Anti-Racism Legislation: Mandates and perspectives of First Nations in BC
Last updated on March 1, 2024Executive summary from First Nations Leadership Council
“Effectively disrupting First Nations-specific racism requires a deep understanding of its origins in colonialism, continuing ties with those colonial roots in structural and interpersonal racism and stereotypical beliefs, and how these colonial beliefs produce inequitable results for First Nations and violate the human rights standards described in the UN Declaration.”
Report summary
First Nations have a long history of leadership, organizing, and advocacy to illuminate the existence and harms of racism, and build consensus around key reports and recommendations to dismantle racial discrimination and colonialism. This gives rise to the key conditions and expectations of First Nations in BC with respect to the Province’s proposed anti-racism legislation, including that this legislation:
- Contributes to a greater understanding of the relationship between racism and colonialism unique to First Nations and facilitate strategies specifically targeted to disrupt these unique forms of racism, and racism’s interference with Indigenous human rights.
- Appropriately recognizes First Nations governments and supports effective government-to-government relationships.
- Embeds principles that: uphold First Nations self-determination; acknowledge and address First Nations-specific racism; apply an intersectional GBA+ lens in understanding and addressing racism; apply a distinctions-based approach; uphold consultation and cooperation with First Nations; and, recognize First Nations data sovereignty.
- Balances the urgency to address racism with the need to ensure that anti-racism work is grounded in required expertise and carried out by those who have received education and training to do so.
- Requires public education efforts about anti-racism and First Nations-specific racism so as to create a mindset shift among the general public.
- Incorporates and reinforces the existing commitments and recommendations of the Declaration Act Action Plan, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Report on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, In Plain Sight, the First Nations Justice Strategy, and the future independent investigation and report into systemic and Indigenous-specific racism in the provincial public education system.
- Provides funding specific for First Nations governments and Indigenous governing bodies to advance healing and address the unique forms of racism and colonialism they experience.
- Ensures appropriate accountability to First Nations governments, in alignment with First Nations data governance protocols, and utilizing First Nations-validated data sources.
In summary, First Nations have emphasized that widespread anti-Indigenous racism in a range of systemic and interpersonal forms is the root cause of inequities for First Nations people, and is a continuing form of colonialism that violates Indigenous human rights. First Nations have done seminal work for decades to illuminate this issue and create recommendations and pathways to meaningfully address it. As such, First Nations have a deeply significant interest and a deep subject matter knowledge to offer in the development of proposed anti-racism legislation. Consistent with the Interim Approach to Implementing the Requirements of Section 3 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, First Nations also expect further consultation and cooperation with First Nations on the draft anti-racism legislation, and to be full partners in its future implementation.