My Grandfather Jesus - An Anishinaabe Christmas Story

By Johnny Hawke

(Loosely based on stories I've heard growing up in my community)

A warm willowy whiff of fermenting hay with the burnt chocolate leathery aroma of Cigar smoke married with the pungent scent of manure and Old Spice aftershave. This was the fragrance that let me know it was Christmas Morning. This was the fragrance of my Grandfather and his Team of Horses. The magical sounds of harnessed brass bells jingling in rhythm to soft gentle galloping trot you could tell they were near. My excitement grew and grew with every jingle of those bells as they got closer. It was time for our Christmas Morning ride with my Grandfather around our Village.

I was just a very young child but Christmas and those Horses and my Grandfather are some of the earliest cherished memories I have before I was taken away to become civilized and a Christian. On Christmas Eve, my Mother would prepare pies for the coming day and sing these lyrics to song “Jesus is Coming. A Saviour is Born.” At that very young age Christianity was not known to me and the meaning behind why were celebrating we not known to me. So every year my Mother would prepare those pies and sing that same song on Christmas Eve and like clock work the next morning my Grandfather would show up to take us for a ride around the village with his Team of Horses.

My Grandfather wasn’t always around and was always working throughout the year up the lakes and in the orchards and in the fields. Up until then at that young age I remember only seeing him at Christmas and because of that song my Mother would sing “Jesus is coming, A Saviour is Born,” I actually thought my Grandfather’s name was Jesus and that it was him she was singing about.

I was 10 years old when I was taken away. These Zhagonosh People I’ve never seen before were gathering us children on our island. I remember this day very clearly because it was the day my Grandfather passed away. He died that morning. I think it was from this trauma. In some sort of way it felt that his spirit came with me. These People who came to take us away said they were taking us to Boarding School so we can learn about Jesus and become Civilized and Canadian. I thought I was going to where my Grandfather worked at this place called heaven. Up until then I still thought he was this Jesus my Mom sang about on Christmas Eve.

This story is not about the awful things of what happened to me at this place but is about my escape. While at this place we were forbidden to speak our language and talk of where we came from. In order to keep my spirits up I would sing the song my Mother would sing on Christmas Eve. “Jesus is coming, Jesus our Saviour is born.” This was my trick to fool those Nuns and Priests. Singing this song would take me in my mind back home. It would help me think of my Grandfather where I would call upon him to help me as I sang this song.

When I turned 12 during the fall one year, when I was feeling extra lonely for home I started singing the song and that night I had a dream. My Grandfather came to visit me in my dream. In this dream my Grandfather spoke, “ My Boy, when you finish your supper tomorrow, I will give you a sign. You will know what it is. Follow it, every time you recognize this sign keep following it” He said. I woke up the next day and thought all morning about that dream.

The time came, we just finished our supper and the Nun’s gave us time to get fresh air while they set up for a presentation from a theatre group that came to put on a play for us. As we were playing outside, something very familiar was in the air. It was a warm willowy whiff of fermenting hay and a burnt chocolate leathery aroma of cigar smoke married with the pungent scent of manure and Old Spice aftershave. The smell of My Grandfather and his team of Work Horses but how could it be? And where were they? I followed the scent and it led me to a truck and trailer at the entrance of the school. I had a plan, I would try to escape.

There was a compartment for tools in the trailer that was empty and I managed to fit my way in there and kept quiet for the longest time. I felt movement. I was on the road and I was outta there, I was gone!. It must have been a few hours I was stowed away. I was out of that Hell we called the “Mushhole.” There were a few stops and it kept continuing on a journey but I didn’t hop out until I felt the coast was clear. The truck kept going. I woke in the morning and peaked around and we were parked but nobody was in the truck. I hoped out and I found myself in this big city called Toronto and was only 12 years old.

As I walked the streets of this city I became disoriented, there was so much noise and too much people. Out of all that noise I heard a very familiar sound it was the magical sounds of harnessed brass bells jingling in rhythm of a soft galloping trot. My excitement grew and grew with every jingle of those bells as they got closer. I followed it. It was not my Grandfathers Team of Horses but I knew it was a sign. It was a Trolly and I hoped on it without being seen. I rode this Trolly for a while until I recognized a bunch of trains in a train yard. Trains is how all of us children were taken away and so I crawled and stalked and like my Grandfathers before me out on a hunt in the vast wilderness, I crept slowly and made my move.

