Russell Diabo (right), pictured here with Assembly of First Nations national chief Perry Bellegarde, is warning all First Nations in Canada about dealings with Ottawa. (Courtesy Russell Diabo)
During the 2015 federal campaign the Liberal party of Justin Trudeau made a number of big promises in their Indigenous Platform, notably that a Liberal government will:
- establish a new Nation-to-Nation relationship;
- establish a reconciliation process;
- conduct a law and policy review to “de-colonize” Canada’s laws;
- establish an inquiry on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women & Girls (MMIWG);
- implement the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action;
- implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and
- remove the 2 percent cap (which has been in place since 1995) on First Nations programs.
Aside from the MMIWG inquiry, which has been handed off to a federally-appointed commission that, according to critics, seems to be floundering, the Trudeau government has operated in secret and in a top down unilateral approach to interpreting and implementing the Liberal 2015 Indigenous Platform promises by entering into agreements with the three National Indigenous organizations (First Nations, Metis, Inuit).
The First Nation rights holders – the people – have been bypassed and misled in the process for the past three years by a Liberal public relations campaign of slogans and funding announcements. MORE
County Sustainability Group 