Claiming One's Place--A Bigger Role for Indigenous Peoples and Parliamentarians in Ottawa.

• Author: Whyte, Danielle
• Position: Round Table

As a part of a conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Parliamentary Internship Programme, a panel was organized to discuss the historic and emerging roles of Indigenous People within the federal government and Parliament. Although unforeseen circumstances prompted a last-minute change in the line-up, a panel of current and former MPs, an academic and a public servant offered insightful commentary based on several perspectives. The panel particularly focussed on the challenges and opportunities involved in respectfully engaging a diverse population, creating self-government structures and building on the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The following text has been edited and revised for length and clarity and is not a verbatim report.

Introduction: It's my pleasure to introduce the moderator for the next session, Danielle Whyte. She was an intern in 1995-1996 who worked with MP Jean Augustine of the Liberal Party and Paul Crete of the Bloc Quebecois. She's spent her post internship years as a public servant, and since 2000 has been working on Indigenous issues.

Danielle Whyte: I'm really honoured to be here with you this morning, and I'd like to begin by acknowledging like we did this morning, that the land we're gathered on is the unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation. I'd like to offer our gratitude and respect to the Algonquin people who are elders and knowledge-keepers.

I was an intern in 95-96, I'm originally from Mi'kmaq territory on the west coast of Newfoundland, from a small community there. I'm of Mi'kmaq and European ancestry. I now make my home in Ottawa where most of my career has been focussed on Indigenous policy and Indigenous policy issues. In preparation for the panel I was thinking back to our intern year, 1995, and the extent to which Indigenous issues factored into the political agenda. I think the key question at the time was whether the James Bay Cree in Northern Quebec would remain as part of an independent Quebec or whether they would secede, so despite coming on the heels of the opioid crisis and the launch of the World Commission of Aboriginal Peoples, it was not really an issue at the top of the political agenda as the national unity crisis loomed.

Fast forward 20 years and we have a government that says this is the most important relationship--the relationship with Indigenous people; so, with that in mind, I'd like to bring up our panel.

When I was an intern in 1995, I believe there were three Indigenous members of Parliament and probably a handful more were Senators. In 2015 there were 10 Indigenous members of Parliament elected. Just out of curiosity, who knows when the First Nations People in Canada first got the right to vote? The answer? 1960. So, not that long before the start of our internship programme. The first status Indian was elected to Parliament in 1968. Our panelists are among a very small and esteemed group of people. If you believe what you read on Wikipedia, only 39 Indigenous people have served as members of Parliament since Confederation, so I'm really honoured to welcome our panel here this morning.

And I'd like to start by introducing the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq who served as a Member of Parliament for Nunavut from 2008-2015. She was the first Inuk to be sworn into the federal cabinet, she served as Minister of Health, Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Development Agency, Minister of Environment, and the Minister for the Arctic Council. She also served in a number of ministerial portfolios in the Nunavut Legislative Assembly, and also on the public service side as the deputy minister in the Nunavut government and in the municipal government. Next, we have Dan Vandal. He was elected in 2015 as a Member of Parliament for Saint Boniface--Saint Vital. He's the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services and a former city counsellor and deputy mayor of the city of Winnipeg. He has also served as chair of the board of directors for the Aboriginal People's Television Network. And finally, I'm pleased to welcome a fellow former intern, Brock Pitawanakwat, who was an intern in 2002-2003. He is currently an associate professor of Indigenous Studies at York University. Prior to joining York, he taught at the University of Sudbury. He is a Yellowhead research fellow and a regular contributor to the Indigena roundtable podcast. He has also served as a researcher for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The panel members will talk to us a bit about the role of Indigenous Peoples in Parliament. We've asked them to reflect on how they see their role, what some of the unique factors and considerations of being an Indigenous person in Parliament and in politics are, and also to talk about their perspectives on whether the growing understanding of Indigenous issues that came from the work of the TRC and jurisprudence on Indigenous rights, has changed the way that First Nations people feel about Parliament.

Leona Aglukkaq: Good morning everyone. I was asked to sit on this panel last night while I was sitting on a train coming from Toronto, so my time to reflect was limited, so I apologize first of all for that, but I'm very happy to be here.

I am an Inuk, born and raised in Canada's Arctic. I come...