Smith’s comments comparing Ottawa’s treatment of Alberta to Indigenous experience prompts criticism

Treaty 6 chiefs say they have concluded Premier Danielle Smith does not respect or understand treaty rights and indigenous history after hearing comments she made in the Alberta legislature on Tuesday.

Smith compared the federal government’s treatment of Alberta to Canada’s treatment of aboriginal people under the Indian Act — a comment that left aboriginal leaders and others feeling frustrated and angry.

“This is all about making sure Ottawa stays out of our jurisdiction,” Smith said as she addressed the legislative assembly. “The way I’ve described it to the chiefs I’ve spoken to is that they’ve been fighting a battle for the past number of years to have sovereignty respected and to extract themselves from the paternalistic Indian Act.

“We are treated exactly the same from Ottawa. They interfere in our jurisdiction all the time and we look forward to pushing back and being treated exactly like Quebec.”

After receiving backlash for the comments, Smith told the house on Wednesday that she was sorry if she didn’t make her point clear.

“If my comments were misconstrued, I absolutely apologize for that because my intention was to demonstrate that we have a common problem with Ottawa,” she said.

“Ottawa, I think, unfortunately treats First Nations with disrespect and they also treat provinces with disrespect.”

Chief Tony Alexis of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation issued a statement to Global News on Wednesday in response to Smith’s comments.

“We know that’s not true,” he said. “I want Premier Smith to focus on our concerns about the sovereignty law, rather than trying to use our people in her fight against Ottawa.”

“It was clear from our discussions that Premier Smith does not understand the treaty or our inherent rights, nor does she respect them,” said a statement issued by Treaty 6 chiefs on Tuesday.

It just so happened that the provincial government had a meeting with treaty chiefs scheduled for the day after Smith made her comments. The meeting was scheduled before she became prime minister and was not intended to be a sit-down on her act of sovereignty.

Last week, the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act was passed in the legislature. The legislation was introduced by Smith as a way for her government to push back when it believes the federal government has crossed into provincial jurisdiction and is doing something it believes harms Alberta’s interests.

First Nations chiefs criticized the prime minister for not consulting with them before passing the legislation.

After Wednesday’s meeting, the chiefs wrote in a statement that the meeting did not constitute a proper consultation with their nations on matters of mutual interest.

They said the invitation during the throne speech at the start of the legislative assembly was not an “inclusive approach” to consult with the indigenous community on the sovereignty law. They also called Smith out for not understanding how to respectfully approach Native leaders for such a conversation or how to work with them.

The chiefs asked the province to “withdraw and reconsider any legislation that purports to have jurisdiction over treaty nations and peoples.”

Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson denied hearing Smith’s comments the day before in which he compared Alberta’s relationship with the federal government to the plight faced by Indigenous people because of the Indian Act.

He said on Wednesday that the provincial government is working hard to create good relations with the indigenous community and its leaders, and that Smith explained to treaty leaders what the sovereignty law really means, and “how we want to help them also act and work with them on some projects.”

The Prime Minister’s Office echoed these sentiments in a statement to Global News on Wednesday.

“Earlier today, the Premier had a meeting with the Treaty 6 Chiefs to continue to build and strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities across Alberta,” the statement said. “We look forward to continued engagement as we work together on reconciliation and addressing the issues facing our Indigenous and Métis communities.”

NDP member Richard Feehan said Indigenous people have been talking about Bill 1 for weeks and don’t feel heard.

The relationship between indigenous people and political leaders is “clearly” not being repaired, he said.

“They had an opportunity this morning to have a conversation, where they could have made some kind of bridge with the First Nations communities and Treaty 6, and the province failed to do that,” Feehan added.

“It shows that, despite being asked over and over again, they don’t understand what it is that is being told to them… When you don’t learn from your mistakes, you’re going to find yourself in trouble, and they certainly did.”

He said Smith is creating a narrative that completely undermines the history and experience of First Nations people and that trust is “going downhill on a daily basis.”

Matthew Wildcat, an assistant professor of political science and aboriginal studies at the University of Alberta, said it was clear before the meeting that Smith did not understand treaty or aboriginal rights and title in Canada.

He said what he was most shocked by was what he described as Smith and her team’s lack of understanding of the most basic Indigenous politics.

“It shows me that not only herself, but people in her inner circle didn’t spend 30 minutes learning about the Indian Act,” Wildcat said. “Because if you spent even 30 minutes learning about what the Indian Act is and what it has done in the past, you would never say that we have been treated exactly the same as the paternalism of the Indian Act has treated indigenous peoples .

“The Indian Act has caused fundamental human rights violations – nowhere near the type of conflicts that exist between Alberta and Canada.”

Wildcat explained that when Indigenous people refer to a treaty, it’s not just the legal text of the document, it’s about the way they live their lives and the standard they hold themselves to in order to coexist with Canadians.

“It’s offensive, to anybody … it’s not just offensive to indigenous people,” he said. “It’s offensive to anyone who would have any understanding of the Indian Act and its history and what it did.”

– With files from Morgan Black, Global News and Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press