Kuujjuaq candidate flies Green flag

Green Party of Canada candidate Kiara Cabana-Whiteley was born and raised in Kuujjuaq but her family had to move away in order to access the necessary services to develop her brother’s speech.

Now, she says, she finds herself scrambling to reconnect with her culture and re-learn Inuktitut.

“I shouldn’t have been forced to leave because my family didn’t have proper health care. I should have had access to high-quality health care to begin with,” Cabana-Whiteley writes in a platform letter sent to Nunatsiaq News.

“Our people should not have to choose between being home and being healthy.”

As an Inuk, Cabana-Whiteley says one of her main priorities is the government’s reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

“To have a chance at reconciliation we first need to make sure that Indigenous people are getting the same quality of services that other Canadians have access to.”

From access to health care and education, to quality of housing and drinking water, she says Indigenous people do not deserve to be treated like second-class citizens, as they have been for so long.

The Green Party’s Elizabeth May was the only party leader to attend the Assembly of First Nations annual general assembly in July. She has promised to honour treaties and enact the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Cabana-Whiteley says she trusts the party and its leader are serious about reconciliation.

The Green Party plans to fully implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the report issued by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Cabana-Whiteley says she personally wants to look into the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report, published in 1996, that looked at the relationship between government and Indigenous people, including treaties and the Indian Act.

“I also prioritize the actions our party will take to address the climate emergency,” says Cabana-Whiteley. “Climate change is affecting the ecosystems and the people in the northern parts of Canada.”

If drastic measures are not taken right now, she says, it’s the people of the North who will be impacted the most.

“I prioritize reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, invoking ecological wisdom and addressing the climate emergency because to this day, I continue to see and experience the negatives our people have been forced to go through due to our government ignoring these values,” she says.