Background In 1992, the Innu Nation brought a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) alleging that the Government of Canada (the Government) had failed to exercise direct constitutional responsibility in respect of the Innu. Instead, the Innu Nation claimed, the Government had left the Innu to be dealt with by the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador (the Province) under an agreement with the Government. The Innu claimed that the refusal of the Government to recognize its constitutional obligations had resulted in a continuing governmental failure to provide them with the level and quality of services received by other Aboriginal people in Canada. The Innu also complained that the Government had subjected the Mushuau Innu of Davis Inlet to a series of relocations without meaningful consultation. The relocation of the Mushuau Innu to Davis Inlet in 1967 had left them without adequate housing or services, and had resulted in social dysfunction. The Innu sought compensation for the failure of the Government of Canada to recognize their Aboriginal constitutional status, and for breach of fiduciary duty. The Commission appointed Professor Donald M. McRae of the University of Ottawa as a Special Investigator "to examine the grievances of the Innu of Labrador against the governments of Canada and Newfoundland and to recommend such corrective measures as may be warranted." The Report, delivered in 1993, concluded that the Government had failed to acknowledge and assume constitutional responsibility for the Innu as Aboriginal people of Canada with a consequent impact on the level and quality of services received by the Innu and on their ability to achieve self-government. It also concluded that the Mushuau Innu had been relocated to the present village site in Davis Inlet without any meaningful consultation 1. The Report made the following recommendations. That the Government: (i) formally acknowledge its constitutional responsibility towards the Innu; (ii) abrogate its funding arrangements with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in respect of the Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet and enter into direct arrangements with the Innu as Aboriginal people in Canada. Such arrangements should ensure that the Innu have access to all federal funding, programs and services that are available to status, on-reserve Indian people in Canada while preserving the unique aspects of existing arrangements such as the outposts program; (iii) enter into direct negotiations with the Innu in respect of self-government and for the devolution of programs and services, involving the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador where appropriate in accordance with the principle of mutual consent set out in the September 1989 Policy Statement on Indian Self-Government in Canada; (iv) make a commitment to the expeditious relocation of the Mushuau Innu to a site chosen by them; and (v) provide the funding necessary to implement these recommendations.
It was also recommended that the Commission review the progress made in the implementation of the Report every five years. Back to top In May 2001, the Commission requested that professors Constance Backhouse and Donald McRae, of the University of Ottawa, conduct a follow-up review of the 1993 Report. The Terms of Reference for the follow-up review were as follows: 1. to review progress made by the Government in the implementation of the recommendations of the 1993 Report...; 2. in relation to 1, to examine (a) the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and the Government’s response to it (Gathering Strength) and the implementation thereof; and (b) land rights claims of the Innu of Labrador; 3. to review the situation of the Innu in relation to international human rights commitments to which Canada is a party, and in particular with regard to: (a) the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(b) the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(c) the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(d) the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; 4. to review the situation of Canada’s obligation to the Innu in light of its failure to provide treatment equal to that of other First Nations for the period 1949 to 2001; and 5. to make such recommendations as are appropriate based on the findings of the above reviews.
During the course of this follow-up review, we have reviewed documents provided by the Innu Nation, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, and Health Canada. We visited the communities of Sheshatshiu, Davis Inlet and Natuashish in July–August and December 2001, where we met with representatives of the Innu Nation, the band councils and the Mushuau Innu Relocation Committee. We also met with members of the Innu land claims negotiating committee in Ottawa. We interviewed officials from DIAND in Ottawa, Amherst and Goose Bay, from Health Canada in Ottawa and Goose Bay, and from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada in Ottawa. We also met with the Chief Federal Negotiator for Labrador Innu Files, in Montreal. Back to top The Innu of Labrador The Innu comprise about 1500 people living in two communities in Labrador: Sheshatshiu to the south and Davis Inlet (Utshimasits) to the north. Historically, the Labrador Innu were part of the nomadic peoples who roamed Nitassinan (roughly what is known as the Ungava Peninsula) hunting caribou. Those to the south, particularly along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, were known to the early settlers as Montagnais, and those to the north, including the Mushuau Innu of Davis Inlet as Naskapi. But Montagnais and Naskapi are the same people and they share a common language — Innu-aimun. The boundary between Quebec and Labrador divides the Innu of Quebec from the Innu of Labrador. 2 Traditionally, the Innu hunted in the interior of Nitassinan and visited the coast only during the summer months. 3 These visits became associated with the trading posts 4 to which furs were sold and often coincided with the presence of a priest. Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet were places to which the Innu came. 5 The invasion of the Innu’s traditional hunting grounds by white settlers also drove the Innu to the coast. 