Christopher Dummitt: Canada’s long-standing tradition of sweeping its British roots under the rug

2025/07/03 Leave a comment

Good reminder of the need for a broader historical understanding:

….Canadian schools got rid of the Lord’s prayer a generation ago. It didn’t fit with a modern diverse Canada. It has been replaced by land acknowledgments.

There was a time, not too long ago, when the school system didn’t operate this way — when Indigenous history and contemporary concerns were not a major focus. There has been a lot of progress to rethink how we approach the Canadian past.

But there’s also the Canadian tradition of turning a good thing into a stupid mess.

These young children know that they need to respect Indigenous cultures — and know that these cultures were sophisticated and fascinating. That’s what they’ve learned.

But what they don’t have are the lessons from an earlier time that would balance out this new appreciation. Instead, their lessons speak against an earlier way of thinking about the country. Without that earlier knowledge, what these kids are getting is the now off-balanced focus on reconciliation, relationships to the land, and inclusivity.

What they lack is the broader story of the settler societies that created Canada — about the dynamism of centuries of progress from the Scientific Revolution to the Enlightenment to the creation of modern forms of democracy, liberalism, and parliamentary institutions. Yet, this isn’t part of the elementary curriculum.

This isn’t the fault of any individual teacher (many of whom are wonderful).

It is, though, about the excesses of a cultural shift — well-intentioned — but also clueless as to its unintended consequences.

This Canada Day, perhaps it’s time to take a lot of the knowledge that’s baked into those pioneer villages dotted across the country and put it back into the curriculum.

Source: Christopher Dummitt: Canada’s long-standing tradition of sweeping its British roots under the rug

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Dimitri Soudas: Quebec City’s foolish decision to erase history

2025/06/28 Leave a comment

Of note, Quebec’ history wars?

Last week, the mayor of Quebec City made a decision that should concern every Canadian who still believes that history matters.

A historic mosaic, installed at city hall, depicting the moment Samuel de Champlain meets a First Nations chief, is being removed. Why? Because, and I quote, it was deemed to be “offensive.” That’s it. That was the only criterion. One of the most important figures in the founding of Quebec — and, by extension, of Canada — is now considered too problematic to be shown to the public.

Let’s be honest: the mosaic depicts a painful truth. Yes, the Indigenous chief is shown in a posture of submission. Yes, it reflects the colonial lens through which history was often portrayed. But the role of history is not to make us comfortable. It is to show us what happened. The moment we begin to edit the past to make it easier to look at, we stop telling the truth, and we begin to create fiction.

Seventeen years ago, in 2008, I wrote the speech delivered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City. It was one of the proudest moments of my life, because it was a moment of unity, between French and English, between past and present, between our country and the city that gave birth to it.

In that speech, Prime Minister Harper honoured our collective memory: “1608 is a historic date for you, for Quebec, and for all of Canada. Because it was beginning on July 3, 1608, exactly 400 years ago today, that we really started becoming what we are today.”…

Let that sink in. The very language, culture and political existence of modern Quebec, and of Canada, can be traced to the moment Champlain arrived and established a settlement on the shores of the St. Lawrence. And today, that very moment is being removed from the walls of the city he founded.

This is not reconciliation. This is revisionism. This is not respect. This is erasure.

We have a duty to teach our full history, including the injustices. Including the imbalances of power. Including the painful truths about colonization and its lasting effects on Indigenous peoples. But we cannot do so by pretending the past did not happen. We cannot do so by tearing down mosaics instead of building understanding.

When we erase history, what comes next? Language? Identity? Memory?

Source: Dimitri Soudas: Quebec City’s foolish decision to erase history

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A Traveler Waits in the Stars for Those Willing to Learn How to Look

2025/06/18 Leave a comment

Interesting long read and a reminder that the constellations we know are not the only ones we see and recognize, in this case those of the Dene and Inuit:

…In the past, Dr. Cannon’s collaborators told him, only those curious enough to take their own participatory journeys, and have a personal relationship with the stars, were meant to find this out. Only then could people recognize that the Traveler they knew from childhood stories was in the stars overhead, an ancient cosmic guardian watching over the world to this day.

Among the culture bearers who contributed to the book, many agreed to help commit this intimate knowledge to paper because Dr. Cannon was approaching the subject in the traditional hands-on way. Others were motivated because they recognized that they were among the few remaining people in their subcultures or languages to hold this knowledge.

