Saturday February 17, 2018
more stories from this episode
By Duncan McCue
When the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) released its final report in 1996, it set out a 20-year roadmap for making changes to better the lives of Indigenous people in this country.
No surprise, then, that the co-chair of RCAP, Georges Erasmus, was watching closely this week when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government intended to renew the relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples by fully recognizing Indigenous rights.
"The affirmation of Aboriginal and treaty rights is a long time coming.… It needs to be done," said Erasmus.
Trudeau vowed his government is undertaking a fundamental rethink of how the federal government recognizes Indigenous rights and title. He promised this week to work with Indigenous partners to develop a new legal framework to foster self-governance.
Erasmus said he hopes those promises are as good as they seem.
"It's never been an election issue … so it's always had to take a government that's prepared to do the right thing because it is the right thing. Not because they're going to get elected, but because it needs to be done to make the country right."
Waiting for change
The task of making the country "right" was particularly acute in the wake of the Oka Crisis in 1990. That's when the commission was tasked with offering solutions on how to repair the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
A Mohawk warrior known as Noreiga clutches an unidentified woman as he is taken into custody on Sept. 26, 1990, by Canadian soldiers after a 78-day standoff known as the Oka Crisis. (Bill Grimshaw/Canadian Press)
After travelling the country for five years, and visiting nearly 100 First Nations, the commission presented a five-volume report with a detailed and sweeping agenda for change on issues such as self-governance, treaties, health, housing, education and economic development.
Some RCAP recommendations have been implemented, primarily the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and funding dedicated to healing scars from the residential school era.
The recent decision by the Trudeau government to replace the Ministry of Indigenous and Northern Affairs with two departments can also be traced to RCAP, which recommended one department should be responsible for implementing a new relationship with First Nations and the other should provide services for non-self-governing communities.
However, Erasmus said, the core recommendations of RCAP have been ignored by successive federal governments.
"On the big substantial issues, it's been lying dormant for 21 years. So if we're now talking about doing something significant in this area, I mean, let's do it."
Carolyn Bennett became the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations in August 2017 when Indigenous and Northern Affairs became two separate departments. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)
Central to RCAP's agenda was that Indigenous nations need to be able to expand their land and resource base if Indigenous self-governance is to have any chance at success.
Erasmus said that was missing from the prime minister's announcement of a new framework for Indigenous rights.
"I didn't hear him say, you know, that Aboriginal people need a significant land base in this country to really be able to do what they need to do," said Erasmus.
"It's much tougher for him to do because land obviously is controlled by the provinces … [but] there's lots of places in Canada where we need to open up the whole concept of land equity for First Nations."
'Sweet talk … same old rules'
Justin Trudeau raised expectations when he promised that no relationship was more important to his government than the one with Indigenous Peoples.
Erasmus was chief negotiator for the Dehcho First Nations land claim in the Northwest Territories when the Trudeau government came to power in 2015. Now retired, his experience during those negotiations led him to question Trudeau's rhetoric on Indigenous Peoples.
"If anything, things got tougher. Funds got cut. The negotiations were put on hold for many, many months," he said.
"So, I haven't seen any solid results behind the sweet talk.… In reality, it's still the same old rules."
Georges Erasmus: deal with us now!6:30
Similarly, Erasmus noted that the Trudeau government has recognized the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), but questioned the government's commitment to the UNDRIP principle that First Nations must provide "free, prior, informed consent" to land use decisions in their territories.
"What we continue to see is the difficulty when you don't have a clear policy that Indigenous people need to give their consent," said Erasmus. "If we had a simple policy to that basis, everything would become routine.
"Government would know that's the way it happens. Business would understand that's the way it happens. Aboriginal people would know. And very quickly we would develop a normal way to operate."
Co-chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Georges Erasmus, speaks prior to a roundtable discussion on addictions at a downtown Calgary hotel in May of 1993. (Dave Buston/Canadian Press)
RCAP didn't anticipate that steps toward Indigenous self-determination would happen quickly, so the report recommended allowing First Nations to opt in to self-governance over a 20-year time frame.
Erasmus asked whether Trudeau's accelerated timeline for the implementation of new legislation is overly ambitious.
"He wants legislation in place by the end of the year and he wants it implemented before the election in 2019. That's a tall order," said Erasmus.
Despite his many questions, Erasmus said he views the federal government's commitment to a new relationship as a positive step. He also harbours no doubts full recognition of Indigenous self-governance and land rights will eventually come to pass.
"I don't know if it's going to happen in my lifetime, but any time an opportunity comes around for it to occur, I'm going to support it."
On Sunday, Cross Country Checkup wants to know: 'Is the Trudeau government succeeding in improving the lives of Indigenous people?' Click here for more information.
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