Tag Archives: First Nations

“Give us back our respect”: A class action suit is filed on behalf of Indigenous day-school students

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“Hearing the stories of suffering from the elderly of my band, I started to wonder why someone would want to be an Aboriginal,” said Mariette Buckshot from Kitigan Zibi, Quebec. She grew up conflicted about her identity and believes that the “Indian day schools” have a lot to do with it.

“Everybody hates our language, hates the way we look,” she recalls. “I didn’t want to be a part of that world. I wanted to be accepted socially.”

A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of Indigenous students from Quebec who attended government-funded day schools alleges that they were “stripped” from their aboriginal identity and denied the “ability to pass on their heritage”. The legal team appraises that there are between 120,000 and 140,000 living day school survivors in Canada.


The reserve of Kitigan Zibi, Quebec, is located one hour 30 minutes north of the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

“The physical and sexual abuse, pain and distress, and the damages to language, learning, culture, and heritage,” said the filing, “were also suffered by students who were forced to attend Indian Day Schools, their descendants, and their communities.”

Allegations against the federal government contained in the lawsuit’s statement of claim have yet to be proven in court. Emailed requests to the federal government went unanswered. It has to file a statement of defense.

The lawsuit goes hand in hand with a Canada-wide class action certified last month also linked to government-funded day schools. The lawyers filed a Quebec affiliation since the legislation differs from the rest of the country.

Hopes of a harmless settlement

Mariette Buckshot, one of the two main plaintiffs of the case, hoped Canada would settle without having to go to the Supreme Court. Her father attended the Maniwaki day school from first to third grade and dropped out in fourth grade.

The Attorney General contested the class action on June 4, meaning the case is most likely going to be ruled in Court. “We wish the result will be a settlement that we, First Nations, consider favourable to all the victims,” said the plaintiff.

Patricia Doyle-Bedwell, a professor of aboriginal studies at Dalhousie University, agrees.

“I hope that the Crown doesn’t prolong the case, that they read the history, recognize the survivors’ experiences, and provide a settlement that is sufficient,” after the long process that was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She believes that the Crown contested the case for financial reasons, since it already spent a lot with the residential schools’ settlement.

Ex-Prime Minister Stephen Harper with Terry Audla, president of the national Inuit group Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, during the closing ceremony of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on June 3, 2015. Source: AMMSA

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement is the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. More than $five billion were paid to residential school survivors.

That previous win may be beneficial to the First Nations fighting for justice against the day school system, according to Doyle-Bedwell. “It will be harder for the Crown to prove that they didn’t suffer as much as the Indigenous people who attended residential schools, because the experiences are very similar.”

The Crown is most likely going to distinguish the two cases by saying that the kids got to go home every night, said the law professor, or argue that the bands were pushing to get schools within the community. “But, these are not valid arguments because the harm still happened. There was a breach of the government’s fiduciary responsibility, just like in the residential schools’ case.”

“The scholars in Indian day schools experienced a similar disconnection to their family and culture as the residential scholars, since their teachers repeatedly called them heathens, pagans and savages,” said Patricia Doyle-Bedwell. Source: Archives Deschâtelets

Passing on a hurtful heritage

“My dad is 86 years old and was victimized on the reserve day school,” confides Mariette Buckshot. “It impacted him in a way where he quit school when he was only in grade four. He didn’t want anymore to do with education.” Later on, when he had kids, he insisted that they go to school while keeping their knowledge of the language and their culture.

The bands can’t overcome such a past in one generation, though. The teachers, which were most of the times nuns and fathers, kept telling the students that they were “heathens, pagans, savages and that their parents would go to hell,” says Doyle-Bedwell. “These things really cut at the heart of our identity and who we are as Indigenous people.”

When asked about what would help the healing of the First Nations, Mariette Buckshot is resolute. “Through apologies, payments and programs that go towards the healing of our people.”

“Give us back our respect. We still exist and are resilient enough to still be vocal.”

First Nations legal clout in stopping Kinder Morgan

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The topic: First Nations legal rights in stopping Kinder Morgan

What’s new: First Nations rights can cause a legal quagmire when it comes to the construction of the Kinder Morgan Trans-mountain Expansion.

Why it’s important:  A controversial decision to approve the Kinder Morgan Trans-mountain Expansion by the Liberal government was made in November last year. The new pipeline would more than double the amount of existing diluted bitumen being transported from Alberta oil sands to a tanker terminal in Burnaby, B.C. Tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet is estimated to increase seven-fold.

Prior to the government’s announcement, the National Energy Board conducted a review of the pipeline and concluded that construction would be in the public interest. This review was followed by consultations of communities along the pipeline route, performed by the Ministerial Panel.

