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MI’GMAWE’L T’PLU’TAQNN INC. RESPONSE REPORT – SYSTEMIC RACISM IN NEW BRUNSWICK
- May 27, 2023
- 2 min read
Systemic racism is a reality of daily life for First Nations in New Brunswick, as it has been for centuries. Racism is embedded in New Brunswick’s laws and institutions and has been central in attempts to dispossess the Mi’gmaq of our lands, to remove our children from our communities, and to separate us from our language and culture. While these attempts have not been wholly successful, they have contributed to issues of mental and physical health, poverty, addiction, and generational trauma. They have led to the over-policing of our communities, the overrepresentation of our people in the justice system, and their overrepresentation.
While the Government of New Brunswick has acknowledged the problem of systemic racism in the Province, they have refused to take appropriate action, or even to properly investigate the causes of anti-Indigenous racism.
The First Nation Chiefs in New Brunswick are united in their call for an independent Indigenous- led public inquiry into systemic racism that exists in the justice system in New Brunswick. The reasons for such an inquiry are further laid out in this report.
Unfortunately, the Government of New Brunswick, and Premier Higgs in particular, have refused to heed this call. They have once again decided on what they feel is best for Indigenous Peoples, without taking the actual perspectives of Indigenous peoples into account. This paternalistic approach is emblematic of the very problem we are trying to solve and perpetuates systemic racism rather than addressing it.
Instead of an independent, Indigenous-led inquiry with the power to meaningfully address the systemic problems that exist in this Province, what the people of New Brunswick got was a Crown- led Office of the Commissioner on Systemic Racism (“OCSR”) which lacked the ability to properly investigate anti-Indigenous racism, and lacked independence from the GNB, as evidenced by the Commissioner withdrawing her interim report, and watering down her findings and recommendations.
This report by Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Incorporated (“MTI”) is provided in response to the Commissioner’s Final Report, and to propose a different path forward.
