Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Centuries of racism and dispossession have denied Indigenous Peoples of Canada and around the world the opportunity to enjoy their basic human rights. In every continent, Indigenous peoples are among the most marginalized, impoverished and frequently victimized members of society.

Indigenous Rights Are Human Rights

Indigenous peoples stand up for their rights in the face of widespread violence and oppression. They push the international system to evolve and grow in exciting new directions. Directions that will help ensure that human rights, guaranteed to all, can be enjoyed by all.

On September 13, 2007, the United Nations adopted an international Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is the first international human rights instrument drafted with the direct participation of people whose rights are at stake.

Today, momentum for implementing these standards is building. Indigenous peoples, courts, international agencies, and advocacy groups increasingly use the Declaration.

“In very plain terms, the focus of our work is to arrive at a place where Indigenous peoples can actually exercise and enjoy our individual and collective rights without obstruction. It’s that simple.”

Dalee Sambo Dorough

Inuit Circumpolar Council

Collaboration with Indigenous Peoples of Canada

Amnesty International members collaborate with Indigenous peoples of Canada and worldwide to campaign for political and legal reform. We want to end discrimination and uphold the rights guaranteed in national laws, historical and contemporary Treaties and international standards such as the Declaration.

Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders

The Wet’suwet’en Nation, under the governance of its Hereditary Chiefs, is defending its ancestral, unceded territory against the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline. The pipeline, owned by Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. and TC Energy Corporation is meant to transport natural gas extracted from the Dawson Creek area in British Columbia (B.C.) to a liquified natural gas (LNG) export facility near Kitimat, B.C. If construction of the 670-kilometre-long pipeline is completed, it will divide Wet’suwet’en territory into two.

Mark your calendars

June 21

National Indigenous Peoples Day

Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images

May 5

Red Dress Day

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

September 30

National Truth & Reconciliation Day

Photo by Zoe Tryon

No More Stolen Sisters

The No More Stolen Sisters campaign calls for justice, safety, and dignity for Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people in Canada. They face disproportionately high rates of violence, going missing, or being murdered at alarming levels. Through advocacy, awareness, and action, Amnesty International works alongside Indigenous communities to demand systemic change, address the root causes of violence, and ensure accountability from governments and institutions.

Amnesty International’s 2004 Stolen Sisters report was one of the first reports to systematically document the pattern of violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Due to continued government inaction to end the violence, the findings and recommendations in the 2004 report, and its 2009 update, are as relevant today as they were at the time of publishing.

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

(PDF Version)

(Official Resolution Text)

Mercury Poisoning in Grassy Narrows

Governments in Canada should be setting a positive example for the rest of the world by working with Indigenous peoples to address these dangers; instead, they have ignored the voices of Indigenous peoples, and they have ignored direct calls to action from UN human rights bodies.

Amnesty International has joined Indigenous water defenders to step up the pressure for urgent and meaningful action on three shocking cases of waters and people at risk in Canada.

Severe industrial pollution to rivers and lakes across Canada threatens the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples who rely on these waters for food, livelihoods and maintaining their traditions.

In the 1960s, the Ontario government allowed an upstream pulp mill to dump more than 5 tonnes of mercury into the English and Wabigoon River system. The federal and provincial governments still haven’t addressed the devastating impact on the people of Grassy Narrows.

“Our people are a river people. When we found out the mercury was in the water it had a really devastating effect our community.”

Judy Da Silva

Grassy Narrows First Nation

Mount Polley

In August, 2014, the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine burst, sending 25 million cubic metres of tailings and waste water into pristine Quesnel Lake, causing the largest environmental mining disaster in Canadian history. The company in charge of the mine has not been fined or charged, the tailings remain in Quesnel Lake and the company has a permit to discharge mine water into the lake until 2022. Residents fear exposure to toxins if they fish or drink water from the lake.

“Our bodies are part of our lands. I am made of salmon, moose, deer and berries from our territory. Our story about the land is a love story.”

Nuskmata Mack

Xat’sull First Nation, Secwepemc territory

5 people stand on a hill at the Site C Dam

The Site C dam: a planned disaster

Their own environmental assessment concluded that flooding the Peace River Valley would have severe, permanent and irreversible harm to First Nations. The federal government and the Province of British Columbia approved the Site C dam anyway. First Nations have been forced to go to court just to have the impacts on the Treaty rights considered. In the meantime, the UN’s top anti-racism body has called for an immediate halt to construction.

“If this valley is flooded, we’ll lose a big piece of who we are as Dunne Za people.”

Helen Knott

Prophet River First Nation

The Right to Water

in First Nations Communities

Indigenous communities across Canada simply cannot take the safety of their drinking water for granted.

Many today do not have access to safe, clean drinking water in their homes or proper sanitation systems, while the rivers and streams on which they have long relied while out on the land are increasingly contaminated by industrial activity.

As of January, 2018, the federal government was reporting that 91 First Nations were under long term drinking water advisories. This number does not include First Nations in British Columbia, where First Nations water systems fall under a different regulatory authority. Nor does it include First Nations without any drinking water system at all, or those that rely on systems such as household storage cisterns that are not subject to such advisories.

The federal government has made the welcome commitment to eliminate all First Nations drinking water advisories by 2021 by investing in long overdue repair and maintenance. (More than a decade ago, in 2006, an expert panel appointed by the federal government concluded that drinking water problems in First Nations communities were primarily the result of federal underfunding.)

The new investments being made by the federal government have already resulted in improvements in water quality in some communities. But the measures to date are not sufficient.

An important study by the David Suzuki Foundation — Glass Half Empty? Year 1 Progress Toward Resolving Drinking Water Advisories in Nine First Nations in Ontario — provides a clear analysis of why the bureaucratic process of a federally-controlled First Nations water and sanitation regime actually stands in the why of a timely solution to this longstanding crisis. The report also noted that measures to replace or repair drinking water infrastructure does not address the ongoing problem of industrial contamination of the source water on which Indigenous peoples rely. The report was updated earlier this year: Reconciling Promises and Reality: Clean Drinking Water for First Nations.

Amnesty International supports the recommendations of that report which include:

Work with First Nations to streamline and simplify the process for capital investments in water infrastructure by identifying roadblocks and reducing bureaucracy.
Collaborate with First Nations in co-developing and implementing source water protection and restoration plans.
Fulfil government commitments to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, particularly free, prior and informed consent for laws and regulations related to First Nations water, and the UN-recognized human right to safe drinking water and sanitation endorsed by Canada.

Indigenous Peoples in Canada

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Help Canada Wet’suwet’en land defenders in their fight to save their ancestral lands!

Wetʼsuwetʼen land defenders are being criminally prosecuted just for defending their lands. Now they are fighting for its very survival, and the survival of our planet during a global climate crisis. Sign the petition and demand that the Canadian authorities stop criminalizing Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their allies now.

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