Then he found it, visible only on clearer nights, an obscure star Western astronomers call 27 Lyn.

It had taken him three and a half years.

But whose heart really was it? The more Dr. Cannon learned, the more he became convinced again that the Traveler and the man-animal constellation were the same across many Northern Dene cultures.

Eventually he posed the relationship again to Mr. Herbert, underlining his own deeper convictions and the work he had put in. This time, Mr. Herbert gave a yes: The Gwich’in Traveler figure and Yahdii were one and the same.

In the past, Dr. Cannon’s collaborators told him, only those curious enough to take their own participatory journeys, and have a personal relationship with the stars, were meant to find this out. Only then could people recognize that the Traveler they knew from childhood stories was in the stars overhead, an ancient cosmic guardian watching over the world to this day.

Among the culture bearers who contributed to the book, many agreed to help commit this intimate knowledge to paper because Dr. Cannon was approaching the subject in the traditional hands-on way. Others were motivated because they recognized that they were among the few remaining people in their subcultures or languages to hold this knowledge.

“I have not spoken about this in 20 years,” Mr. Engles told Dr. Cannon in an interview. “I’m just grateful for the opportunity to put back what my grandfather gave me.”

Looking up at the Milky Way in the night sky. Trees line the bottom of the frame.
The Milky Way, seen from central-interior Alaska.Credit…Chris Cannon

Dr. Cannon’s book aims to fill what he considers a yawning gap. Although every civilization experiences the night sky, thorough studies of how people conceptualize the cosmos have been attempted for fewer than 1 percent of human languages, Dr. Cannon estimates.

“I felt a sense that this is needed,” said John MacDonald, who conducted a survey of astronomy with Inuit Elders in the 1990s, and served as an academic reviewer for Dr. Cannon….

Source: A Traveler Waits in the Stars for Those Willing to Learn How to Look

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    Jamie Sarkonak: He mildly questioned DEI. His law school calls that ‘misconduct’

    2025/06/18 Leave a comment

    Of note. May not have been from a neutral position but nevertheless a cautionary tale. Court case to watch:

    …Tim Haggstrom’s crime? Writing an open letter to his fellow students, from a neutral position, to foster dialogue and attempt to inject reason into the debate. His punishment? A campaign by other students to sabotage his career, culminating in an official finding of misconduct by a spineless university that appears to have forgotten its role in protecting free expression on campus.

    That campaign, at least, didn’t work. Now a lawyer (and the national director of the Runnymede Society, whose local chapter events I often attend) Haggstrom, via his legal team at civil liberties charity Freedoms Advocate, is asking the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench to have the misconduct ruling thrown out — along with the university policies that work to deny procedural fairness to those who don’t emphatically agree with diversity, equity and inclusion.

    For the university’s own sake, Haggstrom better win.

    He alleges unfair, Charter-infringing treatment in his court filings, and he’s got a strong argument. At the time Haggstrom expressed the need for discussion over affirmative action at the law school, the University of Saskatchewan had already adopted an identity-based worldview, aimed at elevating certain groups in the university.

    The institution had, since 2020, a diversity, equity and inclusion policy that implored the entire campus to uphold DEI values, cementing identity-based thinking — and with it, the idea that procedures are only fair when they result in equal outcomes between groups — into campus culture. That year, the university president committed himself to the “dismantling of institutional structures, policies and processes that contribute to inequalities faced by marginalized groups.”

    In 2021, the university signed a memorandum of understanding with the student union, committing to deliver anti-oppression and anti-racism training to staff, which was being rolled out by the next year. That initiative was led by anti-racist scholar Verna St. Denis, who has openly called for biasing university education to favour her own progressive, deeply racial worldview. St. Denis also contributed to the university’s Indigenous strategy, also released in 2021, which planned for institution-wide decolonial change.

    Further, according to the originating application filed in court by Haggstrom, the university had made training materials available on the topic of “power and privilege.” The materials are no longer on the university website, but were archived online. They teach a hierarchical understanding of race (specifically, that white people have better access to education and success); they characterize meritocracy as a feature of “settler mindsets”; they state that internalized colonialism causes oppressed people to commit sexual assault; they instruct readers to “refute colonialism” (that is, the very basis of our nation) to assist in making Canada “the friendly, open, welcoming country it espouses to be.” They remark that anti-oppressive education “ought to be uncomfortable as white students begin to unlearn what they have been taught through their previous learning experiences.”