Again I heard the magical sounds of harnessed brass bells jingling in rhythm of a soft galloping trot. It came from one paticular train. I took it as a sign to hop on that one and wouldn’t you know it, it was a train heading north. I found a cargo car carrying blankets of canvas that were stacked like pancakes. I snuggled in between some like a mouse and hid. I was on my way closer to home. It was mid December and got off the train and things were a lot colder. I took one of the smaller folded canvases to use for a coat and blanket for my travels. It took me a while to figure out where I was and how to get home. I went to the nearest town and found out my location and managed to get a map. I stuck to the back roads and kept out of sight as I didn’t want to get caught if those Nuns, Priests and Cops had the whole country looking for me. I was a fugitive from God.

I walked for days on the side of roads, the snow was coming heavy. I slept in barns. This escape started to build me into a man at 12 years old. I couldn’t give up or I would die somewhere on the side of the road. Every now and again I would get a sign that pointed me in the right direction for safety or a safe friendly ride further home. I made it! I was at the landing where a wooden passenger boat usually brings people back and forth to the island, my home. But there was no wooden boat. The Bay had froze over early it seemed. I couldn’t wait so I started walking on the ice to get home to see my Mom and Dad.

It was late afternoon during the day and snow was still coming down and no-one was coming or going so I just started walking on the ice. I got a quarter of the way until I heard snips and snaps and then finally creaks and cracks and then splash. I was in the water and fell through. I was dead. The last thing I remember was feeling someones arm pulling me out of the ice. Somehow by someone put in the back off a sleigh and covered me in a blanket. I was in shock and I must have fainted because I didn’t remember much only the warm willowy whiff of fermenting hay and a burnt chocolate leathery aroma of cigar smoke married with the pungent scent of manure and Old Spice aftershave. The magical sounds of harnessed brass bells jingling in rhythm to soft galloping trot.

I woke up underneath an avalanche of blankets near a wood-stove. I was home. I made it. Next to me was my Mother and Father. I only seen my Father cry once in his whole life and it was that morning. And that morning happened to be Christmas morning. I asked my Mother, “Who brought me home, who had the team of horses that brought me home and rescued me from the ice.?” With a look that both my parents gave me which I’ve never, ever Forgot with these words they said to me. “Horses? What Horses? How did you get home? Who brought you back from that place? The boat has not been crossing the bay and nobody has been going across. We found you curled up outside the door this morning.”

That place I was taken must have not missed me because they never came to look for me or get word to my parents I was missing. I never returned there. Many children at the Residential Schools tried to escape, some were caught and some died along the way and some never returned from those Schools.

When I grew older I became a solider for Canada to go and civilize other Peoples. I was in Korea. When I was in combat my Grandfather was still with me and every time I smelt a warm willowy whiff of fermenting hay and a burnt chocolate leathery aroma of cigar smoke married with the pungent scent of manure and Old Spice aftershave and heard the magical sounds of harnessed brass bells jingling in rhythm to a soft galloping trot I would be magically led to safety where again I made it back home.

I never got to know Jesus and for our people it has always been our ancestors who has helped us so that we can be here and who watch over and help us when we call upon them, just as the Spirit of my Grandfather had. I will never forget this one Christmas where my life was saved and I made it home for Christmas morning and for me this is why I celebrate Christmas. A Miracle. 

Whose Jurisdiction is First Nations Child Welfare really under?

By Johnny Hawke

In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Canada discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding on-reserve child and family services and ignoring Jordan’s Principle. In February 2024, Canada offered $47.8 billion to address the issue where Chiefs at a Special Meeting of the Assembly of First Nations rejected the deal over concerns of structural flaws and lack of consultation in the negotiations. This matter has also been exposing the existing rift between the AFN as a corporate entity and the Chiefs in Assembly in regards to representation and legal jurisdiction.

