It's a Question of Fairness!
Notes for a Presentation
to the
Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs
by
Dwight A. Dorey, MA
National Chief
Congress of Aboriginal Peoples
Tuesday March 19, 2002
Room 536 - Wellington Building
House of Commons
Check Against Delivery
• Chairman, Vice-chairs, Members of the Standing Committee.
• Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today on the First
Nations Governance Initiative and the Indian Act.
• I would like to introduce CAP's Vice Chief, Jason Knockwood. Also, with
me is Ms. Wendy Cornet, our coordinator for the Congress of Aboriginal
Peoples involvement in the governance initiative, and CAP's
representative on the Joint Ministerial Advisory Committee on the
governance legislation, and Professor Victor Valentine, who for the past
30 years has been a senior CAP advisor on many issues, including
demographic and other relevant data.
• Copies of our information kits are being distributed to you containing
useful background materials for your review, about the Congress of
Aboriginal Peoples, our genesis, milestones in our 30-year history,
programs and projects in which we are involved, and data on off-reserve
Aboriginal people.
• Before I get into the details I'd like you to know that I appreciate the
value of time
• So I will try to heed the words of the great Inuit leader Zebedee Nungak,
who described Inuit prayers as short, businesslike, and to the point.
• I've prepared my presentation accordingly. I hope you will appreciate
the Aboriginal reality in Canada today, a fact that too few Canadians
know and too many legislators in the past have ignored, namely that by
far the largest number of Aboriginal people do not live on Indian Act
reserves, nor do we benefit from the provisions of the Indian Act.
• I will also discuss the First Nations Governance Initiative, the findings
from the consultation process in which our people have been involved
and what we have recommended.
• Then I will conclude by offering some thoughts on governance for
Aboriginal peoples living away from Indian Act reserves.
• Let me begin by citing a few facts.
• The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, or CAP-formerly the Native
Council of Canada-is one of the oldest, national Aboriginal
organizations, having been founded as the Native Council in 1971.
• In fact we celebrated our 30th anniversary last October.
• The 1996 census reported that there are more than 1.1 million people of
Aboriginal ancestry living in Canada, a number that will have increased
by the time the Aboriginal data for the 2002 census are released.
• Of that number, Statistics Canada reports that about close to 80 per cent
of all Aboriginal peoples do not live on Indian Act reserves, or "First
Nations" as they are incorrectly labeled.
• In fact, even when it comes to registered, or status Indians, more than
half do not live on Indian Act reserves, with mobility to urban centres on
the rise, a trend in keeping with the changing demographics of the
Canadian population as revealed in the latest census data.
• You will find a simple to read but accurate information sheet in your kits
outlining the Aboriginal reality in Canada today.
• You will see how CAP represents in reality the interests of more than
800,000 off-reserve Aboriginal people living in urban, rural and remote
areas throughout Canada.
• These are not data we made up or pulled out of a hat.
• This is information provided by Statistics Canada.
• When this organization was founded as the Native Council back in 1971,
our natural constituency included Metis and non-status Indian people
throughout Canada.
• With the coming into force of Bill C-31 in the mid-1980s many thousands
of our people regained, or were granted their status.
• Indeed today many of CAP's constituent member association chiefs and
presidents are registered Indians living off reserve.
• As a Mi'kmaq man and National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal
Peoples, I am a 16 year old Indian, thanks to Bill C-31.
• The net effect of all this is that the people who look to the Congress and
its constituent provincial and territorial member associations for support
and the delivery of services now include Metis living outside the newly
defined "Prairie homelands," many remaining non-status Indians, as
well as registered and treaty Indians living away from Indian Act
reserves-by far the largest number of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
• Despite being significantly under-resourced in comparison with other
Aboriginal organizations, the Congress and its predecessor have always
maintained policies and program delivery that are "status and residencyblind."
• Our track record proves that we have always served the interests of
Aboriginal people, regardless of their status or where they live.
• Just two of many past examples of this include the Rural and Native
Housing Program, which was hugely successful in providing housing and
residential rehabilitation for many thousands of Aboriginal people, and
the employment and small business generating Urban Aboriginal Job
Fund. Both initiatives originated with CAP/NCC.
