By Brian Dryden, Canadian Catholic News
[Ottawa – CCN] – Native leaders and their allies in faith groups across the country are celebrating what they see as a victory in the long march towards reconciliation with Canada’s First Peoples after a bill that ties a United Nations declaration on the rights of Indigenous people into Canadian law passed its final hurdle in Parliament.
By a vote of 61-10, senators gave the final approval needed on June 16 for Bill C-15, which gives legal standing in Canadian federal law to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), something that those seeking justice for Canada’s First Peoples have been working towards since the UN declaration came into being in 2007.
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde said Bill C-15 is an historic step in the relationship between the Canadian government and Indigenous Canadians
“This is a major step forward for First Nations and for Canada. This is concrete action, this is history in the making,” said AFN National Chief Bellegarde.
“This legislation to implement the UN Declaration on the Right of indigenous Peoples in Canada can be a pathway to reconciliation, guided by our inherent and Treaty rights,” Chief Bellegarde said.
“Its full implementation will see First Nations rights respected and implemented and is essential to addressing all forms of racism and discrimination in Canada.”
Catholic and other faith organizations have been at the forefront of lobbying efforts imploring the Canadian government to give UNDRIP legal standing within Canadian law as a means of furthering reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous communities.
“May this be a sign of hope for Indigenous peoples in what has been a very difficult period,” said Joe Gunn, the executive director of the “Centre Oblat – A Voice For Justice,” a joint project of the three Canadian Oblate Provinces and St. Paul University. Final adoption of Bill C-15 comes just weeks after the discovery of the bodies of an estimated 215 children on the site of a former Catholic-run residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
“Indigenous leaders and faith communities worked so hard on this, including the Oblates,” said Gunn of the move to give UNDRIP legal standing in Canadian Law as attention is again focused on the history of church-run residential schools.
The Ottawa-based Citizens for Public Justice, a faith-based organization that is one of many faith organizations that have been demanding UNDRIP be officially recognized within Canadian law, said passage of Bill C-15 in Parliament is important but more must be done going forward.
“This is a moment to pause and to celebrate. It is time to lift up Indigenous Peoples in Canada who have worked for decades to have their rights recognized and honoured by the Government of Canada,” said the CPJ in a statement.
“Getting Bill C-15 across the finish line, is, in many ways, just the beginning. The work of aligning Canadian laws with the UN Declaration is the next critical order of business,” said the CPJ. “We will continue to follow this legislation and engage with government leaders to make sure the commitments outlined in this bill are acted upon.”
Before the Senate gave final approval, MPs in the House of Commons voted 210-118 in favour of Bill C-15 on May 25. The only MPs to vote against the bill in the House were Conservative Party MPs and independent MP Derek Sloan, who is a former Conservative MP.
A joint statement released on June 16 by Federal Justice Minister David Lametti and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said the new law “provides the foundation for transformational change in Canada’s relationships with Indigenous Peoples.”
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