Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks to the Assembly of First Nations as National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, right, looks on, on July 11 in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Pierre Poilievre told chiefs at his first in-person address to the Assembly of First Nations that their values are similar to core Conservative beliefs and focused on economic reconciliation in an attempt to move past his party’s historically fraught relationship with Indigenous leaders.
Mr. Poilievre told the group’s annual general assembly in Montreal that First Nations and the Conservatives share the “values of faith and spirituality,” including acknowledging “a higher creator.” He spoke as more than a half-dozen delegates in the audience stood with their backs facing him in protest.
“Values of family as the greatest social safety net we have,” he said. “Values of tradition. The traditions, stories and knowledge that are the foundation of any people, that form a long chain that connects one generation to the next, those who were, those who are, and those who will be.”
He said that if reconciliation means anything, it means saying “yes” to economic opportunities that First Nations are asking for.
“Your right to say ‘yes’ is as important as your right to say ‘no,’” he said.
First Nation veterans turn their backs as Poilievre speaks at the Assembly of First Nations on July 11 in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
‘We’re here, we’re loud’: New AFN Chief Cindy Woodhouse says First Nations are united
Mr. Poilievre’s speech marks a key moment of outreach to First Nations leaders that is a departure from the approach taken by then-Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.
Mr. Harper, who was prime minister for a decade, never appeared at an AFN assembly. He was highly criticized by chiefs, including for resisting calls to establish a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who also spoke to chiefs at the assembly on Thursday, said that colonialism and genocide are to blame for the fact that Indigenous women and girls are murdered at a disproportionately higher rate.
He also took aim at the record of both the governing Liberals and the Conservatives. He said communities are still denied basic human rights and face conditions such as having to live in overcrowded and dilapidated homes that are the result of “decades of underfunding” by Liberal and Conservative governments.
Mr. Poilievre’s and Mr. Singh’s remarks were made on the final day of a three-day gathering, when AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, chiefs from Ontario and Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu announced a draft $47.8-billion agreement for reforms to First Nations child welfare.
Federal representatives have been negotiating with the parties and Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak said that chiefs will now have an opportunity to review a draft of the agreement. The $47.8-million figure is more than double what was included in a 2022 agreement in principle.
Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak said the agreement was bittersweet for First Nations people.
“There has been so much pain and harm and hurt caused by this racist child-welfare policy in every one of our First Nations communities,” she said.
Ms. Hajdu said the goal of the draft agreement is to “bring some peace to families and to communities and to First Nations peoples” who have had to endure what she called “the most cruel policy, which is to separate families.”
A copy of the draft agreement has not been released by the government. A news release said once it is approved, the goal would be to implement reform by April, 2025.
AFN’s new National Chief Cindy Woodhouse vows to hold government accountable
The central role of the AFN as an advocacy organization that represents more than 900,000 people in 634 communities is to try and influence government policy and to encourage political parties to recognize First Nations’ priorities, such as access to clean drinking water, housing and the effects of climate change.
Ms. Woodhouse Nepinak, who became national chief in an election last December, is trying to foster relationships with leaders of all political parties.
During his address, Mr. Poilievre detailed his perspective on a number of issues, such as the residential school system, which he called a “monstrous abuse of excessive governmental power.”
Mr. Poilievre faced criticism in 2008 for publicly questioning the value of providing compensation to residential school survivors. He apologized in Parliament.
In 2023, he was also called out, including by Liberal cabinet ministers, for delivering remarks to the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy, which in 2018 ran radio ads with claims about debunking myths regarding residential schools. When he was asked about that appearance in an interview with City News, Mr. Poilievre said he speaks to hundreds of groups every year and he does not agree with everything these groups stand for.
In a question-and-answer period on Thursday, Mr. Poilievre was slammed for what he left out of his speech. Judy Wilson, former chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band and former secretary treasurer of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, received applause for her criticism of the Conservative Leader.
“In your speech you did not acknowledge missing and murdered women,” she said. “You did not acknowledge the inherent title rights of the people where I come from.”
Ms. Wilson also told Mr. Poilievre if he is going to be the next prime minister, he will have “a lot of education to do on those fronts.”
Mr. Poilievre thanked delegates for their “direct approach” and for continuing to educate him.
In a statement later Thursday afternoon, Jamie Schmale, the Conservative critic for Crown-Indigenous relations and Indigenous services, said his party is committed to working with Indigenous people to overcome present challenges and to address injustices of the past including the “horrific tragedies surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.”
Alan Knockwood, a member of the First Nations Veterans Council, was among the small group who turned their backs on Mr. Poilievre during his remarks. Mr. Knockwood said in an interview later that Mr. Poilievre did not have “anything substantive” to say in his “political speech.”
Mr. Knockwood also said it was much harder to get things done for First Nations people during the Conservatives’ time in power.