What was the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples?

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was a federal Royal Commission established on August 26, 1991 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government in response to the Oka Crisis. It was co-chaired by Quebec judge René Dussault and former Assembly of First Nations National Chief Georges Erasmus. The Commission produced a five-volume final report titled 'People to People, Nation to Nation' on November 21, 1996 with about 440 recommendations on Indigenous-Crown relations. RCAP is the most comprehensive Canadian study of Indigenous issues ever conducted, with a budget of about 60 million dollars over five years.

The Commission's other commissioners included Mary Sillett (Inuit, Labrador), Paul Chartrand (Métis, Manitoba), Bertha Wilson (former Supreme Court of Canada Justice), Allan Blakeney (former Saskatchewan Premier and constitutional negotiator), Viola Robinson (Mi'kmaq, Nova Scotia), and J. Peter Meekison (Alberta constitutional scholar). The Commission held 178 days of hearings in 96 communities and consulted thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous witnesses. About 350 research papers were commissioned. The Commission visited four First Nations communities (Hobbema, Mary's Mission, Big Cove, and the Innu community of Davis Inlet) and four Indigenous communities abroad (in New Zealand, Norway, and the United States) to study comparative approaches.

The five-volume final report addressed: Looking Forward, Looking Back (Volume I, the historical account of Indigenous-Crown relations); Restructuring the Relationship (Volume II, recommendations for a renewed relationship including self-government, lands and resources, and economic development); Gathering Strength (Volume III, social policy areas including health, education, justice, and family); Perspectives and Realities (Volume IV, specific issues including elders, women, youth, and urban Indigenous peoples); and Renewal: A Twenty-Year Commitment (Volume V, an implementation plan including a Royal Proclamation, a Canada-wide framework agreement, and federal investment).

Major RCAP recommendations included a constitutional Royal Proclamation acknowledging the Indigenous-Crown relationship; the establishment of an Aboriginal Parliament alongside the existing Senate; comprehensive self-government on a nation-to-nation basis; a framework treaty process; significant federal investment in Indigenous health, education, and economic development (about 2 billion dollars per year for 20 years); and the dismantling of the Indian Act in favour of new federal legislation respecting self-government. Federal implementation was limited. Jean Chrétien's federal Liberal government responded with the January 7, 1998 'Gathering Strength' policy framework and Statement of Reconciliation (delivered by Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart on January 7, 1998), which acknowledged the harm of residential schools and committed to a new partnership. RCAP's recommendations on self-government were partially implemented through subsequent agreements (Nisga'a 2000, Innu 2008, and others). RCAP's analysis remained influential through the 2008 to 2015 work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and continues to shape Indigenous policy debate today.