What is the Truth about Reconciliation? 2024 Year-End review: Indigenous Watchdog
The above chart represents the pulse of reconciliation over almost 6 years since Sept. 15, 2019 when 43% of the 94 Calls to Action (CTA) were either NOT STARTED or STALLED. As of Dec. 31, 2024 38% are still either NOT STARTED or STALLED, the same as Dec. 31, 2021 – 3 years ago! See TRC Calls to Action: Status – Jan 1., 2025 for a complete list of Not Started and Stalled C2As.
That’s not much progress. Why?
There are 4 main reasons that progress is almost non-existent:
- Lack of political will across all jurisdictions to address core Indigenous issues in a number of the themes tracked by Indigenous Watchdog including recognizing and respecting Indigenous laws and governance that existed long before the Doctrine of Discovery when Indigenous self-government was a way-of-life
- Systemic racism is still entrenched throughout society and especially in the Legacy Calls to Action – in Child Welfare, Education, Heath and Justice
- Structural barriers that negatively impact Indigenous people still preventing access to the fundamental rights that most Canadians take for granted
- Lack of making quality “national” data on Indigenous issues available. All levels of government – federal, provincial, territory, municipal – are responsible for failing to address this fundamental issue.
Consider the following table that highlights those Calls to Action that ask directly for governments to deliver access to data that are either NOT STARTED or STALLED.
CTA Theme | CTA # | Current Status | Call to Action Outcome |
Child Welfare | 2 | Not Started | Publish annual child welfare reports. 53.8 % of children in child welfare system in Canada are Indigenous (2021) vs 52.2% in 2016. (BC = 68%, AB = 73%, SK = 81%, MB = 90%) |
Education | 9 | Not Started | Prepare and publish annual education reports: Gaps in High School completion between FN on reserve 60%, Inuit (56%) vs Non-Indigenous (90.7%); |
Health | 19 | Stalled | Establish measurable goals to identify and close health gaps and publish annual reports. On virtually every health measure Indigenous people score considerably worse http://(https://www.indigenouswatchdog.org/subcategory/health) |
Justice | 30 | Stalled | Issue detailed annual reports that monitor and evaluate progress in eliminating overrepresentation of aboriginal people in custody. 32% of all inmates in federal jails are Indigenous; 50% of all women. Indigenous people make up 5% of the population. |
National Council for Reconciliation | 55 | Not Started | Provide annual reports or any current data requested by the National Centre for Reconciliation so that it can report on the progress towards reconciliation. Almost 10 years after release of TRC Report the National Council doesn’t exist. |
Good policy and program development requires good data. How else can you measure if reconciliation is succeeding or not in closing the socio-economic gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. So why – almost ten years after the TRC asked for it – can’t any level of government provide answers? Show us the data!
Look at the following table that aggregates all the posts added to Indigenous Watchdog over 2024.
As you will see, the positive “Actions and Commitments” that in theory are advancing reconciliation are outnumbered by the “Current Problems”. Why the gap? What can be done to eliminate them?
NOTE: The above numbers include entries assigned to multiple stakeholders and serve as a general guide as to what is happening within the top 7 themes (out of 30).
Where are the problems? All details are drawn from curated articles posted on Indigenous Watchdog.
Justice:
Three of the biggest issues in 2024 were the killings of 10 Indigenous people in a few months by the police in multiple provinces, the ongoing lack of funding for Indigenous police services as well as the trial for the serial killings of 4 Indigenous women in Winnipeg followed by the fight over the landfill search for their remains.
- 44% of all the issues had to do with systemic racism within policing and within the RCMP in the following provinces and territories: BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nunavut
- Indigenous police forces have been fighting for increased funding for years. The Supreme Court ruled that Québec had not acted in good faith in restricting funding to a First Nations police force. Police forces in Ontario have filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal over “discriminatory and chronic underfunding of police services
Environment
Canada’s commitment to the extractive industries – Oil and Gas, Mining and Forestry – continues to poison the environment directly impacting the Indigenous people on whose territory they operate. As a resource-based economy, Canada – and the provinces and territories – have been committed to the short-term interests of the extractive industries as a whole and not to investing in a sustainable approach that safeguards the environment for future generations.
- 37% have to do with problems arising from “Specific Industry Environmental Issues” whether its the Oil and Gas industry in Alberta; mining in BC, Ontario, Québec, Yukon ; forestry in BC, Ontario and New Brunswick; Hydro in BC, Manitoba, Québec;
- 15% due to environment impacts due to a number of factors
- 15% directly related to Climate Change especially in the north
>Government Commitments
Government Commitments to Truth and Reconciliation delivers a macro-level view of what the federal. provincial and territory governments are “committing” to. Given that there are 2 x as many negative actions vs positive actions, the main conclusion has to be that governments are not doing what they say they are committed to. For example:
- 33% of all the issues relate to “Treaty Relationships and Indigenous Rights” with the federal government and BC leading the way followed by Ontario, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick
- The Supreme Court “has given one of the sharpest rebukes” to the governments of Canada and Ontario over the Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior treaties over their failure to honour the augmentation clause in the treaty i.e raise the promised annuity. The result: a $10B settlement in favour of First Nations
- Ontario is continuing to fight Treaty Rights in their pursuit of the mineral wealth in the Ring of Fire by refusing to talk to and include the impacted First Nations within whose territory the minerals exist. Ditto for Québec and BC (especially the Conservative party under John Rustad)
- 17% relate to systemic racism and discrimination in the governments of Canada, BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick
- The Grassy Narrows First Nation is still waiting for the governments of Canada and Ontario to address the ongoing mercury poisoning that has impacted about 90% of the population since the 1960s. In fact, Ontario still allows the mill in Dryden to release toxic mercury into the English-Wabigoon river system.
