Specific Claims Research Associations Call for Immediate Restoration of Funding
February 26 – Last week, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) notified Claims Research Associations and First Nations across Canada that funding for specific claims research and development will be drastically cut beginning April 1, 2014.
The Research Directors of these associations are directly responsible for advancing hundreds of specific claims across Canada for hundreds of First Nations. We call on you to immediately restore funding for this critical work.
Specific claims deal with Canada’s failure to fulfill historical lawful obligations to honour its treaty promises to First Nations and to protect reserve lands and assets from illegal alienation and mismanagement. The Government of Canada acknowledged its widespread failure to meet these obligations when it established policies and processes to address and resolve specific claims. The most recent of these, The Specific Claims Action Plan: Justice at Last, was announced by your Government in 2007.
Your commitment to the just resolution of specific claims as stated in Justice at Last necessarily includes a duty to fund research since First Nations are required under the specific claims policy to provide detailed, accurate historical research and legal opinions for claims to be considered by Canada. This duty is clearly articulated in Justice at Last which includes ...
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