Former prime minister Paul Martin commended the Liberal Party for its past work on Aboriginal issues and encouraged the party to continue the fight for the equal treatment of all Canadians.
“The Aboriginal people of this country deserve a better shake,” Martin told Liberal convention delegates of the Aboriginal Peoples’ Commission this morning.
Access to quality education was one of the most prominent discussions by both panellists and delegates alike.
“We had generations where residential schools, under the guise of education, were intended to tear apart and pull apart our language, our culture,” said panellist Chief Shawn Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations BC.
“It must be education that then is the tool of emancipation,” he said.
Other delegates called for the adoption of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Canada was one of only four countries that voted against the resolution at the United Nations and Australia has since that time reversed its position and will support the declaration.
Aboriginal people must continue to have their voices heard as both party members and candidates in elections, said Labrador MP Todd Russell, the only Aboriginal MP in the Liberal caucus.
“We have a role to play as Aboriginal Peoples in the rebirth of this party.”
Liberals must take pride in their past accomplishments on Aboriginal issues, he said, in order for the party to move forward on the pressing issues facing Aboriginal communities today.
“It’s important to remember some of what we have accomplished as we go through this period of renewal in the Liberal Party.”
The Grits were responsible for modern treaties, formal Aboriginal recognition through the constitution, implementing the inherent right to self-government and the Kelowna Accord, Russell said.
He also took credit for the Residential Schools Agreement that was enacted by the Conservative government.
“Others may have put the cherry on top but it was the Liberal Party that baked that cake,” he said.
Garrett Zehr reports for The Tyee.
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dirk
3 years ago
Gawd damn what self serving
Gawd damn what self serving nonsense.This is the same Liberal Party that included a clause in the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,that basically mutes the entire declaration,i.e Canadian law takes precedence.
Or to put it another way if the indigenous peoples of Canada attempt to exert their rights as the original owners of this land,as defined in many agreements and treaties, they in fact can not,because according to the Liberal Party & the Conservatives for that matter Canadian/settler societies laws take precedent.
Damn where would indigenous peoples be without the Liberal Party ? After all the Liberals supposedly backed the cake,lol
freebear
3 years ago
Self Serving Hacks!
Just like they were champions of the environment when they were in government!
Give me a break Iggy!
Janie Jones
3 years ago
The Right to Decolonization
What laws do you suggest should supercede Canadian laws dirk? The ones against slavery, murder, looting and rape? Or did you have something a bit more mundane in mind?
I know. let's chuck hundreds of years of political struggle and go back to hereditary tribal dictatorships. Let's have two different kinds of people in the new tribal chiefdoms, those with status who have special rights and privileges and those without who don't and yet are made to foot all the bills.
Oh wait, we already have that.