More on this Issue:

Law Firm Warns $47.8 Billion First Nations child welfare reforms could be lost with election

Reforming First Nation Child and Family Services: A Critical Review of the Final Agreement

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes questions at an Assembly of First Nations annual Special Assembly in Ottawa, Thursday December 5th 2024. Photo: Radio Canada, Marie-Laure Jossein

What I share here is not about the specifics of the back n forth bantering nor is this a critical analysis of the deal itself as these issues only keep us distracted, divided to remain under the subjugation of Canada’s Jurisdiction. What I am providing here is what Indigenous academics, advocates, activists and so called leaders are failing to address if we truly really being honest about the restoration of our jurisdiction and self determination. 

Many Chiefs feels the AFN no longer represents them and is only an extension of Indigenous Services Canada. In 2020-2021 the AFN was funded $34 Million from Canada to administer programs for Indigenous Services Canada.

The Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Children, Youth and Families, was implemented on January 1, 2020 to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in “care” across the country. On February 9, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that provisions within this act are constitutionally protected. The ruling affirmed that Indigenous peoples have an inherent right to jurisdiction of child and family services. As it appears our jurisdiction has been recognized and affirmed however the fact remains that we are still under Canada’s Jurisdiction.

It has always been our experience with our European guests that their languages are  “forked-tongued” and used for deception. The use of the word “Inherent” is now being attached to “rights” and “jurisdiction” to deceive. The legal definition of a “person” means a corporation and not the living human being. The 1982 Constitution Act is in name only and is not a constitution; It is only an enactment of a foreign monarchy and government that had no legal authority to enact anything for a free and independent people. The 1982 Constitution Act is only a charter for a corporation.  

Canada’s 1982 Constitution Act never defined Indigenous and Treaty Rights where these rights are being defined through Supreme Court decisions that rely on case law that set precedence for the Doctrine of Discovery. All Indigenous and Treaty Rights recognized by the Supreme Court and under Section 35 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ultimately affirms Canada has jurisdiction over all Indians and Indian lands.

Canada’s recognition of First Nations inherent right to self government in regards to jurisdiction of child and family services is no different then First Nations inherent right to jurisdiction of policing services; We are only in control of the apprehending and still remain under Canada’s jurisdiction as “Indians” and the legal person. 

The followings laws shows how the birth certificate holds us in servitude to the State and extinguishes our human rights in exchange for benefits of corporate personhood. 

The Jurisdiction of the Birth Certificate

When we are born we are of a sovereign status under natural law with the standing of a living human being with fundamental rights and freedoms of a human being. We are Nationals of the land we are born on and have a birth right to the land and the wealth created from the land to sustain our life. We extinguish these rights when we become, the legal person, a corporation through the birth certificate, in exchange for limited benefits and privileges of a citizen of a corporate state.

All Nation States are under the jurisdiction of International Law. International Law is also known as maritime law or the law of water; This is the law of commerce and shipping that governs ships, corporations, trade, contracts and all courts. Each Nation State incorporates this law into their legal codes and enactments and then deceptively calls it Statutory Jurisdiction. This Statutory Jurisdiction then incorporates common law and case law. 

Why do Parents get paid (child tax benefit) to care for their own children? Children are chattel and belong to the State once they are registered through birth certificate. Parents are only caregivers of the governments property. This also why authorities can legally apprehend children; It is not out of love or care but to ensure the child is looked after just enough to attend the state run indoctrination centre's called Schools to ensure they become a tax paying economic slave.

The Certificate of Live Birth recognizes you as a living human being. The Birth Certificate creates and registers the Legal Person, a Corporation. This is not you but if you choose to live your life in this contract you become a Debtor, Roman Slave of the State.

The Birth Certificate is a contract, a trust and a security, when we operate as the legal person we accept and have compelled performance, responsibilities as a citizen to carry out in this contract. As we navigate in this jurisdiction we are made to accept more contracts for other privileges and benefits such as the Indian status, social insurance program, drivers licence. The aspect of the trust relationship through the birth certificate is the state acts as the Executor and Beneficiary and we are the Trustee aka the Debtor. As a security our birth certificate represents our life's labour in taxes and our right to the wealth of our land, this is then securitized, monetized and used as a bond for leverage by the state on the international trade market. 

