UN Special Rapporteur weighs in Indigenous communities’ drinking water

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous issues said Canada’s inability to provide safe drinking water to Indigenous communities unequivocally constitutes a human-rights violations when he delivered his report last Friday in Ottawa.

Kahnawake’s Kenneth Deer, who represents the Haudenosaunee at the United Nations level, agrees with him.

“Absolutely,” Deer said. “That kind of human-rights abuse has been going on for far too long in Canada.”

The UN Special Rapporteur wrapped up his visit to Canada saying he had “mixed feelings,” about his sojourn.

“I finish this almost two-week visit with mixed feelings: admiration but also frustration and even indignation,” Pedro Arrojo-Agudo said. “I have witnessed the marginalization of First Nations on reserves, where in many cases the human rights to drinking water and sanitation are not respected.”

Deer said it boggles the mind that Canada has yet to be able to provide clean drinking water Indigenous communities where drinking-water advisories are still in place.

“(The Special Rapporteur) is absolutely right. It’s ridiculous,” Deer said. “Clean drinking water is a basic human right and for the government to keep dragging their heels indicates where their priorities are.”

As of this week, 28 long-term drinking water-advisories are still in place in 26 Indigenous communities across the Canada.

Arrojo-Agudo said the long-term drinking water advisories are breaches of basic human rights.

“It is highly significant that First Nations reserves are affected by what are called drinking water advisories, or long-term drinking water advisories, which are nothing more than flagrant breaches of the human right to safe drinking water,” he said. “The extended and frequent unavailability of potable water — not in Canada, everywhere, for any reason — signifies a violation of human rights.”

Arrojo-Agudo’s tour of Canada included stops in Ontario, Nunavut, British Columbia and Alberta.

Deer said Canada’s lack of apparent desire to move on this urgent need is indicative of where Indigenous communities fit in the government’s worldview.

“It’s one of the things that governments around the world have done, that states have done, to their Indigenous populations and it speaks to continued marginalization of our people,” Deer said.

The Special Rapporteur – who was appointed in 2020 — met with government officials, non-governmental organizations, Indigenous communities and others in Ottawa, Iqaluit, Toronto, Fort McMurray, Alta., Vancouver and Smithers, B.C.

He did give the federal government some slight praise, mentioning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the House of Commons’ admission that genocide occurred at Residential Schools, and the passage of legislation on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) together provide a benchmark for international leadership.

Federal Indigenous Services minister Patty Hajdu acknowledged the report and agreed there was a lot of work left to do.

“I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, for visiting Canada to better understand and assess our country’s efforts to implement the human rights to water and sanitation. More work must be done to ensure all First Nations have access to clean drinking water,” Hajdu said. “Decades of discriminatory funding will not be undone overnight, but we are making progress. In 2015, 105 long-term drinking water advisories were in place. Our government has increased funding by 150 percent in water infrastructure and followed the lead of First Nations communities with a plan to lift all long-term drinking water advisories.”

Marc Lalonde, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase