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C-15, An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 9, 2023
Context: Bill C-53, An Act respecting the recognition of certain Métis governments (INAN) - Nov/9/23
Mr. Solomon Sanderson (Consultant, Former Chief, As an Individual)
  • 03:52:00 p.m.
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Okay. What I did was I reviewed the Métis nation's self-government agreement with the feds and also the Métis nation's self-government act that recognizes self-government for Métis under federal jurisdiction and law, and the Métis capacity to make treaties and ratify treaties, and their citizenship status. The first term for Métis, as we already heard, was half-breed. That's something that is not addressed, and they call that the code of silence. The Métis had to inherit their Indian status. When they inherited those inherent rights, they inherited the inherent sovereignty of the Indian nations, the inherent rights by sector, the inherent rights to education, health, economics, justice and so on, and the inherent right to the title of lands and resources. The inherent rights we have as Indian nations were granted to our nations by the Creator, and they're granted to our people by the Creator. That's what the Métis have inherited from the Indian heritage they have, and they're guaranteed. Their reserves are recognized and confirmed and guaranteed with the national powers of treaty-making and the international treaties that we made. The Métis inherited Treaty No. 3 in Ontario, as you know. We are born with those rights and that status, and we inherit them from generation to generation. Now, on the non-Indian side, they inherited the colonial benefits that the non-Indians have: the criteria for title to land and resources, for example, and, in Manitoba, the homesteads that the non-Indians occupied and improved. They met the criteria for having title to the land and resources, the Métis settlements and the Métis-occupied and -approved lands prior to treaty. That provided them the title to their lands and resources as you have under your colonial systems. This is one example of taking the best of what they inherited from both sides—the Indian and non-Indian sides. The act goes on to recognize their jurisdiction and laws. It also deals with the recognition that they have to have their own laws. That means there has to be a process in place to deal with the interface between jurisdiction and law within the Métis governments of the Métis nation and jurisdiction and law within the Métis laws, the first nation laws and the provincial and federal laws. It also deals with the capacity to recognize citizenship. Subsection 35(2) now recognizes that the Métis are constitutionally distinct, and the portability of their rights has to be included in the Métis act. I'm talking about the portability of their inherent sovereignty, their inherent rights and treaties, treaty rights whether in community, regionally, nationally or internationally. When you do that, keep in mind that nations make treaties; treaties do not make nations. Modern-day treaty-making creates governments. If you don't have a government in the first place, what are you doing signing a treaty? The treaties that are going to be made or that have been made by both parties need ratification and implementation under new specific and unique laws to give them legal effect. There's a bigger picture that you need to be aware of, which most people are not aware of. The court decision in Manitoba said that the Crown is in a fiduciary relationship with the Métis as a distinct form of aboriginal peoples who cannot be ignored. It went on to say that the unfinished business of reconciliation of the Métis people in Canadian society is a matter of national and constitutional importance. Ask yourself this: What is that all about? Here's what it's about, and most people don't know there's a bigger picture. When we talk about the comprehensive legal and political framework governing Crown-Métis relationships, that framework is governed by what? It's the inherent sovereignty of the Métis nation, the assumed sovereignty of the Crown, the inherent rights and title by the Métis nation, the Crown treaty nations, the Métis treaty relations and the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Former Supreme Court judge Dickson called it their bill of rights that recognizes everything we're talking about. Then we have the Constitution Act of 1982, with section 35 being a full box, and section 25 now applying the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Of course, when we look at that, there is UNDRIP, with Bill C-15 now having to implement United Nations declaration. When we talk about the recognition of that framework, that broader-based framework, what does it recognize? It's that framework that governs by those instruments that I just highlighted, and it recognizes sovereign treaty relations, Crown-to-Métis relations, nation-to-nation government relations, government-to-government relations and inherent rights to treaty rights relations. The format for implementation, then, or what that judgment is calling for, requires the implementation of that framework respecting political relations: the equality of government jurisdiction and law in courts. Métis—
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