Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Again, senator, I believe the question was previously posed by your colleague, and it was in relation to —

Hon. Patricia Bovey: Welcome, minister. The illegal reproduction of Indigenous art has been a serious, ongoing issue for many years. As Kwaguilth carver Richard Hunt has stated:

. . . fakes are being mass produced, undercutting genuine Indigenous artists and making it harder for young First Nations carvers to make a living . . . .

Minister, issues like this, as well as artist resale rights, must be addressed. There are now no import restrictions to be enforced by the Canada Border Services Agency regarding fakes, and no specific provisions, as in the United States, that criminalize the copying of Indigenous art.

How is the Government of Canada addressing this issue? Indigenous artists need the government’s help in protecting their cultural heritage.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Minister, your government recently enacted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, which incorporates a constitutional duty to consult Indigenous peoples while you consider measures that might adversely impact potential or established Aboriginal or treaty rights. Yet earlier this week at our committee studying Bill C-11, we heard from the Aboriginal People’s Television Network, APTN, that they weren’t invited to appear before the House committee when it was studying the bill, despite their request to do so, despite your claim this bill will protect minority voices and culture and despite UNDRIP. Minister, why are you not upset at the government’s failure to live up to its own obligations to Indigenous peoples under UNDRIP?

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Senator, I know you’ll appreciate that the government doesn’t dictate who appears at committees, and who doesn’t.

Hon. Marty Klyne: Minister, the tragic events at James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan have highlighted the problem of police response times in Indigenous communities. With a distance of 45 kilometres between the RCMP detachment and the subject crime scene, we should not expect an acceptable or timely response for any emergency.

Your mandate letter includes co-developing a legislative framework for Indigenous policing, and Budget 2021 provided funding for this response. Such localized policing services, with officers in place for the long term, would significantly and satisfactorily improve response times, not to mention the benefit of local police officers with knowledge and understanding of a community and its needs.

Can you please update us on this work and share an approximate timeline for introducing a government bill?

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: I know where he was going, Madam Speaker.

This is a complicated question, and clearly the issue of devolution is top of mind. I would say, as an update, that there has been some strong progress in the last little while. I don’t like to put the cart ahead of the horse, but we’re close on a number of elements.

You mentioned earlier the work that we’re doing with the Inuit-Crown Partnership. One of those was the Inuit Nunangat Policy to make sure that we are actually putting our best foot forward and reminding ourselves internally in the government of our relationship with Inuit, as opposed to Inuit spending the time re-educating others — whether it’s the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, lands and resources or the Department of National Defence — of their obligations and treaty obligations.

When you fold into that the discussion about the territory, and particularly Nunavut, it gets a little more complicated. It is fraught with, obviously, internal politics, and respecting those relationships where the government has to tread a careful path when it comes to creating new areas. I don’t think anyone is in any disagreement with creating protected spaces, but it’s something that has to be done in the spirit of respectful engagement. I don’t think any voices should be left unaccounted for when it comes to that, but you do often see departments tripping over themselves.

Hopefully, if there’s a success or a measure of success of the new Inuit Nunangat Policy that came into effect only a few months ago, it will be whether the departments that aren’t seized of Inuit relations all the time actually respect what is in that policy.

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: I am very concerned, not only as a Quebecer or a Canadian, but as a human being. I don’t like to talk about it publicly too much, but I’ll break the rule.

I talk to Joyce Echaquan’s husband, Carol Dubé, fairly frequently. During the election campaign, I saw an individual who was seriously hurting, a man who was very deeply wounded as a human being. I find it really distressing to see that kind of reaction. Obviously, he feels that way because he misses her, but it’s also because of the denial of reality that all Indigenous people encounter.

That is something that I have never felt upon entering a hospital. I never felt an icy fear, the fear of discrimination or even death in this case. There’s work to be done, and it is up to the federal government to continue investing in the health care system to combat systemic racism. Denying the problem won’t make it go away. In fact, it will keep happening. It is happening all over Canada.

This problem exists even in provinces where things are going a little better, such as British Columbia. Recognizing that there’s a problem is a first step. Eradicating it is another. One need only look at the Viens commission report and the coroner’s report to see that this problem has yet to be solved. An election campaign isn’t going to change things.

