Bill 618 and its Rejection

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This paper will focus on the recent unanimous veto of Bill 618 by all forty-four of the Saskatchewan Party’s MLAs. The rejected bill was a plan to deal with the ongoing suicide crisis affecting the Indigenous population of the province at an exponential rate. The seriousness of this public health crisis has led to civil outrage at the rejection of the bill and has created activism and protests in response. The research of this paper addresses how the past and present governments are culpable for current social problems facing Canada’s Indigenous peoples today. Colonial policies and programs have directly created the social conditions that cause suffering to Indigenous peoples living in Canada to this day. As such, it is the responsibility of Canada’s governments to take meaningful action to address these issues. What is already known about this topic is that Saskatchewan’s Indigenous youth have some of the highest rates of suicide in the country, and even the world. I conducted my research through examining different forms of media such as journals, news articles, videos, and legal documents. The legal documents I explored were the proposed bill itself, as well as the Constitution Act, 1982 and Treaty 6. Through studying Sections 7 and 15 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and Treaty 6 it is abundantly clear that Canada has not fulfilled its obligation to the Indigenous peoples of this country. The current mental health crisis proves this is glaringly true; my findings concluded that the Canadian government has failed and continues to fail its Indigenous population regarding policy. This blatant ignorance of treaty rights may begin to become remedied through the various branches of Canadian government working together to create a trilateral solution.