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Why I support the aboriginal National Day of  Action - Ottawa is wrong to oppose UN declaration on  aboriginal rights

by Kenneth Deer - The Gazette

29 June 2007 - The Harper government has warned aboriginals not to engage in blockades  today on the National Day of Action. Yet a Canadian envoy will speak on  the floor of the UN General Assembly today to oppose the Declaration on  the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as adopted last June by the UN Human  Rights Council.
 
What irony. The government continues to risk destroying more than 20  years of work by indigenous people reflected in the UN declaration. Yet,  the government cautions indigenous people against disrupting activities in  Canada for a single day.
 
For more than a year, the federal government has repeatedly ignored its  constitutional duty to consult and accommodate Canadian aboriginals in its  campaign against indigenous rights in the declaration. Yet the government  cites the rule of law in opposing indigenous protests on the National Day  of Action.
 
Ottawa is trying to defuse the anger of the aboriginals by announcing a  revamped land-claims process that will be "independent" and "impartial."  These are the same two words the government insists on removing from the  land-claims article in the UN declaration. The hypocrisy is stunning.
 
On June 29 last year, only Canada and Russia voted against the  declaration at the Human Rights Council. This was a despicable reversal of  Canada's previous role of supporting the rights of indigenous peoples. Do  aboriginal peoples in Canada have reasons to protest? We certainly do.
 
Think back to 1990 when the Mohawk community of Kahnawake was  surrounded by the Surete du Quebec and the Canadian Forces after an SQ  officer was killed. Food was in short supply so a pastor tried to bring a  truck of food for the elders, women and children.
 
When the vehicle approached the police barricade, the truck was stopped  to be searched. Demonstrators stormed the truck and destroyed all the food  while the police and army stood by and watched. After the truck was  emptied, it was allowed to proceed.
 
Today, in New York, the scene seems to replay itself in the meeting  rooms of the United Nations. Instead of a truck of food, there is the UN  declaration, a vehicle laden with human rights relating to indigenous  peoples. This human rights instrument sets out minimum standards for the  survival, dignity and well-being of the world's indigenous peoples.
 
But Canada, as in the demonstrators' blockage of the truck of food in 1990, continues to engage in strategies to block our human rights vehicle  - our hope - for a better and more just future. Canada has aggressively  lobbied other states to raise concerns and create dissent against the  declaration.
 
With the encouragement of Canada, New Zealand and Australia, the  African Group of States reversed its support for the UN declaration at the  Human Rights Council. While Canada generally opposes regional bloc  strategies to prevent advancement of human rights, the Harper government  supported the African Group strategy last fall to block the adoption of  the declaration at the General Assembly.
 
The African Group has recently tabled a document with more than 30  proposed changes to the Declaration. This document is highly  discriminatory and inconsistent with international human rights law. Yet  Canada, Russia and five other countries with abusive human rights records  wrote a letter to the president of the General Assembly characterizing the  African proposal as helpful.
 
Indigenous people continue to place their faith in the UN to obtain  justice, because too often we cannot get justice domestically. By  undermining the integrity of the declaration, Canada and its allies are  hurting more than 370 million indigenous people globally and undermining  the international human rights system as a whole.
 
As an elected member of the council, Canada has the obligation to  "uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human  rights." A stated purpose of the council is to eliminate double standards  and the politicization of human rights.
 
So if the human rights of indigenous people are undermined by the  Canadian government in such a deceptive and harmful manner, what are  aboriginal peoples in Canada to do? If justice is denied both domestically  and internationally, what avenues do indigenous peoples have left? If the  foreign-affairs minister abdicates his responsibilities on international  human rights and allows the Indian affairs minister to take the lead in  opposing these same rights of Indians, should no indigenous voices be  heard? A National Day of Action for indigenous peoples - and all Canadians  - is long overdue. At least it's a modest beginning.
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Kenneth Deer is publisher of the Eastern Door newspaper in Kahnawake.  For the last 21 years, he has been active in the development of the UN  Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Source: The Gazette (Montreal)

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• Human Rights and Equal Oppurtunity Commission

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