Archived - What we heard so far on the recognition and implementation of Indigenous rights

"We still have no rights to our land unless we prove them. We want to see you denounce the Doctrine of Discovery and Terra Nullius."

"We need the recognition legislation in place. It is urgent. It has to be broad in scope. It has to be crafted in a way to give direction to all of the arms of your government, to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

"Our treaty is the foundation of our rights, and they need to be respected and followed. As Treaty people we have the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent."

"Treaties are sacred, not simply contracts."

"Departments have to understand what the final agreements lay out, and they need to understand self-governing nations."

"The biggest thing for us is recognition of the Métis Nation. Until we are recognized by other levels of government as a Nation; that is the biggest stumbling block for us."

"We are writing our vows between Canada and the Métis and they will appear outlined in the Recognition legislation. At the end of the day we have a relationship, but the legislation will help us propel forward."

"We are beyond wanting your recognition of our rights. We want our treaty implemented and our language respected."

"We need to end the chief and council systems on reserves. We are ready to begin the hard work to reconstitute Indigenous nations. We still have our constitutions; they are in our ceremonies and oral histories. There will be a tremendous amount of work to implement our legal traditions and governance systems."

"We can't talk about a civil law, a common law, and an Indigenous law tradition. We have to actually talk about Indigenous legal traditions plural. And so take that and even the Cree (Nēhiyaw) talk about multiple legal 'traditions'. Because we are not just one people."

"Colonialism did not impact men and women in the same way, decolonization should take that into account. In most First Nations societies, women ran the communities and selected leaders. It was a colonial concept of a man owning a woman that hit us where it hurt. The concept absolutely demolished our governance in many cases."

"Before treaty, we all had a body of knowledge. At the signing of treaty we began to understand your system, but the body of knowledge is not the same. The work of treaty is to build the bridge between our two systems."

"The Natural Resource Transfer Act has to be eliminated. When that policy was implemented in the 1930s, it was done without any Indigenous people at the table."

"Recognizing Indigenous rights, as we develop a relationship with government the fear of what it means disappears. The fear disappeared with Quebec too, as we were able to communicate with them. … You are in the right direction when wanting to promote self-government."

"The Métis Settlements remain the only legislated land base in Canada. We have a broad mandate encompassing land, governance and jurisdiction. We have done with little to no recognition of the federal government. It is our right to be at the table when the funding allocation models and formulas are being designed. There should be funding that goes directly to Métis Settlements."

"We usually hear people say that we are the Métis or that we are Métis people, but we are a Nation."

"The engagement has focused on talking about recognition legislation, how long will it take the government to recognize the Métis have governments? … I would recommend that we need legislation for Métis governments, not pan-Indigenous."

"Women need to be active in policy changes and participate in meetings and discussions related to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. Women tend to take a more holistic approach and should be participating in high-level meetings and meetings at the regional level."

"We need to consider new dispute resolution approaches to address rights related issues like overlapping territory issues. Overlaps prevent communities from moving forward."

"Perhaps the government should establish a separate secretariat. A third body, where Indigenous Nations can go to get information, basic legal advice when they decide to prove title, so they are organized and they have made the proper decisions when they form their nation."

"There is a need to create an office of an independent ombudsman to whom Indigenous governments and persons can take their concerns of fairness of treatment by federal employees in accordance with an established process."

"We need a modern treaty review commission situated in the auditor general's office that reports to cabinet. In terms of recognition of rights there needs to be parameters around disputes."

"Our process needs to be specific to the Métis. We have lands in this province that are ours and taken from us."

"I want to start off with thanking you for your acknowledgement that government has been a contributor to denying of rights. Think that is a polite way of putting it… Implementation of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement has been uneven. We don't have plans in place about how the parties are going to work towards implementing these provisions."

"We need our languages back. We are in a crisis situation with our languages."

"A nation should be based on languages. We have about 24 across the country… you can't dispute our languages. We need to go back to referring to ourselves as villages within tribes."

"As Inuit, we expected to have more of a voice. In our government, we thought we'd be speaking more Inuktitut, we'd hold more of our traditions and people would understand more about the process of our governments. And as Inuit, some of us in our own land, we can't speak Inuktitut, rather English or French. Inuit are not being served in their language and they have to look for someone to help them with the language for the services that they require."

"Inuit have been working on language for many years. Our people need to understand where they are at and where they have come from. People move into the communities from living on the land… how they are being addressed in the hospitals; they are always served in English and French. Language preservation needs to take place at all levels of government. Language policy is needed for our language."

"Language is so important to maintain culture; it is the core."

"Do we fight for our rights and title or do we feed our people? We don't have the resources to do both."

"As young people, we understand that there are certain things that need to be done before we can talk about the rebuilding of relationships, because we're still broken. A lot of our people are still healing, and there needs to be mechanisms in place that allow us to get on that same playing field, to actually negotiate properly with the governments within Canada."

"Access to services for Inuit people who are out of the North are very poor. There is no one place for Inuit in the South to access health and education."

"Language and education are both very important to us. But if we can't feed our families that will be my priority."

"We would like to move forward not backward. Our children today are our future. We don't want to fail them and we know what we need to do. We must prevent children from going into care and have a culturally appropriate approach to child welfare. There are many areas of need for child welfare, and a lot of it has to do with funding."

"The urban landscape has changed dramatically since the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and it should be looked at again; we need to recognize the importance of urban councils and possibly develop an urban governance structure."

"It is important to bring the knowledge keepers to ensure the urban individuals have the spiritual connection."

"Inuit organizations are organizing across the country. We would encourage that you connect with those organizations. There is a lot of momentum there. As an urban Inuit, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami has not been supportive of Inuit outside the Arctic. Neither have the 4 governments. Roughly 30% of our population now lives outside the Arctic. The federal government is not going through local organizations for delivery, but rather the national organizations, and is not using local statistics, but national statistics."

"Everything gets woven into together in cities and we want to promote a distinct Métis culture."

"Schools need to talk more about our treaties and celebrate our leaders, not only leaders from other countries."

"It is important for Canada and for the non-Indigenous people of Canada to know about treaty. There is an education component here; it shouldn't be only Indigenous people educating."

"[Federal] employees don't seem to understand Inuit and Inuit culture. They need to be more educated in our ways. Secondly, there are many people who are misunderstanding our agreement. We need to better understand our own rights. There are a lot of boards and other agencies where there are more men than women. We need to encourage more women to be on boards."

"It is the people and the public that need to embrace the path that the Government of Canada is going down with Indigenous people. Not only do we need to educate about our own framework in our own communities… but also education needs to be done at other levels of government. There are a great many non-Indigenous people that need to be educated… why this process will work better than the existing process. Provincial support will be crucial to implement a new and better way."

"We often have difficulty finding the responsibilities of different departments."

"It's good to see the gender-based analysis consultation going on. That gender-based analysis is going to be important throughout all departments beyond Status of Women. And we hope that carries on, but we need to be consulted, we need to be a part of that."

"We have fears that changes to the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch will affect health services delivery."

"Your employees don't seem to understand Inuit and Inuit culture. They need to be more educated in our ways."

"In the framework you need to have a section on educating the public, provinces and other Indigenous groups on who we are."