6 A dependency on store food developed and the Innu began to spend more time in their coastal settlements. But furs, which provided income, were often sparse and poverty and starvation were not infrequent. Government relief was provided to the Innu from the 1920s on through the Hudson’s Bay Company representative or the priest. 7 In 1948, the Newfoundland authorities closed the depot at Davis Inlet and moved the Mushuau Innu some 250 miles north to Nutak. The Innu did not take to this new environment and in 1949 they went back to Davis Inlet. Thus, at the time that Newfoundland entered Confederation, Innu settlements had been long established at Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet, although they were of a somewhat seasonal nature. The Innu lived in tents, and not all of the inhabitants stayed in the settlement year round. However, families were discouraged by the priest and by government representatives from going to the country on the grounds that education could be provided for their children only if they remained in the settlement. Housing began to be constructed for the Innu in Sheshatshiu in the 1950s. Between 1965 and 1968 housing in Sheshatshiu was substantially increased by the building of 51 new units. 8 Housing was also begun in Davis Inlet, but not at the location on the coast where the settlement had existed for many years. 9 A new settlement was established on Iluikoyak Island some two miles from the existing settlement and the Innu were relocated there. Back to top The Innu and the Government The Terms of Union under which Newfoundland entered Confederation made no reference to the Aboriginal people of Newfoundland and Labrador, although the matter had been discussed during the negotiations between the representatives of Newfoundland and the representatives of Canada. Following union, the Government paid costs incurred by Newfoundland in respect of the Aboriginal people of Newfoundland and Labrador, although the nature and extent of its responsibility or obligation to do so was the subject of substantial internal discussion. 10 In 1954, the Government and the Province entered into an agreement by an exchange of letters: 11 designed to delimit, on a long-term and more satisfactory basis, the areas of responsibility of the federal and provincial governments with regard to the Indian and Eskimo population of Northern Labrador...
The agreement provided that the Government would assume 66.7% of costs in respect of Eskimos and 100% of costs in respect of Indians relating to "agreed capital expenditures...in the fields of welfare, health and education," assume the full costs of hospital treatment for Indians and Eskimos of northern Labrador during a 10-year period, and "undertake an aggressive anti-tuberculosis program" during the same period. For its part, the Province was to assume all other "financial and administrative responsibilities for the Indian and Eskimo population of Labrador" excluding such federal benefits as family allowances and old age pensions. Ten years later a new agreement was entered into between the Government and the Province, again by an exchange of letters. 12 This agreement renewed the 1954 agreement in respect of medical and hospital costs and the anti-tuberculosis program, but included a new arrangement under which the Government would "reimburse Newfoundland for 90 percent of the province’s expenditures on Indians and Eskimos" up to a maximum of $1 million per year. 13 This agreement provided the financial basis for capital developments, particularly housing, in both communities. The 1964 arrangement, which was to last for five years, was extended in 1970 and 1976. In 1981 it was again renewed as two separate agreements, one as the Native Peoples of Labrador Agreement and the other as the Comprehensive Health Agreement. The latter has been renewed on an annual basis, but the Native Peoples of Labrador Agreement was subsequently divided into two agreements, one relating to the Inuit and the other to the Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet. The Innu agreement was renewed regularly and exists today as the Contribution Agreement Between the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for the Benefit of the Innu Communities of Labrador, 1991–1996. Back to top This contribution agreement is designed to provide for services to the Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet, although these are identified as "supplementary programs and services." 14The agreement identifies the amount of funding available, 15 the purposes for which it can be used, the methods of payment and the mechanisms of accountability, and establishes a management committee composed of federal and provincial officials and representatives of the communities of Sheshatshiu and Davis Inlet. Originally, the only funding of the Innu by the Government was through the agreements entered into between the Government and the Province. However, in 1984 the federal Cabinet agreed to direct funding contribution agreements between Health and Welfare Canada and Aboriginal organizations of Newfoundland and Labrador, including the Naskapi–Montagnais Innu Association. 16 In the late 1980s the Government began to make a number of arrangements directly with the Innu including the provision of post-secondary education costs, and funding for alcohol and drug abuse programs, economic development and health services. 17 These sources of funding have been made available either by agreements between the Innu Nation and the Minister of Health or simply by the Government indicating that it will treat the Innu as eligible for certain programs. In 1976, the Innu made enquiries of the Government about registration under the Indian Act, 18 and in 1977 applied for registration. 19 No such registration took place. However, in July 1978, the Innu were recognized as having a land claim based on "traditional use and occupancy of lands in Labrador." 20 In December 1992, the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development wrote to the President of the Innu Nation indicating that "Canada recognizes the Innu people of Labrador as a special group of Aboriginal people" and indicated a willingness to negotiate self-government for the Innu and to work with the Innu with a view to their "achieving greater control over the delivery of programs and services which affect them directly...through increased devolution of existing programs and services from both federal and provincial governments." 21 Back to top |
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