- A key missed opportunity are the issues around the failure of the Nunavut Devolution Agreement to give Inuit full control over there territory and their lives. “These are lands that have now been transferred to the Government of Nunavut, not to Inuit. Imagine having no or very little choice but to cede 80% of your homeland to have guaranteed rights in a country founded on your lands.” Devolution in Nunavut: Is this Really Namminiqsurniq (Self-Determination)? Yellowhed Institute. Feb. 15, 2024
Health
Problems persist despite the three National Dialogues on Indigenous Health held with all levels of government after the death of Joyce Echequan in Québec on September 28, 2020. The Canadian Medical Association apologized on October 20, 2024 for “Harms from racism in the medical profession.
- 38% of all issues relate to systemic racism and discrimination that is still entrenched in the healthcare system in Canada as it has been for the last 5 years of tracking “progress” in addressing this issue.
- Launch of a class action lawsuit over forced sterilization of Indigenous women
- Québec stil refuses to acknowledge that systemic racism exists in Québec healthcare
- 28% deal with “Ongoing Health Crisis” in Indigenous communities where the opioid crisis and mental health crisis have forced many communities to declare states of emergency including for suicide where First Nations and Inuit youth have much higher suicide rates than non-Indigenous
- In 2018, Canada promised to cut the rate of TB in Inuit Nunangat where TB was 300x the national average by 50% by 2025. In 2022, the rate was 455 times higher as of October 2024 is nowhere near that target.
Missing Children
Kimberly Murray, the Independent Special Interlocutor, issued her Final Report on October 29, 2024. The report identifies 42 obligations that governments, churches and other institutions must meet to implement an Indigenous-led Reparations Framework for Truth, Accountability, Justice and Reconciliation
- 32% of all issues relate to the increase in residential school denialism
- As of July 2024, the relevant offices in Alberta, Manitoba and Québec “never responded or declined to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Relations to discuss missing records relating to Residential Schools. Also refusing to release all records for various reason are: Library and Archives Canada, Crown and Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the governments of Manitoba, Québec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories
Treaties and Land Claims
This is the main area where Indigenous Rights are most often challenged by virtually every province and territory that have resources that they claim full entitlement to and exclusive control over to deny Indigenous people an opportunity to share the wealth other than through “Economic Reconciliation” usually tied to jobs and some community benefits but rarely actually sharing in the profits. See also how 33% of the Government Commitments to Truth and Reconciliation above are also focused on “Treaty Relationships and Indigenous Rights”. That’s a double whammy of governments erecting roadblocks to true reconciliation.
- 26% of issues involve governments and business failure to honour their Duty to Consult/Free Prior and Informed Consent. Instead, the government relies on the racist colonial concept of the “Doctrine of Discovery – repudiated by the Catholic Church in 2023 – to give corporations unfettered access to extract wealth from the territory without any genuine consultation with those whose territory they are negatively impacting
- 24% involve Aboriginal Rights and Title. First Nations have less than 0.2% of all their traditional lands as reserve lands. The last few years – including 2024 – have seen a multitude of successful court cases, including the Supreme Court
- 20% Court Challenges primarily in Canada and BC and followed by Ontario, New Brunswick and Manitoba
Child Welfare
The biggest news is the rejection of Canada’s offer of a $47.8B Final Settlement Agreement (FSA) for the long-term reform of the First Nations Child and Family Services Program by a vote of 267 opposed to 147 in favour.
- 65% over-all of the issues involve systemic racism in child welfare in BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, Newfoundland and Labrador
- 22% were a direct result of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and the resulting failure to reach consensus on the Final Settlement Agreement
- The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society gave a failing Report Card of the Draft FSA across several measures including constraints and lack of clarity around funding, built-in barriers to protecting children and youth after 10 years, lack of direct engagement with First Nations outside of Ontario who had direct negotiations with Canada, governance recommendations that did not include adequate First Nations involvement and puts the Canadian government in ultimate control. To add insult the definition of a “First Nation child” is taken from the Indian Act!
Business and Reconciliation
Call to Action # 92 now has nothing to do with using UNDRIP as a reconciliation framework for Corporate Canada to apply to “policy and operational” activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources and everything to do with “economic reconciliation” – limiting Indigenous involvement primarily to accessing jobs, training and some community projects
- 26% of issues involve “Individual Business Issues” primarily in Alberta, BC, Ontario and Québec
- 8% involve “Indigenous Procurement” that has been an ongoing issue
Conclusion
2024 is not much different from any of the preceding five years. Reconciliation is not only stalled but also becoming less relevant given the shift to “economic” reconciliation as the way forward on addressing Indigenous issues.
- Indigenous Child Welfare reform has collapsed with Canada refusing to negotiate with anyone outside of Ontario
- Systemic racism is still rampant within the healthcare and justice systems across Canada
- Residential School denialism is increasing
- Internal fighting within the AFN, The Métis National Council and the Inuit allow all governments to take advantage in whatever way they can.
Is “Reconciliation” in trouble. On some levels, for sure. But the reality is that a number of stakeholders have taken positive steps to help make reconciliation a success.
NEXT UP: A review next month of the positive steps that are advancing reconciliation across Canada.
Indigenous Watchdog curates information daily from multiple sources including: CBC, APTN News, NationTalk, IndigiNews, Windspeaker, The Tyee, The Narwhal, Canada’s National Observer, Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and First Peoples Law Report.
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