Here are the laws of how this is done: 

Unum Sanctum:

In 1302 Pope Boniface issued his infamous, Unam Sanctam, claiming the Roman Catholic’s rule over the whole planet and where the Pope is effectively "King of the world.”

1455 Romanus Pontifex: 

This Papal Bull created the first Crown and conveyed the right of use of the land as Real Property where all land is claimed as "crown land.” This Crown is represented by the 1st Cestui Que Vie Trust created when a child is born, deprives them of all their beneficial entitlements and rights to the land at birth.

1481 Aeterni Regis:

This Papal Bull created what is known as the "Crown of Aragon", later known as the Crown of Spain and represents the highest sovereign and highest steward of all Roman Slaves. This 2nd Crown is represented by the 2nd cestui Que Vie Trust created when a child is born the sale of the birth certificate as a bond is sold to the private central bank of the nation, depriving them of ownership of their flesh and condemning them to perpetual servitude as a Roman person, a Catholic or slave.

1542 Convocation:

This 3rd Crown is represented by the 3rd cestui Que Vie Trust created when a child is baptized to a Parish the Registrar is gifted the title of the child’s soul. Thus, without legal title over one's own soul, a man or woman may be "legally" denied a right to stand as a living being, but may be treated as a creature and thing without legally possessing a soul. Today Hospitals and Birth Certificates are the “baptism” and handing over of the sole/soul to the Crown.

1493 Inter Caetera:

Pope Alexander VI issues a papal bull or decree, “Inter Caetera," in which he authorizes Spain and Portugal to colonize the Americas and its Native peoples as subjects. This Papal Bull has been dubbed the "Doctrine of Discovery.”

Reconciliation is not a word randomly chosen to represent the movement towards addressing the genocide of church and state. Reconciliation is a Catholic Ritual which is to "come back under god". In the Catholic Cult the Pope represents God on Earth. Reconciliation is also referred to as the Sacrament of Penance. "Penance" means self punishment, the Sacrament of Penance is also entrenched and the foundation of how both Banking and Courts operate. This is all under International Law, the Jurisdiction of the Holy See, Rome.

1582 Inter gravissimas

(English: "Among the most serious...") was a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII on 24 February 1582. The document reformed the Julian calendar. The reform came to be regarded as a new calendar in its own right and came to be called the Gregorian calendar, which is

 used in most countries today.

Name and date of birth in the copyrighted timeline calendar, when we use that name within that copyrighted timeline we are subjected to a commercial system, designed to own the

characters born to it.

Pope Gregory is the author of a specific literary work and his literary property is all the persons who use the names born into the copyrighted calendar. The Vatican has a legitimate claim on all the production and activity that we create when using the name born into the copyrighted timeline that has been in existence since 1582.

1666 Cestui Que Vie Act:

 A United Kingdom Act of Parliament that solidifies these Trusts into U.K Law. This Act proclaims there is a remedy to take yourself out of such Trust aka State Owned Enterprise (birth certificate) to prove you are a living being and not lost at sea. The Act says if action is filed to show that the supposed dead man is proved to be alive, then the Title is revisited and profits with interest is issued to a persons estate.

The Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts: 

This International Treaty is ratified by 14 countries including Canada and imposes one law that governs all Trusts and Estates. This includes the Trust created when we are born which represents our Inherent Rights as beneficiaries to the wealth created from the land we are born to. Through this Treaty this Trust is created and handed over to the State by Birth Certificate where we become Chattel and Traded in Commerce under Maritime Admiralty Law throughout our life.

International Recognition of Trusts Act:

Every Nation State that is a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts must implement it via their own enactment to enforce in their States or Provinces. The

International Recognition of Trust Act is Ontario’s Enactment. This ensure the Provinces enact

such Statutes where Citizens become a Trustee/Debtor of their own Express Trust via the Birth Certificate Scheme which creates us as Chattel and our Trust Estate as a Security and Bond to be traded unlimitedly within International Commerce.

