Ambassador Chartier Attends CEC meeting in Mexico City

July 30, 2025

July 2025 - Ambassador Clément Chartier was invited to present a paper at the TEKEG portion of the annual Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) meetings held in Mexico City, July 24 - 26, 2025.

Backgrounder:

Chapter 24 of the Canada-United States - Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), once known as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), provides, at 24.1, that the "Parties recognize that a healthy environment is an integral element of sustainable development and recognize the contribution that trade makes to sustainable development. Chapter 24 further sets out the objectives "to promote mutually supportive trade and environmental policies and practices; promote high levels of environmental protection and effective enforcement of environmental laws; and enhance the capacities of the Parties to address trade-related environmental issues, including through cooperation, in the furtherance of sustainable development."

In a side-agreement to the CUSMA, titled the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the parties designed cooperative approaches to protection of the North American environment and to advancement of the environmental goals and objectives of CUSMA; the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is established as the Secretariat to this Agreement.

In the context of environmental, economic and social linkages between Canada, Mexico and the United States, the CEC facilitates effective cooperation and public participation to conserve, protect and enhance the North American environment in support of sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations. The Council is the CEC's governing body and comprises cabinet-level representatives from Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The Secretariat provides technical, administrative, and operational support to the Council. A Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) is comprised of 3 citizens each from Canada, Mexico and the United States and advises the Council.

As part of the mandate of the CEC, and pursuant to Article 9(5)(a) of the Agreement on Environmental Cooperation among the Governments of Canada, the United Mexican States, and the United States of America (ECA), the Council of the CEC has established and assigned responsibilities to the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Expert Group (TEKEG) which includes the provision of advice and guidance to the Council, JPAC and the Secretariat on opportunities to apply traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in the CEC's operations as well as policy recommendations and guidance on the application of TEK to ongoing CEC work.

_{Kathy Hodgson-Smith}

The TEKEG is also responsible for the design and implementation of Indigenous-specific projects at the CEC, such as their most recent work on Indigenous approaches to Freshwater Management or the Revitalization of Traditional Food Practices. Most recently the CEC adopted The North American Guiding Principles in Relation to the Incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Red River Métis Citizen, Kathy Hodgson-Smith is one of Canada's 3 appointments to the TEKEG, a position she has held since 2016. She is the facilitator of the 9-member Indigenous group comprised of 3 members each from Canada, United States and Mexico. Her work is supported by the Indigenous Affairs Officer at the CEC, Kakwiranó:ron Cook.

The TEKEG meeting:

The TEKEG portion of the meeting took place on the afternoon of July 24^th with approximately 30 Indigenous participants, including the 9 members of TEKEG, chaired by Kathy Hodgson-Smith. Also participating in the meeting were Chief Rodger Redman of Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation in Southern Saskatchewan and Dakota McLeod a young Métis entrepreneur from Saskatoon, SK.

Ambassador Chartier presented a paper to initiate the discussion for Session 2: Revitalizing Traditional Indigenous Trade Networks for Sustainable Futures, focussed on providing an essential context for participants as they consider how to re-establish and adapt Indigenous trade networks to support driving Indigenous economies today.

_{Dakota McLeod and Chief Redman}

Central to this presentation was the role that the Red River Métis played in the fur trade and within our own traditional economies of hunting, trapping, and fishing and the subsequent denial of these practices in more modern times, and the growing success of re-establishing the exercise of these rights. Ambassador Chartier also spoke to the initiatives undertaken by the MMF, the National Government of the Red River Métis with trade and cultural connections in South America, and in particular, Colombia. (See attached presentation for further details).

In the general discussion, Ambassador Chartier recommended that the Indigenous peoples from Canada and the United States become more involved with the Organization of American States (OAS) as their annual general assemblies are at the political / ministerial level and the triannual Summits of the Americas are at the President / Prime Minister level. Ambassador Chartier emphasized that if we are to regain access to our lands and resources, we need to have this dialogue with the governments within North America. He further emphasized that we could also pursue these objectives through the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (ADRIP) and its newly established Working Group as the mechanism to monitor the implementation of the ADRIP.

_{Kakwiranó:Ron}

At the conclusion of the session, CEC Executive Director, Jorge Daniel Taillant presented 5 next steps for the purpose of enhancing Indigenous participation in the work of the CEC, including building on the current participation of Indigenous peoples, bringing Indigenous issues to the CEC through the TEKEG, publishing materials on Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge, and lobbying JPAC to ensure that Indigenous issues and participation are part of the next 5-year strategic plan.

Ambassador Chartier welcomed the next steps and added that when doing so, the CEC must also be aware of who are the legitimate representatives of the Indigenous peoples and must be vigilant against those individuals, organizations or groups who are engaged in Indigenous identity fraud.