• While on the subject of providing you with observable facts, it is
important to add here that it was the Native Council of Canada's
president who negotiated directly with then-Justice Minister Jean
Chretien to ensure the word Metis was included with Indian and Inuit in
Section 35 of the Constitution of Canada in 1982.
• More recently we have developed and are in the process of
implementing a National Aboriginal Workplace Strategy, in
partnership with governments, organized labour and the private sector,
that holds great promise for ensuring strong and lasting participation by
Aboriginal people in the Canadian economy.
• Its focus is to ensure that Aboriginal people are well-prepared to
compete at all levels within the workplace, from entry level to senior
management positions, and that the work place is well-prepared to
accommodate the skills and talents of educated, trained and motivated
Aboriginal people.
• It's a win-win situation for all partners, and a program of great promise
for current and future generations of Aboriginal people.
• Then there is CAP's National Diabetes Initiative-again in a partnered
program with government, Aboriginal and private sector involvement that
focuses on the prevention and maintenance of this pandemic
disease within the Aboriginal community.
• Once again, both initiatives require no tests of status or residency, and
that, according to our philosophy, is as it should be.
• So my point is, that in the face of a great deal of adversity-financial,
legal, social-the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and its constituent
member associations throughout the country, are continuing to serve the
interests of all off-reserve Aboriginal people as best we can.
• But at the same time it is a reality that any of us should not want to
persist for another 125 years.
• The Aboriginal reality in Canada cannot be ignored or swept aside if we
are truly serious about ensuring all Aboriginal citizens enjoy full and
equal participation within the fabric of the nation.
• As off-reserve Aboriginal people constituting the largest number by three
to one, we want partnerships that are fair, effective and enduring.
• For our part we believe having that as our goal places a responsibility on
us as Aboriginal people to get involved in issues that directly affect a
significant portion of the people whose interests we are elected to serve.
• It is simple.
• If we want our people to benefit, then we as leaders must participate and
contribute.
• We cannot stand on the sidelines and complain when we are given the
opportunity to be included.
• That is why we accepted the Honourable Robert Nault's invitation last
year to participate in the consultation process on the First Nations
Governance Initiative, and to participate in the Joint Ministerial Advisory
Committee.
• A sizeable portion of CAP's people are off-reserve registered Indians as
I have pointed out, who mainly see themselves as being on the outside
looking in. So it would be a disservice to them if we were to turn our
backs on a process that directly affects their lives.
• That is why we will continue to be involved in this process to the end,
and in other processes dealing not only with reforms to the Indian Act
but also any other issues affecting off-reserve Aboriginal people.
• I have to say that the time frame for consultation on the governance
initiative could have been longer but I am nevertheless satisfied that the
participation in the process by our people was good.
• More than 1,775 people participated in 76 consultation sessions held by
the Congress at the regional and community levels across the country.
• There is not time here to go into detailed results of our consultations but
you do have copies of our final report in your information kits which I
hope you will review.
• Let me give you some highlights from our consultations.
• Off-reserve Aboriginal people want the Indian Act replaced with an
Aboriginal Peoples Act that accommodates their interests, as soon as
possible.
• Such an Act, along the lines of the recommendation by the Royal
Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1996 could provide the framework
for recognizing Aboriginal nations and implementing the inherent right to
self-government.
• Off-reserve Indians, we heard, want the archaic Indian Act concepts of
Indian status and band membership fundamentally reformed.
• Our people want policies respecting new band membership reviewed.
• They expressed the belief that Canada should return to the first principle
upon which the country was built, namely that relationships with
Aboriginal peoples should be conducted on a nation-to-nation basis, with
a renewed treaty negotiation process in place.
• Our people stated that the federal government must stop using the
Indian Act definition of "Indian" to determine who is Aboriginal and who
qualifies for Aboriginal rights.
• Aboriginal peoples and nations (Mi'kmaq, Cree, Ojibway, Haida, etc) and
not just Indian Act bands should be the focus of self government
and governance reforms. These are the collective tribal groups who
signed our Treaties and are the historical basis for self-government
entitlement.
