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Getting the same advice over and over again and ignoring it is the definition of stubborn ignorance. It is, nonetheless, an apt summary of Canada’s approach to Indigenous rights.

Everyone knows there are problems. 

The statistics on Indigenous poverty, income inequality, violence victimization, incarceration, addiction and suicide are all too familiar. 

There is the lost opportunity, for Canada and Indigenous people alike, brought on by failing to educate, train and employ the youngest and fastest growing segment of the population.

And even more disturbing for supporters of the current government, there is the cost of delay or outright failure of resource development projects due to various governments’ denial of Indigenous legal rights. 

And everyone knows these problems are not new. In 1867, Canada’s Constitution gave specific responsibility for “Indians and lands reserved for Indians” to the federal government because this was (and still is) an issue of national importance.

But the federal government’s only approach — the denial of Indigenous rights — has never worked and it never will.  It will not make “the Indian problem” go away as is hoped by supporters of assimilation policy, and it certainly isn’t helping Indigenous people.

For those seeking other solutions, there’s been no shortage of recommendations. 

The Government of Canada itself is responsible for the Hawthorne reports of 1966 and 1967, the 1983 Penner report, and the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1996, among others. These have been followed by a host of court decisions, books and studies that reiterate, modify and modernize the themes of those government reports. 

While details and emphasis have varied, and while language changes with the times, there is such an overwhelming unanimity of opinion in this work that no one can be confused about the direction it sets.

Canada must give up on the colonialist, paternalistic attempts at assimilation, the continuing theft of lands and resources, the illegal and immoral behaviour that has been its only Indigenous policy and finally show respect for the rights, interests and voice of Indigenous peoples, just as Indigenous peoples showed to Canadians and the settlers who came before this land was given its name. 

In a few months, the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues, James Anaya, will be added to the list of studies providing the same advice. 

Professor Anaya, concluding his recent visit to Canada yesterday provided his preliminary findings and held a press conference where he gave every indication of confirming what we already know.

“From all I have learned, I can only conclude that Canada faces a crisis when it comes to the situation of indigenous peoples of the country. The well-being gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Canada has not narrowed over the last several years, treaty and aboriginals claims remain persistently unresolved, and overall there appear to be high levels of distrust among aboriginal peoples toward government at both the federal and provincial levels.”

The cause of these challenges, he said, is the continued deprivation of Indigenous rights. And the solution is reconciliation. 

He spoke of the need to end paternalism, flagging the government’s planned First Nations Education Act as one example where yet again that approach is being used and yet again is doomed to failure. 

He cited the need for greater Indigenous self-governance, to overcome the legacy of colonialism, to build capacity and restore strength in communities devastated by generations of oppression. 

He highlighted the need for Indigenous control over natural resources and for decision-making processes that respect the right to free, prior and informed consent. 

He called for adequate funding in education and housing as first steps in a holistic strategy toward better graduation rates.

And he recommended immediate action to extend the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and establish an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women; two ways of building trust by showing that Canada’s cruel racism will no longer be tolerated.

The lack of novelty in Professor Anaya’s upcoming report will not be reason to dismiss his findings. 

It is reason to ask why successive federal governments have ignored the repeated advice experts provide. 

And when the Speech from the Throne this afternoon yet again fails to act on that advice — as it surely will — we must demand better.