AN ADDRESS BY
NATIONAL CHIEF PATRICK BRAZEAU OF THE CONGRESS OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLES TO THE INDIGENOUS BAR ASSOCIATION'S 18th ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE
“A Vision and Strategy for Aboriginal Public Policy”
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(Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, October 20, 2006) Thank you for your kind introduction, and for inviting the leaders of the five national Aboriginal organizations to share their thoughts on “A Vision or Strategy for Aboriginal Public Policy”.
I very much have both a vision and a strategy for Canada’s Aboriginal affairs, and I’m honoured to offer it to those of you gathered here today.
To begin with, let me tell you a bit about myself, and my background. My name is Patrick Brazeau, and I have been with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples for over five years.
I am a status Algonquin Indian from the Kitigan Zibi reserve community near Maniwaki, Quebec, and I’ve lived both on- and off-reserve.
As the youngest national Aboriginal leader in Canada, I’d like to offer my views on both my vision for Aboriginal Affairs in this country, and my thoughts on the strategy required to take us there.
I say this though, because despite my relative youth, I do have ideas – some may consider them radical, some may even view them as naïve.
However, as one who believes that the best thing that happens if you do nothing is nothing, I’m anxious to offer my aspirations for Canada’s Aboriginal affairs to you now.
My vision is one of a Canada in which our peoples, regardless of their Indian status, or whom they have married, or where they live – are recognized and embraced by all, as first peoples of this great country, and as such, rightfully entitled to share fully in its economic bounty.
My vision speaks of a time when governments of all levels, and of all political and ideological leanings, accept Aboriginal peoples as full members of Canadian society, and put an end to racism, intolerance, prejudice, hatred and neglect.
My vision is rooted in a time and place, when ALL Aboriginal peoples in Canada – be they First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and regardless of any government-prescribed status designation – seek to put aside a culture of reliance and dependence, and look in the mirror -- to see a proud, independent, productive and responsible reflection and a sustainable self-driven road ahead for themselves.
Mine is a vision in which the needs and aspirations of Aboriginal peoples are no longer considered “a problem”, and the responsibility for addressing them is tossed from jurisdiction to jurisdiction like some hot potato.
My vision is founded on the basis of a Canada in which the dreams of Aboriginal peoples are no longer dismissed or forgotten, and where the education of our youth and their success through it, is encouraged, promoted and celebrated.
And, my vision includes a dream of a day when, as a people, the Aboriginal community and its leadership put aside their own partisanship and squabbles over one-upmanship, to work together, united as a community, with one voice, one vision, and one aim, and through this, achieve accountable, responsible, and transparent self-government for all Aboriginal peoples.
Some may consider these dreams quite lofty and very difficult to attain. To those, I would say the road to get us there may be difficult, and fraught with twists, turns and bumps. But I believe that as an Aboriginal “community of communities”, we have no choice as a people, but to go there together.
Let’s be frank: We have one-hundred and thirty years of proof positive that the current system for Aboriginal public policy is doomed to failure.
In 1876, the Indian Act became law, and Canada began doing its level best to destroy our culture, eradicate our traditions, extinguish our communities and essentially eliminate any traces of Indian societies.
Thankfully, the determination, will and character of Aboriginal peoples everywhere across Canada did not, does not and will not ever bow to the threat of assimilation.
For generations, successive federal governments have considered reforms to the ways in which Canada’s Aboriginal public policy sought to deal with the “Indian problem”.
Step one of my strategy in respect of the reform of Aboriginal affairs in Canada is to promote the notion of the “Indian Opportunity”.
Our youth represent the fastest growing segment in Canadian demography at a time when the Canadian economy is faced with a looming labour shortage. Many of the myriad land claims before the Courts now deal with issues relating to Canada’s vast natural resources – many of them found on or under our ancestral lands. And the number of entrepreneurs from the Aboriginal community is growing at a rate five times greater than that of the national norm.
Tell me that Canada cannot benefit from taking full advantage of this “Indian Opportunity”? Certainly, at this juncture, I must admit the game may be still be fixed, but we surely won’t win if we don’t play.
There are numerous other components to my strategy for the achievement of my vision for Canada’s Aboriginal affairs.
First, moving away from a culture of dependence to one of self-sufficiency and increased capacity in the Aboriginal community, steps must be taken to increase the efficiency and sustainability of Aboriginal programming and services.
Over ten years ago, the RCAP called for the establishment of a Department of Aboriginal Affairs to replace the archaic and still-prescriptive Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
My vision and the strategy flowing from it, calls for the establishment, now, of such a department, wherein all Aboriginal programming and services can be nested and managed.