_{Jorge Daniel Taillant}

On the margins of the meeting, Ambassador Chartier had a virtual meeting with President Cecilio Solis of CIELO a Mexican Indigenous organization wherein President Solis expressed an interest in forming a relationship with the MMF, with the potential for joint projects. This was followed up by an in-person meeting with representatives of CIELO, Chief Redman and Ambassador Chartier the next day. This meeting also resulted in an expressed desire by the participants to pursue joint initiatives.

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Session 2. Revitalizing Traditional Indigenous Trade Networks for Sustainable Futures

July 23, 2025
Mexico City

My name is Clément Chartier, Ambassador responsible for Inter-Nation and International Relations representing the Manitoba Métis Federation, the National Government of the Red River Métis, one of the three Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Historically, my nation was an integral part of the fur trade economy in western Canada, engaged in freighting by land and water, engaged in the buffalo hunts which provided provisions to the fur trade, and in many other activities.

My nation lived in close relation to the other Indigenous nations, connected by kinship, cultural values and shared territory. We recognized each other in our nationhood. We were interpreters, entrepreneurs, skilled labourers, negotiators, free traders and arbiters of trade relations.

We carried out our livelihood in both western Canada and the northern United States, primarily in the states of Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. This included trade with our neighboring First Nations, including the conclusion of treaties with some of them.

Indigenous women played a very important role in advancing nation-to-nation and trade partnerships and relationships. This is a key role they continue to play and we must ensure a continued space for them.

However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, after our two acts of resistance in 1870 and 1885, and losing to British and Canadian troops in May 1885, at the Battle of Batoche, followed by the execution of our leader, Louis Riel, the federal government instituted a scrip system through which they purported to extinguish our Aboriginal title to our lands and Aboriginal rights to the use of natural resources, particularly for hunting, trapping and fishing.

Nevertheless, our traditional economy is still extremely important, particularly for our villages located within our homeland in western Canada. For decades the enjoyment of our traditional economies of hunting, trapping, and fishing was denied us by federal and provincial government legislation.

With the entrenchment of Aboriginal rights in Canada's Constitution in 1982, and the subsequent defence of our people in the courts, our right to practice those traditional harvesting activities has slowly been recognized and accommodated. However, in parts of our homeland, where judicial decisions and/or agreements with provincial governments have not yet been concluded, our people continue to be charged for exercising their traditional way of life in our territories and taken to court.

Further, our traditional trapping industry has been severely affected by the animal-rights movement, and our traditional fishing industry affected by provincial governments' preference for tourism and sports fishing. The ability to practice our harvesting activities, including gathering of berries and medicines has been further affected by the yearly reduction of the lands to which we have access and upon which we can undertake those activities.

My government has a department and Minister responsible for addressing and promoting our traditional economies with the aim of conserving our natural ecosystems and the development of traditional economies.

For example, a few years ago we established the Red River Métis Fur Company which buys furs from our trappers above the going rate, have them tanned and then provided to our artisans free of charge. Our artisans then create clothing, art or crafts which my government purchases and markets as "Traditional Métis made".

Internationally, we have been engaged for the past 49 years in attending United Nations meetings, and for the past 20 years we have attended the Organization of American States general assemblies and summits of the Americas.

In 2007 with the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples several articles address the right of Indigenous peoples to engage in and make decisions on our rights related to traditional economies, coupled with the right to do so through institutions of our own choosing.

Article 20 of UNDRIP provides that "Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions, to be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence and development, and to engage freely in all traditional and other economic activities".

Article 36 confirms the rights of Indigenous peoples, in particular those divided by international borders, the right to maintain and develop contacts, relations and cooperation, including activities for spiritual, cultural, political, p and social purposes, with their own members as well as other peoples across borders. A similar acknowledgement is set out in Article 3 of ADRIP.

The American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, noted as ADRIP, was adopted by the OAS General Assembly in June 2016, and by Article 29 guarantees the enjoyment of our own means of subsistence and development and our right to freely engage in all economic activities.

In 2017, the OAS GA adopted a five-year Plan of Action for the implementation of the ADRIP. The Plan of Action was extended for another five-year period in 2021.

In 2023 the government of Guatemala, with funding from the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), hosted a meeting of the OAS and Indigenous representatives in Antigua, Guatemala. The purpose of the meeting was to engage in that part of the Plan of Action which called for the creation of a mechanism to monitor the implementation of ADRIP.

Near the conclusion of that meeting, which I attended, a compromise was made on language for a resolution which could be proposed for adoption by the OAS GA. By consensus it was agreed that a Working Group composed of representatives from the four regions of the OAS would be recommended: One representative of States from each region, and one representative from Indigenous peoples from each region, with an alternate for each.

