CRE Explains: Federal Election ’21

On Indigenous Rights & Reconciliation:

• Appoint a “Special Interlocutor” to work with communities around unmarked graves 
  • Would work to develop legal/regulatory framework to advance justice regarding unmarked graves (platform, p. 57)
• Increase access to culturally appropriate, trauma-informed mental health services
  • Additional $1.4B for distinctions-based mental health programs, on top of recent commitments (platform, p. 57)
• Provide supports for communities wanting to undertake searches of “other federally run institutions” (platform, p. 57)
• Provide funding for a permanent National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (platform, p. 57)
• Reform child and family services in communities and reduce number of Indigenous children in care
  • Ensure FN youth who age out of care receive supports for 2 more years, and implement the orders of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (platform, p. 58) 
• Improve Indigenous early childhood education and care
  • Ensure families have access to quality care; create 3,300 new spaces; invest in Aboriginal Head Start in urban and Northern communities; building an Indigenous Early Learning and Childcare system; continue to implement Jordan’s Principle, fund the Inuit Child First Initiative, work with the Métis Nation to fund programs for Métis children & youth (platform, p. 58)
• End boil water advisories
  • Maintain commitment to invest $6B for clean water, “make any investments necessary to eliminate all remaining advisories” (platform, p. 58-59)
• Continue to support transition away from the Indian Act (platform, p. 59)
• Support Indigenous-led advancement of self determination (platform, p. 59)
• Work with communities to implement treaties, self-government agreements, land settlements (platform, p. 59)
• Support communities in reclaiming jurisdiction on child and family services, education, policing, tax and justice (platform, p. 59)
• Implement UNDRIP 
  • include in all cabinet ministers’ mandate letters the requirement to implement UNDRIP, ensure their offices work with Indigenous peoples to advance their rights (platform, p. 59)
• Create a standing Federal-Provincial-Territorial table on MMIWG2S+
  • this table will facilitate the accelerated implementation of the Federal Pathway to Address MMIWG2S+ (platform, p. 59)
• Better housing for Indigenous peoples
  • invest $2B in Indigenous housing; co-develop a housing strategy with Indigenous partners/organizations to accompany the National Housing Strategy with an initial investment of $300M; co-develop the National Indigenous Housing Centre which will be overseen by Indigenous communities (platform, p. 59-60)
• Fully implement Joyce’s Principle
  • co-develop distinctions-based Indigenous health legislation, foster health systems free of racism/discrimination (platform, p. 60)
• Helping Indigenous businesses
  • mandating that FNMI businesses hold 5% of federal procurement contracts; expand Aboriginal Entrepreneurship Program; ensure programs are inclusive as possible; create a “navigator” position to help businesses find programs (platform, p. 60)
• Co-developing a distinctions-based Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (platform, p. 60)
• Ensuring the Indigenous Languages Act is fully implemented (platform, p. 60)
• Addressing violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQ+
  • $2.2B over 5 years beginning in 2021-22 and $160.9M ongoing through the implementation of the National Action Plan and the Federal Pathway (platform, p. 61)
• Work to finalize a co-developed Inuit Nunangat Policy & accelerate implementation (platform, p. 61)
• Establish a national benefits sharing framework to ensure Inuit communities directly benefit from resource projects (platform, p. 61)
• Work to implement Inuit land claims agreements (platform, p. 61)
• Support Inuit-specific approaches to eliminate tuberculosis in Inuit Nunangat (platform, p. 61)
• Work to improve food security in Inuit communities
  • through the Harvester Support Program, and amending the Nutrition North Program to make it more specific to Inuit needs (platform, p. 61)
• Move forward with Métis self-government 
  • supporting the MMF, MNO, MNA, MNS, NTMN in self-government through each of their specific agreements (platform, p. 62)
• Establish a national benefits sharing framework ensuring Métis Nation communities directly benefit from resource projects in their territories (platform, p. 62)

On Systemic Racism:

