By Rochelle Baker Local Journalism Initiative First Nations leaders are dismayed BC Conservative Leader John Rustad chose to announce his party’s proposed Indigenous policy on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. The national holiday is a day of mourning that honours children and the survivors of residential schools, and acknowledges ongoing impacts to their families and communities. It’s not an appropriate occasion for a political leader to proclaim his agenda for how he plans to work with Indigenous peoples should he become leader, Cheryl Casimer, First Nations Summit political executive told Canada’s National Observer — particularly when that statement fails to uphold a commitment to Indigenous rights and title and the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA). “The timing of it is what really infuriated…
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