Although some First Nations had negotiated agreements with pipeline, overall the consultation panel found significant opposition. “Even among those people who had negotiated benefit agreements and signed letters of support for Trans-mountain, most said their rights were not respected and that their concerns about impacts were ignored, or at the very least, minimized,” reads the report from the Ministerial Panel released in November 2016.

A briefing note regarding First Nations consultation said that upholding Indigenous rights may present a “tension” for the project. Section 35 of the Constitution Act grants First Nations rights to land, and First Nations groups in direct opposition to the pipeline are arguing that approval of the pipeline would violate this legislature.

The Sacred Trust Initiative from the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation is mandated to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker terminal from being built. They conducted an independent assessment report on how the pipeline would affect their First Nation, which takes into consideration the increased likelihood and consequences of a spill. The assessment found that “spilled oil has the potential to foul every corner of the Burrard Inlet,” and “a large spill has the potential to expose over one million residents around the Burrard Inlet to acute toxic health effects from toxic air emissions.”

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3528188-TWN-Assessment-Summary-11x17/pages/5.html

John Konovski, senior advisor at the Sacred Trust Initiative, said that “The issues is that the National Energy Board examined didn’t include all the interests of Tsleil-Waututh have. The biggest one being that marine shipping was not part of the environmental assessment.”

Failure to respect First Nations titles and inadequate consultation has caused problems for the construction of pipelines in the past. “As we have seen from the Federal Court of Appeals decision that quashed the NEB approval for Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline in June 2016, failing to consult appropriately with these groups has the capacity to bring a project of this nature to a standstill,” reads the report from the Ministerial Panel.
What the government says:  Roxanna Coulon, communications office for Natural Resources Canada, wrote in an email that “No relationship is more important to our Government than the one with Indigenous peoples.” According to Coulon, the pipeline expansion project has committed more than $300 million to socio-economic agreements with First Nations groups over the next twenty years, and the 2017 budget provided $64.7 million to fund an Indigenous monitoring and advisory committee to support communities affected by the pipeline.
What others say: Bruce Miller, a UBC professor who studies Indigenous affairs, said that the Tsleil-Waututh have a fair case in opposition to the pipeline, but legal proceedings can be a lengthy process. “I think in the end it’s unclear that it really will go through,” said Miller.
What’s next: Tsleil-Waututh and other First Nations groups are taking their case to the B.C. Supreme Court. Konovski said the case is likely to proceed over the next year to year and a half.

Liquified Natural Gas Shows Concern Between B.C. Government and Treaty 8 First Nations

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The B.C. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation has expressed concern about how to approach Liquefied Natural Gas Development on Treaty 8 First Nations Land.

“Resource use with Treaty 8 and the provincial government has been, let’s call it strained,” says Scott Fraser, who is the MLA for Alberni-Pacific Rim and Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation spokesperson for the B.C. NDP Caucus Team.

Documents obtained through B.C.’s Freedom of Information Law reveal a Human Health Risk Assessment was completed in November 2014 that covered six Treaty 8 First Nations communities: Blueberry River, Doig River, Halfway River, McLeod Lake, Saulteau, and West Moberly First Nations.

The assessment provides two similar options suggested by the Ministry of Health about how to present the finding s to the Treaty 8 communities. The first suggestion involves the Ministry of Health hiring a consultant to hold community meetings explaining the results and fielding questions. While the second approach involves a cross-ministry approach, lead by the Ministry of Health or another Ministry where consultants would be hired to lead a public information campaign to provide information on the assessment’s findings.



(*) What is the Documentation? – The information is the two options proposed by the B.C. Ministry of Health about how to present the findings of the Human Health Risk Assessment.
(*) From which department did these pages come? – These pages came from the B.C. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation
(*) Why was this information helpful? The information was helpful because it shows the concern the B.C. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation and the B.C. Ministry of Health have when it comes to presenting information to the Treaty 8 First Nations.

“We just want to be at the table at the beginning, not towards the end,” explains Rodney Nelson, a lecturer at Carleton University and CEO of Global Governance Group, a consulting firm that specializes in working with Indigenous governments. “If you’re thinking about any problems just bring them on board,” explains Nelson because “some of the First Nations out there are very interested in projects like this” and being able to be partners with the government and various companies.

The assessment concluded that the risks of chemicals of potential concern (COPC) “were not predicted to result in adverse health effects in people living or visiting the study area.”
The assessment also determined that even though some areas exceeded exposure limits for certain COPC’s, it is not expected to create adverse health effects due to the rarity of it happening combined with the safety measures put into the assessment.