• Strengthen and boost funding for the Anti-Racism Strategy and the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat (platform, p. 65)
• Increase funding for multicultural programs (platform, p. 65)
• Introduce legislation to combat harmful online content (platform, p. 65)
• Strengthen Canada Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to better combat online hate (platform, p. 65)
• Establish a National Support Fund for Survivors of Hate-Motivated Crimes 
  • Would help with medical costs and mental health care (platform, p. 65)
• Reform the RCMP
  • More oversight, clear timelines for responding to complaints by civilians, external review, prohibit the use of neck restraints, tear gas, and rubber bullets for crowd control, full external review of de-escalation measures, work collaboratively with communities, provinces, and municipalities to make sure that the RCMP is better connected to communities (platform, p. 66)
• Develop a Black Canadian’s Justice Strategy
  • to address anti-Black racism and discrimination in the justice system (platform, p. 66)
• Increase access to Mental Health Courts
  • expand access to culturally informed services (platform, p. 66)
• Re-introduce bill that would make virtual court proceedings more accessible; digitize and modernize court rooms (platform, p. 67)
• Support the Court Challenges Program 
  • double the program’s funding and increase support for legal cases of national significance that clarify official language rights and human rights (platform, p. 67)
• Revive the Law Commission of Canada
  • would provide independent legal advice for reforms needed on systemic racism, the justice system, relationships with Indigenous peoples, climate change, and other complex issues (platform, p. 67)
• Introduce legislation to reform the mandatory minimum sentence within first 100 days (platform, p. 67)

On Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation

• Develop a plan to implement TRC Calls 71-76 (platform, p. 115)
• Fund the investigation at all former residential school sites where there may be unmarked graves, including those where children have already been discovered (platform, p. 115)
• Allocate resources for communities honour individuals who have been discovered through the investigation (including reinterment, per the wishes of the next of kin) (platform, p. 115)
• Develop resources for educating Canadians on the history of residential schools in Canada (platform, p. 115)
• Build a monument in Ottawa to honour residential school survivors and “all the children who were lost” (platform, p. 115)
• Work with Indigenous-led resource extraction organizations to become partners in resource extraction projects that meet high environmental standards (platform, p. 116)
• Create the Canadian Indigenous Opportunities Corporation to support First Nations and Inuit organizations seeking to buy an equity stake in major projects 
  • includes providing $5 billion in capital for investment in projects across the country (platform, p. 116)
• Require future governments to consult with Indigenous Communities before cancelling approved projects (platform, p. 116)
• Implement Article 18 of UNDRIP by working with First Nations to develop transparent processes that communities can use to identify who represents them in consultations (platform, p. 116)
• Work with First Nations and Indigenous rights holders to develop a consultation process that allows for more meaningful dialogue (platform, p. 116)
• Create a streamlined Environmental review process for major projects that partner with First Nations (platform, p. 116)
• Support Indigenous Protected Areas that safeguard culturally significant areas without ruling out “future benefits” so long that the safeguards are maintained
  • Including supporting an Indigenous Guardians program (platform, p. 117)
• Commit $4 million over three years for the hiring and training of local and regional economic development officers (platform, p. 117)
• Collaborate with municipal and First Nations organizations to promote relationships between municipalities and neighbouring First Nations (platform, p. 117)
• Use existing programs build Indigenous business success through capacity building and education (platform, p. 117)
• Develop an Indigenous business mentorship program (platform, p. 117)
• Modernize the First nations Land Management Act to align more with the Framework Agreement
• Reduce incarceration rates of Indigenous communities
  • with a $25 million to a national scale police support and community training program (platform, p. 117)
• Encourage more applicants from Indigenous communities to the Canadian public service
  • In collaboration with Indigenous community groups, set up a national working group (platform, p. 117)
• Improve opportunities for Indigenous businesses to receive government contracts by reforming procurement rules (platform, p. 117)
• Increase Indigenous governance capacity through the Institute of Corporate Directors (platform, p. 118)
• “Supercharge First Nations infrastructure” through the First Nations Finance Authority (platform, p. 118)
• Work with “Indigenous groups” to develop a national action plan on violence against Indigenous women and girls (platform, p. 118)
• Consult with First Nations to overhaul current funding models (in order to “make it easier for First Nations to escape Third-Party Management”) (platform, p. 118)
• End long-term drinking water advisories
  • and recognize safe drinking water as a fundamental human right, targeting high-risk water systems, work with Indigenous communities to find new ways of ensuring water system investments are protected and continue long-term (platform, p. 118)
• $1 billion over five years for Indigenous mental health and drug treatment programs (platform, p. 119)
• Support land-based mental health and addiction treatment programs, and programs delivered in Indigenous languages 
  • and generally support the development of mental health and drug treatment programs by Indigenous people (platform, p. 119)
• Negotiate longer-term funding contracts with urban indigenous organizations for stability and better planning opportunities (platform, p. 119)
• Increase access to Indigenous workers and youth to apprenticeship programs (platform, p. 119)
• Streamline and improve the process for Indigenous communities to connect to high speed internet by 2025 (platform, p. 119)
• Allow the territories to set their own borrowing limits (platform, p. 121)
• Allow decisions about development in the north to be made by northerners
  • including deciding on the level of development they want (platform, p. 121)
• Build the Northern economy 
  • work with Parks Canada on eco-tourism, increase employment of Inuit in mining in the the North (platform, p. 121)
• Work with governments and communities in Inuit Nanungat and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region to develop community-based marine fisheries (platform, p. 121)
• Support life in the North
  • by doubling the residency deduction, implement a northern housing strategy, support innovative approaches to address the crises of mental health and addiction (such as land-based treatment programs), develop a larger plan to enhance culturally appropriate addictions treatment and prevention services, improve nutrition north (platform, p. 121)
• Enhance Northern infrastructure with road, fibre-lines, and clean power projects (platform, p. 122)
• Expand military protection in the Arctic
• Expand the Canadian Rangers in number and mandate, expand Royal Canadian Air Force operations, expand naval facilities, deploy new vehicles for arctic surveillance (platform, p. 122)

On Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation

• Fully implement UNDRIP (platform, p. 70)
• Fully implement the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action (platform, p. 70)
• Co-develop a National Action Plan for Reconciliation
  • drawing from UNDRIP and the TRC, ensure that Canada’s laws, policies and practices are consistent with Canada’s human rights commitments, including cultural rights, land rights, and rights to self-determination and self-government (platform, p. 70)
• Establish a National Council for Reconciliation to provide oversight and accountability for this process, reporting regularly to Parliament and Canadians (platform, p. 70)
• Replace consultation with a standard of free, prior and informed consent, including for all decisions affecting constitutionally protected land rights (platform, p. 70)
• Recognize and respect treaties (platform, p. 70)
• Support Indigenous Nations who are building and re-building their governance structures (platform, p. 70)
• Support Inuit self-determination
  • co-development of an Arctic Policy Framework through shared governance within the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee; adoption of an Inuit Nunangat policy in full partnership with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami; support economic and social self-reliance of Inuit by addressing deficits in infrastructure, housing, broadband, airports (platform, p. 70)
• Ensure federal election ballots include Indigenous languages (platform, p. 70)
• Recognize Métis self-determination
  • respecting the path forward established by the Métis National Council and its governing members, pursue government-to-government negotiations on issues like self-government, education, housing and health (platform, p. 71)
• Implement TRC 80 – ensure communities have funds to commemorate a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (platform, p. 71)
• Addressing the harms of residential schools
  • fully fund the search for grave sites at former residential schools as well as the maintenance, commemoration, reburial and protection of cemeteries according to the wishes of survivors and communities (platform, p. 72)
• Residential school justice
  • appoint a special prosecutor to pursue those who caused harm within the residential school system, and require that churches and governments hand over any and all records (platform, p. 72)
• Fund and support community-driven solutions for healing including projects like the former Aboriginal Healing Foundation (platform, p. 72)
• Respect, support and resource Indigenous jurisdiction over child welfare systems enshrine long-term funding in law (platform, p. 73)
• End chronic underfunding of child welfare services on reserve
  • including working with the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society to implement the Spirit Bear Plan, end government litigation against Indigenous children (platform, p. 73)
• Fully implement Jordan’s Principle (platform, p. 73)
• Safe and affordable housing in every Indigenous community
  • on and off reserve – work with communities to implement an Indigenous National Housing Strategy within 100 days of taking office, address the mold crisis, ensure that communities have resources to make homes greener and more energy efficient (platform, p. 75)
• Increase access to education
  • Implement Shannen’s Dream, backed by federal investments and infrastructure, expand financial assistance to give more Indigenous youth access to post-secondary education, increase educational opportunities for children who grew up in care, more distance education opportunities for youth in rural and remote locations (platform, p. 76)
• Establish Indigenous history education programs for all Canadians
  • working with provinces and based on TRC Calls to Action 62 and 63, ensure development and implementation are led by Indigenous peoples (platform, p. 76)
• Lift all drinking water advisories
