End Indian Act Human Rights Exemption

by Brad Maggrah
President, Ontario Coalition of Aboriginal Peoples Independent Editorialist

I would like to commend the National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Patrick Brazeau, for his leadership with respect to Bill C-44, An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act. As the regional representative organization of off-reserve, Metis and Non-Status Aboriginal people in Ontario, it is an enormous concern to our membership that they continue to experience exclusion and discrimination under the Indian Act regime.

Canadian politicians often travel overseas and attempt to intervene in the domestic affairs of foreign governments where there are known human rights abuses. This includes politicians from all parties, whether they are in government or not. It is difficult to understand why these same politicians have now embraced a domestic form of "political correctness" that suggests they are willing to delay the implementation of those same rights for the Aboriginal people that actually live within their own constituencies.

The Ontario Coalition of Aboriginal People is proud to stand with National Chief Brazeau and demand that all Members of Parliament stand up for equal rights for Aboriginal people in Canada. Members of Parliament need to ask themselves about the credibility of a political position that suggests they support the implementation of human rights, subject to consultations and implementation delays.

The Canadian Human Rights Act was passed in 1977 and Aboriginal people in Canada have waited thirty years for it to apply to them. Thirty years is long enough -- if Members of Parliament do not have the political will to address the lack of human rights for Aboriginal people in 2007 as a matter of urgency, then it seems unlikely that Aboriginal people will ever really know what it means to have human rights in Canada.

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