Federal
Government's Attempt to Escape Its
Responsibilities to
Indigenous Peoples Canada's Self-Serving Definition of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- Philip Fernandez - 
The Trudeau
Liberals are pushing through Bill C-15 An Act respecting the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Bill C-15, like
everything else the Trudeau Liberals have done in the name of truth and
reconciliation, is based on a lie. Far from committing Canada to
recognizing Indigenous peoples' rights, Bill C-15
aims to put a UN seal of approval to the ongoing refusal of the
Canadian state to honour Indigenous peoples as sovereign nations and
honour their hereditary and treaty rights. The
Liberals would like this law passed before the next election so
that they can claim to be following through with "truth and
reconciliation." With the help of the NDP they moved
one step closer to that goal, imposing closure on debate of bill C-15
on April 15 and sending it for study by the Parliamentary Committee on
Indigenous and Northern Affairs. The
Committee completed its study within a week and adopted the Bill with
two amendments after hearing from a small group of witnesses, the vast
majority of whom urged swift passage of
the bill. Clearly the major concerns of many of the more than 47
written submissions, particularly from First Nations questioning the
legitimacy of Bill C-15 or urging more time for study
of the Bill, were swept aside. The monopoly media
is facilitating this agenda to convince Canadians
the Indigenous peoples are on board with Bill C-15. In fact, just as
with the Liberal government's so-called
"consultations" on Bill C-15, it is only the hand-picked few who are
featured. As Indigenous peoples have become aware there has been
increasing and militant resistance to Bill C-15.  On
April 1, for example, the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians
(AIAI) assisted by the Green Party, held a press conference denouncing
the attempts by the Trudeau Liberals to
push this legislation forward. Grand Chief Joel Adams of the AIAI said:
"It's bad enough they are trying to decide what's best without
consulting with us, which is an insult in itself, but
now they are using UNDRIP as an excuse to push their agenda in trying
to take away the rights of all Indigenous Peoples. They are rushing to
get this pushed through legislation with the
least amount of consultation as possible so they can make the argument
that it has Indigenous support when in fact a large number of
communities were not consulted or made aware that
this could be a reality."
The 2007 UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)
was a hard-fought decades-long struggle for the Indigenous peoples of
Canada and the world. The aim was to
provide a legal platform from which Indigenous peoples could launch
campaigns to advance the fight for their rights within colonial
oppressor states like Canada. At the UN, Canada, the
U.S., Australia and New Zealand -- the four nations with the most
horrific record of genocide against Indigenous peoples -- did
everything they could to sabotage the efforts of Indigenous
peoples from Canada and around the world as they strove to assert their
right to be on the agenda of all humanity at the UN. The main thrust of
this campaign, often led by Canada, was to
ensure that the right to sovereignty of Indigenous peoples in Canada
and internationally would not be guaranteed in the Declaration.
Dr Hayden King, an Anishinaabe scholar and Executive Director
of the
Yellowhead Institute at Ryerson University, elaborated on this in a
2019 article entitled "UNDRIP's Fundamental Flaw." Dr. King
poses
the question of how
Indigenous rights can be affirmed when the UNDRIP was "created with
intrinsic power structures intact -- leaving the
state with ultimate control." He noted that "During discussions,
English-speaking states frequently objected to the draft declaration,
re-writing over a dozen articles and even removing some.
These changes were made despite boycotts and hunger strikes by
Indigenous delegates at the United Nations." The
most damaging changes were made to the last article, Article 46.
"The original text stated, 'Nothing in this Declaration may be
interpreted as implying for any State, people, group
or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act
contrary to the Charter of the United Nations,' while the revised
Article 46(1) added 'any action which would dismember
or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political
unity of sovereign and independent States.'" In
this way Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand
systematically changed the thrust and intent of the original 1994
UNDRIP draft presented by the Working Group for
Indigenous People which put the right to Indigenous sovereignty and
self-determination in first place. Even with these changes, Canada, the
U.S., Australia and New Zealand all voted
against the Declaration when it was adopted by an overwhelming majority
(144 countries in favour with 11 abstentions) of the General Assembly
in September 2007. With its nay vote, the Canadian
state, with the Harper Conservatives
in power, showed its refusal to even recognize the Indigenous peoples.
Bill C-15 is an attempt by the Trudeau
Liberals to codify in Canadian law under the figleaf of UN approval,
Canada's continuing effort to contain the rights of Indigenous peoples
within the 19th century colonial framework,
which runs roughshod over the hereditary and treaty rights of the
Indigenous peoples. It is extremely self-serving on the part of the
Trudeau Liberals.  One only has to
look at what happened in BC after the NDP government of John Horgan
passed Bill 41, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples Act,
in November
2019. Some of the people who helped pass the legislation are being
recruited now to speak in favour of Bill C-15. Yet Horgan had no
compunction to criminalize the Wet'suwet'en Land
Defenders and call for RCMP paramilitary assaults against them when
they stood up to defend their hereditary and land rights against the
Coastal Gas Pipeline. That was less than two
months after BC "recognized" UNDRIP. Similarly, despite ongoing
opposition by Indigenous peoples and their allies, tens of millions of
dollars have been handed over to private
monopolies in subsidies to continue construction of the Site-C Dam in
BC on Indigenous land, hunting and sacred sites. So much for how UNDRIP
is being "upheld" in Canada.
Bill C-15 is based on
a lie. Charmaine White Face, an Oglala Sioux
spokesperson and elder, issued a statement on April 16 on behalf of the
Indigenous Activists Networks, denouncing
the attempts by Canada to pass Bill C-15. She underscored that the
UNDRIP of 2007 "is NOT the Declaration approved by Indigenous Peoples
and to say that Bill C-15 will affirm the
rights of Indigenous Peoples is spurious and will be harmful to Canada.
She noted that to claim "Bill C-15 will affirm the rights of Indigenous
Peoples is not true. The UNDRIP was
changed to satisfy colonizing governments' continued pursuit for
control over Indigenous Peoples and resources." She underlined that
Canada could stand for the truth and base its laws on
the 1994 draft of UNDRIP, which the Indigenous peoples of the world
drafted and approved and which also had the approval of two UN
Committees. She warned that to proceed with Bill
C-15 would be dishonest and damaging to Canada. The
more the opposition to Bill C-15 from the Indigenous Rights and
Title holders grows, the more the Trudeau Liberals are going to be
isolated and desperate. The struggle against
Bill C-15 brings to the fore the constitutional crisis in Canada and
need for a modern democratic Canada, a free and voluntary union, with a
modern constitution that upholds the hereditary
rights and title of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. Bill C-15
should be withdrawn and Canada's relations with Indigenous peoples must
be based on mutual respect and equality,
recognizing their inalienable right to sovereignty and
self-determination. Withdraw
Bill C-15!
No to Canada's
Self-Serving Definition of the UNDRIP!
Uphold the Hereditary
Rights of Indigenous Peoples!
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 5 - May 9, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M510056.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
