INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAMME INTERNSHIP REPORT
FACULTY OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
SUMMER 2003
JESSICA ORKIN
OCTOBER 10, 2003
My International Human Rights summer internship was hosted by the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) (GCCEI), the central political, representative and governing body of the James Bay Cree nation of northern Quebec.
The Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) (GCCEI) was formed in 1974, when the Crees were negotiating with the Governments of Canada and Quebec with respect to their rights in the face of the James Bay hydroelectric scheme, which had already been under construction since 1971 – without prior consultation with the indigenous inhabitants of the area. In 1975, the GCCEI signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) with the Governments of Canada and Quebec, on behalf of all James Bay Cree. In their struggle for recognition and respect of their Aboriginal and treaty rights, for the implementation of government obligations under the JBNQA,
and for improvements in the economic, political, social and cultural living conditions of the Cree people, the GCCEI has worked extensively at the international level. Through advocacy and intervention at various international human rights and legal fora, the GCCEI has sought to ensure that international human rights standards are observed in Canada’s treatment of Aboriginal peoples.
My internship work was broadly directed towards updating and extending the research undertaken in the past by the GCCEI regarding the legal, economic, political, social and cultural conditions facing Aboriginal peoples in Canada, in the context of its advocacy and submissions to various international human rights fora. In particular, my research was directed to assisting in the preparation of briefs for submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, to which the GCCEI plans to intervene in the context of
Canada’s upcoming periodic reviews pursuant respectively to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). My research and analysis of the conditions facing Aboriginal peoples in Canada was thus tailored to correspond to the rights provided under these International Covenants and other instruments of international human rights law. During my internship, I was based in Toronto, with supervision from the Ottawa GCCEI office, and collaborated with two other law students who had been hired to work on this project.
My research was focused on the Canadian federal government’s continuing policy of extinguishment of Aboriginal and treaty rights, examined in light of the right of self-determination guaranteed in Article 1 of both International Covenants. In 1998 and 1999, in the context of Canada’s last periodic reviews under the International Covenants, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee both condemned the federal government’s policy of extinguishment of Aboriginal rights, and recommended its abandonment. In particular, the Human Rights Committee found the policy of extinguishment to be incompatible with Article 1 of the ICCPR. The Canadian government has subsequently given assurances, in both domestic and international fora, that it will no longer require extinguishment of land and resource rights in treaty negotiations. My research involved a detailed analysis of the new federal “certainty” policies unveiled in recent land claims agreements, which are touted by the federal government as an alternative to extinguishment. These “alternatives”, my research concluded, are merely semantic, as the new policies remain based on dispossession and imposed disconnection from traditional lands, and thus share many of the fundamentally colonial features which have made the extinguishment policy unacceptable and unjust.
The high point of my internship experience was the opportunity to accompany the
delegation of the Grand Council of the Crees to the Americas & Caribbean Regional Experts Meeting of the Indigenous Rights in the Commonwealth Project, held in Georgetown, Guyana in June 2003. This meeting, one of four regional consultations organized under the auspices of the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit of the University of London, was attended by indigenous representatives from Belize, Canada, Dominica, and Guyana (the Commonwealth countries of the Americas), as well as indigenous rights experts from Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Romeo Saganash, the Director of Quebec Relations of the GCCEI, presented the GCCEI submission, entitled “A Study in Contrasts: A New Vision of Aboriginal Inclusion in Québec and the
Continuing Federal Government Imposition of Extinguishment of Aboriginal Rights
Across Canada”. This submission was largely based on my research and writings.
After returning from Guyana, my internship research work focused on expanding the theoretical and doctrinal underpinnings of the critique of the policy of extinguishment, through a review of the academic literature concerning extinguishment and the rights of self-determination as applied to indigenous peoples. I was also involved in the planning discussions and research regarding future empirical research concerning the socio-economic and infrastructural conditions of First Nations in Canada, based on newly-available data from Statistics Canada and Indian Affairs.
My internship experience provided me with a valuable chance to explore firsthand the
contradiction between Canada’s internationally proclaimed respect and support for human rights, and its domestic practices with respect to Aboriginal peoples. The internship, and especially attendance at the experts meeting in Guyana, provided me with an eye-opening opportunity to observe and participate in the politics of international human rights advocacy, and in particular increased my understanding of the various domestic influences on and uses of international human rights activities with respect to issues concerning indigenous peoples. I intend to continue my research and work in this area, through independent directed research during this academic year and possibly also through continued work with the GCCEI. My internship work product concerning the policy of extinguishment has already been of further use to the GCCEI: in September, I assisted in the preparation of a GCCEI submission concerning the policy of extinguishment, which was presented to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance on the occasion of his recent fact-finding visit to Canada.