Quebec is content with “piecemeal” initiatives to restore relations with Indigenous people in public services, deplored the Public Protector on Wednesday. He notes that in four years, the government has implemented less than a third of the recommendations of the commission of inquiry into relations between Aboriginal people and certain public services (Viens commission).
Clearly, “the fragmentation of initiatives” by the government “limits systemic changes,” writes the Public Protector, responsible for following up on the recommendations of the Viens report.
In his report, he makes findings different from those of the government. The latter judged in 2022 to have implemented, partially or completely, 60% of the 142 recommendations of the said commission. This commission of inquiry was established by the government in 2016 following allegations of police abuse made by Indigenous women in Val-d’Or. Its final report, which concluded that Indigenous people in Quebec face systemic discrimination, was published in 2019.
Four years later, “there is still no visible desire from Quebec government action to fundamentally redefine public services so that they meet the needs and aspirations of indigenous citizens,” writes the Protector. of the citizen.
“I note that the initiatives remain fragmented, that progress on urgent reforms is slow,” said the Protector, Marc-André Dowd. He is also saddened to note that “the majority of cross-functional calls [n’ont] led to no satisfactory results at the moment.
A report received with “humility”
“The first word that comes to mind is “humility”. I am reviewing the report, I am reading it with interest,” responded the Minister responsible for Relations with First Nations and Inuit, Ian Lafrenière.
He acknowledged that there was “still change to be made”, referring to a “change in society”. He once again avoided changing his position on systemic discrimination, a concept that the Legault government rejects.
“Reconciliation between the government of Quebec and the First Nations cannot be achieved without listening or without respect,” argued the chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, Ghislain Picard. “There is an urgent need to act, Minister Lafrenière cannot just sprinkle improvements here and there, it takes a global vision, a structuring game plan,” also reacted Manon Massé, from Québec solidaire.
In his report, the Public Protector notes that only one call to action was fully implemented in health and social services, only one in youth protection and only one in the field of correctional services. In the area of justice, two of the recommendations of the Viens commission have been fully implemented.
However, in health, for example, “the extent of the expected changes […] requires the adoption of a global long-term strategy,” writes the Protector. “The prevention of discrimination should be among the main directions put forward by the [ministère]so as to establish clear guidelines to which establishments must comply, before new tragedies occur,” he also writes, in what appears to be a reference to the death of Joyce Echaquan in a hospital in Joliette. .
Among “the objectives to be achieved,” the Québec Ombudsman names the inclusion of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the legislative framework, a proposal that the Legault government associates with a right of veto.
“There is also a need to establish a clear portrait of the realities of the First Nations and Inuit through the collection and analysis of reliable ethnocultural data, as well as the urgency of addressing the issue of housing,” writes Mr. Dowd . To date, Quebec has always refused to document complaints in the health network based on the ethnocultural origin of the complainants.
Overall, therefore, Quebec should, according to the Québec Ombudsman, “adopt a global strategy for implementing calls to action and improve ministerial coordination” and “generate systemic changes.”