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Minister, Canadians from coast to coast to coast are being crushed under the mounting pressure of grocery costs with food prices outpacing the general inflation rate for several months in a row.

On Tuesday, Statistics Canada reported that grocery prices have risen 10.8% since last year, the fastest pace we have seen in over 40 years. As Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, you are undoubtedly aware this pressure is felt all the more pointedly by Indigenous communities living in remote regions of the country. According to the non-profit Canadian Feed the Children, the 9% surge in food prices most of the country is grappling with will actually feel like 20% for remote Indigenous communities. This is unacceptable.

Yesterday, you issued a statement in which you summarized the work you did for Canadians and Indigenous communities over the summer. However, there was not a single mention of food security and grocery prices, even though food inflation is currently —

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, senator. I’ll give you a partial answer. I don’t know what the status of the response to your report is. However, I’m happy to look into it.

I don’t know if I agree with the recommendation to transfer it to Crown-Indigenous Relations — not that I don’t think our team could do a good job at it, though. My reflection is one that is vested in thoughts about your rights and your people’s rights, which is one that had to be crystallized by going to the Supreme Court. You can ask yourself why, if it is a right, do you always have to go to the Supreme Court to enforce it? That’s immensely frustrating for most of your people who have a right to exercise a moderate livelihood as entrenched in both Marshall decisions.

My reflections on the efficiency and efficacy of the initiatives of the Government of Canada to respect those rights are ones where we need people to do their jobs and to look at things not necessarily in a commercial way or in a way that is based simply on a sole set of factors or based on the Fisheries Act, but ones based in the language of rights and respect of treaties. Whether we can do it or DFO can do it is less important to me than actually doing it right and working with that department in particular to make sure that those rights are respected. We’re not there yet and that is frustrating for most of the communities trying to exercise a moderate livelihood. That’s not to say that work hasn’t been done in the past 20 years that has been able to affirm a number of those rights, but we’re not there yet. I get how that’s frustrating. I welcome the report and I hope to contribute to the response as it comes up.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): Minister, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, incorporates a constitutional duty to consult Indigenous people when you consider measures that might adversely impact the potential for established Aboriginal or treaty rights.

The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network said they weren’t invited to a House committee when studying this bill, despite their request to do so. I can only assume from that, minister, that they were not consulted.

Minister, are you upset about your government’s failure to consult? Did you consult the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network before you introduced this bill? And if not, why not?

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, senator. I note that this community — three, in fact — is one that Canada is in the process of amalgamating. To your first point about greater autonomy, there is a step there that we are in the process of — confidentially, obviously — undertaking with the community, and to do that in a respectful way. But there are elements we have initiated in the short term: obviously surge supports for mental health, help for community members who need enhanced medical assistance over and above mental health supports, as well as a number of elements that Minister Hajdu herself personally confirmed to the community when she was there in person for one of the funerals.

Indeed, the community has asked for more support in policing and has asked for its own police force. Those are, again, things that need to be implemented over the more medium term, as well as resources to support self-determination.

These are situations of violence. They are far too frequent in Indigenous communities. They have their roots in a number of the elements that you identified. There are socio-economic disparities that have their roots in colonization, and the effects these have had over a series of years will require more investments in education and housing.

This is not a problem that started and began with one individual, as awful an individual as this person appeared to be. It needs a comprehensive response. Thank you for asking the question.

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: I certainly won’t take credit for the latest Supreme Court appointment — I’m not such a hypocrite as to claim a victory for that. However, I think it is emblematic of someone in their mid-forties who has had an incredible career who is now in a position to shape the future of this country.

That’s a highly visible area. I think when you look at the public service you will see, whether it’s Indigenous Services Canada or Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, a significant amount of Indigenous representation, and to their credit, because these are people going to work every day trying to make things better for their people. They are probably often criticized at the Christmas party. It’s difficult to go with that weight on your shoulders, whereas someone like me showing up to work like that doesn’t bear that weight.

But clearly you’re dealing with a highly qualified constituency that needs to radiate across the public service. For example, some people might not want to work at Crown-Indigenous Relations or Indigenous Services Canada; they might want to work at National Defence. I think that’s where you see some of the under-representation, whether it’s at the core level, the basic level, or even at the managerial and the executive levels where you see some crying needs.

