The federal government’s policies and the new Indigenous Rights Framework, as it appears to be taking shape, reproduce the (original and ongoing) dispossession of First Nations from (urban) land and the disconnection of citizens from First Nation jurisdiction.
Last week the Assembly of First Nations hosted a national meeting on the federal government’s proposed “Rights, Recognition and Implementation Framework”. The proposal was met with resistance by most of the elected First Nation leadership who were present, justifiably so. As suspected, Canada is seeking to entrench a version of contemporary state-Indigenous relations merely re-branded as reconciliation.
From the very first encounter with police, contact with the criminal justice system for Indigenous people is loaded with disproportionate penalties. A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision of R v Ewert finally recognized the critical role played by Correctional Service Canada that may be unjustly keeping Indigenous peoples behind bars for longer, under far worse conditions than their non-Indigenous incarcerated counterparts.
Based in the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University.