Its operations should be streamlined across five key business areas managed by respective secretariats, reflecting the constituencies of the five national Aboriginal organizations.
This new department must shift and accordingly increase its focus, away from an almost exclusively on-reserve and Northern focus into one that spans the total Aboriginal horizon across all geographic and socio-demographic planes. This is not to be done to dilute any focus upon on-reserve communities, or to suggest a pan-Aboriginal “one-size-fits-all” approach.
Rather, such a move would ensure that all Aboriginal peoples would receive accommodation and benefit from the over $9 billion in current annual investments in Aboriginal affairs. Through this, we could provide real, innovative and tangible results in terms of improving Aboriginal quality of life.
What’s more, in so doing, the fiscal imbalance in Aboriginal affairs resource allocation would end – it’s a very sad truth but there are some important statistics to consider: For every $8 spent on–reserve in Aboriginal programs and services, only $1 is spent off-reserve, despite census data proving that 79 per cent of Canada’s Aboriginal population lives off-reserve.
Second, the underpinning of this suggested strategy rests in the abolishment of the Indian Act and its archaic and prescriptive regimen. This must occur in full consultation and accommodation of all Aboriginal peoples across Canada. In order to achieve success, such a consultation must be rooted in and focused at the grassroots level.
In the 21st century, and in one of the most democratic and prosperous nations in the world, it seems inconceivable that on-reserve communities continue to be governed without clear accountability and transparency to their own citizens at the community level.
One’s right to Aboriginal programs and services ends at the reserve border, thus making Status Indians one of the only groups in Canadian society who are not entitled to the freedom of mobility promised by the constitution, and enjoyed by virtually all other citizens in this country.
More importantly, while the rest of the population of over 32 billion people in Canada are governed by one Prime Minister, the nearly 274,215 status Indians on reserve are governed by almost 633 Chiefs – this is a perfect example of the old adage of “too many Chiefs, and not enough Indians”, if ever there was one.
So, how do we get around this conundrum? Easily. We must end the concept of considering reserve
communities as First Nations. We must reconstitute the real, ancestral and historical First Nations from whence we came.
Let me offer you an example: As I mentioned, I am Algonquin from the so-called First Nation of Kitigan-Zibi near Maniwaki, Quebec. Yet, there are eight other Algonquin “First Nations” across Ontario and Quebec made up of Algonquin peoples.
It’s my belief that we must put aside the notion of “neighbours-as nations” and instead return to the concept of a real Algonquin nation, consisting of nine communities, self-governed accountably and responsibly by one Band council, with one Grand Chief, both of which are duly elected by Band members, be they off- or on-reserve.
Thirdly, I support the notion proposed by the new national government, that provinces and territories accept their responsibility for sharing in undertaking Aboriginal affairs.
Accordingly, provinces and territories would fund and provide Aboriginal programs and services for areas of provincial jurisdiction through transfers made to them by the federal government.
This is a bold and provocative step by the federal government, and one that if successful, will hopefully put an end to the jurisdictional wrangling that we have seen for years.
While some of the legal community here today might balk at this notion, I prefer to see our resources invested in programming and services for the people, versus being applied to legal fees in court challenges.
Above all, it is we as Aboriginal peoples who must chart our own course. If we aim to exercise our inherent right to self-government, if we seek to overcome the shackles of the Indian Act and make the spectre of the Indian Agent a long-forgotten thing of the past, then we must take ownership of our own house.
We must be accountable to the most humbled and disadvantaged of our own people. We must demonstrate to ourselves that we are responsible custodians of our communities’ resources who act with justice and compassion for the good of our communities.
There can be no denying that at present, we are nowhere near the place and time that my vision and strategy seek to achieve. The challenges before us abound, and there are many for whom the status quo remains a place of privilege and power.
To those, I say both the elders and the youth point to the need for a better way. Aboriginal women, children and youth deserve better.
Aboriginal peoples across the land are fully entitled to the Freedom of Mobility that Canada’s constitution promises. As the first peoples of Canada, all of us are rightful beneficiaries of the richness of this land and the bountiful prosperity it enables.
Public policy is intended not for the sandstone and marble halls of Parliament. It is meant to benefit only one thing: People.
I would like to close my address here today with the optimistic words of another leader, the late Robert F. Kennedy. He too, was always eager to dream, as demonstrated through these words of his that describe exactly my vision for Canada’s Aboriginal affairs:
'Some men see things as they are and say why?
I dream things that never were and say why not?'
Thank you, Meeg’wetch, merci.
For your information, copies of this speech are available on our website:
www.abo-peoples.org
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For further information, please contact:
Al Fleming
Director
Public Affairs
613-747-6022 (office)
613-867-8696 (mobile)
al@abo-peoples.org
