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Initiatives des tribunaux pour la vérité et réconciliation

Accueil / Initiatives des tribunaux pour la vérité et réconciliation

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Initiatives des tribunaux pour la vérité et réconciliation

Les tribunaux ont présenté des renseignements sur les mesures adoptées en lien avec les enjeux suivants :

  • Compétence culturelle, sécurité, humilité et perspicacité 
  • Diversité et inclusion : recrutement, embauche et rétention
  • Lois autochtones, traditions et pratiques de règlement des conflits
  • Participation de la communauté
  • Tenue des audiences dans la communauté
  • Instauration des pratiques culturelles lors des audiences
  • Formation pour les commissaires des audiences
  • Participation et compréhension culturelle
The Alberta Energy Regulator

Dans l’article suivant, l’Alberta Energy Regulator décrit les mesures prises, notamment :

  • Tenue des audiences dans la communauté
  • Instauration des pratiques culturelles lors des audiences
  • Formation pour les commissaires des audiences
  • Participation et compréhension culturelle

The Alberta Energy Regulator’s (AER) hearing commissioners conduct hearings and alternative dispute resolution for energy applications and regulatory appeals. The commissioners develop the hearing procedures and the processes for alternate dispute resolution they conduct. Hearing commissioners are independent adjudicators.

Since the release of Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action in 2015, reconciliation has become a guiding principle and a priority for the hearing commissioners and hearing office. In that spirit we have taken a number of actions to make the hearings more accessible and culturally relevant for Indigenous participants, such as holding hearings within Indigenous communities, integrating Indigenous cultural practices into the hearing process, and organizing extensive training for commissioners and the staff supporting them. The hearing commissioner’s office has and continues to include Indigenous commissioners who have provided us with their unique and first-hand perspective in conducting our work.

A summary of the actions we have taken on our journey to implementing Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action follows:

Holding Hearings in the Communities

For hearings with Indigenous participants, we have made it our practice to offer to conduct the hearing or a portion of the hearing either at their community or at a location close to the community. Sometimes the community lacks capacity or does not want the hearing held in their community. Working with and being respectful of the community’s interests is an important part of our approach.

An example of a hearing held in an Indigenous community is the hearing conducted as part of the joint provincial-federal environmental review for the Teck Frontier mine, in 2018. The proposed mine was located in northern Alberta, within the traditional territory of several Indigenous groups and in an environmentally sensitive area close to Wood Buffalo National Park and the Peace Athabasca Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We held part of this four week long hearing in Fort McMurray and part of it in Fort Chipewyan. This provided an opportunity for different First Nations and Indigenous groups who were closer to each of these locations to attend the hearing.

Fort Chipewyan is a remote Indigenous community in Alberta and is only accessible by plane, an ice road in winter, or the Athabasca River in summer. At the time this hearing was conducted it was the most remote and technically advanced hearing that the AER had conducted and was broadcasted through video livestream. The AER’s Hearing Services staff worked closely with the community to ensure a successful hearing. This included installing additional hardware in the community prior to the hearing to ensure adequate bandwidth to support the video webcast.

As there was limited accommodation in the community, only the panel and small group of staff stayed in the community. Teck representatives (the project proponent), and the Alberta Government Aboriginal Consultation Office representatives flew in/out daily from Fort McMurray. In a departure from conventional practice, the panel members participated in community meals which were held daily, taking care to not discuss the hearing process or matters to be decided by the commissioners during these community events. The panel thought attendance was an important sign of friendship and respect for the community. All the logistical preparation could not have been done without the support of the community and the company. This hearing was well received by the community.

Implementing Cultural Practices at the Hearings

It has also become our practice to incorporate Indigenous cultural elements into our hearings if desired
by the community. We begin all of our hearings with land acknowledgement. When Indigenous groups are participants, we ask if they would like to include ceremonies and if so, we work with them to accommodate the ceremonies. Examples of ceremonies that have been incorporated into our hearings include traditional smudging, prayer, singing, sharing food, drumming, gifting tobacco, and dancing ceremonies. When requested and to the extent feasible, we set up the hearing room in a circle or in a setting preferred by the Indigenous participants. At our hearings, the participants provide their evidence under oath or affirmation. Indigenous participants, if they prefer to do so, provide affirmation using sacred Eagle Feather or another sacred object. Typically, these ceremonies happen off-the-record before the start of the hearing.

Training for AER Hearing Commissioners

The Hearing commissioners’ knowledge and skills acquisition strategy includes a focus on understanding how Indigenous rights, traditional land use, and culture might be impacted by energy development activities. To assist the hearing commissioners in fulfilling their duties, we provide training. Some examples of the training we have completed include:

  1. Indigenous Knowledge: Respectful Recognition and Considerations in Environmental Impact Assessment Methodologies. This workshop focused on traditional ecological knowledge. It provided an overview of the cultural sensitivity and awareness required to support respectful recognition; insight into indigenous knowledge systems and values to be considered on indigenous lands; and consideration of how these indigenous knowledge systems can be
    respectfully integrated into environmental impact assessment.
  2. An Indigenous Judge from Federal Court of Canada was invited by the hearing commissioners to speak about Indigenous mediation and share his knowledge and insight as an Indigenous lawyer, a judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta, and a Federal Court of Canada justice.
  3. Engaging Aboriginal and Métis People in ADR processes was a two-day workshop and addressed how to meaningfully engage Indigenous and Métis peoples in Alternate Dispute Resolution processes. Training modules included:
    • An introduction to the International Institute for Restorative Practices Framework – a construct for acting restoratively in any community. The aim of the framework is to focus on strengthening relationships and repairing harm as a way of building community.
    • Effective Use of Circles – learning the value and process of circles to create a positive climate in any setting. Circle techniques and ideas, what circles can accomplish, how circles can build community, stimulate learning, and offer a powerful dispute resolution process, where everyone feels equal, respected and has a voice.
    • Understanding Historic Trauma & Lateral Violence – participants gain a deeper understanding regarding barriers impacting Indigenous engagement with external/government or internal community-driven processes. Participants are introduced to natural law and a Cree concept known as “Wahkohtowin”, a relational framework which creates and sustains more connected, healthy and productive environments.

