As Indigenous communities across the country respond to the remarkably quick passing of Bill C-5 through the Canadian Senate, a Metis lawyer from Vancouver has shared his thoughts on the controversial legislation.
Bill C-5 allows the federal government to fast-track the approval of proposed projects designed to support Canada’s economy. However, the bill accomplishes this by simply disregarding other legislation that would be in the way, including environmental regulations. The first draft of C-5 included that ability to move around the Indian Act, but that version of the Bill was changed.
Many Indigenous leaders across the country are strongly opposed to this Bill, as they feel the government will simply use this opportunity to seize more power for itself and disregard the concerns of the communities that will be affected by future projects.
One concerned opponent is Dr Bruce McIvor, a Metis Lawyer from Vancouver, who feels that this Bill is “the biggest threat to Indigenous rights in a generation.”
“That’s for a couple of reasons. It adopts this very vague standard of national interest. There’s no concrete criteria for that, so what will happen is that politicians and their advisors within Cabinet can decide for themselves that a project is in the national interest, and then once they decide that, they automatically get all the required authorization they need.”
Dr. McIvor points out that the need to consult with Indigenous leaders on large scale projects is still part of the Canadian Constitution. The issue is that this Bill will essentially remove all of the requirements to make sure that process is actually carried out in the first place.
McIvor himself has spent many years working on cases where the need for Indigenous involvement on cultural and environmental matters, and whether or not they were properly consulted, have been vital to decisions made in court.
“Now these laws are tossing all that out the door and saying you don’t need to do it. We’re just going to approve them in secret and then worry about consequences later. I think that’s a real serious threat.”
Dr McIvor also took issue with comments made by Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“He was quoted based on a question, what’s going to happen when land defenders stand up for their rights? He basically said “Well, that’s what the cops are for. The cops will enforce the law.”
“This is part of how laws have been used, not just in Canada, but across the British Empire, against Indigenous people. It’s a concept called Legalized Lawlessness, which captures the idea that colonial powers manipulate their laws in such a way that they can then impose those laws against Indigenous people, and this is just the most recent example of colonial law makers doing that.
“I’m concerned that this will mean militarized police forces, which we’ve seen all too often acting against Indigenous people.”