NAME OF MECHANISM

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

PERIOD OF OPERATION

August 1991 – November 1996. Established on 26 August 1991, the commission operated for just over five years. Its final report was released in November 1996.

MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate: Established by the Canadian government by a federal order in council (P.C. 1991-1597), the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was mandated to “investigate the evolution of the relationship among Aboriginal peoples (Indian, Inuit and Métis), the Canadian government, and Canadian society as a whole.” The commission was charged with proposing specific solutions, guided by domestic and international experience, to the problems of those contemporary relationships and to the challenges that confront Aboriginal peoples today. The inquiry studied the period from before the 1500s to 1996.

Staff: Seven commissioners, four Aboriginal and three non-Aboriginal. The co-chairs were Georges Erasmus, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Justice René Dussault from the Quebec Court of Appeal. The other commissioners were Viola Robinson, Mary Sillett, Paul Chartrand, Bertha Wilson and Allan Blakeney, who resigned in April 1993 and was replaced by J. Peter Meekison.

RESOURCES

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Final Report [1996]
Highlights from the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples [1996]

RESULTS

The commission released a final report in November 1996, divided into five volumes: Looking Forward, Looking Back; Restructuring the Relationship; Gathering Strength; Perspectives and Realities; and Renewal: A Twenty-Year Commitment. The report was based on visits to Aboriginal communities across Canada, public hearings, hearing briefs from over 2,000 people and more that 350 commissioned research studies [Canadian Encyclopaedia | 2011].

The report recommended a new proclamation that would commit Canada to the creation of institutions and laws that promote understanding, mutual respect and equality between Canadian society and Aboriginal peoples and restore the balance of power. Out of the 440 recommendations in the report, key ones included “the drafting of new legislation setting out a treaty process and recognition of Aboriginal nations and governments recognition of an Aboriginal order of government, which is to have authority over matters related to the governance and welfare of Aboriginal peoples replacement of the federal Department of Indian Affairs with two new departments the creation of an Aboriginal parliament expansion of Aboriginal land recognition of Métis self-government recognition of Aboriginal nations’ authority over child welfare and the establishment an Aboriginal peoples’ university as well as of other initiatives to address social, education, health and housing needs” [Parliament of Canada | 1999].

The report also recognised the importance of increasing awareness about Aboriginal peoples, their history and their way of life. Finally, it proposed the establishment of the Aboriginal Peoples Review Commission, an independent body to monitor and assess the government’s implementation of these recommendations.

In 2006, the Assembly of First Nations produced a report card examining the extent to which the recommendations of the original report were implemented. Pointing out numerous shortfalls, the report card stated that Aboriginal peoples continue to face poverty, with the gap between the lifestyles of the Aboriginal and the non-Aboriginal increasing rather than decreasing. The Assembly gave the government 37 “Fs” for its response to the commission’s recommendations, noting that because of a lack of political will, various recommended projects remained unimplemented, including the training of 10,000 Aboriginal professionals in health and social services; a national framework to guide treaty discussions; an Aboriginal Nations Recognition and Governance Act, which would recognise Aboriginal governments as one of three orders of governance in Canada; an independent administrative tribunal for lands and treaties; long-term economic development agreements; and legislative changes allowing integrated health service delivery across jurisdictions and a network of healing centres [CBC News | 21 Nov 2006].

BACKGROUND

The commission was established in 1990 following the “Oka crisis” land dispute in Quebec and the Meech Lake Accord as part of the Canadian government’s initiatives to address the concerns of Aboriginal peoples that had emerged with the events. Former Chief Justice Brian Dickson developed the terms of reference for the commission in cooperation with Aboriginal groups, First Nations leaders, politicians and numerous experts [Canadian Encyclopaedia | 2011].

SOURCES

[CBC News | 21 Nov 2006]
[Canadian Encyclopaedia |  2011]