Canadian bills relating to UNDRIP: Romeo Saganash on his Political Career: Warrior Life Podcast

I recommend everyone watch this amazing interview of Romeo Saganash.  If you don't need convincing, just watch.

Romeo Saganash was born in 1961 in Waswanipi, a cree community in what some currently call Quebec. He is fluent in Cree, French and English.

He discusses his career as a policy maker within indigenous communities, internationally within Canadian politics and globally.  In 1984 he was invited to go to the United Nations, and became actively involved in the working groups that eventually were able to get the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples passed through the UN general assembly in 2007.


With his extensive political experience he was courted by nearly all the political parties except the Conservatives.  After having said "no" many times, he finally said "yes" to Jack Layton.  He promised two terms, and successfully won his seat both times in 2011 and in 2015.  He did not run in 2019.

He was not part of the government, but tabled bills focused on Canada moving forward with UNDRIP.  While the entire interview is not about UNDRIP, I believe the obvious expertise he has should help convince people who are supportive of Canada finally starting to respect the human rights of  indigenous peoples to support his work. His bill, re-tabled as C-15 in the current session, is an important step in the right direction.  We should all (indigenous and settler) be doing everything we can to pressure all activists, policy makers and parliamentarians to ensure that this bill eventually becomes law.

Romeo is aware of the critiques of the bill from some fellow indigenous peoples, but he believes they have misinterpreted the bill.  I have heard Romeo's explanations, read the critiques, closely read the bills, and read some of the history. I strongly agree with Romeo's interpretation of the bill. The bill does not entrench Indigenous peoples under a 4'th level of government (below municipalities).  It does not put UNDRIP below Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, but ensures that courts and politicians will interpret UNDRIP within the context of section 35 protected treaty rights.


The critiques I have read are legitimate critiques relating to the ongoing dishonesty of the Canadian government (regardless of party in power) and many parliamentarians, but are not critiques that apply to the text of the bill.  We should all be critical of the Liberals for delaying a year to re-table the bill, a lack of action that Romano considers yet another dishonest ploy to ensure the bill won't get passed before the next election. We should be critical of parliamentarians for not quickly passing this bill, not critical of any that are willing to pass it.


The losers from this bill passing are settlers and other foreign interests who want their violations of human rights to continue. The most vocal rights violators have been from resource extraction industries.  These people believe that their European concept of property rights should be supreme, and yet believe that their "theft" should continue.  I have no sympathy for the opinions of these settlers, and look forward to a future law which will make their actions clearly illegal.


While it was not discussed in the interview, I wanted to provide a list of the tabling dates and titles of Romeo's bills:

• 2013-01-28: An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• 2013-06-13: An Act to amend the Navigable Waters Protection Act (Vallée-de-l’Or, Anishinabe Aki and Eeyou Istchee regions)
• 2013-10-16: An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• 2013-10-16: An Act to amend the Navigable Waters Protection Act (Vallée-de-l’Or, Anishinabe Aki and Eeyou Istchee regions)
• 2014-12-04: An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• 2016-04-21: An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  

People who do not follow parliamentary process may not realize that bills from one parliamentary session get re-tabled, with or without amendments, in later sessions.  Romeo first introduced "An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" in 2013.  The second-last time the bill made it to second reading, and the last time it was passed by the House of Commons but was filibustered by Conservative Senators.

While Romeo didn't run again in 2019, it is a slightly enhanced version of the bill which the Liberals finally (delaying a year) tabled as Bill C-15 in the current parliamentary session.  I have compared the text of Romeo's latest version and the version tabled by the Liberals, and I agree that the bill is a slight improvement based on feedback from the previous process.