• While these efforts are underway, they believe that some basic reforms
to the Indian Act can be undertaken quickly to ensure, at a minimum:
• that democratic elections to band councils must include all band
members and not just those living on Indian Act reserves, and;
• that financial accountability by band councils to all band members is
ensured.
• As well, our people said that federal departments should be restructured
to reflect today's Aboriginal reality, where the vast majority of Aboriginal
people live away from Indian Act reserves.
• Yet another positive step forward would be the immediate creation of an
Aboriginal Peoples' Secretariat within the Privy Council Office to
coordinate joint policy development between Canada and Aboriginal
people, off reserve.
• I remind committee members that the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples
already has a Political Accord with the federal government signed by the
Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-Status Indians, and the Minister
of Indian Affairs which could provide the framework for developing such
a secretariat. You will find a copy of the Accord in your information kits.
• So these are some of the recommendations off reserve Aboriginal
people have made on the governance initiative.
• We believe they are important, valid, realistic and achievable between
people of good will and common purpose.
• We also believe they reflect a true partnership between Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal peoples living in a Canada whose bounties we can share
in and whose challenges we can gather together to overcome.
• Everyone in this room, and I suspect the Minister himself, believes that
the Indian Act's time has come.
• It is archaic, unfair, and paternalistic-the negative adjectives can go on
and on-and it must go.
• I'm also sure that everyone in this room, and the Minister too, knows that
the First Nations Governance Initiative, is but a tiny step compared with
what we all know must be done.
• It is a tentative, some might even say a timid first step, but at least it is a
step toward what we all hope will be the inevitable.
• The question remains, then, what do we do in the mean time?
• What do we do as Aboriginal people, as governments, as organizations
and institutions, to advance the Aboriginal agenda, to give Aboriginal
people a greater voice and a greater sense of participation and
belonging in this country?
• The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples believes the dialogue on the great
issues must continue and we will continue to be part of that dialogue.
• But we also believe we cannot just sit on our hands and await the mills of
the constitutional and legislative gods to grind slowly along their paths.
• Things can and must get underway.
• We can strive for a greater share of voice, and therefore control over our
lives in the communities we live in, and the institutions that guide them.
• We can sit on school boards where decisions are being made that affect
our children and their future.
• We can sit on police boards where decisions are being made that affect
our people.
• We can be active participating members of hospital and health boards
whose deliberations are critical to the well-being of our people.
• We can get elected to councils where vital issues affecting our people
are debated, although this is often a far greater challenge than an
appointment.
• In short, as Aboriginal communities of interest, we can be part of
decision-making institutions and processes where our voices are heard,
our concerns are taken into consideration and our well-being can be
accommodated within a framework where we co-exist and share the
benefits along with the larger society in which we live.
• This approach also is in line with RCAP recommendations that
recognize there may be many different models for governance in
Aboriginal communities.
• And the added benefit is there is no assimilation here. We don't melt into
the so-called dominant society and lose our identity.
• We can do all this without compromising Aboriginal imperatives -- our
cultures, our languages, our belief systems, our spirituality, our artistic
expressions -- many of the things that set us apart as Aboriginal peoples.
• I hold strongly to the notion that Aboriginal people can maintain our values,
cultures and beliefs, along with our Aboriginal rights in urban settings, or any
off-reserve setting, while developing working relationships with and having a
strong voice in the larger institutions with our society.
• That is precisely why we are so deeply involved in the governance initiative, the
Joint Ministerial Advisory Committee, the Federal/Provincial/Territorial
Aboriginal leaders forum, the Ministerial Reference Group, meetings with
premiers and mayors, labour leaders and corporate CEOs.
• None of us should be under any illusions that these things are answers in and
of themselves.
• I certainly don't.
• But they are small, and I believe important steps that send out the right signals,
both to our own people and to the larger society that we are growing in numbers
and importance and that we want a say in what happens to us.
• It is my firm belief that we have got to keep moving forward, even if it is inch-byinch
because if we don't we will drift backward, foot-by-foot. (Politically correct,
meter-by-meter).
• I pledge that the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples under my leadership will
continue along that path.
• We will undoubtedly on occasion glance back, but our primary focus and drive
will be forward and forthright.
I invite your questions.
Welal'in.
