If Canadians are to know the true extent to which the federal government has reneged on treaties with Indigenous people, it might come from a new parliamentary treaty commissioner.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday that the federal government will create a new commissioner for modern treaty implementation. It was a significant announcement.
The new commissioner, whose mandate is being negotiated with Indigenous leaders, will report directly to Parliament, not government.
That’s an important factor. Independent officers who report to Parliament, such as auditors general, are not controlled by government. They have the authority and independence to freely criticize government and its policies.
Canada has never had an independent officer to oversee the implementation of treaties with Indigenous people. This is a first, and it’s long overdue.
To say that Canada has reneged on many of its treaty obligations since the country was founded in 1867 is an understatement. Canada recognizes 70 “historic” treaties signed between 1701 and 1923, either by the British Crown prior to Confederation or by Canada.
Those include the 11 numbered treaties negotiated post-Confederation between 1871 and 1921. The first (Treaty 1) was negotiated in the summer of 1871 at Lower Fort Garry, between the Crown and First Nations and covers what is now southern Manitoba.
Since 1975, the federal government has signed 26 “modern” treaties with Indigenous communities across Canada. The agreements usually include land-claim settlements and provisions for self-government, resource development and other social and economic understandings.
Much like historic contracts though, government has failed to comply with the terms of some modern treaties and has not been held accountable. That could soon change.
The new commissioner is expected to report regularly to Parliament and will issue annual reports on government’s treaty record. For the first time, Canadians will get an independent, impartial assessment of how well, or how poorly, the federal government is meeting its obligations.
That’s important because much of that information has flown under the radar in Canada over the past 153 years. Most Canadians likely don’t even know what treaties are, much less whether government has honoured them. How can the public hold government accountable for something it knows so little about?
A modern treaty commissioner could change that.
To be fully effective, though, the commissioner should also be given the mandate to review historic — not just modern — agreements and report to Parliament on their status. Canada can’t have an intelligent discussion about reconciliation unless it has the information it needs to do so. That should include being educated on both historic and modern treaties.
The issues are not cut and dried. There are conflicting interpretations of historic treaties, including whether First Nations ceded the land the Crown claims they did. Many elders, through oral history, maintain that their territories were never ceded. The federal government claims the opposite. But Ottawa also recognizes there are conflicting interpretations.
“Canada and First Nations often have differing views with respect to the implementation of historic treaties,” the Government of Canada states on its treaty rights web page. “These issues are complex and are not easily resolved.”
The federal government also acknowledges its role in the failure to honour historic treaties.
“Early partnerships between Indigenous nations and colonial governments were forged through treaties as well as trade and military alliances and were based on mutual respect and co-operation,” the Government of Canada web page states.
“Over many centuries these relationships were eroded by colonial and paternalistic policies that were enacted into laws.”
Most of this information is obscure to average Canadians. It hasn’t been taught in schools, at least not fully and accurately, and it has not been top of mind in modern Canadian political culture.
Hopefully that will change with the appointment of a modern treaty commissioner. This could be a game-changer for Canada and its renewed commitment to reconciliation.
tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
Tom Brodbeck
Columnist
Tom has been covering Manitoba politics since the early 1990s and joined the Winnipeg Free Press news team in 2019.