we talk about reconciliation with indigenous peoples, we are talking about the healing of wounds related to colonialist policies. We are also talking about the recognition of aboriginal and treaty rights, as well as about repairing the education system, protecting childhood

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the very good things we have learned is that we can trust first nations governments. As I said in my presentation, we have seen extraordinary things. Despite their limited means, councils have taken care of their populations' safety. They have assumed their role of local

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The taskforce carried out that survey of 900 indigenous businesses in the spring. The survey is available online, including on the website of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. At that point, it was the end of the first wave, and the survey found that COVID-19 had had

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I was saying, the taskforce provides strategic input on two topics. This is initially about identifying, engaging and mobilizing the indigenous supply chain to enable it to participate in and contribute to government calls for tenders for products and se

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning to all the members of the committee. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before the committee. I am appearing as an individual, but also as vice president of Acosys Consulting Services, a company that provides services to indige

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Everywhere, but especially in the regions, First Nations people live either in communities—on reserve, as they say—or outside of them. They receive services from either the provincial or federal government. So there is already some confusion, sometimes, as to who should provide s

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To the question of recognition we must add the question of concrete resources. It is a pervasive issue: because of the way government works, it is very difficult to recognize First Nations self-government. Not only do we have to look beyond the Indian Act, but we also have to go

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To answer that question, I will go back to the example of the Oka Park situation. When you look at the media coverage, you can see that the Mohawk council had a lot of trouble getting its message across and explaining that its position was founded on a responsibility to protect