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Of Onion Lake Cree Nation, I Make This Submission To

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Of Onion Lake Cree Nation, I Make This Submission To SUBMISSION BY OKIMAW (CHIEF) HENRY LEWIS ON BEHALF OF ONION LAKE CREE NATION 30 MAY 2021 As Okimaw (Chief) of Onion Lake Cree Nation, I make this submission to the Senate Committee studying Bill C-15 An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to put our concerns on the public record. To date, we have never been contacted, engaged or consulted on this Bill. In fact, we heard about it through a media release by Minister Lametti’s office in December 2020, during which time our Nation was dealing with an outbreak of Covid-19. I will not be commenting on the specific provisions of the Bill as our position is to recommend this Bill be completely withdrawn for the reasons I set out below. We respectfully remind Canada that Treaty No. 6 is still in force and effect and no domestic legislation will override the legal obligations committed to when our ancestors entered into Treaty. We put forward our position regarding this Bill to the Senate – the chamber of second sober thought - hoping our concerns will be heard and acted upon. By way of background information, Onion Lake Cree Nation is located on the border of what is now called Alberta and Saskatchewan (in Treaty 6 territory) and has approximately over 6500 members. We are close to Fort Pitt, the location that our 1 ancestors entered into a Peace and Friendship Treaty No. 6 in 1876, over 144 years ago. We remind the Senate committee of this as we continue to uphold, honour and live by the commitments, obligations and responsibilities of the Treaty as it solemnized a sacred covenant between our peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, represented by the British Crown. Our Treaty is to last ‘as long as the sun shines and waters flow’ – which is forever. Our Nation utilized our own laws and legal systems to enter into an international Treaty and it was the understanding that after Treaty making our laws, governance and legal systems would continue without interference from the Crown governments. To date, we still encounter challenges, issues and bureaucratic blocks by Canada to implement Treaty obligations they inherited. We would like to point out the obvious - that rushing the development and passing of legislation will have lasting impacts on our peoples and Nations - and this raises questions of the Crown acting honourably and in good faith, especially in the middle of a global pandemic. Furthermore, this rushed process raises more questions than anything. Why is Canada so insistent on pushing this Bill through its parliamentary process when many First Nations, including Onion Lake haven’t had the opportunity to examine how the Bill will affect us? The tactics of Canada to develop, rush and force through laws about First Nations must end. The rhetoric of reconciliation and recognition of rights needs to be acknowledged as nothing more than empty words with no action, just more colonial legal and policy layers to sift through. The irony of rushing the passing of a Bill that contains the principle of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) – when Canada’s actions in the development and questionable engagement processes of this Bill - demonstrate the complete opposite. The Nations are the ones to determine the process of FPIC and our decision on matters put before us, rests with our Nation, as its’ a principle built into the Treaty and the Treaty 2 making process. During this time, our Nation was dealing with a Covid-19 outbreak and we were trying to keep our people safe therefore, we have not given our FPIC to the development of this Bill. As a sovereign Nation that entered into Treaty No. 6 with the British Crown, we have never given up our right to speak for ourselves. We remind parliamentarians and senate members that no entity or organization can represent or speak for Onion Lake Cree Nation. Onion Lake has never given up our right to represent ourselves on issues that will impact us. We bring to your attention that Onion Lake has formally removed itself from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) so our Nation would not be impacted by any decision or process the AFN entered into, which includes the introduction of legislation. One of these processes is the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June 2017. No agreement, such as an MOU signed with an organization who is not sovereign and was not in existence at the time of Treaty making has the authority to advocate, co-develop or bind Onion Lake on the development of any legislation without our consent. Onion Lake never provided our consent to advance any process on the implementation of UNDRIP or any other such legislation currently being developed. In fact, there’s a ‘non-binding’ clause contained within this MOU that states “The Parties further agree that individual First Nations are not bound by any outcome or recommendation developed under this MOU. This MOU shall not prejudice regional and local agreements or negotiation processes”. Canada cannot pick and choose who it will consult on the development of legislation to serve its agenda, it must come to the Nations. Any constitutional changes impacting First Nations require a higher standard of engagement and consultation on matters that will impact us and this did not happen with this Bill. 3 Therefore, any activities and processes born out of this MOU will not be imposed and forced onto Onion Lake. Onion Lake has been involved with advocacy at various international UN bodies since the 1980’s, as we have had to bring our concerns and grievances with Canada to external international bodies as a way to protect our peoples, lands, inherent rights, jurisdiction, and Treaty rights. In fact, we invited the late Miguel Alfonso Martinez (Special Rapporteaur, UN Treaty Study) to Onion Lake in the summer of 1989. A summary of the meeting discussions with the Special Rapporteaur is published by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs as “Honour Bound: Onion Lake and the Spirit of Treaty Six; The International Validity of Treaties with Indigenous Peoples”. We remind the members of the Senate committee that our Treaties are of international character and cannot be interpreted through the lens of domestic Canadian law. Our Nation has never consented to have our rights, lands and self-determination be interpreted through a Canadian reconciliation framework solely developed by Canada. We did not agree to bring our international Treaties and our lands under Canadian legislation to be left for interpretation by Courts. This is not nation-to-nation. Regarding the implications of the domestication of international customary law we bring forward the actions by Canada when implementing the United Nations Genocide Convention by amending the criminal code to again suit its own agenda. In the seminal work on Genocide by Treaty Six Cree legal scholar Tamara Starblanket in her book “Suffer the Little Children: Genocide, Indigenous Nations and the Canadian State” she highlights the lengths the Canadian state went to reject the idea of ‘cultural genocide’ in changes to the criminal code. This is an example of how the Canadian state has domesticated international customary laws when it 4 became signatory to an international UN Treaty convention. The implications of these actions are lasting and generational. We see the same set of challenges arising out of the current legislation to ‘implement’ UNDRIP through a manufactured process meant to benefit Canada. We see the current process as an act of domesticating international human rights standards. We cannot and will not agree to this. When our ancestors entered into Treaty it was understood that it was two sovereigns entering into a Peace and Friendship Treaty to live alongside each other, both respecting each others laws and governance structures. We do not see this happening with the current trajectory of legislation being developed unilaterally by Canada under the guise of ‘co-development’ and ‘distinctions based legislation’. We fully reject these processes and will not adhere to any outcomes developed out of these unilateral developments. We cannot stand by and allow Canada to give this illusion that we want these laws – put simply, Nations do not make laws for other Nations. This is a fundamental tenet of our international Treaties. We request that this legislation be withdrawn and a new process of sound legal pluralism as recommended by Special Rapporteaur Miguel Alfonso Martinez, in the 1999 UN Treaty Study be considered. The implementation of our Treaties – according to their original spirit and intent – is of paramount importance. Onion Lake has been advocating for over 144 years to have our Treaties implemented. It is time Canada do the right thing and honour the legal Treaty obligations it inherited by the Imperial Crown, instead of creating band-aid solutions through its legal machinery hiding behind words of reconciliation. Our peoples and Nation deserve to thrive in our own territory who we are the law keepers and stewards of. 5 We ask the honourable members of this Senate Committee to consider the above concerns that we have outlined, in your deliberations on this Bill. Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief’s Office Contact Information: [email protected] Hiy Hiy/ Thank You 6 .
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