POL 151 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Canadian Indian Residential School System, Phil Fontaine, 1969 White Paper
24 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
1
Aboriginal Peoples & Justice
“We rank no better than a Third World country, and that is simply unacceptable. There is no
good reason why our people should be as poor as they are…We want to be real contributors to
Canada's prosperity. We never ever wanted to be dependent on someone else. Any suggestion
that we are happy with our current situation is so completely wrong (former Assembly of First
Nations Chief Phil Fontaine.”1
Aboriginal Kanata: From Contact to Conquest
Pre-Columbian era: the arrival of Canada’s Aboriginal population in North America dates back
to 12,000 years ago somewhere between 40000-10000 BC with the Inuit as the last of Canada’s
Aboriginal Peoples to migrate to North America
1000AD-circa1600 European Contact:
1000 AD Viking Leif Erikson’s arrives in “Vinland” (most likely present-day Nfld.)
1497 John Cabot’s accidental foray into present-day Atlantic Canada on behalf of England
lays the groundwork for Britain’s first “Canadian” colony in Newfoundland in 1610.
1534 First instance of trade between North American indigenous peoples and France as
Jacques Cartier’s arrives Atlantic Canada & Quebec where he encounters numerous
Aboriginals including some Mi’kmaq
1592 seeking a Northwest Passage to the Atlantic Ocean, Juan De Fuca sailed to
present-day Vancouver Island & ended up in the Strait of Georgia. Along the way,
De Fuca reported contact with west coast Indigenous communities he described as
“people clad in Beast’s skins and a land fruitful and rich of Gold, silver, Pearle,
and other things, like Nova Spaina.”
1608 Samuel de Champlain “establishes” New France with founding of Quebec City.
1763 Royal Proclamation—“the constitutional foundation” for the treaty-making process…
Upon seizing New France in 1763, Britain issues RP to establish the rules that determined how
Indian title could be ceded or purchased and would serve as.
Aboriginal Treaties: Treaties are negotiated agreements with “a view toward peaceful
coexistence, mutual respect, recognition and the equitable sharing of lands and resources...” (*as
per the Assembly of First Nations)
Many Treaties, reflected in written documents, wampum and oral understanding, were entered
into between First Nations and the Crown between 1701 and 1923.
1 CBC News, “Living Conditions for First Nations ‘Unacceptable’: Fontaine,” www.cbcnews.ca. February 6, 2007.
(http://www.cbcnews.ca/Canada/north/story/2007/02/06fontaine-speech.html). <www.cbcnews.ca >. Retrieved
February 15th 2007.
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2
Treaty agreements promise “non-interference, protection of hunting and fishing rights, sharing
of lands and resources, health and education benefits, economic tools and benefits for the
duration of the Treaty relationship.”
*http://www.afn.ca/index.php/en/about-afn/description-of-the-afn
First Peoples or “internal immigrants?”—a historical timeline…
1876 Indian Act: served as a marked shift in tone from the 1763 Royal Proclamation in terms of
how the Crown would approach its post-Confederation relationship with Canada’s Indigenous
population
Under S. 91 of the 1867 BNA Act, Ottawa assumed control over Indians & Indian lands, but the
federal government’s passage of the Indian Act ensured that Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples essentially
became wards of the state….
…hence, Ottawa’s subsequent regulatory control over nearly every facet of Aboriginal life including
the establishment of band councils, administration of reserves, elections, health, education, the
management & spending of Indian monies, the disposition of lands, agriculture, law enforcement,
wildlife management, traffic & labor, the status registration & classification system, etc.
1879-1986 Residential Schools: the federal government’s century long campaign to forcibly
assimilate Aboriginal youth from the 1880’s to 1996. Beyond losing touch with their families,
culture and language, many schools were also notorious for various kinds of abuse which many
survivors still deal with fallout from today.
1920 Bill 14: amendment to the Indian Act that instituted mandatory school attendance for
Native children between the ages of 7-15 as well as the compulsory enfranchisement of
Aboriginals
1922 Repeal of Compulsory Enfranchisement Amendment: due to mounting hostility towards
Ottawa’s parental approach to enfranchising Aboriginals, the superintendent general of Indian
Affairs, Charles Stewart repealed the “compulsory” stipulation & mandated that enfranchisement
should be initiated “upon application of an Indian.”
