State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 - Canada

According to the most recent census data from 2011, Canada's indigenous population now exceeds 1.4 million, comprised of First Nations, Métis and Inuit, all of whom have distinct ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds and traditions. Yet these communities also share similarities, including a troubled history of land rights and jurisdictional violations by corporations and the Canadian government, as well as impediments to realizing self-determination and political representation. However, a landmark ruling in 2014 set a new precedent for indigenous land claims and demonstrated the ability of indigenous communities to successfully defend their traditional land titles against state and private interests. On 26 June, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on the case, recognizing the title of the Tsilhqot'in Nation over approximately 1,700 square km of land south-west of Williams Lake, British Columbia. Aboriginal title as defined by Delgamuukw vs. British Columbia (1997) requires an indigenous people to prove that land was occupied by them solely prior to sovereignty, something no group had successfully done until this most recent case. In doing so, the Tsilhqot'in Nation proved that the British Columbia provincial government breached their duties to consult them 20 years ago prior to issuing logging licences on Tsilhqot'in Nation traditional lands.

The ruling therefore has wide implications for future development projects planned by the Canadian government over the next decade, amounting to C$650 billion of investment in mining, forestry, gas and oil projects, many of them to be undertaken on traditional indigenous lands. In particular, the creation or extensions of pipelines from the oil sands of Alberta to other areas within Canada or onwards into the United States have been strongly opposed by indigenous communities. While the extension of the Keystone XL pipeline was hotly debated and protested against in the United States, other pipelines such as Enbridge's proposed C$7 billion Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia, has been publicly opposed by First Nations since 2010. In the summer of 2014 several First Nations from British Columbia launched as many as nine legal challenges trying to block the pipeline and by September the legal case lodged by Gitxaala Nation became the first approved for hearing by the Federal Court of Appeal. As of January 2015, a total of 19 court challenges had been filed against the pipeline by various First Nations.

Despite these successes, significant political divisions led to the sudden resignation of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief, Shawn Atleo, on 2 May. His resignation came during a period of discord within the AFN over the federal government's proposed First Nation Education Bill, C-33, which Atleo supported. The bill was announced by the government in February 2014 with a promised C$1.9 billion in new funding for indigenous education to support reforms aimed at raising the 40 per cent high school graduation rate among First Nations on reserves. However, there was significant opposition to the bill for a number of reasons, including a lack of control of curriculum development by First Nations themselves, as well as hostility among many First Nation chiefs towards the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In May the federal government dropped the proposed bill, citing a lack of support among AFN leadership. In the months that followed three chiefs, Ghislain Picard, Leon Jourdain and Perry Bellegarde, vied to be elected the next AFN National Chief.

While Perry Bellegarde was elected on 9 December, concerns were raised over the absence of women candidates for the leadership role, as well as the organization's ineffectual lobbying of the federal government to address many ongoing issues, including legal investigations into the disappearance and murder of indigenous women. Though in February 2014 Amnesty International released a statement outlining the critical need not only for a government inquiry, but also a National Action Plan to address the severe violence faced by First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and girls in Canada, no steps were taken by the government during the year to do so.

For Canada's Afro-descendant population, 2014 was also distinguished by attempts at education reform. The first Africentric programme at a public Canadian high school was inaugurated during the 2013/14 academic year, with a class of 19 first-year high school students at east Toronto's Winston Churchill Collegiate. The programme was initiated amid controversy, with the initially proposed pilot school, Oakwood Collegiate, rejecting it due to an outcry from teachers, students and parents over concerns about segregation and creating divisions among pupils. Despite this, by February 2014 the Africentric programme at Winston Churchill Collegiate was proving successful. The programme seeks to lower the 40 per cent high school drop-out rate among Toronto's Afro-descendant youth by providing core subjects that draw on African and Caribbean culture and history, and is strongly attuned to the skill levels of individual students.

Among Canada's religious minorities, and specifically the country's Muslim population, 2014 saw some positive developments in terms of political recognition and freedom of religious expression. Naheed Nenshi became the first Muslim mayor of a major city not only in Canada but throughout North America when elected as mayor of Calgary in 2010; he was awarded the prestigious World Mayor prize by the City Mayors Foundation in February 2015. In addition, the proposed Quebec Charter of Secular Values, bill 60, introduced by the Conservative Parti Québécois (PQ) in November 2013, was dropped by the Liberals following the August 2014 elections when they won control of the Quebec parliamentarian government from the PQ. The bill had proposed banning government employees from wearing religious symbols at work. While it would have had implications for individuals of all religions, concerns were raised that it was specifically discriminatory against Muslim women who wear various forms of hijab. Yet despite this victory in defeating a bill that progressives denounced as racist and xenophobic, in January 2015, following the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, an SOM survey found that 59 per cent of Quebecers were in favour of reviving the Charter of Secular Values and efforts to pass the bill were reignited among the PQ.

