Canada violates international law regarding Indigenous genocide, tribunal rules

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) has ruled that Canada is in violation of international law for failing to investigate and prosecute crimes against Indigenous people. In a 78-page judgment issued on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, the human rights panel stated that Canada is in “a deliberate state of contempt” for failing to enforce international human rights doctrines regarding genocide, apartheid, and enforced disappearances.

The tribunal found that historical policies, including the residential school system and the forced sterilization of Indigenous women, constituted crimes against humanity with genocidal intent. The ruling noted that the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings regarding cultural genocide have been deprived of practical effect due to limited criminalization of genocide within Canadian domestic legislation.

Despite previous government acknowledgments of genocide findings by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls National Inquiry, the PPT concluded there has been a lack of accountability or public policy changes. The tribunal emphasized the state's duty to provide truth, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence, and called for the preservation of Independent Assessment Process records, which are currently scheduled for destruction in 2027.