Loan and Trust Corporations Act:

This is an Ontario Enactment where Section 174 (2), (3) allows the Registrar General to give a

Trustee Company your Estate to act as an Executor and obtain Probate.

The Birth Certificate

The following is how we hand over our rights to the State and enter the world of the Doctrine of Deception:

Vital Statistics Act:

Statement of Live Birth

• A Person who attends the birth of a child in Ontario must give a notice of the birth, The

Parent(s) then must provide a Surname. This creates the Statement of Live Birth and is a

permanent legal record that declares you as a living being.

• When we are born an Express Trust is created in which is not disclosed. Our Parent(s) are

the Trustor/Settlor and sign this Trust over to the State by the Vital Statistics Act; Section 5,

Safekeeping of registrations where the Registrar General becomes the Trustee/Debtor of

the Express Trust. We as the live being still are the Beneficiary/Creditor of this Trust.

The Birth Certificate

•The Vital Statistics Act says the Parent(s) shall certify the Childs Birth. The Registrar

General then takes the given name put’s it together with the surname which is then put in

all capitals, certified and registered and securitized to create the artificial legal person. The

State then issues the Birth Certificate. What appears to be your name on the Birth

Certificate is not a name but a sign, it is a foreign debased dog-latin, a counterfeit

grammatical language and owned by the State

• The State own’s the legal person, corporation, a non-living entity. We are not the entity on

the Birth Certificate.

• Through registering a child with a Birth Certificate, the Parent(s) surrenders the child’s birth

right to the land and wealth created from the land and hands those rights over to the State in Trust in exchange for benefits and privileges of becoming a citizen.

• The child now a citizen has been removed as beneficiary within the Express Trust and goes

on to live life acting as the entity on the birth certificate as a Trustee/Debtor.

• The Parent(s) and Child are not made aware of this Trust and if they the child does not

claim this Trust in Seven Years after turning the age of majority then they are determined by the State to be “Lost at Sea” or Dead in which the State claims the Estate Trust and does with it as it pleases.

• This Trust represents the living beings birth right to the wealth created from the lands and

this Birth Certificate has a CUSIP number used to monetize the Birth Certificate by putting

an estimated value of what the Legal Person Corporation will make within it’s lifetime where

and an accreditation account is attached to the CUSIP number on the Birth Certificate

which the State uses as a Security and Bond on the Stock Exchange.

• Every time we are charged with an offence and go through court the CUSIP number on our

Birth Certificate and the Court; Judges, Crown Attorney makes money off the Court Case

and charges your accreditation account on your Birth Certificate.

How the State Steals Our Birth Right

Declarations of Death Act:

The Declaration of Death Act is Ontario’s legislation by which Judge's have jurisdiction to make an order declaring that an individual is dead. It answers the questions of who can apply, who needs to know, and what evidence you must show before the applicant can obtain a Declaration of Death.

• If We as a beneficiary then fail to prove ourselves to be alive in regards to our Express Trust up to seven years after becoming the age of majority; The State as a Trustee not hearing from the beneficiary then takes steps to make notice of our death through the Declaration of Death Act.

• Section 1 of the Declaration of Death Act says, an “interested person” means any person

who is or would be affected by an order declaring that an individual is dead, including, (a) a

person named as executor or estate trustee in the individual’s will. An “interested person” is

the State, Registrar General and or a Trust Corporation it has named to be an Executor of

the Estate.

• The Executor then follows provision, Order Re declaration of death

2 (1) An interested person may apply to the Superior Court of Justice, with notice to any other interested persons of whom the applicant is aware, for an order under subsection (3) Power of court

(3) The court may make an order declaring that an individual has died if the court is satisfied that either subsection (4) or (5) applies. (Not heard of in seven years)

• Now the State can benefit from the accreditation system attached to the CUSIP on your

Birth Certificate in which represents a persons share in the wealth being created from their

birth right to the resources of their Country.

• We now only are the Debtor/Trustee’s and only have benefits of a legal persons and not

rights and obligated to hand our wages over to the state in servitude and any other taxes

they see fit as they are now the Beneficiary’s of everyones Trust.

