Canadian leads group pushing Vatican for zero-tolerance policy on abuse by clergy

OTTAWA – Randy Boissonnault is leaving his post as employment minister in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal cabinet after weeks of questions about the Edmonton MP’s shifting claims of Indigenous identity and his business dealings.

“The prime minister and MP Randy Boissonnault have agreed that Mr. Boissonnault will step away from cabinet effective immediately. Mr. Boissonnault will focus on clearing the allegations made against him,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday. 

Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor will temporarily take on his cabinet portfolios. He was also the minister responsible for official languages.

The Canadian Press has sent an interview request to Boissonnault but he did not immediately respond.

Boissonnault has been under intense scrutiny after reporting from the National Post that raised questions about his past claims of Indigenous heritage.

The newspaper reported that a company he previously co-owned had applied for government contracts and claimed to be Indigenous-owned.

Boissonnault has been described as Indigenous multiple times in communications from the Liberal party and in 2018 referred to himself as “non-status adopted Cree.” He also said his great-grandmother was a “full-blooded Cree woman.”

He has since clarified that his adoptive mother and brother are Métis. 

Boissonnault apologized for his shifting claims last Friday. 

Both the Conservatives and NDP called on him to resign this week.

On Tuesday, Trudeau said Boissonnault had addressed questions about his identity. 

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre kicked off question period in the House of Commons Wednesday by lambasting the prime minister for standing by Boissonnault. 

The statement announcing Boissonnault’s departure from cabinet was released minutes before question period began.

“Up until a minute ago, (Trudeau) had a minister with a double identity,” Poilievre said, before posing the question, “Why is it he always stands up for corruption on his own side?”

“The member for Edmonton Centre has stepped down from cabinet to focus on clearing these allegations,” Trudeau responded, before launching into an attack of his own on Poilievre.

Métis NDP MP Blake Desjarlais, who called for Boissonnault to resign on Tuesday, told reporters the minister’s resignation is “welcome news” for Indigenous Peoples across the country.

“If you pretend to be Indigenous for the purpose of accessing Indigenous benefits, funding or prestige, you will be found out. We will find you. We will ensure that your reputation and the benefits you’ve received from pretending to be Indigenous are removed,” he said.

“It’s unfair for so many Indigenous people that have done everything right. It’s time that Indigenous people get more justice. This is the time to do it.”

Several Liberal MPs reacted to the news on Wednesday with kind words for Boissonnault, including Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, who said in French that his colleague had always been an ally to the Liberal Indigenous caucus. 

Health Minister Mark Holland said the allegations had become a distraction in cabinet and that it was a good choice for Boissonnault to step away and focus on challenging them.

MP Jaime Battiste, who is Mi’kmaq from Eskasoni First Nation, accused the Conservatives of “weaponizing” the stories about Boissonnault in recent weeks.

“Their antics have become a distraction in the House,” he said.

As for him leaving cabinet, “It’s probably the right decision,” he said.

“I think things happened the way they were supposed to happen,” Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters outside the House of Commons, while criticizing the Conservatives for continuing to press the issue in question period even after the news broke of Boissonnault’s resignation.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said in an interview that all MPs need to be held accountable, and that if something “doesn’t seem ethical or doesn’t feel ethical, it’s probably not ethical.”

At the centre of the concerns raised about Boissonnault in recent weeks is the Liberal government’s Indigenous businesses directory.

The directory provides the federal government with names of businesses they could consider using to meet its Indigenous procurement target, which states a minimum five per cent of the total value of government contracts should be held by Indigenous-owned businesses. 

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu told a House of Commons committee on Tuesday that the company Boissonnault founded was not listed on that directory.

“These loose standards are hurting First Nations,” Woodhouse Nepinak said, adding that the government needs to work toward closing gaps that are allowing people to claim Indigenous identity because they see some kind of economic benefit, despite not having legitimate claims to communities.

“All of a sudden, because there’s an economy — a little, small piece of an economy — attached to that (identity), there’s opportunists out there that are trying to jump on and pull that all apart,” she said.

“And it’s hurtful. It’s hurtful to this country, particularly to First Nations entrepreneurs, people and businesses that are trying to make it in a really tough market.”

MPs passed a motion on Tuesday for Boissonnault to appear as a witness at the House of Commons committee on Indigenous and Northern affairs for at least two hours to discuss his business dealings and claims to Indigenous identity, along with Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

Boissonnault is expected to appear at the committee before Dec. 17.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

FREDERICTON – A New Brunswick court has found that First Nations can seek title to vast areas of privately owned land in the province, but to do so they have to go through the Crown rather than the companies that own it.

The Nov. 14 decision by Justice Kathryn Gregory of the Court of King’s Bench is in connection with a lawsuit launched in 2021 by six Wolastoqey Nations seeking a declaration of Aboriginal title over more than 50 per cent of the land in the province.