The members to the Working Group were appointed by the end of 2024, and as of last week I was informed that the Working Group met informally in four virtual meetings in order to prepare for a formal meeting to be held in-person on August 18-21, 2025, here in Mexico City.

As I was also told by the OAS, as these were informal meetings, no reports were produced. An agenda for the August meeting has not yet been made available.

Nevertheless, for the Americas, and especially for North America, this OAS Working Group could be another avenue through which to support the work of CEC on the revitalization of Indigenous trade networks. The Commission for Environmental Cooperation in its efforts to increase the inclusion of Indigenous peoples' knowledge systems in environmental management across North America is an excellent avenue from which to advance this important work. We recognize CEC and the Traditional Ecological Knowledge Expert Group for its leadership in advancing the right of Indigenous representatives to speak at these events and to meet amongst ourselves.

While neither Canada nor the United States have publicly endorsed the 2016 ADRIP and are not participants in the Working Group, Indigenous peoples from both Canada and the United States are part of the OAS Working Group so that Indigenous participation from those two countries can still be engaged.

Turning to Indigenous peoples' own initiatives, in 2018, after years of organizing efforts by the Assembly of First Nations and the Métis Nation, and through funding made available by them, a founding meeting of the American Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP) took place in Lima, Peru during the OAS 8^th Summit of the Americas. ACIP has adopted a mandate which includes the advancement of social, economic, political, legal and cultural rights and has members from throughout the Americas.

Since 2018, ACIP has mainly been engaged in participating in OAS GAs and Summits of the Americas mainly through fiscal donations and support from the Manitoba Métis Federation. Unfortunately, the government of Canada, which had once funded the World Council of Indigenous Peoples from 1975 to 1997, has to date not approved any funding for ACIP. We continue to press for this support.

The intention of ACIP is to establish an Americas-wide organization of Indigenous leaders which will mirror the General Assembly of the OAS in states where Indigenous peoples reside. This includes active participation in the General Assemblies, Summits of the Americas, and the Working Group on the implementation of ADRIP.

We have also made it clear to the OAS that our engagement must be as Indigenous nations, peoples, and governments and not as part of Civil Society. To date we have at least succeeded in basing our participation as such, and do not need to register as Civil Society, but this is a very limited recognition. We still only get two speaking slots from the dozens allocated to Civil Society and Social Actors.

It is our hope that the Working Group can lead the way to the OAS General Assembly creating a new space for Indigenous peoples' participation on a nation-to-nation, government-to-government basis at all GAs and SOAs, as well as annual meetings with the OAS Permanent Council.

While there are numerous topics or initiatives which could be pursued, one of them would certainly be the pursuit of economic initiatives across international borders including the revitalization of traditional Indigenous trade networks. The time for Indigenous peoples to prosper is now. Our proud histories and our hard work must be given a place in the economic engines that make the Americas such great economic leaders. The close relationship of Indigenous peoples to their traditional lands, the spiritual relationships and the cultural ties must be reunited across North America and given space to flourish.

With this as a backdrop, my Red River Métis government has been engaged in pursuing relationships with Indigenous peoples and communities outside of Canada.

In 2011 we signed a Treaty with CONIAP, an Indian organization in Peru, and in 2019 a Manitoba Métis Federation delegation went on a trade mission to Lima and Cusco, Peru for the purpose of exploring potential trade arrangements. The trade mission was quite successful, however with the COVID 19 pandemic the initiative got sidelined but is still a possibility.

In 2009, the Indigenous Leadership Development Institute, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada created and organized the World Indigenous Business Forum (WIBF) which has met annually, and at the event in Chile, 2017, Red River Métis President David Chartrand was approached by delegates from Colombia who proposed that the Red River Métis become engaged with Indigenous communities there.

This led to the Red River Métis providing a grant to the Arhuaco people to enhance their nature park, as well as set up a partnership with Ancestry and Development to promote business opportunities and exchange knowledge related to traditional economies and cultures, including facilitating the import of goods such as coffee and a sugar cane product known as panella.

During the Pandemic, the Red River Métis government also provided fiscal resources, as well as PPE to some Indigenous communities.

Based on this one initiative, coupled with others based in Canada, there is an excellent opportunity for the Indigenous community in Canada, to become involved in an enhanced trade network throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, in addition to engagement with Mexico and the United States. It is important that Indigenous peoples be given opportunities to meet and discuss these alliances at all meetings and I encourage CEC to commit to developing the policy basis for this engagement and cement a plan for consideration by the parties at their next session.

Marsii, Gracias, Thank you, Merci.

 

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