Further Enactments of the Legal Fiction Enslavement:

To further ensure people surrender their status as a Living Being, Corporate State’s further

impose Enactments to designate People as a Legal Person. Through the designations of being a Resident of a Town, City Municipality; an Employee through the following enactment's is how the State holds you in servitude by accepting these Benefits of Citizenship of their Corporation:

Social Insurance and Income Tax Entrapment

• To legally work one has to register for a Social Insurance Number under the Employment

Insurance Act and Income Tax Act in which a Birth Certificate is also required.

• Income Tax Act (R.S.C., 1985, c.1) 2. (1) An income tax shall be paid, as required by this

Act on the taxable income for each taxation year of every person resident in Canada at any

time in the year.

• Every Person with a SIN Number is an Officer of of the Corporation, the Government of

Canada or their Nation STATE they are resident of.

The Municipal Act, Municipal Act, 2001, S.O. 2001, C.25

“Municipality” means a geographic area whose inhabitants are incorporated. Municipality, includes the corporation of a city, town, village, county, townships, parish or other territorial or local division or a province, the inhabitants of which are incorporated

Solutions

Stay tuned for upcoming series on this particular step which deserves its own document. This step shares on how to File a Constitutional Question or Human Rights Complaint. This step is necessary to get out of the legal person and walk the court which is obligated by law to turn the court from statutory jurisdiction to inherent jurisdiction to deal with the live human being rather then the legal person which has no human rights. 

The Birth Certificate is also a Security, I am still researching the last bit of understanding in Trust Law where we need to reclaim our securities and declare ourselves as alive with the State. I will share this in a later series also as this deserves its own document to explain as well.

We need to Reconstitute our Common Law of the Land representative of our Constitution; the Creation Teachings, Clan System and Confederacies. Remove the law of water from the law of the land.

We need to create our own ‘Vital Statistics Act”, create our own Birth Certificates and Registry of our own Nation and get out of this international legal system, which is only a jurisdiction that creates a roman slave an economic slave that extinguishes our human rights for privileges on a citizenship.

Bring a Class Action Suite against the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope through

International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice. (Yet the Pope and Vatican Inc can't be held accountable to such international court, which tells you something.) We must delegitimize the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity as a Religion and as the fraud it is. It’s Papal Bulls have no effect over the World only those who wish to belong as officers of this corporation.

Help the so called Canadian Citizen reclaim their Sovereignty and establish a proper Constitution and create new needed Treaties as the historic ones have been extinguished via 1931 Statute of Westminster.

Most importantly we need o raise our youth with our rites of passage ceremonies; Berry Fast, and Fasting for example which teaching self discipline at  ages of puberty. We need to install our culture where young adults learn the responsibilities and consequences of sexual relationships and being responsible for creating life. Yes we have a history but it is not our story. At sometime we need to grow from our intergenerational trauma and become responsible for ourselves. If we can’t take care of our own children first as parents, families, community we are not Sovereign or a Nation. 

Time running out for $47.8-billion child welfare agreement

Courtesy of Ha-Shilth-Sa - Canada's Oldest First Nations Newspaper

By Eric Plummer / December 5, 2024

Ottawa, ON - The clock is ticking for First Nations and the federal government to agree upon the terms of a $47.8-billion child welfare agreement, as a change in Ottawa appears likely if the Liberal minority government is toppled.

On Dec. 4 representatives at the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa agreed to renegotiate a deal with Canada on reforming the child welfare system and compensate those who were historically discriminated against. Pictured in AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak at the event. (AFN/X photo)

At a gathering in Ottawa on Wednesday leaders at the Assembly of First Nations voted to launch new negotiations with Canada on the specifics of the multi-billion-dollar funding agreement designed to ensure long-term reform of the child welfare system and compensate those who have been discriminated against. The Dec. 4 vote at the Special Chiefs Assembly represents a shift to work out an agreement with the federal government, after in October AFN chiefs voted down a deal proposed by Canada.

