UN rapporteur tour given the go-ahead

For the second time in as many years a United Nations special rapporteur will be visiting Canada and connecting with First Nations.

Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said First Nations and Aboriginal organizations across the country need to take credit for the visit to Canada by Dr. James Anaya, special rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A date for the visit has yet to be set.

“There is a critical need to convey to the international level the truth of the abuses of the human rights of Indigenous people in Canada,” said Philip.

Those abuses run so deep, he said, that the Canadian government, although openly welcoming Anaya’s visit, made it difficult to schedule the UN rapporteur’s tour.

Internationally, Philip said, the Canadian government portrays a strong relationship with Indigenous peoples, but that is not the case.

“We are painfully aware of the public spin and the deliberately misleading statements that Canada makes to the international community with respect to its wonderful relationship with Indigenous people in this country,” he said.

What happened in Attawapiskat First Nation in 2011 is not a single event, said Philip, but is a “mirror of hundreds of First Nations communities in similar dire straits.”

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence declared a state of emergency in 2011 due to poor winter housing conditions. The federal Harper government replaced Attawapiskat’s chief and council with a third-party manager in response. Spence challenged the government’s appointment and won her challenge in federal court.

Instead of the federal government addressing the growing needs of First Nations, the Harper government continues to cut programs and services, said Philip. These are the actions Canada is not sharing with the rest of the world.

There are numerous issues that face Indigenous people in this country, he said.

Philip points to $650-billion in energy and resource development projects, such as Enbridge’s Northern Gateway and TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline projects, which the federal government seems determined to push through without consideration to First Nations’ treaty rights and traditional ways of life.

There is also the federal government’s refusal to call a national inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls; the apprehension of First Nations children into the child welfare system, which has surpassed the number of children sent to residential schools; the gross underfunding of First Nations education; and, lack of domestic water systems and safe drinking water on reserves.

“None of this reality is conveyed to the international community,” said Phillip. “The international community must hear the truth and Mr. Anaya’s visit will provide us with the opportunity to speak the truth.”

And while Indigenous people suffer in Canada, he points out that Harper continues to slam other countries for abusing their Indigenous peoples.

“It’s blatant hypocrisy when he condemns other countries for their human rights records,” said Phillip.

In May 2012, Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, included First Nations in western Canada on his 11-day Canadian tour.

That there are two visits by UN rapporteurs back-to-back tells Phillip that other groups of people are also suffering at the hands of the Harper government.

“People are so frustrated that they’re reaching to the international community because they have this intuitive sense that there is no human rights relief here in Canada with the Harper government,” he said. “We’re in a very desperate situation. Our communities are in a state of crisis.”

By informing the international community of the state of living in Canada, Phillip hopes international pressure will be brought to bear and changes will come about.

“By bringing international awareness to the truth we will expose the Harper government for its very regressive position on human rights abuse, Indigenous rights, poverty and all of those issues,” Phillip said. “We have to keep hammering away at the Harper government.”

According to the Web site for the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights of the United Nations, “the Special Rapporteur’s country reports evaluate the situations of Indigenous peoples in selected countries and offer recommendations to governments and other actors on how to address particular matters of concern within the framework of applicable international standards.”