At the end of June, Justin Trudeau’s government launched an action plan to improve the rights of the Inuit, Métis and First Nations in Canada. For scientist Simon Dabin, these advances are encouraging, but far from enough.

Make sure that a “A Better and Fairer Future for Canada and Indigenous Peoples”. This is the Canadian government’s ambition in its relations with the Inuit, the Métis and the First Nations, three of the country’s constitutionally recognized Aboriginal groups who have been victims of unequal and discriminatory policies for centuries. On June 21, the Canadian government released a Implementation Action Plan the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the United Nations in 2007.

Simon Dabin, specialist in indigenous studies, looks back on this major step towards reconciliation on the occasion of the International Day of Indigenous Peoples. He is a professor of political science at the University of Quebec in Montreal and sees it as a defining moment for Canadian society and Justin Trudeau’s mandate. In his opinion, rebuilding peaceful ties between Canada and the Aborigines cannot happen without intensive collaboration with the latter, and acknowledging and healing the traumas caused by the settlers and the Catholic Church. Despite the Pope’s penitential pilgrimage to Canada in 2022 to apologize to indigenous people “Genocide” There seems to be a long way to go before reconciliation is found at Catholic boarding schools where the bodies of several thousand Aboriginal children have been found.

What progress does the action plan announced by the Canadian government in June envisage?

In Canadian law, international texts have no effect until incorporated into domestic law. This statement provides two important things. On the one hand, there is an acknowledgment of the intrinsic self-determination of indigenous peoples, which would allow for self-government in economic, linguistic, and resource exploitation. On the other hand, it stipulates that any action affecting indigenous people must obtain their prior “free and informed” consent. Currently, Canadian policies and practices contradict this statement.

Thierry Rodon, a professor at Laval University, explains that Canadian policy has placed indigenous peoples under guardianship: individuals cannot own property in their homes conditionally. The other major issue concerns free and informed consent, which Aboriginal people understand as gaining a veto. Canada doesn’t understand it that way at the moment: As soon as an Aboriginal nation refuses to exploit resources, great tension arises.

How does Canadian society view reconciliation?

There were two things that have traumatized Canadian society hitherto afflicted with collective aphasia. First, the discovery of mass graves in boarding schools containing the remains of Aboriginal children since May 2021. The living conditions in these institutions were taught at school, but we were only talking about cultural genocide. The other significant event is the revelation of the fate of Indigenous women: in 2014, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police report counted at least 1,181 women killed or missing between 1980 and 2012.

Canada didn’t want to see it for years. Today that is changing. There have been demonstrations in support of indigenous peoples and more and more businesses are trying to incorporate indigenous knowledge and values. Reconciliation requires profound change in Canadian society and an acknowledgment that Indigenous Peoples and Canadians need to live together. Perhaps by acknowledging their self-determination, we will change for the better when we talk about environmental causes.

Government and Church excuses have multiplied since the discovery of thousands of graves beneath the boarding schools. Are they sufficient?

I don’t think that is ever the case. More than 6,000 graves have been found so far, but it is very likely that this number will increase. Every time you look for a boarding school you will find more. It’s not enough either, because it’s a huge trauma for the survivors and the generations after. Healing will inevitably come through what the Aboriginal nations demand.

We are talking about a boarding school policy that has been kept secret for years, even though the Canadian government knew about it. From 1907, a report The former chief medical officer of the Department of Indian Affairs presented to the government that there were despicable treatments for children. In my view, the next step for Canada is to recognize that this is not “cultural genocide” but “genocide.” The Pope did it a year ago during his visit to Canada, it’s our turn.

How were these Vatican efforts at reconciliation received?

Real progress has already been made: the Vatican in March scrapped the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which had legalized colonization and denied indigenous peoples the right to claim territorial sovereignty. I don’t want to speak on their behalf, but what we could observe in the media is that for a part of the indigenous, Catholic and slightly older population, the apology and the visit of the Pope were presented as a prerequisite for the healing process. But for the majority of locals it was insignificant as the Vatican has little say in the reconciliation.

What struggles unite indigenous peoples in Canada?

There are different representative bodies for Inuit, Métis and First Nations. The struggle for self-determination is the one that unites the most. It claims full control of its territory and its economic and cultural destiny, as well as the end of the Indian Act of 1876. Unfortunately, this act is still the most important law governing First Nations life in Canada (it determines who First Nations are ). . Nation, Reservation Operation and First Nations Rights).

There is also the fight for the environment. Currently, indigenous people in Canada are the first victims of climate change. Rising waters are affecting Inuit villages due to melting pack ice. Indigenous communities were particularly hard hit by this year’s forest fires. Cities were evacuated, but their areas were devastated.