Echoes of Idle No More as Carney set to meet with First Nations

The prime minister, premiers and First Nations leaders will meet in Ottawa Monday to discuss a host of issues, including Indigenous involvement in energy and resource development projects.

The meeting — between Prime Minister Mark Carney, 13 provincial and territorial premiers, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse and 13 First Nations representatives — is the first among the groups in decades. There will also be a lot of eyes on the success of the meeting — or lack thereof.

The AFN, in fact, has invited about four dozen other First Nations representatives to witness the discussions.

It’s also a story we have seen before.

Almost 14 years ago, on Oct. 18, 2012, then-prime minister Stephen Harper and his federal government introduced a 457-page omnibus budget bill that proposed drastic changes to the Indian Act, the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and the Navigable Water Act, alongside a host of others.

Just weeks before that, the Harper government passed another omnibus legislation that restricted and reduced environmental protections in the country.

All of this was in an effort to force through energy and resource projects that many First Nations opposed, such as the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador, exploration for shale gas in New Brunswick, and the construction of oil and gas pipelines throughout western Canada.

Reaction came quickly. On November 10, 2012, a “teach-in” about the impacts of the bills took place in Saskatoon, Sask. The meeting was led by Indigenous women and youth and organized under the hashtag #idlenomore.

By January 2013, tens of thousands of Indigenous peoples, leaders and other Canadians protested the bills at “Idle No More” marches, demonstrations, and round dances in malls across the country.

Everything came to head when Harper — in an effort to quell the growing Indigenous-led resistance to his laws — invited then-AFN chief Shawn Atleo and 16 other First Nations leaders to meet with him in Ottawa.

Upset at what was perceived as an exclusionary, secret meeting over issues that would impact everyday Indigenous communities, activists organized a “Global Day of Action” on Jan. 11, 2013, with events taking place across the country.

The largest took place just outside of Parliament’s Langevin Block — with more than 3,000 Indigenous leaders demonstrating outside of the room where Harper, Atleo, and other First Nations leaders were meeting.

In response to Harper’s omnibus bills, Idle No More became one of the largest, peaceful civil rights movements ever in Canada — and definitively the largest advocating for Indigenous rights.

The Idle No More movement resulted in the cancellation of resource projects, the refocusing of national energy initiatives towards sustainability, and was one of the reasons Canadians chose Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party over Harper and the Conservatives in the 2015 federal election.

In other words: it was a radical shift that bent towards reconciliation and was arguably the most inclusive time in history for Indigenous peoples.

It’s 14 years later — and a Canadian Prime Minister with a contentious relationship with First Nations is again proposing omnibus legislation.

The Building Canada Strong Act is a 245-page bill that proposes to amend more than a dozen federal statutes, including the Impact Assessment Act, the Canadian Energy Regulator Act and the Canada Labour Code.

The bill will fast-track hundreds of major federal infrastructure and resource projects under the mantra of a “one project, one review, and one year to a decision” framework that has alarmed Indigenous leaders and activists across the country.

The bill proposes to do something nearly impossible because no national infrastructure or resource project has ever adequately completed the legal requirement to consult with First Nations and protect Indigenous and treaty rights in less than three years.

If it is passed in its current state, the bill will create more division between Indigenous communities and Canada than anything else.

The country got a glimpse of this conflict last month, when more than a thousand Indigenous leaders, environmentalists and others protested Carney’s inaugural Canada Investment Summit in Toronto.

So, in an effort to quell a growing Indigenous resistance to Bill C-39, Carney is holding the summit with First Nations and First Ministers.

And, in an echoing of history, Indigenous activists across the country have called for a National Day of Action for today.

Time will tell if the meeting fosters a path forward.

There is still, of course, time to amend the bill.

Indigenous peoples and the federal government have travelled down this path before — with one party standing at the end.

niigaan.sinclair@winnipegfreepress.com