First
Nations & the Green Party
The Green
Party would like to express its deepest respect to the First Nations people of
We are still
a long way from integrating Aboriginal wisdom into Canadian’s everyday life and
from formally valuing the richness of your heritage. Aboriginal rights,
lifestyles, and worldviews have been largely marginalized in government policy.
What could have been a more productive and harmonious exchange over the course
of centuries has turned into a colonial structure of governance.
First Nation
peoples continue to struggle for the settlement of land claims, your right to
self-determination, and the implementation of treaties. There has been an
inability to adopt creative solutions not only in the fiscal relations area but
also in democratic processes and justice systems, which are largely
inappropriate to your needs and culture.
Moreover,
there has been little recognition of past government injustices, which have
many times left you in very vulnerable conditions. Many basic services such as
education, healthcare, and housing are severely underdeveloped in aboriginal communities.
The most worrisome part is that right now, systemic discrimination and
injustices still prevail on a large scale.
We have much
to learn from traditional aboriginal knowledge. For thousands of years, you
have lived sustainable and rewarding livelihoods in harmony with nature’s
cycles. You are the first ones to recognise our ultimate dependence on a
healthy environment and the need to act collectively for the sustainable
management of our resources. Your medicinal knowledge, language, and every other
aspect of your social life reflect this understanding.
The Green
Party would like to honour Aboriginals for having opened so many doors to
Canadians, shared so much precious knowledge, and for offering so many
opportunities to the development of a greener and long-lasting society. It is
now time to take responsibility for the past and present injustices and start
working closer with native people. We have much more to learn from the world of
aboriginal knowledge and culture.
Green Party position on First Nations relations
As the local MP I would implement an “MP advisory
committee” with representation from the Saugeen First Nation & Cape Croker
communities to ensure that you have a voice in the implementation of local
policy as it relates to Federal politics.
I also would work toward region-wide environmental
renewal and protection programs with First Nations involvement and/or
leadership, as I believe we have much to learn from your culture in regard to
our relationship to the earth.
I believe
that what Aboriginal people need is straightforward, if not simple:
·
control over their lives in
place of the well-meaning but ruinous paternalism of past Canadian governments
·
lands, resources and
self-chosen governments with which to reconstruct social, economic and
political order
·
time, space and respect from
Aboriginal Peoples: Justice through Reconciliation
The Canadian government has a
grim record of overtly racist policies and consistent mismanagement on issues
relating to Aboriginal peoples. Only by acknowledging our past mistakes will we
be able to move forward. Today,
First Nations have explained that
these problems stem as much from a lack of adequate funding, as from a denial
of their nationhood. The right to self-government, the right to control their
own destiny and manage their resources is fundamental in building healthy and
confident aboriginal communities.
The future of aboriginal land and
aboriginal land claims is the future of
Green Party MPs will press the Government to:
- Honour
-
Implement the recommendations of the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on
Aboriginal Peoples, thereby embarking on true nation-to-nation negotiations on
a full range of outstanding legal issues and land claims.
-
Negotiate and legislate primary hunting, fishing, trapping and logging rights
for Aboriginal Peoples on traditional lands, especially lands under federal
jurisdiction, subject to standards of sustainable harvesting.
- Launch
and maintain new processes driven by Aboriginal priorities and legal
entitlements, to address governance issues, a just and fair share of lands and
resources, legislative inconsistencies, policy inequities, reconciliation and –
according to the wishes of First Nations – the phased-out elimination of the
Indian Act.
- Promote
Aboriginal culture, language and history as a fundamental source of Canadian
identity.
- Support
the development of Aboriginal education curricula that is language and culture
specific.
- Assist
the delivery of health care, education and other services in a way that
incorporates traditional practices, recognizing the role of extended families
and elders.
- Address the unique
issues surrounding the treatment of Aboriginals in the Canadian justice system
- Establish a
federal-provincial task force to address and investigate the disappearance of
Aboriginal women.
Background to Green Party Policy
Self government
The aboriginal peoples who signed treaties considered them
to be more than simply resigning their rights to certain tracts of land. The
aboriginal people understood the treaties to be solemn undertakings of the
Crown, which acknowledged the self-governing powers of aboriginal peoples - a
guarantee that the aboriginal peoples would be able to continue to live their
lives in much the same way they had before the arrival of the Europeans.
However, the federal government refused to understand the treaties in the same
way. When the British North America Act of 1867 established the law-making
powers of the federal government, Section 91(24) gave the federal government
responsibility over "Indians and Lands reserved for Indians." Section
91(24) established the power of the federal government over aboriginal people
and undermined the importance of the treaties.