1925-1951: the federal government imposes bans on a variety of Native cultural traditions &
practices ranging from powwows, sweat lodges to sun dances and forbids Aboriginals from
forming their own political groups and organizations
1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights: as a precept to signing the declaration,
Canada rescinds the prohibition of alcohol on reserves and allows Aboriginals to resume
practicing cultural traditions like powwows and potlatches
1942-1952 Starvation Diet/Nutritional Supplements Experiments: University of Guelph historian
Ian Mosby alleges that government researchers engaged in secret, non-consensual nutritional &
health experimentations on roughly 1300 Native adults and children from Manitoba reserves and
six residential schools across the country.
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3
1960 Universal Enfranchisement: the right to vote is extended to all of Canada’s First Peoples
(Aboriginals were given a conditional suffrage upon Confederation in 1867, but the right could only be
exercised by those who were willing to surrender their treaty rights and Indian status.)
1969 White Paper: Statement of the Government on Indian Policy: commissioned by the Trudeau
government and roundly rejected by Aboriginals—the WP called for comprehensive assimilation
by dismantling the reserve system, mothballing Indian & Northern Affairs, ending the
classification Aboriginals by status, transferring social policy for Natives to the provinces &
repudiating the treaty process.
1986 An Act relating to Self-Government for the Sechelt Band (BC): granted the Sechelt band
municipal status under provincial legislation and accorded it “the authority to exercise delegated
powers and negotiate agreements as a legal entity with the power to enter into contracts and
agreements; acquire, sell and dispose of property; and spend, invest and borrow money.”
1990 Elijah Harper: the Manitoba legislator who would single handily put the “screech on
Meech,”—i.e. scuttling the ratification of the Meech Lake Accord—and galvanized both Native
and non-native advocates for indigenous issues throughout the country
1990 Oka Crisis: 78 day standoff between Mohawk protesters and Quebec provincial
police/Canadian military over the proposed expansion of a golf course on Mohawk ancestral
land. A botched police raid on the Mohawk encampment resulted in the death of an officer thus
making Oka the most significant armed conflict between Native and non-Natives of the modern
era.
Repatriation, Resistance, Reconciliation & Recognition
Aboriginal Rights: generally pertains to the use of certain lands for communal practices that are
integral to the distinctive culture of an aboriginal community. The “test” for Aboriginal rights, is
proof that a practice, tradition or custom was an intrinsic part of that community’s distinctive
culture before first contact with Europeans.
Not absolute, but are constitutionally recognized both in Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution
Act & under Section 25 of the Charter of Rights & Freedoms
Depending on the traditional use of occupation of the land in question, different Aboriginal
rights may exist in different places—for ex. exclusive right to occupancy vs. site-specific
usage
1991-1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: After the Meech Lake/Charlottetown
Accord constitutional debacle, Ottawa sought to respond to Aboriginal frustration by broadly
examining economic, social, cultural, constitutional and justice-related variables that had long
undermined the aspirations of Canada’s First Peoples.
Four Principles of a renewed relationship between Canada and its First Peoples
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Document Summary
We rank no better than a third world country, and that is simply unacceptable. There is no good reason why our people should be as poor as they are we want to be real contributors to. We never ever wanted to be dependent on someone else. Any suggestion that we are happy with our current situation is so completely wrong (former assembly of first. Pre-columbian era: the arrival of canada"s aboriginal population in north america dates back to 12,000 years ago somewhere between 40000-10000 bc with the inuit as the last of canada"s. 1000 ad viking leif erikson"s arrives in vinland (most likely present-day nfld. ) 1497 john cabot"s accidental foray into present-day atlantic canada on behalf of england lays the groundwork for britain"s first canadian colony in newfoundland in 1610. 1534 first instance of trade between north american indigenous peoples and france as. Jacques cartier"s arrives atlantic canada & quebec where he encounters numerous.