In addition to the work undertaken by the hearing commissioners, the larger AER organization has undertaken other steps in the spirit of reconciliation with Indigenous people of Alberta. The AER has a resident Indigenous elder and Indigenous engagement specialists, who provide guidance to staff and leadership in their decision making.

Another example is a project called Voices of Understanding. This project is a recognition that all voices matter and that the voices of Indigenous peoples are important to the AER to be fully informed in its decision making. The result of this project was a book, published on the AER website. Voices of Understanding: Looking Through the Window outlines the very different ways that indigenous cultures and western cultures look at the world. Voices of Understanding tells the story of two groups divided by a wall. Rather than allowing that divide to alienate them, the book shows how each group has equal opportunity to look through a window and better understand the other before walking through a door to make shared decisions. Only when both have looked through the window to understand each other’s customs and worldviews can either comprehend what to do when they pass through the door.

A team of AER employees including staff from the hearing commissioner’s office worked with Dr. Reg Crow Shoe, a Blackfoot elder, to learn how the AER can better respect the knowledge and cultures of indigenous communities. The decision-making models that the AER uses and the decision-making models used by Indigenous communities are not mutually understood—but making decisions is an important part of being a regulator. To help AER staff understand how to appreciate those different views, this book explains indigenous and western decision-making models and explores the ways that we can come together.

Alberta Human Rights Commission

Alberta Human Rights Commission :

  • Formation des membres de la Commission en matière de prise de décision compétente sur le plan culturel, inclusive et accessible
  • Formation en histoire autochtone et en compréhension culturelle
  • Vérification interne sur la diversité du personnel incluant des membres de la Commission
  • Mise en œuvre de pratiques culturelles lors des audiences (en cours)
  • Stratégie pour les droits de la personne des Autochtones qui comprendra l’élaboration de politiques particulières pour résoudre les problèmes systémiques (en cours)
British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal

British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal

  • Offre des services d’accompagnement pour les personnes qui s’identifient comme Autochtones
  • A rendu publics :
    • Son engagement envers la réconciliation
    • Les conclusions et les recommandations du comité consultatif du Tribunal d’appel des accidents du travail de la Colombie-Britannique
    • Les mesures que le Tribunal prend pour fournir des services accessibles et inclusifs
British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal

British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal

  • A fait rapport sur la mise en œuvre du rapport [en anglais seulement], dont :
    • Mise sur pied d’un comité consultatif
    • Vérification des processus d’embauche pour identifier les barrières au recrutement et à l’embauche de personnes autochtones
    • Rédaction d’un cadre pratique pour le recrutement, l’embauche et la rétention des personnes autochtones
    • Rédaction d’un cadre pratique sur la compétence culturelle et l’humilité autochtone
    • Révision des formulaires, incluant un langage simple et l’auto-identification en tant qu’Autochtone
    • Nomination de membres et de médiateurs autochtones 
    • Élaboration de procédures adaptées aux plaignants autochtones
    • Options procédurales adaptées offertes aux parties autochtones
Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes

Équipe chargée des relations avec les autochtones : Création d’une équipe chargée d’offrir un point de contact unique aux communautés, entreprises et organisations des Premières nations, des Métis et des Inuits, afin de les aider dans leurs relations avec le CRTC. 

Engagement des communautés autochtones : 

  • Poursuite des contacts avec les groupes et les communautés autochtones afin d’encourager et de faciliter la participation aux consultations.  
  • Tenue d’une audience publique dans un centre culturel autochtone à Whitehorse. Pour faciliter la participation, le CRTC a produit des affiches en inuktitut et en inuinnaqtun et a mené des recherches sur l’opinion publique.  

Politique de radiodiffusion autochtone : Lancement et poursuite d’une procédure visant à élaborer, en collaboration avec les peuples autochtones, un nouveau cadre pour la radiodiffusion autochtone au Canada.

Examen de la politique du Fonds pour la large bande : Lancement et poursuite de l’examen du Fonds pour la bande passante qui propose la création d’un Volet autochtone. 

Projets autochtones sélectionnés dans le cadre du Fonds pour la bande passante: Poursuite du financement de projets dans les communautés autochtones. Environ la moitié des fonds alloués jusqu’ici ont été consacrés à la connexion des communautés autochtones. 

 Cercle de réconciliation des employés autochtones : Mise en place d’un réseau interne d’employés et d’alliés autochtones appelé « Cercle de réconciliation ».

Apprentissage des employés :

  • Partenariat avec Relations Couronne-Autochtones et Affaires du Nord Canada pour donner accès au Kiche Anishnabe Kumik, un lodge où les employés fédéraux peuvent apprendre directement des aînés autochtones. 
  • Formation des juristes du CRTC sur les droits des autochtones au Canada et création d’un groupe de pratique au sein de l’équipe.

Représentation des employé.e.s : Continuer à assurer la représentativité autochtone des employé.e.s du CRTC.