(*) What is the information? – The information is the findings from the Human Health Assessment. The HHRA claims that the potential for adverse human health effects is low due to potential exposure from Chemicals of Potential Concern (COPC)
(*) From which department did these pages come? – These pages came from the B.C. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation
(*) Why was this information helpful? – This information is helpful because it provides the information that the B.C. government is using as they pursue Liquefied Natural Gas developments on Treaty 8 First Nations Land.



(*) What is the information? – The information is the findings from the Human Health Assessment. The HHRA claims that Chemicals of Potential Concern risks in the air were determined to not result in adverse health effects for people on Treaty 8 First Nations Land
(*) From which department did these pages come? – These pages came from the B.C. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation
(*) Why was this information helpful? – This information is helpful because it provides the information that the B.C. government is using as they pursue Liquefied Natural Gas developments on Treaty 8 First Nations Land.

In recent years Liquefied Natural Gas development has been promoted by Premier Christy Clark as a new way to create billions of dollars in economic development within the province. The process involves fracking, where drilling takes place into the ground and a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals is injected in order to crack the rocks and allow the natural gas to flow to the surface.

Despite the assessment’s findings regarding human health, there are still questions for some that are left unanswered. One of the main concerns about liquefied natural gas is the potential environmental effect on the Treaty 8 First Nations land. Scott Fraser remembers vividly the last time he visited the Treaty 8 First Nations, flying late one night where “there’s flaring all over the place. The landscape is being changed in huge ways. Including the wildlife corridors, potential destruction of water supplies. It potentially impacts the way of life that has existed for Treaty 8 people for millennia.”

Rodney Nelson believes the process that the B.C. government is using plays a big role in how they view the environment. The process they’re using was developed in Europe, and in Europe it’s not a concern anymore. They don’t have vast amounts of wilderness to worry about. Here we do,” he explains, “a lot of people are still living off the land or supplementing off it.

In response to reports and assessments made by the provincial government, Treaty 8 First Nations have been conducting there own research about liquefied and its effects. The Treaty 8 Tribal Association among other First Nations groups have hired Dr. Gilles Wendling, a hydrogeologist who is doing work on the potential risk of aquifers and water supplies because of these practices.

“The Treaty 8 First Nations have a treaty,” says Scott Fraser, “this is a treaty nation. The government is pursuing this as though they don’t have a treaty and as though they don’t exist.”

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Forgotten recommendations: 25 years after the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

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It has been 25 years since the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was introduced in Canada, but despite years of consultations and research, the federal government has yet to accomplish most of the recommendations outlined in the report.

Established in 1991, the Royal Commission was created to help repair broken relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

To create the report, the federal government completed hundreds of studies and gathered testimony from over 2000 individuals to see how indigenous communities were hindered by Canada’s social, political and economic climates. The Commission’s results were revealed in 1996 through a report which made over 440 recommendations to be implemented over a 20-year period.

A portion of Volume 5 of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples annotated in DocumentCloud:

(Click inside the annotation to see the entire document and other annotations)






Source: Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada 

The main conclusion of the report was that Canada needed to overhaul its relationship with indigenous people in order to show respect for their history, culture and right to self-determination.

Paul Chartrand compressed
Paul Chartrand
Source: Boudreau Law

“In the final report, it made sense to recommend that the government establish a nation-to-nation relationship,” said Paul Chartrand, one of the commissioners for the Royal Commission.

The “nation-to-nation” relationship would allow indigenous communities to govern under their traditional structures and work alongside the Canadian government to improve access to things like education, infrastructure and healthcare.

The nation-to-nation concept had not been employed by previous governments in power , but in December 2015, Justin Trudeau announced that they would be forming this relationship with indigenous communities.

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Linc Kesler
Source: UBC

“The Trudeau government from early on has identified Aboriginal issues as a priority,” said Linc Kesler, an associate professor at the University of British Colombia that specializes in indigenous studies.

“They also have at least begun discussions about the inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women, so I think a lot of people were happy to see that.”

The government’s announcement was promising for some, but Chartrand remains skeptical of the Liberal government in terms of what its specific plans are.

“At the moment, it’s pure rhetoric. We now have a government that says it will have a nation-to-nation relationship. Well you should be looking at Royal Commission for inspiration on what that might mean. But nobody’s mentioning it,” said Chartrand.

“The government can do anything in the first year, and by the third year, no one remembers. Public amnesia is a constant feature of our country.”

Looking back at the actions of previous governments, Kesler agrees that political leaders continue to make the same promises, but fail to provide indigenous communities with tangible results.

“What people have shared with me is that they have not seen movement on the recommendations in the Royal Commission,” said Kesler.

“If you were to look at the recommendations that the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] included in the final report, you would see many of the same items identified as in the Royal Commission.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the latest government initiative which attempts to repair damage caused to indigenous communities, but according to Chartrand, it is not entirely comprehensive.

