CAP Chief Robert Bertrand. Photo courtesy of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
A national Aboriginal organization is upset that it has been excluded from talks with the prime minister and the premiers.
The Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Robert Bertrand, says the prime minister should not be cherry-picking which Indigenous peoples it wants to recognize and deal with.
Trudeau is meeting today with the AFN, the Metis National Council and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. They are discussing everything from tax changes to Aboriginal rights.
“Through his exclusionary behavior, Prime Minister Trudeau continues to damage the longstanding relations between CAP and Canada, a relationship that has been growing since the inaugural First Ministers Conference on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters in 1983,” said Bertrand.
CAP represents Metis and non-status Indians living off-reserve.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled the federal government had a legal responsibility for Metis and non-status Indians. The case known as the Daniels Decision, was spearheaded by the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada is also expressing their disappointment in being left out of the First Minister’s Meeting.
In a statement NWAC President Francyne Joe said the organization is being systematically excluded from nation to nation relationship with the government.
“Indigenous women have been disenfranchised long enough,” the statement read.
The NWAC say they represent the political voice of Indigenous women in Canada.