    The course ends on a question: “As an individual how can you decolonize yourself and what can you do with your power and privilege to help in the betterment of Canada?”…

    Source: Jamie Sarkonak: He mildly questioned DEI. His law school calls that ‘misconduct’

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    Regg Cohn: It’s the right time to unveil Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue

    2025/06/14 Leave a comment

    Good and thoughtful:

    ….History is a work in progress — it is always being updated and rewritten with the passage of time. That doesn’t mean we can write the central characters out of history, nor does it mean every politician deserves a place of prominence despite his misdeeds.

    Truth and reconciliation is also about reckoning. Protesting, perhaps, but not vandalizing or defacing or decapitating.

    It is about learning from history — the good, the bad and the grey. And learning how to debate our history, which comes in all shades for peoples of all colours — rather than splashing pink paint or overwriting with graffiti.

    Our legislature is “a place for debate and deliberation on issues that matter in our province,” reads a sign placed beside the statue when it was first vandalized and then vanished for five years.

    “Though we cannot change the history we have inherited, we can shape the history we wish to leave behind.”

    Not a bad placeholder. It took the legislature a long time to look back and figure out a path forward for the Macdonald bronze, one of many debatable statues on the grounds of Queen’s Park.

    After all, did not Queen Victoria, whose likeness sits nearby, preside over Britain’s colonial excesses? Where to end?

    All three major party leaders have belatedly endorsed the move to liberate Macdonald, as has the new speaker at Queen’s Park, Donna Skelly. That’s a good start.

    As a former journalist, Skelly knows well that journalism is often described as the first draft of history. It is subject to many future revisions and rewrites, depending on who is doing the writing.

    “I welcome all Ontarians to express their views — peacefully,” she stressed.

    History, like statues, cannot be long covered up. Macdonald was an architect of the residential schools system, which led to 150,000 Indigenous children being uprooted from their homes, many subject to abuse and death.

    Sol Mamakwa, the sole First Nations MPP in the legislature, was one of those unwilling students in the system. Today, he is among those who oppose the return of Macdonald’s statue, calling for it to be relocated to a museum, out of sight of the legislature.

    “It’s a statue of oppression, it is a statue of colonialism, it is a statue of Indian residential schools,” he argues.

    Mamakwa is a widely respected NDP parliamentarian who has played a pioneering role in the legislature, not least by advancing the place of Indigenous languages. When he rises to speak in the chamber, a hush falls upon the place.

    But when all rise, Mamakwa isn’t always among them. As an Indigenous MPP, he pointedly refuses to stand for the national anthem – which is his absolute right.

    My point is that Mamakwa has a world view and an Indigenous view that he comes to honestly and viscerally. Not all Canadians share that view, so his perspective cannot easily be transposed or imposed upon all.

    It’s worth noting that Mamakwa’s personal likeness also appears on the grounds of the legislature. An official legislative banner celebrating his role as a trail-blazing politician, holding an eagle’s feather, is placed prominently just a stone’s throw away from the Macdonald bronze.

    Imagine if those who opposed Mamakwa’s words and actions were to deface his image on the grounds of the legislature. We would be justly outraged, demanding that police and the legislature’s security officers apprehend the perpetrators.

    The legislature and its grounds must remain a place to debate, not deface. For there are views of Macdonald’s place in Canadian history that are also hard to ignore — notably that he played a vital role in founding the country and forging a nation despite the gravitational pull of American influence.

    He built a railroad that tied the country together, even as he tore Indigenous nations apart. It is a complicated legacy that demands context but also consultation.

    All the more reason to replace the original brass plaque at the base of the Macdonald statue. It hails his historical contributions without contextualizing his depredations.

    The old plaque is a sign of the times. Time for an updated draft of Macdonald’s full history from another time — black and white and grey.

    Source: It’s the right time to unveil Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue

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    More visible minority candidates ran — and won — in Canada’s federal election. The Conservatives boosted the numbers

    2025/06/06 2 Comments

    Coverage of our study:

    More visible minorities ran and were elected in the spring federal election compared to the previous election, an increase that a new report found was driven by representation in parties on the right.