Valued at nearly $48 billion over the next 10 years, the child welfare agreement aims to amend historical discrimination against Indigenous children in the foster care system. It is the result of years of litigation that began in 2007, with a claim made by the First Nations Child Family Caring Society and the AFN to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Among the complaints was the contention that federal funding for child welfare on reserve was 22 per cent lower than what was provided off reserve by provinces. 

The tribunal ended up ruling that Canada was discriminatory in its historical funding and child welfare policies – a disparity that could have contributed to the vast overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in the foster system. Just 7.7 per cent of children in Canada are Indigenous, but they account for 53.8 per cent of those in foster care, according to census data from 2021. In British Columbia 34 per cent of children in care are Indigenous - showing a steady decline from the 64 per cent reported in 2002.

Although AFN chiefs have voted to renegotiate a deal with Canada, issues with the last proposed agreement show considerable work is needed, according to Cheryl Casimer, who serves on the political executive of the First Nations Summit. Casimer presented the current state of the proposed reform to representatives at the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Annual General Meeting on Nov. 26.

Cheryl Casimer, who serves on the political executive of the First Nations Summit, presented the state of the proposed reform to representatives at the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Annual General Meeting on Nov. 26. (Zoom still image)

The proposal neglected to specify regional governance in child welfare reform, noted Casimer.

“So, all these decisions were going to be made on child welfare and the reform of child welfare without regional representation,” she told the Nuu-chah-nulth leaders. “British Columbia needs to have a seat at the table, and we need to be decision makers in how this agreement is implemented.”

In recent years the federal government has worked with the AFN to change the direction of child welfare services for Indigenous people. This includes legislation passed in 2020 that “affirms the rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to exercise jurisdiction over child and family services.”

But language in the agreement that was put before the AFN this year doesn’t live up to this pledge, said Casimer. 

“We, as First Nations, in the agreement were listed as service providers,” she noted. “That in itself rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, because as title and rights holders and as leaders we’re not service providers; we need to make sure that our jurisdiction and our authorities are fully respected.”

There are also proposed changes to how developments would be funded.

“Capital projects would no longer be funded at cost, and that was a directive of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal back in 2021,” said Casimer. “The discontinuation of at-cost funding for projects would have detrimental impacts on First Nations and our agencies.” 

The agreement sets out changes for 10 years, bringing concerns of what could happen afterwards. But the current political situation in Ottawa is precarious, with the Liberals struggling to retain a minority government after the NDP tore up the Supply and Confidence Agreement between the parties on Sept. 4. Now a non-confidence vote from enough opposition parties could bring about an early federal election, which is set to occur no later than Oct. 20, 2025. 

Currently the Conservatives are projected by the polls to win a convincing majority, with Pierre Poilievre standing with a 42 per cent popularity rating – 19 points ahead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

B.C. Assembly or First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee speaks in Ottawa on Dec. 4. (AFN/X photo)

Before the vote in October AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak urged other chiefs to back Canada’s offer, fearing that time was running out for the Liberal government. She questioned if a better deal would be possible under the Conservatives.

When that offer was rejected, Ontario chiefs began to talking to Canada on their own.

“We were also advised that Ontario is approaching Canada and saying, basically, pardon my language, ‘Screw everybody else, we want to negotiate our own agreement with you’,” said Casimer.

Hesquiaht Chief Councillor Mariah Charleson cautioned about the federal government dividing First Nations. She said this was demonstrated in the Ahousaht et al. case, which resulted in the Supreme Court of B.C. upholding the rights of five Nuu-chah-nulth nations to commercially catch and sell fish from their territories.

“As First Nations people, I’m sure that we are aware of Canada’s tactics to break us apart,” said Charleson. “We saw that in the Nuu-chah-nulth fishing case, where we started out strong with 14 nations and Canada broke us down to five nations, who ended up winning in the Supreme Court. But it is a historical tactic that Canada uses to divide our people.”

Despite these concerns, the $47.8 billion commitment represents an undeniably significant investment to amend the historical mismanagement of child welfare services for First Nations.

“This can be a big part of the solution to fix residential school impacts – us rebuilding our families, helping and loving our children,” said Nuchatlaht Councillor Archie Little. “It’s huge.”