Indigenous Watchdog: This is the Ugly side of Reconciliation

Press Release

Indigenous Watchdog: This is the Ugly side of Reconciliation

HAMILTON – June 22, 2026

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Three words that perfectly reflect the state of reconciliation. Despite the numerous positive steps that all stakeholders have taken in child welfare, education, health, justice and other calls to action, the negative actions predominate. The last eight weeks in particular highlight five disturbing trends: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) as an obstacle to economic reconciliation; the government’s hardball actions over drinking water rights of First Nations; residential school denialism with its embedded racism and discrimination against Indigenous peoples is allowed because it’s free speech; failure to eliminate TB in Inuit Nunangat where TB is 300x higher than for non-Indigenous Canadians – the same as it was over 10 years ago; and increased focus on economic reconciliation and less on fundamental rights for indigenous people.

UNDRIP

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples “constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world.” Despite this, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick are all on record opposing UNDRIP primarily around land and resource rights and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC): i.e. blocking resource extraction projects. Now, BC wants to roll back its own commitments to UNDRIP due to two court rulings that it disagrees with: the Cowichan decision around aboriginal rights and title vs fee simple property rights and BC’s Mineral Tenure Act over a failure to consult the Gitxaala and Ehattesaht First Nations. In addition, the BC Conservatives are virulently opposed to UNDRIP and would like to scrap it altogether.

The anti-UNDRIP crusade by the BC conservatives has inflamed anti-Indigenous sentiment and caused a rise in racist and discriminatory action against Indigenous people. So much so that the Cowichan Valley Regional District, Municipality of Duncan, Cowichan Valley School District, Town of Ladysmith and Lake Cowichan and the North Cowichan RCMP issued a joint statement condemning the rise in Indigenous racism and hate. Over 90 businesses, individuals and organizations also co-signed. Alberta (separatist referendum), Ontario (Ring of Fire), New Brunswick (Wolastoqey land claim) and Québec (Language laws and Constitution Act) have each had court challenges against their actions that override and disregard Indigenous constitutional rights. Is it any wonder that the premiers of BC, Alberta, Ontario, Québec – and Canada – all question the legitimacy of court decisions that they disagree with. The courts – for the most part – have sided with Indigenous people, not governments.

Drinking Water Advisories

Section 3.1 of Bill C-61 “The First Nations Clean Water Act states: “It is recognized and affirmed that it is a human right of every individual on First Nations land to have access to clean and safe drinking water”. The federal government’s replacement Bill C-37 introduced on June 16, 2026 now makes this universal human right “aspirational”, meaning they’ll get to it sometime in the future, maybe. Tell that to Neskantaga First Nation who have been on a boil water advisory for over 31 years.

The Investigative Journalism Bureau identified how “the federal government is playing legal hardball” with First Nations. Pikangikum First Nation, who declared a second state of emergency in a year due to flooding damage to water infrastructure, have sued the federal government for $2B in damages. The federal government’s defence is that Pikangikum waited too long and now it’s too late. This “limitations” defense violates Call to Action # 26 that states governments “cannot rely on limitation defences to defend legal actions of historical abuse”. In addition, last month the federal government cancelled class action settlement talks in Alberta with four First Nations after nine years of negotiations with no explanation as to why? And, they are appealing a summary judgment from a class action lawsuit involving 60 First Nations where the federal court judge found that Canada has a duty to care on drinking water.

As of June 4, 2026 there are still 38 Long-Term Drinking Water Advisories in 37 First Nations communities that the government promised to have lifted by 2021. 156 have been lifted. That’s an 80% success rate, the same as on April 25, 2022 – four years ago! As of today, the government is no longer committed to any end date to eliminate all long-term advisories.

