September 22 , 2008
Letter to Prime Minister Harper
Dear Prime Minister Harper,
I am writing on behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, to condemn comments you made to the Canadian Polish Congress on September 9, 2008, suggesting that the First Peoples of Canada represent “new Canadians,” or the first immigrants to have arrived in Canada. Your comments were unanimously condemned by delegates at PSAC’s Aboriginal Peoples’ Conference in Winnipeg Manitoba, from September 19-21, 2008.
PSAC represents more than 160,000 workers from coast-to-coast-coast, including many First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. Our Aboriginal Peoples’ Conference brought workers together to discuss the pressing issues faced by Aboriginal workers, as well as the need for broader advocacy work to make Aboriginal poverty history.
Our delegates were outraged by your comments, because they deny the fact that First Peoples are indigenous to Canada. Particularly offensive to PSAC’s Aboriginal members was your mischaracterization of Aboriginal oral history when describing “a long journey from a far-off land.” By stating that Aboriginal Peoples were simply the first in a series of waves of immigration to Canada, you are implicitly suggesting that they have no entitlement to their ancestral lands.
Our delegates see this as a deliberate mischaracterization – an insensitive distortion of the oral histories of the First Peoples designed to disguise your government’s failure to stand up for Aboriginal human rights. This speaks volumes about the Conservative Party’s views toward Aboriginal Peoples and offers an explanation as to why there has been no movement on the part of your government to deal with the serious crises that exist in Aboriginal communities – grinding poverty, high suicide rates, a lack of clean water and an absence of affordable or adequate housing.
While the apology on the part of the Canadian government to residential school survivors represented an important step toward reconciliation, it seems as if another apology is in order – this time for having made offensive comments that only served to underscore your government’s failure to adequately address the needs of Aboriginal Peoples.
In recent months, the Canadian government has refused to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and backed away from the Kelowna Accord that dedicated $5.1 billion to improving the socioeconomic conditions of Aboriginal people in Canada.
The Canadian government is turning its back on Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. Strong, vibrant, healthy and prosperous Aboriginal communities make for a better and more equitable country. The denial and mischaracterization of First Peoples’ history only serves to make the federal government’s recent apology ring hollow. We demand an immediate retraction of your statements made on September 9, 2008, and urge you to take action today to make Aboriginal poverty history.
Sincerely,
John Gordon
National President
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Date Modified : 2008/09/22
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