Lopez Obrador keen to engage Trudeau on Indigenous reconciliation challenges
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is keen to engage Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on finding ways to heal relations with Indigenous Peoples in his country, says the Mexican ambassador to Canada.
Lopez Obrador says Canada and Mexico can share experiences on healing their respective relationships with Indigenous Peoples, Juan Jose Gomez Camacho, the Mexican envoy, told The Canadian Press.
"Something that Prime Minister Lopez Obrador will be keen to share with Prime Minister Trudeau is all the social policies that he has been putting forward to bring Indigenous people to the centre of government efforts," Gomez Camacho said in an interview from Mexico City this week prior to their Washington summit with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Trudeau and Lopez Obrador met face-to-face for the first time in Washington on Thursday before taking part in the first North America Leaders' Summit in five years, hosted by Biden.
The so-called Three Amigos are pursuing an ambitious post-COVID-19 economic agenda to make North America more resilient against the pandemic's global aftershocks, including a snarled international supply chain.
American officials say part of that agenda will include a Biden-driven initiative to create a North American working group on violence against Indigenous women and girls.
Gomez Camacho said Lopez Obrador is more than ready to engage directly with Trudeau on the issue because both of them have placed Indigenous reconciliation at the centre of their agendas.
Since coming to power in 2015, Trudeau's reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples has faced obstacles, including his government's ongoing court battle to prevent mandatory compensation of Indigenous children, as well as the aftermath from the finding of hundreds of mass graves at the sites of former Indian Residential Schools this year.
This past summer, Lopez Obrador asked Mexico's Indigenous population for forgiveness as the country marked the 500-year anniversary of the fall of the Aztecs to Spanish invaders. But he later faced criticism for his apology to Mexico's Yaqui people, whom he has described as the country's most persecuted Indigenous group.
The Yaquis faced a government campaign to exterminate or exile its members around 1900, and of late have endured mass killings and high death rates due to COVID-19.
"Indigenous people in Mexico have been discriminated against, have been marginalized, and have been the last car in the train. So, there's lots of effort to bring them to the front again," Gomez Camacho said.
While both countries face different challenges in addressing the issue, Gomez Camacho said there are "enormous potential lessons" for both leaders to learn from each other, he said, adding there are "lots of things that President Lopez Obrador would love to share with the prime minister."
Ahead of Thursday's trilateral summit in Washington, American officials said North American economic competitiveness requires "equity and justice" and "having a pledge to create a North American partnership for racial equity and inclusion." That has led Biden to seek the creation of a trilateral working group on violence against indigenous women and girls.
When the North American leaders last met in Ottawa in 2016, a similar framework was announced, but it was essentially shelved when Donald Trump succeeded Barack Obama at the White House.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly joined Gomez Camacho in Mexico City earlier this week before travelling to Washington for the leaders' summit. Joly met her counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard, and the two discussed Canada's feminist foreign policy as well as Indigenous reconciliation, according to a readout from her office.
Joly also met with female Mexican Indigenous leaders in an encounter she later described as "meaningful" in a Twitter post.
"There is much our countries can collaborate on as we seek to advance rights, truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada and in Mexico," Joly tweeted.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2021.
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
Local Spotlight
'It looked so legit': Ontario man pays $7,700 for luxury villa found on Booking.com, but the listing was fake
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Investigating the tale of Winnipeg's long-running mystery bookstore
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
'Love has no boundaries': Sask. couple in their 90s and 80s get married
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
Video shows gaggle of geese stopping traffic on Highway 1 near Vancouver
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.