The appointment of long-time Inuit leader Mary Simon as the new Governor-General of Canada marks the first time that a person of Indigenous origin has held this office, as the formal representative in Canada of the British monarch. The fact that PM Justin Trudeau chose to recommend Simon for this position reflects the intense political pressure on his Liberal government to take action on the urgent issues faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada, such as dire poverty levels, high rates of incarceration and homelessness, inadequate access to education, health care and social services, and much more.
The Communist Party of Canada considers this appointment as a political move by the PM to give the impression that his government takes these issues seriously, since a federal election call is expected soon. Despite their previous election promises to implement the 94 Calls to Action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the recommendations of the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, the federal Liberals have been dragging their feet for years, making little progress on many of these specific and concrete measures.
Continue reading »
The Communist Party of Canada welcomes today’s Federal Court of Appeal ruling which overturns the federal government’s approvals to build the Trans Mountain expansion project. This decision builds upon decades of legal and political struggles by Indigenous peoples in British Columbia and across Canada; it is truly a historic victory over the resource extraction corporations and other capitalist interests which have dominated this country since Confederation, and going back to the time of European colonization.