  • also support Indigenous-led water management training programs and water system operations as an immediate priority (platform, p. 77)
• Funding emergency management
  • funds for on-reserve emergency management and prevention, including firefighting training and equipment (platform, p. 77)
• Resuming and expanding rural and remote bus routes and passenger rail service (platform, p. 77)
• Infrastructure investments
  • protect Indigenous infrastructure from climate change and increase renewable energy, expand community-owned renewable energy projects and support transitioning remote communities to clean energy alternatives (platform, p. 77)
• close the health gap in Indigenous communities including healing the ongoing trauma caused by colonialism and residential schools (platform, p. 78)
• implement Joyce’s Principle (platform, p. 79)
• invest in Indigenous health care infrastructure
  • including medical supplies and diagnostic equipment, working with communities to improve access to mental health and addictiontreatment services both on and off-reserve, develop and fully fund an evidence-based action plan to prevent suicide (platform, p. 79)
• Ensure Indigenous-led, culturally appropriate home care and long-term care is available for Elders in their home communities and languages (platform, p. 79)
• Improve access to food support Indigenous food sovereignty, reform the Nutrition North program to improve families’ access to food (platform, p. 79)
• Build a treatment centre for residents affected by long-term mercury exposure and compensate families affected by the intergenerational problem of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows (platform, p. 79)
• Support Indigenous employment and economic development
  • by working with Indigenous communities to support local economic development, create jobs through infrastructure and public service investments and better access to broadband internet and cell service for rural and remote communities, working with Indigenous entrepreneurs to find solutions for accessing capital, invest in Indigenous social enterprise projects, priorities procurement from Indigenous companies where possible (platform, p. 80)
• Create a Northern Infrastructure Fund to fast-track investment (platform, p. 81)
• Implement the MMIWG Inquiry’s Calls for Justice
  • including working with Indigenous women, families of MMIWG and communities to establish a comprehensive plan to address violence against Indigenous women, girls and LGBTQI2S+ people (platform, p. 81)
• Ensure full gender equality for First Nations status (platform, p. 81)
• Support self-determination land, culture, language, housing, child care, income security, employment, education, and physical, mental, sexual, spiritual health (platform, p. 81)
• End systemic discrimination against Indigenous peoples in the justice system
  • remove mandatory minimums, increase the discretion of judges during sentencing, ensure bail programs are culturally appropriate, bolster funding for community justice programs that focus on healing and restorative justice rather than incarceration, uphold the use of gladue principles in court proceedings (platform, p. 82)
• Develop a First Nations justice and policing strategy (platform, p. 82)
• Ensure Inuit have control over policing in their own communities 
  • including developing a long-term strategy for recruiting and retaining Inuit and Inuktitut speakers to work in community safety roles (platform, p. 82)
• Uphold and strengthen the Directive on Civil Litigation Involving Indigenous Peoples would put an end to legal battles with Indigenous communities (platform, p. 82)
• Including recognition of inherent rights, title, and treaty rights, ensuring First Nations, Inuit and the Metis leadership have a seat at high level decision-making tables, expand the Indigenous Guardians Program, invest in Indigenous-led science and support the creation of Indigenous-managed protected areas, embrace traditional knowledge to increase biodiversity (platform, p. 83)

