This text is part of the special Acfas Congress booklet
The colloquium Implementing Indigenous Rights: Innovations and Limitations in the Canadian Context is organized on May 10 on the occasion of the Acfas Congress, which takes place online.
Indigenous MPs and Senators working to advance their rights in the Parliament of Canada, a colonial democratic institution, will be at the heart of the presentation by Simon Dabin, postdoctoral fellow at the Interuniversity Center for Indigenous Studies and Research (CIERA). He analyzed speeches from the previous Parliament to determine whether Indigenous MPs and Senators spoke more often on issues they identify as Indigenous, compared to other MPs.
“The result is that they talked about it significantly more, that is 37% of their speaking time, compared to 3% for the others and, in addition, they talked about it differently. So it’s obvious that their presence changes something in the way of representing Aboriginal people in the House of Commons,” he reveals straight away.
In addition, 2015 saw an increase in the number of Indigenous applicants across the country. “They were 54, and 10 of them were elected,” says Mr. Dabin. Since then, with each election, there has always been an increase in the number of Aboriginal candidates. They were 77 for the 2021 election, and 11 of them were elected. »
The researcher also points out that the interest in Canadian literature for Aboriginal representation was very marginal until recently.
“It was only in 1960 that Aboriginal people had the right to vote, without conditions. Before that date, to vote in federal elections, First Nations members had to give up their status, their Aboriginal identity, to become Canadian citizens.
The issue of social acceptance
The other conferences of the symposium will look at the problem of the exploitation of natural resources and social acceptance. Julie Fortin, from Université Laval, studied what happened in the Inuit village of Aupaluk, in Nunavik, with the mining industry. Because even if there have been advances following the adoption of international standards in terms of social responsibility, compliance with commitments is not always there, particularly among exploration companies, which are often precarious. .
On the legal side, Zoé Boirin, from the University of Ottawa, will analyze how the development and implementation of a mining project, which calls for compliance by mining companies with several standards, can contribute to reconciliation between Canada and Indigenous Peoples.
Véronique Tremblay, from Laval University, will focus on the implementation of the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) standard in Canada and Norway, with the cases of the Trans Mountain pipeline and the Nussir mine. .
Roundtable with Indigenous leaders
As Acfas finally decided to hold its symposium online due to the sixth wave of COVID-19, a round table with Indigenous leaders was moved. “We would never have organized a symposium on the implementation of Aboriginal rights without inviting Aboriginal leaders to speak out,” insists Thierry Rodon, symposium manager and professor in the Department of Political Science at Université Laval.
He preferred to hold this roundtable in person at the annual CIERA conference, which took place on May 2 at the McCord Museum. Michèle Audette, originally from the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, was invited to speak about her work as a commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and her work as a senator. “She decided to go into the colonial institutions to change them from the inside,” says Mr. Rodon.
We also found at this round table Hélène Boivin, president of the Tipelimitishun commission (to govern oneself) who has been working since 2019 with the Pekuakamiulnuatsh (Innu of Mashteuiatsh) on a draft Constitution. Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk, vice-president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, anthropologist specializing in the Arctic and curator at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, was also present, as was Jedidat Matoush, from the Cree community of Mistissini, doctoral candidate in science politics at Concordia University.