This is something that we have to be careful with, with an independent public service, but it’s something we can’t let other people kind of run at willy-nilly. The Clerk of the Privy Council is very well aware of what the challenges are to ensure Indigenous representation across the board, as well as racialized individuals.

You’re talking about talent that is undervalued. If you just take a value perspective, people who suffer from discrimination are people who are, more often than not, overqualified for the position they’re taking. So there is that business argument, but unfortunately it’s rooted in discrimination.

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, Senator Klyne. I agree with you that more police in Indigenous communities is needed. It would respond to one element of a number of the reports that have been discussed today. But, again, policing alone is not the solution, and I do want to say that before I complete my answer.

Those communities need police services, Indigenous-led if they so choose, or enhanced RCMP presence if they so choose. It’s something we have dedicated resources to as a government in prior budgets, coupled with what you mentioned, which is to introduce legislation to ensure that First Nations policing as an essential service is treated as such.

The work is ongoing. Minister Mendicino recently issued a statement of where they are in terms of the consultation and discussions with Indigenous peoples. This is a piece of legislation that we hope to accelerate and make sure is introduced shortly, but I can’t share that with you. Indeed, it would be up to Minister Mendicino as the case may be.

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, senator. It’s unacceptable in a country like Canada that in some cases, particularly in Inuit Nunangat, the rates are 300 times what you would find anywhere else in the country. When it comes to First Nations on-reserve, it is 50 to 60 times. The outbreak we recently saw in Pangnirtung was heartbreaking in a number of ways.

I share your frustration in seeing that some of the funds have not been properly allocated. Tuberculosis, like any respiratory disease, is one that — despite the nature of it — cannot be solved simply by medicine. We need to be addressing the socio‑economic underpinnings, notably housing that is in dire need. It is one that we hope, and we will work hard, to tackle by 2030.

But it’s something that has to be done in partnership not only with the territory, but the land claims holders and their advocacy groups — ITK and others. It’s work that has to be implemented on many levels, from consistent investments in infrastructure over the next years to make sure that people are actually living in houses where they are not overcrowded and where they are not vectors themselves of transmission, but also with a proper public health response.

There is some deference owed to the chief public health officers in the territories as a matter of the relationship and of efficiency. It isn’t something we can wash our hands of as a government, particularly in providing funds and making sure that the territory and land claims holders are properly supported.

[Translation]

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, senator, for the question. First, I think it is important to acknowledge the pain and hurt the community is going through. This is the largest mass casualty event in an Indigenous community since the North-West Resistance. You highlighted as well that no Indigenous community is immune to this — no community in Canada. This does not begin and end with one or two individuals. There are systemic natures to the violence and the response needs to be a systemic one that cannot be limited to policing our way out of the problem or locking people in jail and throwing away the key.

That is not notwithstanding my own views on how the Parole Board acted, but again, it is not necessarily my place to be judge, jury and executioner in a role that the Parole Board properly plays in determining whether people’s lives should be in an incarcerated scenario or free to go or free under certain conditions. Certainly, there was a failure here. Certainly, it is a systemic one. Certainly, it is one that involves policing and the criminal justice system, but it is much more than that. It is one where there is violence that is far too frequent in Indigenous communities because of systemic reasons, socio-economic barriers and ones that are the legacy of colonization.

In that respect, my department is intimately involved in the response.

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Senator, I’m glad you read about what I was up to this summer. At the beginning of summer, in Inuvik, I did have a chance to visit the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation’s food security initiative that they implemented during the pandemic thanks to funds provided by Indigenous Services Canada. Particularly during a pandemic, where supply chains were severely compromised in remote locations — not limited to the remote locations in the North, but across Canada — we had a number of innovative measures, not only Nutrition North Canada, which has experienced challenges and to which we have increased funding, but unique challenges in ensuring that people could get proper food on the land, and fresh food, in a situation where we were shutting down communities altogether to keep people safe and alive. Those solutions worked. I was able to visit some of the amazing initiatives with wild food that is provided to a number of the communities that are in Inuvialuit. I would encourage you to take a look at those initiatives because they are game changers.

In the context of inflation, that is something Minister Freeland focused directly on, namely, those who are most vulnerable. I would point you to the recent announcements that we hope will get the support of all parties in the house to support the most vulnerable and those who are the most subject and sensitive to inflation pressures including getting food on the table.

