BC Greens committed to Indigenous leadership: Furstenau

BC Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau says her party is committed to a future where Indigenous leadership is ubiquitous in the province.

Speaking at a press event Monday morning, Furstenau recognized the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and acknowledged the ongoing impact of systemic racism. 

“These harms, this trauma, the terrible statistics, are all the results of policy choices by governments. The policy choices that we make today can either reconcile this history and steer us away from this pattern or entrench denial and continue to deliver harm,” she said.

Furstenau adds that B.C. has been a leader in recognizing Indigenous rights by passing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, but says some “want to undo that progress and go back to a paternalistic relationship between Crown and Indigenous governments.”

She says that relationship is crucial to the work of reconciliation. 

“We need to move away from the transactional approaches that crown governments have used to dispossess Indigenous peoples of land, culture, and language and move to relationships that are rooted in recognition of Aboriginal rights and title.”

For her party, Furstenau says reconciliation must be rooted in what Canada’s judicial branch “has been telling governments for a long time.” 

On Feb. 9, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a federal law that affirms that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis have the right to lead their own child and family services is constitutional.

“It is about that absolute recognition of rights and title and the policy choices that move us to a place where we are embracing the Indigenous leadership and governance that has always been on these lands,” Furstenau said Monday.