It’s time to give the territory back. “Immediately sworn in as the new Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Marc Miller, promised to speed things up to repair the relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples,” shattered “by” the theft of land “.
“We have to make sure that things happen,” explains Marc Miller, in an interview with The duty. The elected Montrealer has become the man of confidence of Justin Trudeau in the file of reconciliation with the indigenous peoples. He agreed to explain his statement, made when he was appointed on October 26, that it is time for the government to return land to its ancestral occupants. “When I say something like that, I’m serious. “
His assumption of the role of Chief Aboriginal Negotiator comes after nearly two years as head of the Complementary Federal Department, Indigenous Services. Minister Miller was, for example, responsible for providing drinking water to communities, or for organizing their vaccination against COVID-19. Its former ministry, created in 2018, must disappear once the autonomy of the communities is reached.
Land restitution
Marc Miller’s goal is now to “make irreversible” the progress made in reconciliation, in particular by giving back land. “We talk about historical grievances, we talk about the territory, we talk about the land. This is the key element of the relationship. It’s very simple: the return of land, of territory, is something very important, but it is not something very easy. “
What does this concept, especially used by indigenous rights activists, mean to him? “The general observation is that it must be more difficult for the federal, for the provincial, for the municipal, for the individuals, to encroach on the native titles”, explains Marc Miller, before launching in a criticism in order of his own department for its long processing times in litigation between the federal government and the Aboriginal nations.
“It takes more work for us [au ministère], frankly, to brush, to clear, all the things that take a lot of time inside the public service and which should not take so long, ”he says.
The restitution of indigenous territories to communities who request it could be done “through current mechanisms, [ou] other ways: buyout of territory, buyout of land ”. For the minister, this would be “an acknowledgment that there are wrongs done and that there is reparation to be made”.
However, he qualifies: “There are people who live there. [sur les territoires revendiqués]. There is no one asking anyone to come. I think there are extreme poles of thought that need to be demystified a bit. “
Indigenous movement
By promising to “give back the territory”, the minister is referring to a much larger movement of claims related to Aboriginal people, explains Jacynthe Ledoux, lawyer specializing in Aboriginal law at the Cain Lamarre firm.
“When we talk about land restitution [en anglais : land back], the mistake is to think with our western conceptions of property rights, to think that we are going to give property back to the Aboriginals. It is not always that, it does not always take this form, because in the indigenous perspective, often, we do not own the land. […] we are rather in a perspective of sharing the territory. “
According to Me Ledoux, various ongoing processes are already pursuing an objective of land restitution, such as treaty negotiations. “You have to remember that despite everything, the land and the natural resources are provincial,” she concludes.
Minister Marc Miller agrees. “Ottawa is not in control, not the final say on everything. […] It takes the complicity of provinces, municipalities, and individuals as well. By mentioning an indigenous cause that has remained in dispute for a century, he warns that the land restitution project will not be done in a snap. “The reality is that we will not solve everything in my mandate. “