The land in question includes areas held by major timber and oil companies, but Gregory’s decision removes the seven industrial defendants from the lawsuit and says only the Crown — represented by the federal and provincial governments — has a direct legal relationship with the Wolastoqey.

“Aboriginal title, if declared, is declared as against the Crown. It establishes the legal relationship, interests, and state of affairs as between the Crown and the Aboriginal group, not as between an Aboriginal group and private parties,” she says in her decision. 

“I acknowledge such a declaration impacts everyone, Crown and non-Crown, but the legal declaration itself is against the Crown only.” She says the industrial defendants were a “distraction and a detraction from the constitutional nature of the action.”

The Wolastoqey Nation hailed the decision as an “enormous victory” and a “precedent-setting decision” in their fight for Aboriginal title claim.

“If Aboriginal title is proven, then the question turns to what remedies are owed, including whether lands owned by the industrial defendants should be returned to the Wolastoqey Nation,” the Indigenous group said in a news release.

Chief Allan Polchies of St. Mary’s First Nation said he was thrilled by the decision.

“The court has been clear that the Crown needs to sit down with us to negotiate our title claim,” he said. “We trust and hope that the new provincial government will stand by its campaign promises and immediately begin discussions with us.” On Oct. 21, the Liberals won a majority, ending six years of Progressive Conservative government.

The previous government had said that in challenging the Wolastoqey title claim it was protecting families, homeowners, businesses and others who own property within the contested area. Last year, then-premier Blaine Higgs said public statements by the Wolastoqey that their claim would not affect private landowners did not match their court filings.

“If successful, the Wolastoqey would have the right to exclusive use and occupation of all lands in their claim,” he said in a news release. On the campaign trail last month, Higgs called New Brunswick “ceded” land. The Wolastoqey accused Higgs of fearmongering and said they were “not seeking to displace individual New Brunswickers from their lands, residences or farms.”

This week, New Brunswick Attorney General Rob McKee called Gregory’s decision a “helpful” reminder that Aboriginal title is primarily about reconciliation and said title claims are best discussed at the negotiation table versus a courtroom.

McKee said his office has “instructed lawyers representing the provincial government in most litigation involving questions of Aboriginal title or treaty rights to engage with lawyers on the opposing side and seek consent to pause all litigation while the Crown and First Nations pursue negotiated settlement of all claims.”

Premier Susan Holt said her government is preparing for talks but gave no date for when they will begin. “We’re going to go and make sure that we have all the right people around the table to start the hard work of negotiation,” she told reporters Tuesday.

Nicole O’Byrne, an associate professor at University of New Brunswick’s faculty of law, said the title claim case is far from over.

“The private landowners are not in play,” she said. “It’s going to be nation-to-nation, which is basically federal and provincial governments versus the Wolastoqey Nation.”

If, while negotiations are ongoing, parcels of the land in question need to be developed for mining or forestry, she said the provincial government should consult with the Wolastoqey.

“There is a very, very large duty owed by the Crown to make sure that the Aboriginal interests have been taken into account,” O’Byrne said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

TORONTO – All 13 provincial and territorial premiers are aligned on a push for the federal government to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with the United States, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday.

Ford, who is the current chair of the Council of the Federation, the group of Canada’s 13 premiers, said they had a call and there is a clear consensus that the country needs separate agreements with the U.S. and Mexico.

“All the premiers, we know Mexico is bringing in cheap Chinese parts, slapping made-in-Mexico stickers on, shipping it up through the U.S. and Canada, causing American jobs to be lost, and Canadian jobs,” he said after the call wrapped up. “We want fair trade.”

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has said members of the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden and advisers of incoming president-elect Donald Trump have expressed “very grave” concerns to her about the issue of Mexico becoming a “back door” to Chinese goods.

Freeland has sought to reassure nervous Canadians that the country is in a good position with the incoming Trump administration, even as it threatens new tariffs, because Ottawa is moving in lock-step with the U.S. on Chinese trade irritants.

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement is up for review in 2026. 

The premiers are calling for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his officials to discuss the idea of bilateral negotiations.

This week, Trudeau said he highlighted concerns directly with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Brazil.

Ford, meanwhile, has spoken frequently about establishing relationships with governors across the U.S., appealing directly to his subnational counterparts and reminding them that Ontario is the No. 1 trading partner to 17 states and No. 2 to 13 others.

The premiers are set to meet in Toronto in mid-December and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has suggested inviting some governors to the meeting, Ford said.

“I’m not too sure if any will show up, because they’re in transition right now,” he said. 

“We plan on heading down there as Team Canada sometime in February … maybe March, as everyone comes back to Washington, and there’s a governors’ meeting as well in February, if I’m not mistaken. We’d love to be down there at the governors’ meeting.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2024.

— With files from Kyle Duggan.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.