On Systemic Racism

• National action plan to dismantle far-right extremist organizations, including those that promote white supremacy
  • including establishing national standards for identifying and recording all hate incidents and their dispensation in the justice system, work with nonprofits to increase the reporting of hate crimes (platform, p. 99)
• National working group to counter online hate and protect public safety
  • including ensuring that social media platforms are legally responsible for removing hateful content before it does harm (platform, p. 99)
• Prioritize collection of race-based data
  • including on health, employment, policing with the goal of improving race-based data collection and develop reporting and accountability mechanisms alongside racialized and Indigenous communities (platform, p. 100)
• Ban carding by the RCMP, work with local partners to end the practice in all jurisdictions across Canada
  • including reviewing the information obtained through carding that has been retained by police, examining how  that information has been shared between the RCMP and other police forces and government agencies (platform, p. 100)
• Address the chronic over-representation of Indigenous peoples and Black Canadians in the federal prison population
  • including establishing a national task force to develop a roadmap to end it, addressing the discriminatory impact of mandatory minimums, provide more judicial discretion in sentencing, developing culturally appropriate bail programs, increasing restorative and community justice programs and better integrating Gladue principles in court proceedings. (platform, p. 100)
• Develop and implement an African Canadian Justice Strategy
  • in collaboration with Black Canadians with experience and expertise on criminal justice issues (platform, p. 100)
• Address employment discrimination and the racialized wage gap (platform, p. 100)
• Strengthen labour laws and ensure diverse hiring within the federal public service and federally-regulated industries, prioritizing jobs and training for under-represented groups, working with the provinces and territories to develop and enforce effective employment equity legislation, and to collect and analyze data on the racialization of poverty. (platform, p. 100)

On Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation

• Will work with Indigenous nations on the federal scene to strengthen and guarantee their inherent rights (platform, p. 17)
• Revamp the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy from top to bottom
  • To reflect the United  Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to create an independent entity to deal with land claims, with the aim of ending conflicts of interests that the federal government currently has with this policy. (platform, p. 17)
• Support Indigenous communities wishing to exercise their rights to self-government and promote co-management of resources (platform, p. 17)
• Pressure the federal government to Implement the TRC’s Call to Actions (platform, p. 17)
• Maintain pressure on the federal government to provide communities with resources to uncover the historical reality of residential schools and force churches to open their archives (platform, p. 17)
• Ensure sustainability of funding for programs supporting the healing of residential school survivors (platform, p. 17)

