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We first met Trevor, Supervisor of Donations Processing for Covenant House Vancouver, when he attended one of our Training Weeks. Trevor took the time to tell us about Covenant House, what they stood for, their goals and what he personally was doing to support reconciliation. Trevor left a lasting impression on our team and was a tireless advocate for truth and reconciliation and for supporting Indigenous initiatives.

On June 21, 2021, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) received Royal Assent and immediately came into force. In doing so, Canada took a substantive step towards ensuring federal laws reflect the standards set out in DRIPA. There are many questions about DRIPA, so we answer the most common ones in this article.

“Indigenous People face the worst housing outcomes in the country.” Hon. Marc Miller, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations [1]

To understand the complexities of the housing situation, some basic information on the reserve system, created in 1876, is required. The two articles linked below provide an overview of on-reserve housing.

Looking back

Back in 2014, when we published this blog post, Canada was wrestling with the notion of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the duty to consult with no veto. When the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the Declaration), drafted in 2007, introduced the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous Peoples. FPIC, one of the fundamental aspects of the Declaration, is included in six Articles. While all six Articles are significant, Article 32.1 is of particular interest to the federal government and the extractive resource sector in Canada:

This is the second part of our series on best outreach practices for the recruitment of Indigenous Peoples. In the first part, Community Engagement for Indigenous Recruitment, we shared a few tips and suggestions on some activities an organization should consider before initial contact with the community/ies. Due diligence activities such as researching the history, culture, issues, challenges and protocols of the community/ies you want to engage for recruitment will prepare you well and help you avoid embarrassing engagement mistakes. By taking the time to do this, you will be aware of cultural protocol for meetings, and you will be aware that the protocol for one community may be different from that of another. Recognize that relationships with Indigenous communities take time to build, and efforts must be made to maintain them.

Education is considered a human right in Canada. Yet, while Canada has one of the world's highest levels of educational attainment, the graduation rate for Indigenous students remains far lower than that of non-Indigenous students. How is that possible? The answer lies in the history of Canada.

A First Nation reserve is a tract of land set aside under the Indian Act and treaty agreements for the exclusive use of an Indian band (First Nation). Earliest examples of reserves date back to attempts by French missionaries in 1637 to encourage Aboriginal Peoples to settle in one spot and embrace both agriculture and Christianity. As more and more Europeans settled in Canada and on the traditional lands of Indigenous Peoples, it became apparent to the authorities that an effective means to ensure the most fertile land was available to European farmers was needed. The development of the reserve system met this need.

In 2015, we published an article outlining the eight key issues of primary concern for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Since then, the article has been viewed over 620,000 times, making it the most-viewed article of the hundreds on our Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples® blog. Due to the continuing high interest, we decided to take a deeper look at each of the eight issues.

Eight of the key issues of most significant concern for Indigenous Peoples in Canada are complex and inexorably intertwined - so much so that government, researchers, policymakers and Indigenous leaders seem hamstrung by the enormity. It is hard to isolate one issue as being the worst. The roots of these issues lie in the Indian Act and colonialism.

Did you know that adequate housing was recognized in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Did you know almost one in six Indigenous people lived in a home in need of major repairs in 2021 [1], a rate almost three times higher than for the non-Indigenous population, and more than 17 percent of Indigenous people lived in crowded housing?