Question Period Note: Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Expressions

Various Indigenous organizations have expressed concerns about the adequacy of legal protections afforded to Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions. The protection of Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions was raised as part of the recent Parliamentary Review of the Copyright Act and is an element of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, which the Government of Canada has committed to implementing.

• Our Government recognizes the importance of Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions and we are committed to ensuring that they are properly protected.
• We continue to engage stakeholders both domestically and internationally to seek effective solutions for protecting Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions.

• Copyright is a shared responsibility between Canadian Heritage (PCH) and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, and both departments have a shared responsibility for policy related to Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions, with PCH being the lead on cultural issues related to Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions.
• Although there are no universally accepted definitions of Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions, within international Intellectual Property discussions, the terms generally used are traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.
• Examples of traditional Indigenous knowledge include agricultural, ecological, and medicinal knowledge, skills, and practices passed on between generations; and examples of Indigenous cultural expressions include music, dance, visual arts, designs, names, signs and symbols, performances, ceremonies, architectural forms, crafts, and stories.
• The existing legal framework for intellectual property includes copyright, patents, trademarks, geographical indications and industrial designs, and allows rights holders to control how their innovations and works can be used and remunerated.
• Indigenous groups and individuals can make use of this intellectual property system to protect certain manifestations and uses of their Indigenous knowledge (e.g., traditional agricultural or resource management practices) and cultural expressions (such as graphic designs or stories). However, the level of intellectual property protection is not sufficiently robust to address some of their key concerns with respect to the protection of their culture. For example, copyright has a finite term of protection, whereas some indigenous groups would like a perpetual protection of Indigenous cultural expressions; and copyright identifies individual rights holders, whereas some indigenous groups support the idea of collective ownership of Indigenous cultural expressions.
• The issue of protection for Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions has been raised in the context of the recommendations issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
In 2016, the Government announced unqualified support for the UNDRIP, which deals with individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples around the world, including areas that are currently beyond Canada’s intellectual property framework. Various processes are underway to understand and implement this commitment.
• Canada has also been working for many years with international partners at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to develop international instruments (e.g., Treaties) that could address protection for Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions. To date, there are many areas of ongoing disagreement at WIPO. Several Canadian indigenous organizations attended the WIPO negotiations in the past as part of the indigenous caucus, but none have recently participated.
• Provinces and territories, in particular Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut, have an interest in Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions given their jurisdiction in relation to natural resources and cultural heritage.
• The Parliamentary review of the Copyright Act was launched in March 2018 under the leadership of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. To support the review, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage conducted a study on remuneration models for artists and creative industries. Both committees concluded their studies in January 2019, and a number of copyright issues concerning Indigenous people have been raised as part of this process.

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