These Indigenous voters and experts say their concerns are on the back burner this election

Kat Pasquach says the issues and concerns of Indigenous people are never at the forefront of any campaign trail — and this federal election has been no different. 

"It's frustrating. It absolutely is," said Pasquach, who owns Culture Shock Jewelry in Windsor. 

"An election is a representation of so many more issues than just our relationship to the neighbours to the South."

The entrepreneur, who is Cree First Nation from the James Bay region, said in every election cycle, provincial or federal, Indigenous people's concerns are sidestepped. Even in her own riding of Windsor West, Pasquach said, she hasn't "seen anything of substance."

"In my riding, not seeing the inclusion of Indigenous people, Indigenous issues is apparent, not just in this federal election, but even in the provincial election that just went by," she said.

The three things that are top of mind, Pasquach said, are access to affordable housing on and off reserves, food sovereignty and the opioid crisis.

"We know that the cost of food has risen in urban areas but for Indigenous people in remote areas, it's even higher," she said.

"As well as the opioid crisis, we need support and help just as much as we need it in urban centres."

Pasquach said while the focus has been on the ongoing trade war and tariffs, there hasn't been a lot of coverage around how Indigenous rights are being affected.

"There's a treaty agreement between Canada and the U.S. for Indigenous people to be able to cross freely and be able to trade," she said.

Jason Henry, the former Chief of the Chippewas of Kettle And Stony Point First Nation, shares a similar view. 

While cross-border trade and travel are being impacted, Henry said there has been a "lack of respect and acknowledgement of the Jay Treaty rights," referring to the Jay Treaty of 1794. The treaty recognized Indigenous rights to freely move and trade across the border for travel, studies, employment, retirement and immigration— though Canada has never ratified it.

"Canada's implementation of counter tariffs has affected us greatly as Indigenous people," he said. "It's made us afraid to cross the border and to exercise our right to free trade. That's not even a topic issue now."

Access to clean water, safe cross-border trade and inherent rights missing

Henry said the fact that there's still more than 30 long-term boil water advisories, when there were past election promises to eradicate them, is a real electoral issue.

"We're one of the wealthiest nations in the world, but yet First Nations live in third world conditions and that is terrible," he said. "Clean drinking water is a basic human right. Why is that not being talked about this election?" 

Henry also would like to see more conversations around missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, including more federal funding and political will to bring the lost women home.

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Grand Chief Joel Abram is urging federal candidates to visit First Nations to better engage with the issues that matter to voters.

Henry, who ran in the 2021 federal election for the NDP, said he is now undecided.

"We're not asking for charity. We are demanding justice and, not lip service, true reconciliation and listening, implementing and respecting our laws, our language and our leadership," he said. 

"We are not just issues, we are nations that demand respect. Hear us."

Rebecca Major is an associate professor and research chair in Northern Governance in the Indigenous Governance program at Yukon University and an adjunct at the University of Windsor in the political science department.

She said Indigenous issues have been "very silent" this election.

"It looks almost like a missed opportunity by being so silent on the Indigenous issues in different local areas as well as on national agenda items," she said. "We have seen little sprinklings of Indigenous content in some places."

In Windsor, Canada's automotive capital, Major says the national agenda of tariffs and resulting economic backlash is driving the election. 

"It is very much a major issue in the Windsor Essex region ... but that doesn't provide reason to sidestep Indigenous content," she said. 

Like Henry, she would like to see party leaders address cross-border issues as ensured under the Jay Treaty. 

Major, who is Mi'kmaw and Metis, said fears around cross-border travel are a huge concern in southwestern Ontario communities as "people want safe passage, to be able to see their relatives and cultural events."

Honouring the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), land rights, and southern Ontario communities not having access to clean water are top of mind for her.

Where do parties stand?

Julie Simmons is an associate professor of political science at the University of Guelph. She says this federal election is a departure from the elections of 2015, 2019 and especially 2021 when issues of Indigenous rights, land claims, and reconciliation were much more prominent.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had issued its report and in the following elections, discoveries of unmarked grave sites around residential schools were "front and centre in the news."

"Canadians who are not Indigenous are much more interested in issues like the cost of their own groceries and the strength of the economy, its sovereignty vis-à-vis the United States and so on," she said. 

The Liberals have promised to double the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program and to seek partnerships with Indigenous communities on building Canada's economy. On Friday, Carney told the Assembly of First Nations his party was committed to implementing UNDRIP. 

The Conservatives have said they would repeal Bill C-69, which requires respect for Indigenous people in assessing resource projects. It would also approve federal mining permits for the Ring of Fire and would put a $48 million First Nations child welfare reform deal. 

The NDP says it would fully implement UNDRIP and recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and support projects in Canada's north, including establishing a military base in Inuvik, N.W.T. 

Chadwick Cowie, who is Ojibway from Pamitaashkodeyong (Hiawatha First Nation) in southern Ontario and an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, said there is also a decrease in the number of candidates who are Indigenous.

The push on reconciliation has changed over the last few elections, Cowie said, from the focus on access to water in 2019 and 2021 to now the Liberals and Conservatives presenting economic reconciliation.

"There's a focus on this idea of economic building and reconciliation without focusing on the fact of institutional racism."

Looking at the NDP, Liberal and Conservative platforms, Cowie said there's a lot of commitment to the four Inuit regions which could be due to the current tensions between the U.S. and Canada amidst annexation threats.

Cowie says Indigenous sovereignty, especially from perspectives of different First Nations, is about sustainability, co-existence and self-sustenance. 

"When we talk about Canadian sovereignty, we also have to understand that sovereignty has different meanings depending on where you come from."