Aboriginal committee insists on First Nation consultations to pass rights bill
Tories' move on native rights rejected
Jul 26, 2007 - Canadian Press
OTTAWA – Applause erupted in a packed meeting on Parliament Hill as a rare, midsummer Conservative bid to push through contentious legislation was derailed by united opposition MPs.
The Tories want to extend human rights law to First Nations, but native leaders say they weren't properly consulted and don't have the cash to comply.
The national Assembly of First Nations has asked for a three-year transition period – as was granted to provinces before the Charter of Rights took effect – for education and preparation.
Conservatives have offered 18 months, up from the six months included in the original bill, but no new funding or formal consultation.
Reserves are largely excluded from human rights law because of a ``temporary" 1977 exemption that was never removed.
The government recalled 12 members of the Commons all-party aboriginal affairs committee today in a widely panned bid to move the bill forward.
Observers packed the public gallery in a sweltering meeting hall as tempers quickly flared around the committee table.
Conservatives accused their rival MPs of delaying human rights for vulnerable native people. Opposition MPs assailed the government for staging what they called a calculated political stunt.
Liberal, NDP and Bloc MPs stressed that even if they agreed to review the bill – which they refused – it could not go back to the House of Commons for third reading until business resumes in the fall.
The meeting ended after just more than an hour when opposition MPs voted to suspend debate until the government formally consults First Nations.
"They really think they know best," Liberal MP Anita Neville said of the Tories as she left the heated session.
A long line of native witnesses who appeared last spring before the committee almost unanimously called for proper consultation and more time to get ready, she noted.
Concern was also raised that the Conservatives are trying to stress individual rights as a legal end-run that would undermine the collective land rights and communal practices of aboriginal people.
The big fear, critics say, is assimilation.
Others speculate that the Tories craftily put themselves in a position of being able to say that opposition MPs blocked their efforts to extend native human rights. This, as Conservatives have faced growing acrimony in recent months over what some native leaders say is hard-hearted aboriginal policy.
Chiefs and opposition MPs have emphasized their support for human rights protection. But they point out that many First Nations can't afford decent housing, let alone upgrades to make reserve buildings fully accessible.
Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge accused the opposition of stalling human rights for reserves – rights that other Canadians take for granted.
The matter has been debated "for 30 years" and the time for talk has passed, he said.
Bruinooge repeatedly said that his riding office in Winnipeg has received many calls from reserve residents wanting to lay complaints against their band council or Ottawa for discrimination.
When pressed by reporters, Bruinooge refused to say or even estimate how many calls he had received. Nor would he refer reporters to a single person pushing for the legislation.
Revealing identities could put those people at risk on their reserve, he said before cutting off questions.
Mary Eberts, a Toronto lawyer and human-rights specialist, says it's a bit rich for Conservatives to cast themselves as native rights crusaders.
This is the same government that's appealing a recent court judgment in British Columbia that, she says, is a major victory for native women.
The Conservatives announced earlier this month their intent to appeal a ruling in favour of Sharon McIvor. She successfully challenged part of the legal definition of a status Indian on the grounds that it discriminates against those who trace their aboriginal roots through female relatives rather than their father or grandfather.
Thousands of people have been denied status and services as a result, Eberts says.
It would be the ultimate irony if the Conservatives pushed through human rights access for native women – women who in turn would not be able to challenge similar discrimination as long as the McIvor case is bogged down in appeal, she said.
"If someone has a human-rights complaint, and the matter is being dealt with in court, they're told: 'You have to wait until the court rules."'
It's a classic case of political double-speak, says New Democrat MP Jean Crowder.
The Conservatives "are talking out of both sides of their mouths. Either they support human rights – which means they would not have appealed the McIvor decision – or they don't."