On Indigenous Rights and Reconciliation

• Provide funding for Indigenous healing centres to address harms of residential schools (platform, p. 62)
• Increase funding to friendship centres (platform, p. 62)
• Honour request for funding from the TRC for the Missing Children and Unmarked Burials Project (platform, p. 63)
• Call on the Pope to apologise on behalf of the Catholic Church for their involvement in residential schools (platform, p. 63)
• Recognize that children in residential schools have been replaced by children in foster care (platform, p. 63)
• Ensure First Nations children living off reserve have access to Jordan’s Principle (platform, p. 63)
• Uphold fiduciary responsibilities and honour treaties (platform, p. 63)
• Work towards creation of an Indigenous Land and Treaties Tribunal Act
  • to decide on specific claims, to ensure negotiations are conducted and financed fairly, and treaty rights are not extinguished (platform, p. 63)
• Implement land claims agreements already negotiated, particularly for First Nations in the territories (platform, p. 63)
• Formally deny terra nullius, the Doctrine of Discovery and other related Doctrines (platform, p. 64)
• Establish process to transition out of the Indian Act, guided by Indigenous leaders, grounded in free, prior and informed consent (platform, p. 64)
• Implement recommendations of the 1996 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (platform, p. 64)
• Affirm right for FNMI folks to determine their own child and family services (platform, p. 64)
• Work with FNMI and governing bodies on a nation-to-nation bases for policy and program development (platform, p. 64)
• Recognize the rights of non-status and Metis as Indigenous include all in the implementation of the Royal Commission on Aborignal Peoples, TRC, and the MMIWG2S+ inquiry (platform, p. 64)
• Implement all 94 Calls to Action from the TRC (platform, p. 65)
• Implement Calls for Justice from the Final Report of the National Inquiry into MMIWG (platform, p. 65)
• Build community capacity to support self-determination including representation of youth, Elders, 2SLGBTQQIA+ folks and those off reserve (platform, p. 65)
• Access to quality education for FNMI children, including curriculum development that is culture and language specific (platform, p. 65)
• Increase access to post-secondary education for Indigenous youth  through removing 2% funding cap and fully funding program backlog (platform, p. 65)
• Educate non-Indigenous Canadians on history, traditions, customs, etc of Indigenous peoples (platform, p. 65)
• Honour the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling to compensate every child and family who was taken from their home on reserve (platform, p. 65)
• Adopt recommendations on funding for First Nation Child and Family Services from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy’s 2020 report (platform, p. 66)
• End all drinking water and boil water advisories (platform, p. 66)
• Ensure access to high-quality and safe, affordable housing (platform, p. 66)
• Improve food security in the north 
  • Including consulting with residents on Arctic farming, working with non-profits to build greenhouses or hydroponic towers, and funding nutrition and horticulture programs (platform, p. 66)
• Increase access to high-quality healthcare services
  • incorporate traditional practices, families and Elders; devote resources to maternal/infant care and reproductive health services upholding reproductive autonomy; increase mental healthcare investments (platform, p. 66)
• Expand non-insured health benefits (NIHB) to all Indigenous people regardless of Status, residency, membership or other factors (platform, p. 66)
• Ensure compensation funds are made available to spouses/families of Indigenous veterans (platform, p. 66)
• Dedicate funding to ensure Elders can receive culturally appropriate home care while remaining connected to community and culture (platform, p. 77)

On Systemic Racism:

• Dismantle systemic discrimination in the federal civil service
  • in relation to the Employment Equity Act: call for more inputs from workers with lived experiences, an extended timeline and resources, and a broadening of the application of EEA provisions to non-federally regulated private firms doing outsourced work for the federal government (platform, p. 68)
• Limit the RCMP and its funding to its core role
  • conduct an immediate and comprehensive review of the RCMP role in policing; advocate for an end to street checks, carding, arbitrary stops and detentions (platform, p. 68-69)
• Reallocate funding from police services to community and social services (platform, p. 69)
• Design and implement a more effective, transparent, accountable and independent police oversight system (platform, p. 69)
• Create a mandatory national database to collect and record police use-of-force and other incidents (platform, p. 69)
• Update the citizen guidebook to include a more accurate history of Canada that includes harms of residential schools and the Indian Act (platform, p. 70)
• Address all forms of hate and xenophobia in all aspects of settlement in Canada
  • in relation to temporary visa liberation, issuing of temporary permits, and family reunification (platform, p. 70)
• Terminate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States
  • this agreement allows Canada to send refugee-claimants at the Canada-US border back to the US (platform, p. 70)
• Revise CBSA practices
• Revise all CBSA practices including operation of immigration detention centres, family separation, and developing an oversight mechanism including a Civilian Complaint and Review Commission (platform, p. 70)