Liberals postponing planned tabling of UNDRIP bill because of blockade crisis, says Mohawk chief

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National Indigenous organizations had been told to expect tabling of UNDRIP bill on Thursday

The Liberal government has decided to postpone tabling its promised bill on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a result of ongoing rail blockades sparked by RCMP action on Wet’suwet’en territory, Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon said today.

Simon said he learned of the decision to delay the bill — confirmed independently by CBC News — on Tuesday, when he went to Ottawa to appear at a news conference alongside Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, band chiefs from the Mohawk communities of Kahnawake and Tyendinaga and a former chief of Akwesasne.

“My understanding is that because of this crisis that the Trudeau government has to deal with, they will have to put the UNDRIP aside for now,” said Simon, whose Mohawk community west of Montreal was at the centre of the 1990 Oka Crisis.

“Hopefully that is not the case … It could be a means for this situation to get resolved. If Trudeau … continues with what he has promised, that would show a lot of good faith.”

On Feb. 6, RCMP in B.C. began enforcing an injunction against Wet’suwet’en encampments that were built to stop construction of a natural gas pipeline. That led to protests and rail blockades across the country — including one demonstration that has paralyzed one of Canada’s busiest rail corridors.

Read full article here.

Jorge Barrera – CBC News – Feb 19, 2020.

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