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In an election ad, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to a bust of John A. Macdonald about the importance of developing national projects like the Canadian Pacific Railway.
“What do you think, prime minister? Could you get the railway built today?” Poilievre asks the bust.
It’s only the most recent way Poilievre has expressed his admiration for Canada’s first prime minister — the man who got the railway built, but did it by displacing Indigenous Peoples using starvation and detention, and who also was a key proponent of the residential school system.
Métis lawyer Bruce McIvor, a partner at First Peoples Law, says it’s a worrying admiration.
“Poilievre dreams of being a 21st century John A. MacDonald, and we can see that in what he’s said so far,” he said.
Poilievre has referenced Macdonald in multiple campaign speeches this election. Over the years, he has also made social media posts celebrating Macdonald’s birthday, talked about the need for more statues of the former PM and, in 2012, dressed up in period clothing to announce the renaming of an Ottawa building after Macdonald.
In the two-and-a-half years since he became leader of the Conservative Party, Poilievre’s pitch to Indigenous voters has focused on resource development and economic reconciliation but some Indigenous advocates say they are concerned about his record on issues like residential schools and Indigenous rights.
Residential school apology
The same day in 2008 that Stephen Harper made a historic apology to former students of the residential school system, Poilievre told an Ottawa talk radio show survivors did not need more compensation but instead required a better work ethic.
“Along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years. Now, some of us are starting to ask, are we really getting value for all of this money,” he said.
“My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work, independence, and self-reliance.”
The next day, he was called on in Parliament to make his own apology, which he did.
Voted against UNDRIP bill
During a 2021 debate over the bill to make Canadian laws consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Poilievre said, “I am very proud to say that I oppose this bill.” He said that free, prior and informed consent — a phrase that appears repeatedly in UNDRIP — “would mean a veto” for any First Nation that opposed a resource development project.
He ultimately voted against the bill.
When Poilievre addressed the Assembly of First Nations for the first time in person last summer, Judy Wilson, former chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band and former executive member of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, was one of Poilievre’s critics.
In addition to her concerns about his lack of support for UNDRIP, Wilson pointed out that Poilievre did not address missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, treaty rights or climate change in his speech.
She said she remains concerned about his position on UNDRIP and free, prior and informed consent on issues affecting Indigenous Peoples, their lands and their communities.
The issue of consent and consultation arose again when Poilievre visited the Arctic in February. On the trip he announced plans to create a new military base in Nunavut if a Conservative government is elected, but Premier P.J. Akeeagok said Poilievre had failed to consult with Northerners before the announcement.
Election promises
A caption for the Facebook ad featuring Poilievre talking to the bust of Macdonald said that Conservatives would “honour the legacy of Sir John A. Macdonald & unite our country with a Canada First National Energy Corridor.”
The energy corridor will be “pre-approved right away for pipelines, rail lines, power lines and other resource infrastructure,” Poilievre says in the ad.
McIvor said he’s worried about that.
“The government can’t come forward with proposals that have been pre-determined,” he said, pointing to the duty to consult Indigenous Peoples affirmed by the Supreme Court.
“So to hear the leader of the Conservatives say that they intend to greenlight projects before they’ve gone through consultation with Indigenous people is very concerning.”
Along the same lines, Poilievre has said he would grant permits for mining projects in Ontario’s Ring of Fire within six months of being elected.
Those rapid approvals, along with “pre-approving” energy corridor projects “is completely contrary to fundamental principles of constitutional law,” McIvor said.
CBC Indigenous sent a list of questions to the Conservative campaign about Poilievre’s record and his current policies.
A Conservative campaign spokesperson provided a statement which did not directly answer any of CBC Indigenous’s questions, but said that Poilievre has prioritized speaking with Indigenous leaders and community members to inform his campaign’s policies.
The energy corridor was one of two policies highlighted by the spokesperson.
The other policy was the First Nations resource charge, which was developed by the bi-partisan First Nations Tax Commission, and would allow First Nations to opt-in to the chance to directly tax resource development projects on their lands.
Ch’íyáqtel (Tzeachten) Chief Derek (Weli’leq) Epp, who works with the First Nations Tax Commission, said the commission presented the policy to multiple parties.
“With the Conservatives endorsing this, yes, it sends an important signal that Canada is committed to Indigenous economic justice,” he said.
While the Conservatives have been the only ones to adopt it outright, Epp said he’s seen parts of it in Liberal policies as well.
“It’s great that the Conservative government is championing this, but this isn’t new,” Epp said, adding that the idea has been around for well over a decade.
When Conservatives announced the proposed policy in 2023, one critic called it “a great idea for the 1990s.”
Concerns about resource charge
John Desjarlais, executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network, a non-partisan organization that promotes economic development, said he is pleased by the approach of the resource charge, especially as it respects First Nations autonomy.
However, he said there are some concerns about how the policy will be applied.
“I think there’s worry that [the relationship between community and industry] will be lost and they’ll lose their ability to negotiate and develop the things that matter to them,” said Desjarlais, who is Cree-Métis.
Since the policy was first announced, it has been unclear if it would allow nations to tax projects on their traditional territories or only on reserve lands.
Epp said the resource tax should apply to traditional territories, calling that “integral to the proposal.”
Desjarlais said if it only applied to reserves, “We’d certainly be less excited or less interested because its application would be far less impactful.”
While he looks forward to streamlining some of the bureaucratic processes and speeding up project timelines, Desjarlais said the policy presents concerns about the potential for governments to discharge their responsibilities on consultation.
Epp said he doesn’t have any concerns about the government abdicating its obligations to First Nations.
“There still is the right to UNDRIP,” he said.
Desjarlais said he is encouraged to see “less government, less paternalism, less siphoning of the resources that can come directly to communities,” from the Conservative adoption of the resource tax policy.
However, he said, during a campaign it’s hard to tell what is real and what is rhetoric.
“Will those promises be honoured? Generally, I think that’s our concern,” Desjarlais said.