“The merits of the Truth and Reconciliation report stand on its own, but you cannot replace the foundation that was set by the Royal Commission’s broader mandate,” said Chartrand.

If the government’s past actions are an indication of future behaviour, Kesler believes it’s appropriate for indigenous people to be “cautiously optimistic” about Trudeau’s enthusiasm for indigenous issues.

“I think people have not seen the kind of actions on the whole that they had really been hoping would be the result of Royal Commission,” said Kesler.

“That’s not however, to say that there hasn’t been change, but it’s not the kind of change that the Royal Commission called for.”

Volume 5 of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples is the main document which I reflect on in my story. I found Volume 5 of the commission to be particularly relevant to the ideas discussed in my article because it outlines the main objectives of the report which were supposed to be implemented over a twenty year period. I found a PDF version of the document through Queen’s University online library catalogue and converted the sections of the report using DocumentCloud.

Summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report

Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one of the most recent initiatives completed by the federal government which deals with indigenous relations, I thought it was important to include this document in my research as a tool for comparison. Both of my interview subjects made comparisons between the Royal Commission and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission so I included a hyperlink to this document so that readers could compare the two documents side-by-side if they wished. Looking at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report provided evidence for my argument that the newer report essentially repeats made of the recommendations made previously in the Royal Commission. This helped to illustrate the point that these commissions are heavy on rhetoric, but light on concrete results. I found a PDF version of a summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by visiting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s website.

Canada’s largest native reserve holds the province’s highest arson levels

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From cars to garbage cans, anything has the chance of being lit up in Canada’s largest native reserve.

Six Nations of the Grand River, which lies just outside Brantford, Ontario, holds the province’s highest rate of arson with average rate of 765 incidents per 100,000 people over the past six years

Based on an analysis of Statistics Canada data, residents of Six Nations are 43 times more likely to experience an act of arson than those living anywhere else in the province.

According to the Criminal Code of Canada, arson occurs when a person intentionally or recklessly causes damage by fire or explosion to a property, whether or not that person owns the property. It is an indictable offence and if someone else is harmed, an accused can liable for life imprisonment.

The reserve has been in the news as of late, with its arson problem being far from burnt-out. In just the past week, police and fire crews responded had to respond to two separate fires on the reserve.

These fires occurred on October 1 and 3, with both dealing with cars being lit on fire. Each incident has since been labelled as arson, and is being investigated.

Inspector Dave Wiedrick of the Brantford Police blames boredom and lack of education for the high number of arson in Six Nations and the surrounding areas. With not much to do, says Wiedrick, people turn to fire to pass the time.

“If you compare Brantford to Halton Hills [a similar sized town near by], you’ll see we have lower income, lower education, and lower city interaction,” says Wiedrick about the Brantford area. “This causes petty crimes to be high.”

Wiedrick says most fires lit by arsonists in their area tend to be small  but according to Inspector, the damage can still be huge. Wiedrick says he fears that someone will eventually get hurt by all these little fires.

And the October 1  fire almost did that.

While en route to put out the car fire, a Six Nations fire department truck swerved off the road and crashed into the ditch. While the firefighters in the truck walked away safely, their truck did not do so well. The department’s truck is now out of commission, and for a small, volunteer-based fire department already low on funding, being down a truck can be devastating.

The Brantford Census Metropolitan Area includes the City of Brantford, Brant County, and Six Nations Reserve. The CMA has the highest per capita rate of arson in the entire country. Data retrieved from StatsCan's Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations and police services, for Ontario.
The Brantford Census Metropolitan Area includes the City of Brantford, Brant County, and Six Nations Reserve. The CMA has the highest per capita rate of arson in the entire country. Data retrieved from StatsCan’s Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations and police services, for Ontario.

 

The October 1 incident shows that although the fires in Six Nations are minuscule and generally victimless, they still pose a threat to those putting them out.

Scared by the incident, Six Nations Fire Chief Matthew Miller raised alarm for his local firefighters.

“It is feared that with the increase in fire activity as well aggressiveness of the incidents which is now occurring that it is only a matter of time before a member of the public or a firefighter is injured,” Miller said in a press release.

Firefighters from neighbouring districts have agreed to send their help when needed.

Chief Fire Prevention Officer Dwayne Armstrong of Brantford Fire Department said over the phone that each of the bordering departments have aid agreements. Brantford Fire Department and other departments will send out help when the fire is near the border or if the main department has been depleted of resources.

While more resources and extra aid helps the fire get put out, it is only a temporary solution since it does not solve the bigger problem, which is the prevention of fire in the first place.

However, as Insp. Wiedrick notes, “How do you prove someone started a fire when the fire ruins all your evidence? ”