At UN, Prime Minister promises change for Indigenous Canadians

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s 72nd session Sept. 21 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (PHOTO/UN BY CIA PAK)

Creating a better Canada for Inuit, Métis and First Nations peoples—that was the focus of a speech by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Sept. 21 at the United Nations General Assembly’s 72nd session, where Trudeau promised new, less colonialist government structures, committed to reconciliation and self-determination to correct past injustices, and offered support for climate change adaptation in the Arctic.

Canada fully supports the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—which outlines the rights of Indigenous peoples, including their rights to self-determination, traditional lands, territories and resources, education, culture, health, and development—“without qualification,” Trudeau said.

“Indigenous Peoples will decide how they wish to represent and organize themselves,” he told the Assembly. “We will get to a place as a country where nation-to-nation, government-to-government, and Inuit-Crown relationships can be transformed.”

That, Trudeau said, will be done through collaboration and reconciliation.

“We can’t build strong relationships if we refuse to have conversations,” he said. “We can’t chart a more peaceful path if the starting point is suspicion and mistrust. And we can’t build a better world unless we work together, respect our differences, protect the vulnerable, and stand up for the things that matter most.”

During his speech, Trudeau said those early colonial relationships in Canada were not about strength, but that “for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the experience was mostly one of humiliation, neglect, and abuse.”

He told the international gathering that the experience endures for many indigenous students who still have to travel away from their families to get an education and for Indigenous women, whose life “includes threats of violence so frequent and severe that Amnesty International has called it, ‘a human rights crisis.’”

To change that, he said Canada is moving ahead with a thorough review of federal laws, policies, and operational practices.

That includes new programs to ensure the preservation, protection and revitalization of Inuit, Métis and First Nations languages and changes to government structures.

The new Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, created in August, will lead the government’s efforts to better support Indigenous peoples, he said.

Trudeau also mentioned the impact of climate change in the western Arctic, where permafrost is melting, and around Baffin Island where he said “Inuit elders are finding it difficult to forecast the weather like they used to.

“So difficult that many are now reluctant even to try. At home, we are working hard to help these communities adapt and prepare for the future,” he said.

You can watch the entire speech here.