Canada’s 45th federal election is underway and Indigenous leaders are demanding action, hoping their peoples’ past sacrifices to secure and defend this country aren’t forgotten as the trade and affordability focused campaign heats up.
“We’ve already lived through a pretty massive militarization in our homeland in front of our very eyes, and we’ve lived with the fallout of that,” said Natan Obed, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
Many Inuit were forcefully relocated to the High Arctic in the Cold War, used as “human flagpoles” to assert Canadian sovereignty. Much of the infrastructure in Arctic hub communities was actually built by the U.S. military, he said.
“We still remain patriotic Canadians,” he said. “We still want to help defend Canada against foreign threats but our communities are quite concerned that history may repeat itself in not respecting our rights or our treaties.”
CBC News
Publication Date
March 27, 2025
