CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF CANADA’S CONFEDERATION
CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF CANADA’S CONFEDERATION Canada’s recognition of its indigenous peoples
Hon. Yasmin Ratansi, MP is a
Canadian Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party. She is Chair of the Canadian Federal Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates and a Director of the CanadaAfrica Parliamentary Association. She was the first female Muslim elected to the House of Commons and is continuously working to engage multi-faith groups in promoting peace, harmony and respect for each other.
On 1st July 2017, Canada celebrated its 150th year of confederation. It was a day of great rejoicing among the multitude of people who have been ‘migrants’ to this land, be it 300 years ago or 3 years ago. However, Canadian history is older than that. The first peoples, the First Nations, the Inuit, the Métis and numerous aboriginal communities have been living on this land for over 500 years. To them, 1st July 2017 was not a day of celebration but a day of reflection on how they have been treated by the colonizers of their land. Therefore, on the 150th year of the Canadian confederation, the focus of this article is to pay tribute to all the aboriginal communities that have shared their land, been gracious hosts to the new settlers and ensured the survival of the newcomers. It is also a brief review of the wrongs done to them and the reconciliation required for the road forward. The First Nations, Inuit and Métis people have held long standing concerns related to their lands and traditional territories. Between 1701 and the present day, the Crown signed 96 treaties with the Indigenous people, to address these issues. The 70 treaties signed pre1975 cover nearly fifty percent (50%) of Canada`s land mass and are located in nine provinces and three territories. Since
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1973, the federal government has signed 26 comprehensive land claims agreement, 18 of which include arrangements for self-government. The Crown’s relationship with Canada’s Indigenous peoples has been described by the Supreme Court of Canada as sui generis, which literally means ‘unique’. The Crown has a unique fiduciary duty to Canada’s Indigenous peoples, a duty which imposes a higher standard of obligation in dealings with Indigenous peoples. As former Chief Justice Brian Dickson wrote in 1984: “I repeat, the fiduciary obligation which is owed to the Indians by the Crown is sui generis. Given the unique character both of the Indians’ interest in land and of their historical relationship with the Crown, the fact that this is so should occasion no surprise.” Historical background and some salient highlights in indigenous policy, governance and rights Between 1701 and 1760, three peace and neutrality treaties were signed between First Nations and the Crown. These treaties focussed on transforming commercial partnerships with First Nations into military alliances. Later, in 1763, a Royal Proclamation established the foundation of the treaty-making process based on land. In the late 1700s, the Crown began to sign territorial treaties with First Nations.
In 1867, a century after the Royal Proclamation, subsection 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 granted Parliament exclusive legislative authority over “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians.” Nine years later, in 1876, The Indian Act was passed by the federal government. This Act is the principal legislation through which federal jurisdiction for ‘Indians’ and Lands reserved for Indians is exercised. It is comprehensive and regulates most aspects of First Nations life on reserve. Indigenous peoples object to its inherent paternalism. Both First Nations people and government officials have acknowledged the legislation’s limitations as a framework for relations between First Nations and governments. The Indian Act contained a number of provisions that enabled the federal government to establish Indian residential schools. Discriminatory provisions of the Act, such as denying Indians the right to vote, forbidding them to leave a reserve or consume alcohol without the permission of an Indian agent, have since been repealed. In 1885, Métis resistance to Canadian authority over the lands in the Northwest led to Louis Riel`s arrest and execution and the imprisonment of several First Nations Chiefs and Métis leaders. Inuit gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1950,