The shooting of Craig McDougall in Winnipeg over the August long weekend has once again highlighted continuing inaction of the federal government toward relations between Canada and its First Nations citizens.
Manitoba chiefs are now calling for a public inquiry into the Winnipeg Police Service in the wake of the police shooting that killed Craig McDougall over the weekend. They should get it.
McDougall, 26, was shot by officers who responded to a disturbance call around 5 a.m. August 2 at a house the West End of Winnipeg. Police said McDougall had refused repeated demands to drop a knife. Aboriginal leaders and McDougall’s family said at a press conference Tuesday that Craig was probably holding a cell phone, not a knife.
The 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal People provided a blueprint for ending the alienation of First Nations Canadians. But it has sat on the shelves of two successive governments, gathering dust.
A key element of the RCAP, which the CHP believes could provide a solid foundation for action, was for the creation of an Aboriginal Parliament-not, the authors of the RCAP made clear, to be another level of government, but an advisory body to the House of Commons. The CHP endorses this idea, and further believes that the $12 billion a year spent on Indian and Inuit affairs as recognition of treaty obligations should gradually be transferred to the jurisdiction and responsibility of the Aboriginal Parliament. So should the resolution of unfulfilled promises to Canada’s Metis.
The recent announcement by Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl that Indian band councils will henceforth be made accountable for the approximately $9 billion they receive directly seems laudable-except that it was, once again, made unilaterally.
Ottawa must resolve to end the paternalism that continues to say to Aboriginal people and groups, “Here is our solution to your problems.”
Solutions must always and only be reached by peer-to-peer negotiations that seek to restore justice.