Communist Party of Canada salutes National Indigenous Peoples Day

The statement starts with a greeting to all First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, celebrating the long history of resistance against colonial oppression while reaffirming their solidarity with those on the front lines of Indigenous struggles to uphold the treaties and to oppose land and resource theft. 

This year was the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 6 which is an agreement outlining how First Nations and settlers would share the land, plants, air, and animals. CPC reiterates that the promises of the agreement are still binding. 

“Treaties were enacted by Britain and Canada under pressure from Indigenous resistance to colonial genocide. Essentially, they were agreements for nation building and an instrument for the sharing of the land base for Turtle Island. Treaties never surrendered land, but were for shared agricultural purposes “from the depth to the tip of the plow”. We honour this anniversary and the ongoing struggle to uphold the promises of Treaty 6 and all treaties.”

CPC brings the increasing corporate offensive to attention as Canada and provincial governments are making moves to strengthen the powers of capitalist dispossession. Governments are fast-tracking corporate projects that violate Indigenous sovereignty.

The statement reveals the connection between these offensives and the U.S. / NATO demand to spend 5% of GDP on military expansion. 

“The war economy demands accelerated resource extraction and the sacrifice of Indigenous title to fuel imperialist militarism. Illegitimate expropriation of Indigenous land is the historical foundation for Canadian capitalism, and continued control over Indigenous land remains a key pillar upholding monopoly capitalism in Canada.”

Communist Party of Canada salutes the major advances and contributions Indigenous peoples have made, even in the face of growing assimilationism, in language revitalization, media, education, art, theatre, and literature.

The statement ends with a call to:

• Uphold UNDRIP as binding law, ensuring Indigenous rights to full, free, prior, and informed consent over all development, including full implementation of BC’s DRIPA and reversal of all provincial measures that circumvent Indigenous consent.
• Enact all Calls for Justice of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry and all Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action; replace the pattern of deliberate funding lapses with a permanent, Indigenous-led funding framework that fully implements all recommendations.
• Establish an independent, First Nations‑led federal commission of inquiry into state spying on Indigenous peoples and political organizations.
• Eliminate the “second-generation cut-off” from the Indian Act and implement a “one-parent rule” to allow Status Indians to pass on legal identity to their children.
• Repeal all anti‑protest, anti‑picketing, and “critical infrastructure” laws that criminalize Indigenous land defence and attack labour rights.
• Launch a massive public investment program to end the housing, water, and health‑care gaps on‑reserve and in northern communities, funded by progressive taxation on corporations and the wealthy.
• Support and fund Indigenous proposals to protect and enhance Indigenous languages and cultures.
• Enforce Indigenous Treaty fishing and hunting rights; end the seizure and removal of Indigenous children into state care.
• Include Residential School denialism under anti‑hate speech laws.
• Allow Indigenous nations to enact public ownership and democratic control over their resources to ensure an economic base for self‑determination.
• Act now for the just settlement of land claims, including natural resource-sharing agreements, without requiring the extinguishment of inherent Indigenous title.
• Adopt a new constitution based on the equal and voluntary partnership of all nations in Canada: Quebec, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Acadians and English-speaking Canada, guaranteeing the protection of Indigenous inherent rights, including the right to consent over any change in their constitutional status.

"Working people of all nations need to take up the demands of Indigenous peoples across the country. The working class across Canada, of all nations, has a shared fight. We fight for a people’s coalition of Indigenous peoples, workers, women, students, 2SLGBTiQ+ people, immigrants and other people’s movements – united against the shared enemy: monopoly capital. Honour the treaties!"