With three weeks to go before the federal election, a few Indigenous leaders say the main parties have so far not made Indigenous issues a priority.
An Indigenous panel on CTV Your Morning on Monday says it’s still waiting to hear more from the major parties about how they will address the issues important to Indigenous people.
“I hope that all three parties make large and bold commitments to work with Indigenous people because that’s what we’re all looking for. I think we’re still missing that,” said Sheila North, a Cree leader and journalist, who formerly served as the Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, in Winnipeg.
While tackling the tariff war with the U.S. is important, the federal candidates should also address closing socioeconomic gaps amid the rising cost of living, and commit to working with Indigenous leaders as “rights holders” rather than just “stakeholders” and advocacy groups, said Cassidy Caron, principal consultant of Indigenous strategic advisory firm First Peoples Group and former president of the Metis National Council, in Huntsville, Ont.
She noted it’s important for candidates to meet with Indigenous leaders, like Liberal Leader Mark Carney did on March 21 before the election was triggered. “We’re not hearing really anything as it relates to Indigenous issues in the country, good or bad,” Caron said.
While Indigenous issues don’t appear to have captured the attention of the main party leaders yet, First Nations voters could decide the outcome of the April 28 federal election in 36 ridings across Canada, according to national advocacy organization Assembly of First Nations, with 19 of those ridings having a First Nations electorate of 10 per cent or more of all eligible voters.
Caron said votes from First Nations, Metis and Inuit people matter.
“Our populations can swing ridings, so it’s really important that the leaders understand what is most important to us, so when they’re continuing their campaign across this country, to go out and meet with Indigenous leaders to understand what those issues are,” she added.
Reconciliation is also a top issue for Indigenous people, say Caron and North.
“Reconciliation is the co-development of what this country looks like moving forward versus having to take our issues to court to be taken seriously,” Caron said.
Indigenous Peoples’ leadership and involvement in decisions are critical, says North.
“I think the old adage of ‘nothing about us, without us’ is a good summary of what needs to happen, because we should be at the table when decisions are being made about our people,” she said. “I think we’re getting closer to that. But it usually happens after a court case comes with it, because government sometimes only listens to outcomes of court cases, but we shouldn’t have to get to that point.”
North emphasized the importance of how treaties benefit everyone.
“Treaties were meant to have shared access to resources and lands and shared responsibility and a relationship,” she said. “We need to remind ourselves what those are because it’s not being better or somebody has more than the other. It’s equal rights to the lands and resources that the Creator has blessed us with on these lands. So I think the more we remind ourselves on what those actually mean, the less scared we will be of what treaties actually mean.”
For the full interview, watch the video above.
