Indigenous Reconciliation & Compensation Claims

Reconciliation is a societal priority

“Ensuring Indigenous voices, culture and heritage are empowered will build a better Quebec for all Quebecers.”

 

MONTREAL, QUEBEC – The Canadian Party of Quebec (CaPQ) is dedicated to Reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of Quebec.

 

The Canadian Party of Quebec’s sixth principle includes reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. The Party is only beginning what it knows will be a long journey of discovery for itself and its members as it navigates through this understandably complex and often painful subject with the help of Canada’s original peoples.

 

Nevertheless, as a party of action in all areas that it chooses to tackle, CaPQ offers the following recommendations in good faith:

 

  • A full and unconditional repudiation and rescinding of the Doctrine of Discovery.
  • A fully revamped Inuit justice system in Nunavik, mostly controlled by the Inuit themselves in order to overcome large incarceration rates and a provincial system ill-fitted to address their needs.
  • Full pursuit of compensation claims for the Inuit, Cree, and other First Nations, in order to ensure that Indigenous peoples, their survivors and/or their descendants receive what’s owed to them via various treaties, agreements, and class-action lawsuit settlements.
  • Mandatory teaching of Quebec’s residential school history as part of Quebec’s provincial school curriculum.
  • Kanien’kéha: ka: Based on a July 27, 2022 meeting between Canadian Party of Quebec officials and Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer of Kahnawake, the Party fully backs the following proposals:
    • Calling for the full exemption from Quebec’s French Language Charter for all First Nations within the province not party to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (1975) or the Northeastern Quebec Agreement (1978);
    • The full implementation of a Grade 12 program at Kahnawake Survival School, based on Kanienʼkehá꞉ka values, the expansion of Kanien’kéha language teaching, and specific cultural needs;
    • Call for Government of Canada and private (philanthropic) funding to ensure the successful construction, completion and operation of a Kahnawake Museum and Cultural Center;
    • More outreach opportunities between Kanienʼkehá꞉ka youth and their francophone, anglophone and ethnic minority counterparts in Montreal and throughout Quebec.

 

  • Algonquin Anishinaabeg of Kitigan Zibi:
    • An immediate investigation and pursuit of clean water access for the Kitigan Zibi community by the federal and Quebec governments;
    • A clear timetable for building houses for Anaisnabe families currently lacking adequate housing on reserve. The Government of Canada is allocating $401 million to Quebec for fiscal years 2019-20 through 2023-24 to address homelessness, including Indigenous homelessness.
    • Time to act;
    • A fully funded, targeted program to train young Algonquin Anishinaabeg students to become health practitioners, with the goal of returning to serve in a medical clinic setting on reserve;
    • Re. Education, the pursuit of hybrid-style programs with Heritage College, the University of Ottawa, Université de Québec, etc. to allow Anishinaabeg students to reduce commuting time for advanced studies. This necessarily requires an upgrade in Internet connectivity speed and bandwidth – ideally from a new or existing Government of Quebec program;

 

  • Finally, immediate Quebec associate language status for all indigenous languages currently spoken within provincial territory today, with the goal of becoming official languages of Quebec by 2030.

 

Key aspects of document:

 

  1. Justification for Doctrine of Discovery Rescinding.
  2. Perspectives from Algonquin Anishinaabeg Territory, Kitigan Zibi.
  3. Perspectives from the Kanien’kéha: ka re. educational sovereignty, other issues.
  4. Canadian Party of Quebec recommendations in pursuit of fulfilling its sixth principle of ‘Rapprochement and Reconciliation’.
Download PDF