{"id":7080,"date":"2026-06-21T13:16:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/?p=7080"},"modified":"2026-06-21T13:16:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:16:46","slug":"indigenous-peoples-day-2026-honour-the-treaties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/indigenous-peoples-day-2026-honour-the-treaties\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Peoples Day 2026: Honour the Treaties!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Greetings to all First Nations, Inuit, and M\u00e9tis peoples on National Indigenous Peoples Day. We celebrate the long history of resistance against colonial oppression and reaffirm our solidarity with those on the front lines of Indigenous struggles to uphold the treaties and to oppose land and resource theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 6. Signed by Crown representatives and Cree, Assiniboine and Ojibway leaders in 1876, Treaty 6 is a sacred agreement outlining how First Nations and settlers would share the land, plants, air and animals. It is not a historic document; it is a living agreement with promises that remain binding. Treaties were enacted by Britain and Canada under pressure from Indigenous resistance to colonial genocide. Essentially, they were agreements for nation building and an instrument for the sharing of the land base for Turtle Island. Treaties never surrendered land but were for shared agricultural purposes \u201cfrom the depth to the tip of the plow\u201d. We honour this anniversary and the ongoing struggle to uphold the promises of Treaty 6 and all treaties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

This is a period of renewed corporate offensive. Canada and provincial governments are launching new attacks against Indigenous sovereignty in order to strengthen the powers of capitalist dispossession. Under the guise of \u201cnational interest,\u201d governments are fast-tracking corporate projects that violate Indigenous sovereignty, as seen with Mark Carney\u2019s dangerous Bill C-5. Passed with strong Conservative support in June 2025, Bill C-5 handed cabinet sweeping powers to fast-track \u201cmajor projects\u201d by sidelining Indigenous consent and environmental assessments. Some saw Carney as a lesser evil but his government is attacking Indigenous rights as ferociously as a Conservative government would have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These regressive steps are intimately connected to Canada\u2019s drive to honour the U.S. and NATO demand to spend 5% of GDP on military expansion. The war economy demands accelerated resource extraction and the sacrifice of Indigenous title to fuel imperialist militarism. Illegitimate expropriation of Indigenous land is the historical foundation for Canadian capitalism, and continued control over Indigenous land remains a key pillar upholding monopoly capitalism in Canada. Indigenous-led land defence movements are crucial sites of resistance to capital\u2019s destruction of the natural environment, and this resistance is set to accelerate with the renewed push to militarize and make Canada an \u201cenergy superpower.\u201d Monopoly capital uses \u201cjobs vs. environment\u201d rhetoric to pit workers against the right of Indigenous nations to self-determination; this is a lie, as pipelines that violate Indigenous jurisdiction also lock workers into volatile, planet-wrecking jobs. A common enemy requires a common fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We salute the major advances and contributions Indigenous peoples have made, even in the face of growing assimilationism, in language revitalization, media, education, art, theatre and literature. However, while liberal sections of the ruling class in Canada allow or even celebrate Indigenous cultural achievements and reclamations, Indigenous economic and social rights lag behind. There are still 38 long-term drinking water advisories affecting First Nations communities. The median individual employment income for Indigenous workers remains 18% less than non-Indigenous workers. Indigenous people face extreme over-representation in the criminal justice system with incarceration rates 10.2 times higher than non-Indigenous people. Indigenous communities across Canada have to live these statistics every day and are struggling for their equality, for their social and economic rights to be met. Many communities lack basic health services, while Treaty rights including the medicine chest clause, rights to an economic system, training, and agricultural tools are being denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We salute the Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation, which is pressing its legal challenge against the massive KSM gold\u2011copper mine in northwestern BC, as the mine\u2019s tailings facility threatens salmon rivers and Indigenous jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We salute the Haida Nation for securing the historic 2024 \u201cRising Tide\u201d agreement \u2013 the first provincial recognition of Aboriginal title \u2013 yet the BC government is now quietly retreating from its UNDRIP commitments and fast-tracking other resource projects without consent, using the Haida agreement as a symbolic shield while undermining broader Indigenous title rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stand with Treaty 6, 7, and 8 First Nations who refuse to let provincial premiers rewrite history and attack their rights. We oppose Alberta Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s attempts to use \u201cAlberta separatism\u201d to undermine Treaties that predate the province and still govern the land. Bills such as Alberta\u2019s Bill 54 directly attack Treaty rights for the benefit of big oil, and First Nations leaders have rightly stated that Alberta is Treaty land and cannot separate without First Nations\u2019 consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We salute all those fighting rising residential school denialism \u2013 survivors, families, and communities who continue to bear witness despite a coordinated backlash. A recent editorial in