Residential School Denialism

On June 11, 2026 the Senate voted against adding a residential school denialism clause to Bill C-9, “the Combating Hate Act” that was modeled on the law criminalizing Holocaust denial. Two weeks earlier, on May 29 the Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Missing Indigenous Children and Unmarked Graves sessions in Montréal found Canada guilty of genocide and human rights abuses under international law. Canada refused to participate. Even the pope has agreed that what happened at residential schools was genocide (July 30, 2022). So how can a genocide against Jews in Europe be considered a hate crime and a genocide committed against Indigenous people in Canada is not?

On May 27 the Union of BC Indian Chiefs denounced a residential school denialist demonstration at the BC legislature. Last month, Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation was fighting for the release of redacted records to help identify 202 children missing between 1907 and 1968. Kimberly Murray, the former Special Interlocutor testified at the Permanent Peoples Tribunal about the difficulty accessing government, church, coroner and other official records relating to residential school children. 11 years after the Truth and Reconciliation Summary Report and the records are still being denied – and the children are still missing.

Eliminating TB in Inuit Nunangat

On March 23, 2018 Prime Minister Trudeau committed to eliminate TB across Inuit Nunangat: 50% by 2025 and 100% by 2030. The 2025 deadline passed failing to meet the target due to inadequate funding from the federal government. On May 26, 2026 the Inuit Tapariit Kanatami (ITK) Board had advocated for $131M in funding to address the social determinants of health across the Inuit territory but the federal government declined to provide the necessary funding choosing instead to focus in TB programs in each of the four Inuit regions.

Meanwhile, the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services signed a two-year sole-source contract with the Red Cross on April 22, 2026 to help control the territory’s rising TB numbers. NRBHSS announced in February that Quebec had failed to provide the support it needed in fighting tuberculosis (TB).

In 2016, the incidence rate of TB was 182.9 per 100,000 people; in 2023 the incidence rate for TB had risen to 268.6 per 100,000 people (ITK). 2023 figures from Statistics Canada show the TB rate was 0.4 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous, Canadian-born people.

Economic Reconciliation

With the introduction of Bill C-5 The One Canadian Economy Act in June 2025, Bill 5 Protect Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act (Ontario), Bill 14: The Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act and Bill 15: The Infrastructure Projects Act in BC, governments have changed the narrative around Indigenous reconciliation to economic reconciliation. Now, it’s all about the money, of fast-tracking major projects most of which are on Indigenous treaty or unceded territory. It’s as if they realize that after 11 years of avoiding the number one issue impeding reconciliation – unresolved issues around land – maybe they can buy their way to a solution: access to capital, equity investment opportunities, access to skilled jobs along with investments in trades education, procurement opportunities for Indigenous business and on and on.

Governments are quick to announce “loan” programs to give Indigenous groups an equity stake in projects rather than paying them outright for the resources that are on Indigenous land. Businesses are quick to state their commitment to fostering Indigenous relations in support of their business objectives mostly in training, jobs and local procurement opportunities. What they fail to address is how they will mitigate the inevitable negative impacts to the environment on Indigenous territories? Will they actually consult with Indigenous people and not only listen to their legitimate concerns but also implement solutions that mitigate those concerns. Will governments and businesses truly accommodate Free, Prior and Informed Consent?

For 159 years prior to this “economic opportunity”, the same governments and businesses excluded Indigenous people from the wealth they earned off their territory. The other real beneficiaries – all other Canadians – reaped the financial rewards as Canada became one of the richest countries in the world. Everyone in Canada was a winner except Indigenous people from whose land all that wealth was won. They were deliberately left impoverished, disenfranchised and marginalized.

As of June 1, 2026 43% of all the Calls to Action are either Not Started (16) or Stalled (24). What does that say about Indigenous reconciliation? 11 years after the TRC report, Indigenous people still lead the country in child welfare apprehensions, over incarceration in prisons, poor health outcomes, drinking water issues, emergency evacuations due to fires and floods caused by climate change, increasing incidents of systemic racism and discrimination – often fueled by incendiary comments from – and actions by – governments.

Will all levels of government finally do what is right for Indigenous people? Or will they perpetuate the status quo?