OTTAWA — As First Nations leaders gather on Parliament Hill to protest Ottawa's controversial major projects legislation, the federal minister for Indigenous services says she has asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to screen new federal bills for their impacts on Indigenous communities.
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty says other ministries — including labour, justice, industry and natural resources — touch on Indigenous rights in different ways and the legislation they introduce should be analyzed through an Indigenous lens.
Her comments come as First Nations protest C-5, legislation that would allow the federal government to override certain laws — including the Indian Act and the Species at Risk Act — to get major projects approved.
First Nations leaders say C-5 could trample on their rights and accuse Carney's government of failing to consult with them.
"Let me be clear — weaponizing the economy to suppress First Nations rights is economic terrorism," Chief Shelly Moore-Frappier of Temagami First Nation said Tuesday to a crowd of supporters on Parliament Hill brandishing signs urging the federal government to scrap the legislation.
"It is coercion, plain and simple, and it has no place in a country that claims to value justice or honour of the Crown."
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said that if the legislation does pass, Canada is in for a "long, hot summer."
"We will not sit idly by and watch any government, whether it's Ontario or Canada, to come into our territory and take whatever they want," he said.
"Because it's ours, and your laws, your regulations, will not apply on our land."
The government is pushing to pass the legislation by the end of the week through a condensed committee process that will leave parliamentarians with less time to study the bill.
Indigenous leaders have warned the government may find itself in court if their rights are not respected and say widespread blockades and protests are not off the table.
Asked whether the federal government could have avoided conflict if it had undertaken an Indigenous-based analysis of C-5 before it was introduced, Gull-Masty said she "would hope so."
"I often ask myself when these kinds of things happen, 'Where was the point that communication could have been enhanced on both sides?'" she said.
"I hear what's going on in the community. I hear all kinds of responses. But getting to the table and clarifying what it is you expect, or what you understand this bill to be, or what your concerns are, that's where the real problem-solving is."
Gull-Masty said that as a former grand chief, she knows economic participation is not the bottom line for Indigenous communities worried about the impacts of development on their culture and the environment.
She said Carney is "super open" to the idea of reviewing bills through an Indigenous lens and is willing to engage new methods brought forward by cabinet's Indigenous caucus.
The federal government already has a duty to consult with Indigenous Peoples when legislation could affect their lands or rights.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada adopted, also requires free, prior and informed consent — though the federal government says that does not amount to an Indigenous "veto" on projects.
Gull-Masty's pitch for Indigenous analysis of new legislation would be based on Ottawa's "gender-based analysis plus" — a 30-year-old mechanism which the government says "has become an integrated component" of its decision-making process.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2025.
Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press
