Romeo Saganash returns to work, gets shadow cabinet positions

Nunavik’s MP Romeo Saganash with some of his constituents during a “listening tour” this past August that brought him to Kuujjuaraapik and Kuujjuaq. (FILE PHOTO)

Romeo Saganash, the MP for for Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou, has been appointed to a new shadow cabinet position, NDP leader Tom Mulcair announced Jan. 17.

Saganash will work as deputy critic for intergovernmental aboriginal affairs.

This is after a healthy return to work, after Saganash took time off last October to deal with an alcohol dependency.

“I return to Ottawa full of energy. We are currently at a crossroads in relations between government and First Nations and we must seize this opportunity without delay,” Saganash said in a news release.

Saganash was elected to the House of Commons for the New Democratic Party in the May 4, 2011 federal election.

Mulcair said he holds Saganash in high regard.

“I admire his determination and good negotiation skills. He understands the magnitude of the task before him, and I know that he is up to this new challenge,” he said in the release.

Saganash played a major role in the negotiations that led to the Paix des Braves, an agreement between the Cree of Quebec and the Government of Quebec in 2002.

He was also a key player in the lead-up to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.