Three national Indigenous leaders say Indigenous Peoples should be at the centre of any discussions on how the country should respond to incoming U.S. president Donald Trump’s threats on tariffs and Canada’s territorial sovereignty.
National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed and Métis National Council President Victoria Pruden made that pitch during a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday morning.
Those same leaders were barred from a meeting with premiers that happened just after, which Obed called a “regressive imagination” of what makes up Canadian governance.
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“If we’re trying to unite against an external threat, the idea that provinces, territories and the federal government are the sum total of governance in this country is just an outdated and wrong-headed approach,” he said in an interview with The Canadian Press Thursday, adding the decision for their exclusion laid with the premiers themselves despite Trudeau advocating for their inclusion.
Trump has threatened …