All governments

Human and Indigenous rights and governmental obligations

Recommendation 1: We call upon federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, and Indigenous governments (hereinafter “all governments”), in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, to develop and implement a National Action Plan to address violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, as recommended in our Interim Report and in support of existing recommendations by other bodies of inquiry and other reports. As part of the National Action Plan, we call upon all governments to ensure that equitable access to basic rights such as employment, housing, education, safety, and health care is recognized as a fundamental means of protecting Indigenous and human rights, resourced and supported as rights-based programs founded on substantive equality. All programs must be no-barrier, and must apply regardless of Status or location.

Governments should:

1. Table and implement a National Action Plan that is flexible and distinctions-based, and that includes regionally specific plans with devoted funding and timetables for implementation that are rooted in the local cultures and communities of diverse Indigenous identities, with measurable goals and necessary resources dedicated to capacity building, sustainability, and long-term solutions; and
2. Make publicly available on an annual basis reports of ongoing actions and developments in measurable goals related to the National Action Plan.

All governments

Human and Indigenous rights and governmental obligations

Recommendation 2: We call upon all governments, with the full participation of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, to immediately implement and fully comply with all relevant rights instruments, including but not limited to:

1. ICCPR, ICESCR, UNCRC, CEDAW, and ICERD, as well as all optional protocols to these instruments, including the 3rd Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC);
2. American Convention on Human Rights: specifically, that Canada ratify the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women;
3. All the recommendations of the 2015 UN CEDAW Inquiry Report and cooperation with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on all follow-up procedures;
4. All recommendations made by international human rights bodies, including treaty-monitoring bodies, on causes and recommendations to address violence against all, but specifically Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA individuals; and
5. UNDRIP, including recognition, protection, and support of Indigenous self-governance and self-determination, as defined by UNDRIP and by Indigenous Peoples, including that these rights are guaranteed equally to women and men, as rights protected under section 35 of the Constitution. This requires respecting and making space for Indigenous self-determination and self-governance, and the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples to all decision-making processes that affect them, eliminating gender discrimination in the Indian Act, and amending the Constitution to bring it into conformity with UNDRIP.

All governments

Human and Indigenous rights and governmental obligations

Recommendation 3: We call upon all governments, in meeting human and Indigenous rights obligations, to pursue prioritization and resourcing of the measures required to eliminate the social, economic, cultural, and political marginalization of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people when developing budgets and determining government activities and priorities.

All governments

Human and Indigenous rights and governmental obligations

Recommendation 10: We call upon the federal government to create an independent mechanism to report on the implementation of the National Inquiry’s Calls for Justice to Parliament, annually.

All governments

Human and Indigenous rights and governmental obligations

Recommendation 11: We call upon the federal government—specifically, Library and Archives Canada and the Privy Council Office—to maintain and to make easily accessible the National Inquiry’s public record and website.

All governments

Culture

Recommendation 12: We call upon all governments to acknowledge, recognize, and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their cultures and languages as inherent rights, and constitutionally protected as such under section 35 of the Constitution.

All governments

Culture

Recommendation 16: We call upon all governments, in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, to create a permanent empowerment fund devoted to supporting Indigenous-led initiatives for Indigenous individuals, families, and communities to access cultural knowledge, as an important and strength-based way to support cultural rights and to uphold self-determined services. This empowerment fund should include the support of land-based educational programs that can assist in foundational cultural learning and awareness. This empowerment fund will also assist in the revitalization of distinct cultural practices as expressed by Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, with eligibility criteria and decision making directly in their hands.

All governments

Human security

Recommendation 27: We call upon all governments to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ right to self-determination in the pursuit of economic social development. All governments must support and resource economic and social progress and development on an equitable basis, as these measures are required to uphold the human dignity, life, liberty, and security of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. All governments must support and resource community-based supports and solutions designed to improve social and economic security, led by Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. This support must come with long-term, sustainable funding designed to meet the needs and objectives as defined by Indigenous Peoples and communities.

All governments

Justice

Recommendation 37: We call upon all governments to immediately and dramatically transform Indigenous policing from its current state as a mere delegation to an exercise in self-governance and self-determination over policing. To do this, the federal government’s First Nations Policing Program must be replaced with a new legislative and funding framework, consistent with international and domestic policing best practices and standards, that must be developed by the federal, provincial, and territorial governments in partnership with Indigenous Peoples. This legislative and funding framework must, at a minimum, meet the following considerations:

1. Indigenous police services must be funded to a level that is equitable with all other non-Indigenous police services in this country. Substantive equality requires that more resources or funding be provided to close the gap in existing resources, and that required staffing, training, and equipment are in place to ensure that Indigenous police services are culturally appropriate and effective police services.
2. There must be civilian oversight bodies with jurisdiction to audit Indigenous police services and to investigate claims of police misconduct, including incidents of rape and other sexual assaults, within those services. These oversight bodies must report publicly at least annually.

Calls for industries, institutions, services, and partnerships

Police services

Recommendation 72: We call upon all governments to fund an increase in recruitment of Indigenous Peoples to all police services, and for all police services to include representation of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, inclusive of diverse Indigenous cultural backgrounds, within their ranks. This includes measures such as the following:

1. Achieve representative First Nations, Inuit, and Métis diversity and gender diversity within all police services through intensive and specialized recruitment across Canada.
2. Ensure mandatory Indigenous language capacity within police services.
3. Ensure that screening of recruits includes testing for racial, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation bias.
4. Include the Indigenous community in the recruitment and hiring committees/process.
5. In training recruits, include: history of police in the oppression and genocide of Indigenous Peoples; anti-racism and anti-bias training; and culture and language training. All training must be distinctions-based and relevant to the land and people being served; training must not be pan-Indigenous.
6. Retain Indigenous officers through relevant employment supports, and offer incentives to Indigenous officers to meet their unique needs as Indigenous officers serving Indigenous communities, to ensure retention and overall health and wellness of the service.
7. End the practice of limited-duration posts in all police services, and instead implement a policy regarding remote and rural communities focused on building and sustaining a relationship with the local community and cultures. This relationship must be led by, and in partnership with, the Indigenous Peoples living in those remote and rural communities.