Canada election: Did leaders not speak to Indigenous issues enough in this campaign?

Credit: Global News

Canada was dominated this summer by the devastating news of the discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former Residential Schools…so did politicians in this election speak enough to Indigenous issues?

Ellis Ross, a member of the legislative assembly for B.C. and an Indigenous leader, told Farah Nasser that Indigenous issues have “never really risen to the top” in terms of the political landscape. He also said while discussions on unmarked graves were brought up when they were discovered, commitments made don’t “describe the complicated, costly, long-term plan that we needed” to address the graves found.

He also addressed the issue of reconciliation, saying that several of the programs and initiatives that have been made are ones that did already exist. Ross added when talking about reconciliation, people need to think about social issues faced across Canada such as poverty, imprisonment, suicide and children in care.