Unpacking the state: an agential constructivist assessment of Natural Resources Canada's implementation of the UNDRIP

Though an emerging literature has sought to assess the progress made by Canada in terms of United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) recognition and implementation, these studies tend to treat national governments as unitary state actors. Such approaches tend to include only a cursory reference to the government agencies and departments that convert calls for action into actual policy. Employing content analysis and an agential constructivist approach, this article remedies this oversight by assessing the extent to which Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Departmental Plans bring Canada’s federal government into alignment with UNDRIP. The article’s contribution is four-fold. First, it depicts how greater insights can be obtained by unpacking the strategies and decision-making of state actors. Second, it illustrates the interplay between international “soft law” (e.g. UNDRIP) and national “hard law” (e.g. legislation). Third, the article shows how differing conceptions of what constitutes “Indigenous Knowledge” and “consultation” influence UNDRIP recognition and implementation in practice. Fourth, it finds that the contemporary dynamics of Canada’s foreign policy and national interests pertaining to natural resource governance demonstrate that neither federal Departments nor Indigenous Peoples are passive actors in the creation, maintenance, and redefinition of transnational norms.