OTTAWA—It was nearly midnight Tuesday in the last hour of an emergency debate on the Wet’suwet’en blockades crisis when Jody Wilson-Raybould stood in the Commons, blasted the Trudeau government for “punting” the hard work of resetting Indigenous relations, and laid out four proposals to ease tensions.

Wilson-Raybould, now an independent MP, called for Trudeau to fly to B.C. to get personally involved in meetings, a cooling-off period in B.C. during which construction would cease and the RCMP leave the area, and the immediate tabling of long-promised Indigenous land rights and self-governance legislation.

Wilson-Raybould also made a plea to the Wet’suwet’en to take responsibility for providing clarity to Canadians about who speaks for a community that Canadians and governments understand is divided.

Wilson-Raybould laid blame for the northern B.C. pipeline blockade, spinoff solidarity protests and the ensuing economic disruption not only at the feet of the federal Liberal government but also its predecessors.

All failed to do the basic work of resetting relations with Indigenous people despite all their fancy political talk, she said.

However Wilson-Raybould was especially critical of Justin Trudeau’s failed promises.

Canada has known for decades “what needs to be done,” said Wilson-Raybould. “But here we are, yet again, in a moment of crisis because the hard work was punted.”

She said the prime minister and his colleagues know this, “So please look in the mirror and ask yourself why?”

Wilson-Raybould delivered a withering critique of the historical actions of federal governments that divided up Indigenous peoples into smaller administrative groupings with systems of government imposed upon them through the Indian Act and its creation of the band council system.

She said despite Trudeau’s “lofty” reconciliation rhetoric and promises to offer a new legislative framework to support Indigenous communities to get out from under the Indian Act, the prime minister never truly supported their quest for self-determination beyond political language that became an excuse for delays and inaction.

Wilson-Raybould has a lot of “former” titles that give her credibility to speak on the current crisis.

Despite her infamous break with Trudeau last year over his attempts to meddle in a prosecution, she is his former federal justice minister and attorney-general who helped design Trudeau’s promised-but-never-delivered new Indigenous rights framework.

She is a former B.C. regional First Nations chief, former B.C. treaty commissioner, former Crown prosecutor, and lawyer and daughter of a hereditary chief in B.C.

She cited several reasons for what she called “perpetual inaction,” among them the historical denial of rights to self-government and denial of lands, along with “paternalism.” The result, she said, is what is happening today in Wet’suwet’en territory.

That is ground zero of a series of paralyzing blockades and protests across the country.

A number of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters are blocking construction of a natural gas pipeline, claiming they hold the title and right to determine what happens in their traditional territory, not the elected band councils which are responsible for decisions on reserves. The company Coastal GasLink has signed benefit agreements with 20 elected band councils along the proposed route, including with five Wet’suwet’en bands, and won an injunction and enforcement order at the B.C. Supreme Court in late December to clear the path.

The RCMP moved to enforce the injunction against the protests in January, leading to the widening sympathy blockades elsewhere.

“Let us be honest — the prime minister has to learn to take responsibility,” said Wilson-Raybould.

She suggested Canadians have learned “the true history and the need for fundamental change” yet Trudeau has done little but talk.

“He has been speaking for five years about this ‘most important relationship’. He stood up over two years ago in the House of Commons and pledged to make transformative legislative and policy reforms — reforms that would be directly relevant to the situation in Wet’suwet’en territory today… that would have supported the internal governance work of the Nation, shifted the consultation processes that took place, and provided a framework for better relations. “

“What have we seen as the result of this historic speech — and its transformative words? Honestly, almost nothing,” she said.

“The promised legislation has not come. I know it is hard. But we cannot keep punting the hard work because of political expediency. Or we will have another situation like today in five years from now — or quite likely far sooner…”

Wilson-Raybould suggested four courses of action for Trudeau and the B.C. government, saying Trudeau needs to “show real leadership.”

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“In my view and with respect, he should have gotten on a plane and flown out to British Columbia, picked up the premier on the way, and met with the Wet’suwet’en leadership, and some of the broader Indigenous leadership in B.C.”

Wilson-Raybould laid bare what she said was a “weird” political practice where leaders avoid meetings “where the outcomes and structure are not basically predetermined. Enough of that. One cannot script dealing with real issues and challenges. Deal with them.”

Secondly, she called on Trudeau to table comprehensive bills to implement the “minimum standards” of the decade-old United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and to uphold his long-promised but never delivered new rights framework.

“This government is five years old. It has been two years since the prime minister announced legislation would be tabled within 10 months. Enough is enough. It is time for action — no more half-measures and lofty rhetoric. No more setting up interminable negotiation tables that get nowhere very slowly over years and years.”

As immediate measures, Wilson-Raybould said the government should work toward “ a cooling-off period” where construction activity on Wet’suwet’en territory ceases for a month or a few months, to de-escalate current tensions.

During that time, she said “dialogue between the Wet’suwet’en and government can take place.”

She suggested the possibility of an alternate routing for small portions of the pipeline should be addressed, and governments should explore whether they can “accommodate” the costs of rerouting the pipeline.

The company, however, has dismissed the option of rerouting the pipeline.

It told the CBC the most technically viable path was chosen to minimize the impact to the environment and says rerouting it now could add up to a billion dollars to the cost of the $6 billion pipeline project.

The pipeline is slated to bring natural gas from northern B.C. to a facility for liquefied natural gas exports to be built in Kitimat, B.C.

Wilson-Raybould also said the Wet’suwet’en people need to take responsibility and “continue to have in an inclusive manner — the internal dialogue needed to bring clarity about how they will approach the future of this project collectively.”

Wilson-Raybould said key to resolving the dispute is not just a meeting with the prime minister and the B.C. premier, but also “that the RCMP leave the area where they conducted enforcement activity.”

When questioned by another MP how she sees the government’s power to make that happen, Wilson-Raybould said she understood the need for independence of the police but suggested the conversations she believes need to happen may happen “appropriately with political action and agreement on all sides. Perhaps that would lead the way for decisions to be made by police and the RCMP.”

In the end, Wilson-Raybould appeared to dismiss the talk that “reconciliation is dead,” but she said it requires a “reckoning” and actions that are not “words, and half-measures, and apologies and hugs — but not fundamentally transforming the foundations that led us to need reconciliation in the first place. Of not addressing the roots of colonialism is Canada.”

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