Liberals move to adopt UN Declaration on indigenous rights

Vincent J. Curtis

4 Dec 20

The Liberals attempting to entrench the U.N. Declaration on Indigenous Rights is bound to disappoint Indigenous Peoples.  But it will sure make white liberals feel good about themselves.  The principles of the Declaration are unworkable in Canadian law. The Declaration expressly states it creates no new rights, and it is not pleadable in court.  So, other than feel good, what is the point?  It can only falsely raise expectations.

Chuck Strahl, once Minister of Indian Affairs, said the Declaration was "unworkable in a Western democracy under a constitutional government." "In Canada, you are balancing individual rights versus collective rights, and the Declaration ... has none of that. By signing on, you default to this document by saying that the only rights in play here are the rights of the First Nations. And, of course, in Canada, that's inconsistent with our constitution." "In Canada ... you negotiate on this ... because (native rights) don't trump all other rights in the country. You need also to consider the people who have sometimes also lived on those lands for two or three hundred years, and have hunted and fished alongside the First Nations.”

Article 19 of the Declaration appears to require Indigenous consent to matters of general public policy.  Such a legal right is saved from embarrassment by there being no unified voice that can give Indigenous consent.  It would be intolerable for Canadian law or foreign policy to have to be approved by a body representing the Indigenous to proceed. (Those of you who have followed the Wetsuwet'en saga in B.C. and the ongoing "land back" occupation in Caledonia, Ontario, understand the futility of relying on aboriginal "government."  The Declaration contradicts itself in proposing an aboriginal veto on national policy because the only political construction that could be said to represent the aboriginal voice are structures invented by whites.  It is impossible to invent an authentic aboriginal assembly because no such thing ever existed before the whites came.  Even the Assembly of First Nations is an invention of whites that is funded by whites and is the pet of the Liberal party.)

This is just a start of the problems the Declaration, taken seriously, creates.  The Trudeau government is appearing to adopt the Declaration in law in part to make themselves look and feel good, and because they won’t be stuck with disavowing the consequences.

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