Hon. Mary Coyle: Welcome to the Senate, Minister Miller. I’m a senator from Mi’kma’ki and a member of the Aboriginal Peoples Committee. My question for you is related to the full implementation of Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik and Passamaquoddy rights-based fisheries. Our Senate Fisheries and Oceans Committee report on this matter, Peace on the Water, outlined 10 recommendations. The committee recommended that the responsibility for negotiating the full implementation of rights‑based fisheries be immediately transferred from Fisheries and Oceans Canada to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, with your department becoming the lead negotiating department and DFO assuming an advisory role.

Minister, can you tell us what is the status of the government’s response to this critical recommendation and has there been any action taken?

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, senator. Again, these issues are rooted in systemic problems with the criminal justice system, especially as it regards incarceration and its undue and disproportionate impact on racialized and Indigenous peoples across the country. Those numbers have spiked in recent years. They have gone up particularly in respect of the incarceration of women.

When I talk about the systemic nature of it, it has impacts in areas that don’t naturally jump to our minds when we’re only casual observers of it, but every woman in jail means a kid growing up without their mother, or every man in jail means a kid growing up without their father. It fuels the child welfare system, which itself is broken due to the underfunding of the Government of Canada, and it’s focused too much on intervention rather than prevention.

These are things our government has been working on in a systemic way for years. Yet the results are trailing. We see positive aspects of it, like reducing or getting rid of some of the mandatory minimum penalties, which are disproportionately impacting Indigenous and racialized populations. That doesn’t mean that serious crimes do not get prosecuted, and people don’t have to pay their time in a way that is commensurate and corresponding to the crime they have committed — that’s important — but the reality is that we have a broken criminal justice system when it comes to incarceration and its impact on Indigenous and racialized people across this country. There are many measures, including closing socio-economic gaps, that are key to driving results, which are trailing, unfortunately.

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: Thank you, senator. This is something that our team has been seized of ever since I was named the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. Indeed, it goes back to 2015 and a decision by the prior government to keep itself to the terms and not to continue the court case against the Catholic entities involved in the agreement related to residential schools.

There are elements of that agreement that talk about the disclosure of documents, the necessary cooperation that has to happen between Canada and the Catholic entities that people could look at in retrospect and say that this is something that is desirable. At the end of the day, you’re looking at a deal to indemnify one of the co-conspirators of the Indian residential school system, namely the Catholic Church and the Catholic entities that perpetrated unspeakable evils on Indigenous communities and broke their spirits, which is a key element of “removing the Indian from the child.” Canada had its role to play, but when you look at the deal among the parties from the distance that I have several years later, it looks like a bum deal, particularly with the billions of dollars that are necessary to put people back in position, to the extent financial resources can do so, for the unspeakable harms that people are still suffering for and transmitting from generation to generation.

This is equally an indictment of the Catholic Church as it is of the Government of Canada. This is work that we need those churches involved with, particularly to provide information to get to people so they can get an element of solace, some closure and perhaps some accountability. Pointing fingers is one thing, but a lot of them point inward. We have some work to put forward and to produce results.

Hon. Marc Miller, P.C., M.P., Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations: I want to get this job done right. It involves a lot of work from a number of departments, particularly the lead department, which is the Minister of Justice, with the support of Crown-Indigenous Relations.

As an update, the consultation is ongoing. Funds have been dispersed to communities across the country that are feeding into what will be the action plan. Thankfully, we have the Government of British Columbia, which has had its own experiences, positive and negative, with their own action plan. We are inspired by what we have seen from and coming out of British Columbia. Again, it’s not perfect. It’s something that Minister Lametti is very conscious of in moving forward with, something that is very much unknown territory, and which the government can’t and really shouldn’t control. It requires that work with Indigenous communities, their feedback and putting together something — and I would suggest humbly that we need to take the risk that it will be imperfect, knowing that relationships and action plans need to be perfected over the years.

Time is of the essence, and — I don’t like this expression — perfect is the enemy of good. It doesn’t mean we can’t produce something that is good at the same time. Our eyes are on meeting deadlines. Often we don’t as a government, but it’s something we need to be focused on; otherwise, it won’t get done. But you know, a proper review and an action plan is something that will look at all our legislation and our all bylaws, and there are a lot of them.