A major promise in the Liberal election platform, and repeated in ministerial mandate letters and the throne speech, was to “repair” the relationship between the federal government and the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.
In December, the government laid out a plan to start making good on that promise.
"It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations peoples, one that understands that the constitutionally guaranteed rights of First Nations in Canada are not an inconvenience but rather a sacred obligation," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a group of chiefs gathered for an Assembly of First Nations conference in Gatineau.
The first of five priorities for the new government was to launch an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. The other four are to:
- Make significant investments in First Nations education
- Lift the two per cent cap on funding for First Nations programs
- Implement recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Repeal all legislation unilaterally imposed on indigenous people by the previous government
The mandate letter to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould instructed her to “conduct a review of the changes in our criminal justice system and sentencing reforms over the past decade ... Outcomes of this process should include increased use of restorative justice processes and other initiatives to reduce the rate of incarceration amongst indigenous Canadians...”
She was also instructed to work with other relevant ministers to “address gaps in services to Aboriginal people and those with mental illness throughout the criminal justice system.”
These points echo several CBA policies, including some resolutions adopted at last summer’s CBA Legal Conference in Calgary which asked the CBA to urge governments to address the over-incarceration of Aboriginal people and to provide culturally appropriate programs for those who are incarcerated; and also to urge the federal government to provide adequate health care for offenders, “with particular emphasis on prison staff receiving training and exercising their duties in a manner that recognizes the needs of offenders with mental health and cognitive difficulties.” As well as those two resolutions, the Aboriginal Law Section co-sponsored, along with the Criminal Justice Section, two more resolutions calling on the government to address the over-use of solitary confinement and to implement systems that will ensure prisoners have “reasonable” contact with counsel, “including comprehensive regulations governing an offender’s right to counsel, access to counsel, communication with counsel and the privileged nature of communications with counsel.” The CBA has also called for comprehensive measures to address the legacy of Canada’s residential schools.
Carolyn Bennett, the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, was told in her mandate letter that her “overarching goal will be to renew the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Peoples. This renewal must be a nation-to-nation relationship, based on recognition, rights, respect, co-operation and partnership.”
Among her instructions, Bennett was told to “undertake… a review of laws, policies and operational practices to ensure that the Crown is fully executing its consultation and accommodation obligations, in accordance with its constitutional and international human rights obligations, including Aboriginal and treaty rights.”
Manitoba Justice Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said the prime minister’s leadership on this issue is vital.
“If that comes from the Prime Minister’s Office alone that would be a significant and huge step,” he told the Ottawa Citizen. “Because that would send a message throughout the political system, as well as throughout the federal bureaucracy, that people need to change the way they think about things.”