Trudeau Tells the World; 'Canada struggles to improve conditions for Indigenous people'

By Kaniehtonkie

At the United Nations on Thursday, September 21, 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed Canada’s efforts to address what he called a domestic “shame” and the treatment of Indigenous peoples.

Using the world platform at the UN General Assembly, he spoke almost entirely about the challenges Indigenous people face, in historical and in contemporary times, and his governments efforts at change and reconciliation.

He admittedly stated Canada is a country, “that came into being without the meaningful participation of those who were there first.”, referencing the residential school system that separated thousands of our brothers and our sisters from their parents, culture, language and, in the largest meaning, their sense of self and resulting in trans-generational trauma.

He also mentioned the forced relocation of Inuit and First Nations communities tracing the problems to what he called a ‘legacy of colonialism’ referring to the paternalistic Indian Act.

Trudeau stated, “For Indigenous peoples in Canada, the experience was mostly one of humiliation, neglect and abuse,” he said.

He went on to say, “The good news is that Canadians get it. They see the inequities. They’re fed up with the excuses. And that impatience gives us a rare and precious opportunity to act,” he told the assembly.

He added that although Canada is making progress on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which he said his government embraces ‘without qualification’, Indigenous peoples in Canada continue to endure foul water, poor education, bad housing and poor job prospects. He said that includes work to end boil water advisories, build homes, curb violence against women and girls, and “dismantling the old colonial bureaucratic government structures.”

In his speech, Trudeau made brief references to Canada’s role in global affairs, voiced concern for victims of the Mexico earthquake and Caribbean hurricanes, but stayed silent on global events around the world, including North Korea and the persecution of Burma’s Rohingya. The United Nations has called the Rohingya the world’s most persecuted minority group.

He also made a pointed reference to Washington’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate change accord, stating, “There is no country on the planet that can walk away from the challenge and reality of climate change,” Trudeau said to applause.

By focusing nationally, some politicians felt he missed the opportunity to earn a seat at the United Nations Security Council. One in particular stated he could have taken local themes and tied it to larger global priorities using global themes using Indigenous reconciliation as a model. In the end, Trudeau defended the focused theme of his UN speech, telling reporters that Canada can’t lecture other countries on their domestic problems without first owning up to its own record.

However, NDP MP Roméo Saganash remarked that despite Trudeau’s pledge of action, Indigenous communities continue to face chronic issues with housing, water, schooling and children’s services.

“It’s been more than 150 years that it persists in this way. Government after government, Conservative government after Liberal government . . . . They tell us the same things. And yet we’re always in the same place,” said Saganash, who was the first Indigenous MP elected in Quebec.

Excerpts from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau actual speech;

‘It is an honor to be back here with you today, and to have an opportunity to speak to this year’s theme: “Focusing on people: striving for peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet.”

Canada remains a work in progress.

So I want to tell you about the Canadian experience because for all the mistakes we’ve made, we remain hopeful. Hopeful that we can do better, and be better, and treat each other with the dignity and the respect that is the birthright of every human being.

I want to tell you our story because I know that the challenges we have faced - and continue to face - are not unique in the world.

And neither are the solutions. An approach that values human dignity - that emphasizes fairness and real opportunity for everyone – has a home in Canada and in every country.

It’s an approach that doesn’t just serve domestic needs, but that makes the world a better, more peaceful, more prosperous place for all.

[Progress for Indigenous Peoples in Canada]

This year, in 2017, Canada celebrated the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Our 150th birthday, if you will. But Canada is much older than that. It has been home to the descendants of settlers and immigrants for hundreds of years, and Indigenous Peoples for millennia. We are a country is built on different cultures, different religions, different languages all coming together. That diversity has become our great strength.

But that is not and has not always been true for everyone who shares our land. Canada is built on the ancestral land of Indigenous Peoples - but regrettably, it’s also a country that came into being without the meaningful participation of those who were there first. And even where treaties had been formed to provide a foundation for proper relations, they have not been fully honored or implemented.

