Working Group on Indigenous Peoples

18th  Session - 24 -  28, July 2000

REMARKS OF JAMES BAY CREE REPRESENTATIVES
WORKING GROUP ON INIDGENOUS POPULATIONS
GENEVA, JULY 24TH-28TH, 2000
 

Delivered by Ashley Iserhoff
Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee)
 

Thank you Mr. Chairman. We bring greetings from our youth, our people and Grand Chief Ted Moses
of the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee.

On Tuesday, and again today, representatives of the government of Canada spoke about indigenous youth. As young indigenous people, we have personal experience of the conditions facing us in Canada.

Remember that Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, one that is enjoying massive annual budget surpluses and a growing economy. Remember too that Canada is the second largest
country in the world.

The representatives of Canada were, in part, quite frank. They mentioned some of the unacceptable conditions facing indigenous peoples which affect young people tragically and disproportionately. But
the bulk of Canada’s presentations were propaganda. It was designed to lead you to believe that
meaningful efforts are being made by the government of Canada – to address the problems of indigenous peoples in Canada, particularly the young.

        Yes, there are programmes and initiatives of many kinds. But the sad truth is that the government of Canada never states that these programmes and initiatives are isolated, piecemeal – and generally
inferior to the social benefits and services taken for granted by non-indigenous Canadian citizens.

        The economic and social conditions facing indigenous peoples in Canada are getting worse year by year. The government of Canada never presents overall indicators and trends. It does not do so because in fact, the overall root causes and trends of our peoples’ mass poverty and unemployment, ill health, and rising levels of diseases, under-education, shelterlessness, high rates of incarceration, and epidemics of youth suicide, are not being addressed.

        The root cause is the continuing dispossession of our peoples in Canada, of our lands, our resources,
and of our own means of economic subsistence. Our peoples are still confined to tiny portions of Canada’s land mass, with few or no resources. Our traditional lands are still being devastated by clear-cut logging and resource exploitation. When we successfully challenge these violations of our rights in court, the government of Canada conspires with multinational corporations to remove the judges that rule in our favour.

        Our peoples still mostly live in desolate communities in over crowded houses with unsafe drinking
water and inadequate sanitation.

        These are conditions under which indigenous children and youth cannot thrive.

        Just later year, the U.N. Human Rights Committee declared that (and I quote) “the situation of the aboriginal peoples remains the most pressing human rights issue facing Canadians. In this connection, the Committee is particularly concerned that the State Party has not yet implemented the (1996) recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (or RCAP).”

        I further quote. “The Committee (on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) views with concern the
direct connection between Aboriginal economic marginalization and the ongoing dispossession of Aboriginal people from their lands, as recognized by the RCAP, and endorses the recommendations of
the RCAP that policies which violate Aboriginal treaty obligations and extinguishment, conversion or
giving up of Aboriginal rights and title should on no account be pursued by the State Party. Certainly of
treaty relations alone cannot justify such policies. The Committee is greatly concerned that the recommendations of the RCAP have not yet been implemented in spite of the urgency of the situation.

        The Committee calls upon the State Party to act urgently with respect to the recommendations of the RCAP. The Committee also calls upon the State Party to take concrete and urgent steps to ensure respect for Aboriginal economic land and resource base rights adequate to achieve sustainable Aboriginal economies and cultures.” (End of quotes.)

        In fact, Canada’s own study, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, stated that “treaties are honoured more in breath than in observance.”

        We suggest that the two U.N. human rights committee had it right, and wish that the government of Canada would be more candid regarding its own human rights record concerning indigenous peoples.

        In closing Mr. Chairman, as young indigenous people from Canada, we are here to testify as to the
truth. The truth is that the country that the representative of the government of Canada talked about in
glowing terms is not the Canada we live in. Our experience of Canada is an ongoing violation of our peoples’ fundamental human rights, including our right of self-determination.

        A partnership between the Crees and the government to raise our standard of living can only be achieved if the government will negotiate in good faith to implement our treaty and return adequate lands and resources to us.
 

Miigwetch. Thank you.
  

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