A Commons Committee Would Drop 'EDI' From Research Funding. Indigenous Rights Are Still a Different Category.
A House of Commons committee recently recommended removing all references to equity, diversity and inclusion from the process for awarding federal research funding. An article in The Conversation Canada takes issue with the classification rather than the paperwork: examining Indigenous research under an EDI heading, it argues, obscures the constitutional, treaty and inherent rights that distinguish Indigenous Peoples from other equity-seeking populations. The conclusion drawn is that Indigenous health obligations cannot be separated from rights and reconciliation, and federal research policy should show it.
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The recommendation is narrowly about references to EDI in the process for awarding federal research funding, so it's a question of how applications and awards are framed.
Which is exactly the author's point: sovereign rights holders and equity-seeking populations aren't interchangeable categories, so moving the wording around in a funding process doesn't answer the underlying obligation.