Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

June 21st is the summer solstice, marked for centuries by many Aboriginal communities as a day to celebrate their heritage. In 1996, the Parliament of Canada proclaimed June 21st as the National Aboriginal Day.

For the PSAC, it is a day to express solidarity with Aboriginal Peoples as well as a day to recognize and celebrate the contributions of the Aboriginal Peoples in our communities.

First Nations, Inuit and Métis people have and continue to make important contributions in their struggles for social justice, equality and workers’ and human rights.

Their struggles are numerous, given the failure of successive governments to address Aboriginal poverty, access to education, employment, housing, water, health care and access to other basic infrastructures and social services within the Aboriginal communities.

For example, 1 in 4 First Nations child lives in poverty, compared to 1 in 6 for other children in Canada. First Nations communities rank 68th on the UN Human Development Index, compared to 8th for Canada.

Aboriginal women have had and continue to bear the brunt of the social, political and economic injustices, including violence. The crisis of violence against Aboriginal women was highlighted in Amnesty International’s 2004 report, Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada. No systemic solutions have yet been implemented to end this crisis, and the violence continues.

More than ten years ago, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples made extensive recommendations to improve the situation of Aboriginal Peoples, however these recommendations were either ignored or ineffectively implemented.

In November 2005, the Aboriginal Summit in Kelowna B.C. gave hope that we could start closing the gap between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal people in Canada. Health, education, economic development, relationships between government and Aboriginal Peoples, and housing were on the agenda.

Harper’s Conservative government has failed to commit the funds agreed to in the Kelowna Accord. The 2007 federal budget ignored the needs and issues of Aboriginal Peoples. The Conservative government has withdrawn its support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Persons. The current federal government is effectively turning its back on Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Our Union stands in support and solidarity with Aboriginal Peoples and their struggles for justice.

Based on a recommendation by the National Aboriginal, Inuit and Metis (NAIM) Circle and the National Equal Opportunities Committee (EOC), the PSAC has endorsed the Assembly of First Nation’s (AFN) Make Poverty History: The First Nations Action Plan for Creating Opportunity. For more information on this campaign, please see AFN website: http://www.afn.ca.

The PSAC has also also endorsed the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) Sisters in Spirit Campaign. This campaign, launched last year, is meant to raise the awareness of the crisis of violence against Aboriginal women. More information on this campaign can be found at: http://www.nwac-hq.org/en/index.html.

The PSAC is joining the voices of the Canadian Labour Congress and many other organizations and individual Canadians to support the AFN “National Day of Action” on June 29. First Nations are calling for immediate action to improve their quality of life, to end dependency and work towards self-sufficiency. The Assembly of First Nations is promoting peaceful rallies and demonstrations to take place across Canada on June 29, 2007. The AFN is planning a major rally in Ottawa that will call on all Canadians to stand together for action on First Nations issues. For more information, visit http://www.afn.ca/nda.htm.

The PSAC encourages members, in every region of Canada, to celebrate National Aboriginal Solidarity Day by organizing events with Aboriginal members of the union, including participating in the AFN’s National Day of Action on June 29. PSAC members are invited to forward report of activities on National Aboriginal Solidarity Day to the PSAC’s Programs Section by calling (613) 560-4229 or by e-mail at programs@psac-afpc.com.