CANADA TO CREATE LEGAL FRAMEWORK TO GUARANTEE INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks in the Air Force One Pavilion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California U.S. February 9, 2018. REUTERS picture |
Canada will create a legal framework to guarantee the rights of
indigenous people in all government decisions, doing away with policies built
to serve colonial interests, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday.
In a sweeping speech
that condemned past governments for failing to do enough to protect the rights
of aboriginals, Trudeau said the planned legislation would ensure “rigorous,
full and meaningful” implementation of treaties and other agreements and could
establish new ways to resolve disputes.
While treaty rights
with aboriginals are already recognized under Canada’s Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, the framework would ensure the constitution is the starting point for
such matters as resource development, self-governance, land rights and social
issues.
It will include new
legislation, policy or other mechanisms to put those rights in action, Trudeau
said. He did not provide details.
“We need to get to a
place where indigenous peoples in Canada are in control of their own destiny,
making their own decisions about their future,” Trudeau said in the House of
Commons.
The government will
consult with indigenous groups as well as provinces, industry and the public as
it writes the legislation, which will be introduced this year and implemented
before the 2019 election.
If the government
follows its words with tangible actions, “this can be an incredibly important
step in Canada’s journey of reconciliation,” said Ry Moran, director of the
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
Trudeau is under
pressure to make good on his 2015 election promise to repair the government’s
relationship with indigenous groups. On Tuesday, he met with the family of an
aboriginal man who was slain by a white farmer after a not-guilty verdict on
Friday in the high-profile case triggered calls for changes to Canada’s justice
system.
Indigenous
Canadians, who make up about 5 percent of Canada’s 36 million people and face
more poverty and violence, have fought for generations to gain greater control
of the development of the country’s natural resources.
Thousands of legal
challenges brought by aboriginal groups have ground their way through the court
system at a huge cost, said Ken Coates, a professor at the University of
Saskatchewan.
With the Supreme
Court broadly accepting indigenous rights, the government appears ready to try
to clarify and implement them in decision-making, rather than making decisions
first and then fighting in court.
“I‘m really hopeful
this will be a major reset of the relationship,” Coates said.
SOURCE: REUTERS
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