Today, many non-aboriginal Canadians are puzzled by the term
'aboriginal self-government'. Why should aboriginal people be able to govern
themselves? However, to aboriginal peoples, land claims and self-government are
the principal means to preserve their cultures, their languages, and their
economic well being. The source of the aboriginal right to self-government
flows from their inherent rights, which they believe they received from the
Creator. The right to self-government also flows from the treaties. To
aboriginal people, the treaties are not ancient and forgotten promises, but
current and contemporary documents which prove the self-sufficiency of their people
and the responsibility of the federal government
They want to find a secure place in the world which has been
forced upon them. Indian treaties, Indian reserves, Indian Acts - these are all
institutions designed by Europeans and Euro-Canadians to manage aboriginal
people primarily for their own convenience. Now, aboriginal people want to
develop their own institutions.
The administration of justice
For many years, aboriginal people have complained that the
Canadian justice system treats them unfairly. Several judicial inquiries and
the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples came to the same conclusion: the
justice system has failed
Despite being only a small minority of the Canadian
population, aboriginal people compose the overwhelming majority of inmates in
provincial and federal prisons. For example, in
There is profound evidence that racism and systemic
discrimination course through the Canadian justice system. Studies show that
aboriginal persons are charged with more offences than non-aboriginal persons,
are more likely to be denied bail than non-aboriginal persons, spend less time
with lawyers, and receive higher sentences when pleading guilty. High profile
cases like those of Donald Marshall Jr., Helen Betty Osbourne, and J.J. Harper
are extremely visible reminders to aboriginal people that
Thus, when the Euro-Canadian justice system is applied to
aboriginal communities and their members, many of its fundamental principles
are at odds with the culture which governs the behaviour of aboriginal people.
The law has been used to enforce Canadian government control
over the lives of aboriginal people, whether the issue was land claims,
criminal conduct, child welfare, or hunting and fishing rights. The courts,
police, and government bureaucrats have continuously used the law as a tool of
oppression.
Indian Reserves
Education completion rates among First Nations students are
the lowest in
When these and many other needs are combined with a chronic
unemployment rate that is persistently 75% or higher in most reserves, the
question must be asked.
Metis and non-status Indians who live in cities, towns or
settlements often suffer the same conditions and quality of life of some of the
poorest reserves in the country.
Above all, a reserve is a manifestation of a visceral and
spiritual connection to the land and tangible, albeit shrunken, evidence to
most Indians that they were the original people of this country.
Health Issues
Aboriginal people believe that this right to health care is
based on an inherent legal responsibility of the government to provide health
services in lieu of land and resources surrendered throughout the country.
Indeed, historical evidence indicates that the future well being of First
Nations was a major concern of aboriginal people during the negotiations of
treaties.
Nevertheless, despite government assistance, the health
conditions of Indian people on reserves and in inner cities continue to be well
below national standards. Suicides account for 35% of accidental deaths in the
15-24 age group, a rate almost three times that of the
national rate for suicide in this age group. Mortality rates on Indian reserves
for violent deaths are three to four times higher than Canadian rates in
general. The infant mortality rate, generally considered to be a reflection of
underlying disparity in socio-economic conditions and health care services, is
roughly double the national average. The magnitude of aboriginal health
problems is best understood by examining three different health issues
aboriginal people are dealing with: housing, substance abuse, and AIDS.
Until housing improves, the death rates for preventable
diseases among aboriginal people will continue to be many times higher than in
the rest of
While it is difficult to find statistical information about
the actual or estimated extent of drug and alcohol abuse by aboriginal people,
aboriginal court workers have reported that between 80 to 95% of their clients
have substance abuse problems, and some Indian reserves report similarly high
rates of abuse. What is clear is that the horrific effects of substance abuse -
which include suicides, homicides, accidental deaths, a high incidence of fetal
alcohol syndrome births, physical and sexual problems, child abuse and
joblessness - have infected aboriginal people like a huge illness.
It is clear is that substance abuse, in and of itself, is
not the greatest problem facing aboriginal people, but is merely a symptom of
many problems facing aboriginal peoples. As more individual aboriginal people
recognize and admit that substance abuse is a huge problem, aboriginal
communities will be called upon to provide culturally appropriate support to
assist healing.
Land Claims
In the settlement of land claims, aboriginal peoples seek a
wide range of opportunities. In some cases, this may mean local renewable
resource activities, activities such as fishing and hunting that local people
can undertake, that can be locally managed and controlled and that are related
to traditional aboriginal values.
Despite major land claims agreements such as the James Bay
and Northern Quebec Agreement, the Northern Flood Agreement in Manitoba, the
Umbrella Final Agreement in the Yukon and the Nunavut Agreement in the
Northwest Territories, there continues to be a lack of commitment on the part
of the government of Canada to settle the many claims of aboriginal people.
With First Nations spread across the country, each having its own individual
specific claim, it is difficult for them to sustain sufficient pressure on
governments to achieve positive and speedy action on any of the particular
claims. This fuels the belief that claims are only settled when there is a show
of public anger or violence such as that witnessed in the summer of 1990 in
Oka. Unless the federal government makes a strong commitment to settle all
outstanding aboriginal land claims, the protests of aboriginal people will
continue. Rectifying historic injustices, through the settlement of aboriginal
land claims, is vital for the well being of all Canadians.