Actions and Commitments

Call to Action # 42: Justice (25-42)

AFN-QL recommendations to the Viens Commission

December 13, 2018

During his testimony to the Viens Commission, the Chief of the AFNQL recalled the three main issues that Quebec has repeatedly been asked to act upon, namely:

  1. To recognize, denounce and fight against the systemic racism that exists within its institutions and population.
  2. To repair the wrongs suffered by the victims, especially First Nations victims. And finally
  3. To recognize the right of First Nations to provide their own policing services.

It is in this context that the following recommendations were made by the Chief of the AFNQL before the Viens Commission:

  • that the Commission support complainants wishing to file individual communications against the Government of Canada before the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women;
  • that the Commission clearly affirms the right of First Nations to provide their own policing services or to receive policing services that are culturally adapted to the reality of each Nation and community and take a position on the implications arising from this finding;
  • that Quebec adopts and implements the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and
  • that a permanent entity be established to ensure that provincial government activities be subject to existing law and meet national and international standards on Indigenous People’s rights and issues.

The Final Report is due September, 2019.