Nation to Nation Relationship
“Nation to Nation relationship.”
You hear that a lot from the Canadian government about the relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples. The government’s Speech from the Throne declared;
“It is time for Canada to have a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition, rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership.”
Why?
Canada is a nation because it signed treaties to become a country.
When non-Indigenous arrived on what is now called Canada, there were 50-60 million Indigenous peoples living here. For the first 200 years of coexistence, non-Indigenous and Indigenous formed trading and military bonds, which laid the foundations of Canada.
“Canada” is not even English or French. It’s an Iroquoian word meaning “village.”
What really birthed Canada, was the British patriarchy married Indigenous nations and Canada was born! That’s why it’s a relationship. Canada exists because Indigenous peoples allowed you to be here, on our land. And how does Canada treat its partner? Just as any patriarchy, it hasn’t been good for the spouse. Canada repeatedly lied, cheated and broke promises with its wife. And then gaslit her, and everyone else. Canada caused continuous, and deliberate, physical, emotional, and spiritual harm. And yet, the one trying to repair is the nation that requests the truth and reconciliation.
The reason you don’t see all Canadians so proud of its nation, is because how it’s treated his spouse. We do not teach our children to celebrate and honour the continued abuse given to us. We will speak out when injustice is faced by the hands of our partners and we will wear orange for the survivors and those children whose lives were lost at the abuse faced by this “nation to nation relationship”.
You see, the nation of Canada was built in a way that it did not want to recognize a place in Canada’s future for Indigenous Peoples. Therefore, Canada’s policies and their enforcing legislation created two paths:
“... one for non-Aboriginal Canadians with full participation in the affairs of their communities, province and nation; and one for the people of the First Nations, separated from provincial and national life…”
In short, Canada ensured that Indigenous Peoples have no rights unless they assimilate and become Canadian (enfranchisement). The policy of assimilation is deeply embedded into the fabric of Canada, which created secondary policies- ‘assimilate-by’ policies or ‘assimilation tools’. These assimilation tools prevent the advancement of inherent, international and constitutionally guaranteed Indigenous rights.
Assimilation in Canada came into full force through the Indian Act (1876, 1880 and 1886) and the Indian Advancement Act (1884). The Indian Act included an enfranchisement process by which Indigenous people could become full citizens- when they qualified. This policy of assimilation was given to Canada by Sir John A. Macdonald and was put into action with legislation that forced Indigenous peoples to extinguish our rights, culture, and lands. The lands we have cared, protected and lived in harmony with since time immemorial.
What does it mean to be Canadian?
For most Canadians, the existence or recognition of distinct rights could at first glance seem incompatible with the right to equality set out in the charters of rights and freedoms. In this regard, we often confuse equality with sameness. However, the text of the Charter of Human Rights helps us better understand the real meaning to be attributed to the right to equality. The preamble indicates that all human beings are above all “equal in worth and dignity.” Nowhere in the Charter is it indicated that all human beings must be the same.
In fact, the respect for differences forms the basis of numerous other fundamental rights and freedoms, including the freedom of conscience, freedom of opinion, and freedom of religion and religious belief. And the right to one’s own cultural life is just as much a human right as any other, being expressed in particular by a certain way of life that is tied to the land and the use of natural resources.
Moreover, Indigenous peoples are not Canadian citizens like everyone else, and we never were Canadian citizens under the British regime. Indigenous peoples are distinct citizens, and this undeniable reality must be taken into account in the interpretation to be given to the right to equality.
As distinct peoples, many Indigenous nations/bands/groups hold Treaties with Canada. Treaties in Canada are constitutionally recognized agreements between the Crown and Indigenous peoples. Indigenous nations agree to share some of our ancestral lands in return for various promises. In 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada determined that “treaties and statutes relating to Indians should be liberally construed and uncertainties resolved in favour of the Indians.” In that same case, the court introduced a principle adopted from a ruling in the United States in 1899 that treaties “must therefore be construed, not according to the technical meaning of its words to learned lawyers, but in the sense in which they would naturally be understood by the Indians.” Treaties do not surrender rights; rather, they confirm Indigenous rights. Treaties recognize that Indigenous peoples have the capacity to self-govern on our own lands.