The Council of Canadians
Like you, we have been waking up to more news confirming the horrors of the Indian Residential School system.
We at the Council have been asked by our allies and supporters to consider how we approach July 1st, a day set aside to celebrate our country and its accomplishments.
Over the past month, the remains of more than 1,300 Indigenous children have been found in unmarked graves surrounding institutions they were forced into by churches and governments.
The Council of Canadians is mourning with the London community and Muslims from across the country and around the world after the targeted murder of four family members out for a walk this past Sunday. We also want to recognize our London Chapter who are closely affected by this act of hate and violence. They are reaching out to neighbours with opportunities to show solidarity with the local Muslim community, and continue to work to end racism and hate where they see it.
The federal government recently announced conditions regulating the Mi’kmaq livelihood fishery. These conditions propose to limit the livelihood fishery to the commercial season already set out by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and propose to give Indigenous fishers access to commercial fisheries through voluntary buyouts of existing licences.
At the June 2020 Annual Meeting, Council of Canadians' members voted to endorse and promote a Canadian nominating process for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to go the Henry Reeve medical teams from Cuba for their international work in the context of COVID-19.
The Council of Canadians supports the Mi'kmaq treaty right to fish for a moderate livelihood, protected by the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1760/61, reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada with the Marshall decisions of 1999.
The Council of Canadians are in solidarity with our Black members and supporters, and all Black leaders and individuals working for an end to police brutality and killings in their communities. We recognize the existence of systemic racism in our society and we are committed to eradicating it. We believe in the power of protest, and condemn the use of force against protests across the U.S. and Canada.
Canada needs universal, public pharmacare now more than ever. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 20% of Canadian households were struggling to pay for their medication. The mass layoffs triggered by the pandemic have now left millions more people without work-based drug plans.
The Council of Canadians is in full solidarity with UFCW workers who are being forced to work in unsafe conditions at Cargill meat-packing plants in Canada.
Regard for human rights is essential in times of crisis. Human rights principles provide a valuable framework for government action and establish crucial safeguards against abuses. Yet respect for human rights is particularly vulnerable – tenuous at best – in times of crisis. That holds true whether the crisis is related to national security, natural disasters or a public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Letter to Minister Freeland urging them to rescind the decision to refuse the Manitoba Chiefs' request/plan for a Cuban Health Brigade to provide health care in indigenous communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.