'Stay the course': Lawyer urges N.W.T. MLAs to focus on land claims instead of UN declaration

A lawyer specialized in Indigenous law urged Northwest Territories MLAs to keep focus on implementing land claim and self-government agreements instead of turning their focus to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Nuri Frame works for a Toronto-based law firm that is helping implement the Tłı̨chǫ Land Claim and Self-Government Agreement. He addressed the legislature's special committee on reconciliation and Indigenous affairs on Wednesday.

Frame told the MLAs that agreements that have already been struck in the N.W.T. with the Inuvialuit, Tłı̨chǫ, Gwich'in and Sahtu, as well as those that are still in negotiation, have the same goal as the United Nations declaration, also known as UNDRIP.

Frame said those modern treaties establish the basis for Indigenous people to chart their own future and set out the basis of their relationships with public governments.

"One of my messages today is going to be, 'Stay the course,'" Frame told the MLAs.

"I do worry that the United Nations Declaration, if it becomes too much of a focus in and of itself, could really distract from the successes that are currently taking place and could result in a loss of emphasis or commitment to the things that are already happening on the ground in government-to-government relations."

No assurance from future gov'ts

MLA Rylund Johnson said there are good reasons for establishing legislation to implement the UN declaration.

He said there is no assurance that future governments will continue down the same path as the current one. Implementing the declaration through laws and policies would make it more difficult for future governments to take a less progressive approach and lose gains that have been made.

Johnson also said the declaration would provide some protection for Indigenous groups that are still negotiating agreements — some that may still be decades away.

But, Frame said new and different approaches can be adopted to ensure those without agreements have some protection, such as implementing parts of claims as they are agreed on and establishing interim agreements.

Frame echoed a sentiment Indigenous leaders have said many times — that finalizing agreements signals the beginning of the hardest part of land claims: implementation. He said it is key that those implementing the claims focus on the spirit and intent of the agreements instead of taking a narrow, legalistic interpretation of them.

Frame's presentation comes a week after the committee heard from another Indigenous law expert who had a different message about UNDRIP.

Thomas Isaac told MLAs the declaration is an aspirational document that sets out standards for Indigenous rights globally.

But, he said some of the ideals it proposes may be difficult to realize through laws and policies. Isaac said adopting UNDRIP may put government's in a position of making promises they cannot keep, which would undermine efforts at reconciliation.

The federal and British Columbia governments have also committed to adopting and implementing the United Nations declaration.