HAMILTON, Ontario, Dec. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Indigenous Watchdog tracks and reports on how reconciliation is progressing in Canada. On November 15, 2022 the Manitoba Government Speech from the Throne identified the following priorities and commitments:
- Helping Make Our Communities Safer
- Helping Families Make Ends Meet
- Strengthening Health Care and Reducing Surgical and Diagnostic Backlogs
- Helping Make Manitoba More Competitive
- Helping Protect Our environment, Climate and Parks
- Helping Build Stronger Communities
- Advancing Reconciliation
Immediately after the preamble each of the above priorities receives its own dedicated section expanding on what the government will do to advance each one - except Advancing Reconciliation - which is completely ignored. To add even further insult, the conclusion of the Speech from the Throne repeats all the above priorities except, you guessed it - Advancing Reconciliation - which again is completely ignored and literally and physically erased from the document.
In the last Speech from the Throne the government committed to "significant efforts towards reconciliation" while the current government committed to "Advancing Reconciliation". What does that say about the government’s commitments and priorities towards Indigenous peoples?
So what does the government say about "Advancing Reconciliation" in the rest of the document.
IN SUMMARY:
1. Advancing Reconciliation: Section dropped completely with nothing specific to say
2. Making Communities Safer:
- $1.7M funding to help address homelessness
- MMIWG: Progress Report is coming. In the meantime: no concrete action or commitments
3. Making Ends Meet: Nothing specific
4. Strengthening Health Care
- Suicide Crisis: Under development. Still to be "complete and implemented"
- Regional health care and mental health: No Actions. No details. Dependent upon the federal government
5. Education: Nothing specific
6. Manitoba more competitive: Economic reconciliation with some rather significant Indigenous caveats
7. Protecting Environment: Nothing specific
8. Build Stronger Communities: Nothing specific
Of 8 sections, 5 have absolutely nothing specific to say about Indigenous reconciliation and 3 items are still under development with nothing specific to say.
The Land Acknowledgement at the beginning of the speech pays lip service to the fact that "Manitoba is located on the Treaty Territories and ancestral lands of the Anishnaabe, Cree, Ojibway Cree, Inuit, Dakota and Dene Peoples" and also on "the Homeland of the Red River Métis and that Northern Manitoba "includes lands that were and are the ancestral lands of the Inuit".
In the preamble to the speech, immediately after the Land Acknowledgement, the Speech states that "The crown underpins our constitutional relationships with the federal and provincial governments and Indigenous communities." Notice the deliberate usage of the word "communities" and NOT the Treaty relationships with First Nations and Métis. This underscores the Manitoba government's position that the land that Manitoba sits on is under the jurisdiction of the federal and provincial governments.
The Nation-to-Nation context between Indigenous Nations and the Crown is erased as it has been since confederation in 1867, Treaty 1 in 1871 and 1870 when The Manitoba Act - proclaimed by the Métis government of Louis Riel - brought Manitoba into Confederation.
To read the full article see: https://www.indigenouswatchdog.org/2022/11/29/manitobas-speech-from-the-throne-commits-to-reconciliation-in-actual-fact-it-doesnt/
