MCK Responds to Minister Lafreniere

Quebec’s minister responsible for Indigenous affairs says work has begun to improve services for Indigenous people, but is not complete and will take “a long time.” Ian Lafrenière, on hand at the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec City to draw up a provisional assessment of his actions, two years after the tabling of the Viens report. According to the CTV story, while there has been some progress, Lafrenière says that the number of recommendations that are in the process of being addressed has only increased from 51 to 68 in one year. The Minister and leaders of some 30 Indigenous communities have identified three priorities for the future: youth protection, women’s well-being and education. MCK Elected Official Tonya Perron on what is important to Kahnawake:

“One of the more important ones I think to implement is the call to action regarding the implementation of UNDRIP, the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I’m not sure to what extent those changes will go for education, youth protection and Indigenous Women, I guess that remains to be seen. Hopefully, Minister Lafreniere will release some more details about the expected changes.”

Retired judge Jacques Viens made 142 recommendations back in his final 2019 report.