the Globe and Mail downplayed the crimes of the residential school system and denialism is now moving from the margins into mainstream politics. Conservative MLAs in British Columbia have publicly questioned confirmed burials and survivor testimony, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has defended such candidates while opposing legislation to criminalize denialism, and the Senate recently voted down a proposal to add residential school denial to the Criminal Code, a move Indigenous leaders have condemned as a serious setback for reconciliation. This denialism is part of the ideological justification for renewed attacks on Indigenous sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year it was reported what many Indigenous activists already knew: the RCMP had infiltrated Indigenous political organizations for decades, with 150 police officers placing hundreds of Indigenous people and 30 organizations under watch. We also learned that CSIS ran a countrywide \u201cNative extremism\u201d surveillance program from 1988 to 1999, labelling Indigenous activists as domestic extremists. We echo the call to establish an independent, First Nations\u2011led federal commission of inquiry into state spying on Indigenous peoples, with full powers to investigate and mandate systemic changes in policing. We continue to call for the disbanding of CSIS and the RCMP to safeguard democratic rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Communist Party fights for a socialist Canada where all nations are part of a truly equal and voluntary partnership. We stand for the liberation of Indigenous peoples and all other oppressed nations, including Acadians and Quebec. All Indigenous nations must possess the right to self\u2011determination, up to and including secession. The struggle for Canadian sovereignty and independence \u2013 against corporate free trade deals and military integration with the U.S. and NATO \u2013 is bound up with the struggle for sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous nations. A Canada largely controlled by the United States is a Canada that tramples Indigenous rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This National Indigenous Peoples Day we call to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Uphold UNDRIP as binding law, ensuring Indigenous rights to full, free, prior, and informed consent over all development, including full implementation of BC\u2019s DRIPA and reversal of all provincial measures that circumvent Indigenous consent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Enact all Calls for Justice of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry and all Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action; replace the pattern of deliberate funding lapses with a permanent, Indigenous-led funding framework that fully implements all recommendations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Establish an independent, First Nations\u2011led federal commission of inquiry into state spying on Indigenous peoples and political organizations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Eliminate the “second-generation cut-off” from the Indian Act and implement a “one-parent rule” to allow Status Indians to pass on legal identity to their children.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Repeal all anti\u2011protest, anti\u2011picketing, and \u201ccritical infrastructure\u201d laws that criminalize Indigenous land defence and attack labour rights.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Launch a massive public investment program to end the housing, water, and health\u2011care gaps on\u2011reserve and in northern communities, funded by progressive taxation on corporations and the wealthy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Support and fund Indigenous proposals to protect and enhance Indigenous languages and cultures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Enforce Indigenous Treaty fishing and hunting rights; end the seizure and removal of Indigenous children into state care.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Include Residential School denialism under anti\u2011hate speech laws.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Allow Indigenous nations to enact public ownership and democratic control over their resources to ensure an economic base for self\u2011determination.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Act now for the just settlement of land claims, including natural resource-sharing agreements, without requiring the extinguishment of inherent Indigenous title.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Adopt a new constitution based on the equal and voluntary partnership of all nations in Canada: Quebec, First Nations, Inuit, M\u00e9tis, Acadians and English-speaking Canada, guaranteeing the protection of Indigenous inherent rights, including the right to consent over any change in their constitutional status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Working people of all nations need to take up the demands of Indigenous peoples across the country. The working class across Canada, of all nations, has a shared fight. We fight for a people\u2019s coalition of Indigenous peoples, workers, women, students, 2SLGBTiQ+ people, immigrants and other people\u2019s movements \u2013 united against the shared enemy: monopoly capital. Honour the treaties!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Greetings to all First Nations, Inuit, and M\u00e9tis peoples on National Indigenous Peoples Day. We celebrate the long history of resistance against colonial oppression and reaffirm our solidarity with those on the front lines of Indigenous struggles to uphold the treaties and to oppose land and resource theft. This year marks the 150th anniversary of…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aboriginal-struggle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7084,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7080\/revisions\/7084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communist-party.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}