Time for more Indigenous N.B. senators, says former lieutenant-governor

Former lieutenant-governor Graydon Nicholas is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to appoint three Indigenous people to fill the three New Brunswick vacancies in the Senate.

Nicholas says with a third seat opening up this week, it's a perfect time to ensure representation from the three Indigenous nations whose territories are in modern-day New Brunswick.

"I'd like to see all three. I'm serious," said Nicholas, a member of Tobique First Nation.

"I think we need a Mi'kmaw voice, we need a Passamaquoddy voice and we need a Wolastoq voice at that level. We''re three separate nations. That's why I'm saying all three. I think they would do an excellent job."

Lovelace appointment a first

He was commenting after New Brunswick senator Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, another Tobique member, retired from the upper chamber of Parliament.

Lovelace Nicholas became the first Indigenous woman from Atlantic Canada named to the Senate when Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed her in 2005.She was due to retire April 15 when she reaches the mandatory Senate retirement age of 75. Her departure leaves New Brunswick with seven senators, none of them Indigenous.

Lovelace Nicholas couldn't be reached for an interview about her early departure.

Nova Scotia Sen. Jane Cordy, who chairs the Progressive Senators caucus that Lovelace Nicholas was part of, said she is a quiet, private person. As a colleague, Lovelace Nicholas didn't brag about her trailblazing role but made key contributions to debates on Indigenous issues.

"She sort of downplayed it, but she's made an incredible difference," Cordy said. "We will miss her so much in our caucus."

Cordy said she spoke to Lovelace Nicholas about her decision to retire but respected her privacy too much to ask why she was leaving early.

Graydon Nicholas, the first Indigenous lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick and the retired senator's first cousin, says her appointment in 2005 was a source of pride at Tobique First Nation.

"I know she wasn't expecting it, so it was a great big surprise for her when she did get it," he said.

"I was very happy she got it. She's a very humble person, actually, when you get to know her. She's very quiet, but she's very assertive at the same time, which is good."

The nomination was also a well-deserved recognition of her years of activism for Indigenous women, he said.

Lovelace was the lead voice in a lobbying campaign to persuade the federal government to change the Indian Act's discriminatory treatment of Indigenous women.

Under the act, Indigenous women who married non-Indigenous men lost their status and their right to on-reserve housing, education and other benefits. There was no such provision for Indigenous men marrying non-Indigenous women.

She won her case at UN 

After Lovelace Nicholas separated from her American husband and tried to move back to Tobique First Nation, she was denied housing, health care and education for her children.

In 1977, she and other Indigenous women occupied the Tobique band office for four months. She also took her case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which ruled in her favour.

Although the UN ruling wasn't binding on Canada, the Mulroney government amended the Indian Act in 1985 to restore Indigenous status to women who lost it through marriage to non-Indigenous men, as well as to their children — 114,000 people in all.

The change also triggered a financial crisis on many reserves because Ottawa didn't provide enough funding to cover the sudden and steep increase in demand for services.

Caught up in expense scandal

In 2015, Lovelace Nicholas was one of 30 senators caught up in an expenses scandal.

The federal auditor-general found she claimed tens of thousands of dollars in travel expenses that were "not for parliamentary business."

They included more than 40 stays in Fredericton lasting more than one night, including one lasting nine consecutive nights, while she was travelling between Tobique and Ottawa. The expenses totalled $21,644.

Lovelace Nicholas said in a response to the report at the time that as the only Indigenous senator from New Brunswick, she was obligated to meet with First Nations communities around the province and often did this in Fredericton.

"I am well-known in my community and surrounding communities in New Brunswick, and individuals feel free to approach me directly when I am in Fredericton," she said.

"Many meetings occur on such an informal basis in the provincial capital … If I remained exclusively at the Tobique First Nation as the Auditor General apparently wishes, I would miss important opportunities to represent my community effectively."

3 of N.B.'s 10 seats vacant

Lovelace Nicholas's retirement means three of New Brunswick's 10 seats in the Senate are now vacant.

Senator Judith Keating died in July 2021, and Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen retired the same month, when she reached the age of 75.

Last year, the federal government announced it was filling two New Brunswick vacancies on the advisory board Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created to vet applications for Senate appointments.

But that hasn't led to any subsequent appointments for this province.

"The selection of Canadians summoned to the Senate by the Governor General will be announced by the Prime Minister in due course," said Pierre-Allain Bujord, a spokesperson for the Privy Council Office in Ottawa.

Graydon Nicholas says the appointment of new Indigenous senators from New Brunswick would help ensure more recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls commissions are implemented.

"I wish there were more because I think it's important that the ones who are responsible for making the laws in Canada — there has to be an Indigenous voice heard. Their voices have to be listened to because they know what's happening in our communities," he said.

"Indigenous communities need to be heard at the highest levels."