For First Nations, Metis Nation and Inuit peoples in Canada, those early colonial relationships were not about strength through diversity, or a celebration of our differences. For Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the experience was mostly one of humiliation, neglect, and abuse. There are, today, children living on reserve in Canada who cannot safely drink, or bathe in, or even play in the water that comes out of their taps. There are Indigenous parents who say goodnight to their children, and have to cross their fingers in the hopes that their kids won’t run away, or take their own lives in the night. Young Indigenous people in Canada struggle to get a good education. And though residential schools are thankfully a thing of the past, too many Indigenous youth are still sent away, far from their families, just to get the basic education most Canadians take for granted.

And for far too many Indigenous women, life in Canada includes threats of violence so frequent and severe that Amnesty International has called it “a human rights crisis.”

That is the legacy of colonialism in Canada. Of a paternalistic Indian Act. Of the forced relocation of Inuit and First Nations communities, and a systematic denial of Métis rights and history. Of residential schools that separated children as young as five years old from their families, punished them for speaking their own language, and sought to extinguish Indigenous cultures entirely.

The good news is that Canadians get it. They see the inequities. They’re fed up with the excuses. And that impatience gives us a rare and precious opportunity to act. We now have before us an opportunity to deliver true, meaningful and lasting reconciliation between Canada and First Nations, the Métis Nation, and Inuit peoples.

In the words of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Declaration provides “the necessary principles, norms, and standards for reconciliation to flourish in twenty-first-century Canada.”

That’s not an aspiration. That’s a way forward. Last year, at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Canada’s then Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs finally corrected Canada’s position on the Declaration, and announced that we are now a full supporter of the Declaration, without qualification. In partnership with Indigenous Peoples, we’re moving ahead with a thorough review of federal laws, policies, and operational practices, to get our house in order. To make sure that our government is meeting its obligations, including international obligations under the Declaration. We know that the world expects Canada to strictly adhere to international human rights standards – including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – and that is what we expect of ourselves, too.

We are working closely with Indigenous Peoples in Canada to better respond to their priorities, to better understand how they see and define self-determination, and to support their work of nation rebuilding. Along with Indigenous partners, we are co-developing programs to ensure the preservation, protection and revitalization of Métis, Inuit and First Nations languages. In short, we have been working hard, in partnership with other orders of government, and with Indigenous leaders in Canada, to correct past injustices and bring about a better quality of life for Indigenous Peoples in Canada…

Our efforts also include a stronger focus – in Indigenous communities, across Canada, and around the world – on SDG #5: combatting gender-based violence and giving women and girls equal opportunities to succeed. We need women and girls to succeed because that’s how we grow stronger economies, and build stronger communities. That is why our government will be moving forward shortly with legislation to ensure equal pay for work of equal value…

This is important, because poverty and hunger know no borders. We cannot pretend that these solvable challenges happen only on distant shores. The need for greater equality and decent work – those are real and persistent human needs. Ones we cannot afford to ignore especially in our own countries.

In Canada, this means new relationships between the government of Canada and Indigenous Peoples – relationships based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and partnership. Recently, we made changes to our own government structures,

to help with the transition to these new relationships with Indigenous Peoples. We are dismantling the old colonial bureaucratic structures and creating a new Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, led by Dr. Carolyn Bennett, an experienced and effective advocate for Indigenous Peoples in Canada…

To better do this work – while at the same time supporting Indigenous self-determination – we will create, in consultation with Indigenous Peoples, a new Department of Indigenous Services, led by our former Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Philpott.

Over time, programs and services will increasingly be delivered by Indigenous Peoples, as part of their move toward true self-government, and the full implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples…

As I said last year, we know it will be hard work. But I remain confident – for Canada’s experience shows this to be true – that any challenge can be met if we meet it together.’