The winter session of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) voted Tuesday on three measures to improve conditions for Indigenous children.
The meeting drew together 38 chiefs and proxies from across Saskatchewan. It included speeches by elders, senators and numerous other dignitaries who spoke on different topics, including the opioid crisis and protecting the environment. But the focus, and the resolutions passed, was about Indigenous children in foster care.
The first resolution stated that the FSIN prepare for a potential upcoming court case with the Saskatchewan government about the treatment of Indigenous children in foster care.
The potential court case would come if the federal government does not table a proposed bill regarding Indigenous child welfare before the House of Commons rises for the summer, FSIN Second Vice Chief Dave Pratt said.
“It’s one of the most fundamental laws of human rights, I think, when you talk about children knowing where they’re from, their language, their culture, their history… it’s important,” he said.
If the bill does not go before parliament, then it would have to be introduced after the upcoming federal election. If the Liberal Party is not re-elected, then the process would start over with a new minister of Indigenous services.
Highlighting the importance of the legislation, Pratt said that “(there) are more children in (foster) care now then there was at the height of the residential school system.”
There are about 40,000 Indigenous children in foster care across the country.
The second resolution the FSIN passed was to ask the United Nations to be an intervener in that potential court case, which would allow the UN, in some form, to presumably support the FSIN against the federal government.
As a member of the UN, Canada is bound by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, even though Canada voted against the declaration in 2007.
The final resolution was that the FSIN ask the federal government for a mandatory audit of all Indigenous children in foster care across the country. The original resolution limited the audit to Saskatchewan, but was amended.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde was in attendance and spoke about the need for federal bills regarding Indigenous languages and child welfare to receive royal assent before June when the House of Commons rises, in case the federal Liberal Party is not returned to government.
He called on the federal government to use the “same determination” to save Indigenous languages that it used to kill the languages.
“The residential schools must not win,” Bellegarde said to those assembled.
The day-long meeting included other topics, including Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier of the Okanese First Nation being honoured for being the longest-serving elected chief in Canadian history as well as for receiving the Order of Canada.
“(It’s) an honour to represent chiefs in a way (that comes) from a woman’s perspective,” she said.
Day Walker-Pelletier has been the Chief of the Okanese First Nation for 37 years.
The most pressing topic that First Nations must address, said Day Walker-Pelletier, “is the topic we’re talking about… Without our children being with their families we will never be able to survive.”
