Montreal Economic Institute – With the federal government tabling a bill last week aiming to make the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples applicable to Canada, a clear majority of Quebecers are opposed to them having special or additional rights, compared to what all Quebecers enjoy. According to an Ipsos poll commissioned by the MEI:

• 55% of Quebecers think Indigenous people should have the same rights as them, no more and no less.
• 65% of Quebecers intending to vote for the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) think that Indigenous people should not have any special rights. Only among Québec Solidaire (QS) voters does a plurality of people favour special rights for Indigenous people (44%).
• 50% of CAQ voters think it is either the provincial or the federal government that should have the final word in cases of economic projects on land claimed by First Nations.
• Only 28% of them think that Indigenous people should have a veto right or blocking power in these matters. In contrast, 60% of QS voters think the final word should belong to Indigenous people.
• 72% of CAQ voters think Indigenous governments should either have the powers and level of autonomy associated with municipal governments or no more than they have now. Conversely, only 5% of them think that Indigenous people should have powers comparable to those of the federal government.

“While people are not currently aware of the potential scope of the UN’s Declaration, an obvious result of this poll is that a clear majority of Quebecers is opposed to the effects of its application in Canada,” continues Mr. Kelly-Gagnon. “This Declaration will likely grant First Nations a de facto veto right over many important economic projects. There’s Hydro-Québec’s project to export electricity to Massachusetts, for instance, among many others. Yet it is only a minority of Quebecers who think that Indigenous people alone should make these decisions that affect all Quebecers,” concludes Michel Kelly-Gagnon, President and CEO of the MEI.

The Montreal Economic Institute who commissioned the poll are a right wing conservative thinktank. The poll results align with their own over-all economic agenda in promoting and safeguarding the economic interest of Quebec’s business elite certainly not in righting the historical economic wrongs inflicted on Indigenous peoples by the very institutions – like Hydro Québec – that the Institute supports.