While Canada boasts a land mass totalling nearly 10 million square kilometres, making it the largest country in the Americas by territory, and the second-largest in the world after Russia, a significant majority of that land is uninhabitable due to extreme climates. As a result, the majority of the population resides in a small proportion of the country and is overwhelmingly urban, with 81 per cent of the population living in metropolitan areas. The proportion is lower among indigenous peoples – as of 2011, 56 per cent of indigenous peoples were living in urban areas in Canada, a 7 per cent increase from 1996. For Canada's First Nations, Inuit, Métis and other indigenous peoples these factors not only affect the rates of violence among women and girls from these groups, but also the increasingly urban indigenous population's ability to access social services as well as quality education, employment and housing. Furthermore, urban indigenous peoples now make up the fastest growing section of Canadian society, predominantly residing in the cities of Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal, Saskatoon and Regina.

In Winnipeg, which is home to the largest number of urban indigenous peoples in Canada, the first Métis mayor, Brian Bowman, was elected in November 2014. His election was seen as an important advance in bridging the growing sense of separation between the indigenous and non-indigenous population. This rift was made clear by a Probe Research survey released in October 2014 that revealed that 75 per cent of Winnipeggers surveyed believed ethnic division was a serious issue within the city. The view was consistently held by people of different backgrounds, with 74 per cent of indigenous peoples and 75 per cent of non-indigenous peoples in agreement.

One exacerbating factor in this division is the disproportionate impact of violent crime on some urban indigenous communities, particularly in relation to gang membership in Winnipeg. However, this is precipitated by a number of factors which influence gang and violent crime involvement. For the First Nations, Inuit and Métis of Winnipeg and other urban centres, discrimination, poverty, cultural alienation, spatial segregation, sub-standard housing and decreased access to labour markets have helped push many indigenous youth towards gang affiliation. Yet it is critical to also recognize the gains that have been made by the indigenous population: in Winnipeg, the indigenous middle class is growing rapidly, thanks in part to increased access to better education.

Nevertheless, the urban exclusion that drives many into violent gangs has also contributed to increased rates of violence inflicted against indigenous women, which is also strongly associated with their secondary status based on gender and their belonging to a marginalized community. During the year, indigenous community groups were instrumental in increasing awareness about the high numbers of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, as part of the Idle No More movement. This was thanks in part to the efforts of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NAWC) as well as the release of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) report in May 2014 which cited 1,017 homicides and 164 missing persons cases of indigenous women and girls between 1980 and 2012. Rights groups such as Amnesty International have also questioned the accuracy of available police statistics and believe the true figures may be much higher. What is certain is that indigenous women are disproportionately targeted. According to some estimates, for example, indigenous women aged between 25 and 44 are five times more likely to die from violence than Canadian women of other ethnicities in the same age group.

In March 2014, prior to the release of the RCMP report, the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women presented their own report, Invisible Women: A Call to Action, during the 41st Parliament, Second Session. The report uncovered a number of significant yet varied factors contributing to the epidemic of disappearances and murders of indigenous women and girls, with one of the most defining being the deprivation, poor living conditions and discrimination experienced by many indigenous people on a routine basis. The report also revealed that 70 per cent of disappearances and 60 per cent of murders, according to available police statistics, occurred in urban areas.

While the prevalence of disappearances and murders of indigenous women and girls over the past 30 years was a focal point of public dialogue and local-level action in 2014, for most of the years prior there had been widespread public indifference. Indigenous peoples and women's rights groups, including the NAWC, have advocated for years with little success for improved prevention initiatives. However, public apathy has begun to shift and over the last few years a number of individuals, women's groups and indigenous rights organizations have worked tirelessly to reduce violence against indigenous women and girls.

It was their efforts that helped ensure the murder of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine in August, as well as the sexual assault and attempted murder of 16-year-old Rinelle Harper in November, both in Winnipeg, did not go unnoticed. Multi-ethnic vigils were held and groups urged local officials to take action. As a result, the Police Service's Community Relations Unit met with leaders of five of the seven First Nations that fall under Treaty 1 to discuss the role indigenous men play in violence against women, while also identifying indigenous leaders who will stand up against gangs. On a broader level, Leah Gazan, the president of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, started the 'We Care' movement to raise awareness of violence against indigenous women among all Winnipeggers. Nevertheless, although local-level initiatives assisted in initiating dialogues and plans of action to address the root causes of the violence in Winnipeg and throughout Canada, the national-level response from the Harper government was dismissive of the social factors at play. Instead, the prime minister negated the findings of several federal, provincial and community studies by stating that this issue was not a 'sociological phenomenon' and needed to be addressed through crime-prevention tactics. In early 2015, however, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women released a report, supported by a statement from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), that found Canada's lack of action constituted a 'grave rights violation' against indigenous women and girls.