Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 15th Professor James Anaya with the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples concluded a nine-day visit to Canada. As a Special Rapporteur, Professor Anaya has a mandate from the UN to monitor the human rights condition of Aboriginal peoples worldwide, to address situations in which their rights are being violated, to promote practical solutions to human rights abuses by governments.
In his closing statement, Mr. Anaya said, “From all I have learned, I can only conclude that Canada faces a crisis when it comes to the situation of indigenous people of this country. The well-being gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada has not narrowed over the past several years, treaty and Aboriginal claims remain persistently unresolved, and overall there appear to be high levels of distrust among Aboriginal peoples toward government at both the federal and provincial levels.”
This is a damning indictment of the government’s treatment of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. When is the Government of Canada going to listen? When are they going to do right by Aboriginal peoples, to recognize not only their fiduciary obligation to deliver programs and services but their moral obligation to improve the lives and living conditions of Aboriginal peoples in Canada?
While I’m glad to see rapporteur Anaya shine a light on the truth on the appalling conditions faced by Aboriginal peoples in Canada, it is unfortunate that he did not come to the North. The last visit of a rapporteur to the NWT took place 13 years ago. What has changed since then?
In 1999 elders figured prominently in addressing the UN Rapporteur Martinez regarding the testimony of treaty-making and promises. Today most of those elders have passed on and those promises are unfulfilled. Elders like Ted Landry of Fort Providence, who is regarded as a Dene political historian, are incredulous about the lack of integrity displayed for the Government of Canada in honouring the treaties it has made. Since the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which marks the first big recognition of Aboriginal rights for the Crown, Aboriginal peoples have struggled to see those rights realized. Here we are 250 years later and we still have unsettled claims in the NWT. Self-government negotiations are underway.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Here we are 250 years later and still we have unsettled claims in the NWT. Self-government negotiations are underway in almost every part of the NWT but only one Aboriginal group, the Tlicho Government, has achieved the goal of governing its own people. Mahsi.