    There were 315 visible minorities representing the six major parties, according to the report published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy. The candidates accounted for 20.1 per cent of the 1,568 candidates in the April 28 election. This was an increase from 18.2 per cent in 2021, 16.8 per cent in 2019 and 13.4 per cent in 2015.

    While the Liberals, New Democrats and Greens all reported a drop in their visible minority representation from the 2021 race — by 0.9, 3.2 and 1.3 percentage points respectively — Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives and Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada saw their numbers up by 5.9 percentage points and seven points, with the Bloc Québécois up 1.3 points. (The People’s Party failed to win a seat.)

    The report refers to “visible minorities” as persons, other than Indigenous people, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour, as defined by Statistics Canada. 

    “The Liberals almost seemed to have dropped the ball in terms of candidate recruitment compared to the Conservatives, who obviously were making a fairly concerted effort to recruit a larger number of visible minority candidates,” said Andrew Griffith, who co-authored the report with retired McGill University political science professor Jerome Black.

    “They were still building off the Jason Kenney legacy that visible minorities are our natural conservatives,” added Griffith, referring to the former Conservative immigration minister tasked with building bridges with minority communities under the Harper government.

    And the deliberate recruitment efforts seemed to yield results, with the proportion of elected visible minority MPs up by 2.4 percentage points, accounting for 17.8 per cent or 61 of the 343 MPs in the new Parliament.

    While the number of Liberal MPs who are visible minorities fell by 2.2 percentage points, the Conservatives boosted their visible minority MPs in the House of Commons by 7.5 percentage points. 

    The MP breakdown, by ethnicity, was South Asian, 29 seats, Black, 11 seats; Chinese and Arab/West Asian, both seven; Latin American, two; Filipino and Southeast Asian, each with one; and three listed under “other/multiple” backgrounds.

    University of Toronto professor Emine Fidan Elcioglu said she was not surprised by the shift as the Conservatives rebranded the party under prime minister Stephen Harper to cultivate support from ethnic communities.

    “They wanted to seem like the new party of diversity, so they were very intentional in their ethnic outreach,” said the sociologist, who studies migration politics.

    “They were (previously) pushing forward policies that alienated immigrant visible minority communities. They were also reframing themselves as pro-good immigrant, anti-bad immigrant.”

    Over the years, she said, visible minority groups have also started to embrace that thinking as shown in recent public debates about the impacts of immigration on the housing and affordability crisis.

    Poilievre is “very much looking at these groups as a potential part of his base,” Elcioglu noted. “But I think we need to be really careful to not assume that just because there is more visible minority candidates in the party, that is necessarily going to be fundamental in voter motivation.”

    Having more racialized candidates doesn’t necessarily translate to more inclusion, she said, and it could just be a cover for more stringent immigration policies, more austerity measures and more gutting of the social security safety net that affect the society’s most marginalized and vulnerable.

    “So, great, you recruit people who are not white men, but what are you doing with that?” asked Elcioglu. 

    The report also found the number of women running in the April election down from the 2021 election by 2.4 per cent to 553, and Indigenous candidates by 0.9 per cent to 48. In total, 104 women and 12 Indigenous people were elected.

    “It seems like there’s almost a glass ceiling of about 30 per cent for women,” said Griffith. “For Indigenous MPs, it’s a bit different just because of how the population is distributed across the country, but that also has stalled.” 

    Candidate profiles and assessments in the analysis are based upon candidate photos, names and biographies, general web searches, and ethnic and other media that focused on particular groups.

    Source: More visible minority candidates ran — and won — in Canada’s federal election. The Conservatives boosted the numbers

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    The diversity of candidates and MPs stalled for some groups in this election

    2025/06/05 Leave a comment

    My latest collaboration with Jerome Black on the diversity of candidates and MPs. Stall for women and visible minorities, ongoing increase for visible minorities.

    In summary, differences in political-party representation reflect dissimilarities in demographic trends (such as higher growth rates of visible minorities), overall election dynamics, political-party recruitment efforts, and the extent to which groups feel their concerns are reflected in political platforms and messaging.

    Source: The diversity of candidates and MPs stalled for some groups in this election

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    Nicolas: La Couronne et la décolonisation

    2025/05/30 Leave a comment

    Good reminder for anti-monarchists, particularly in Quebec, not so simple given the importance of the Crown for Indigenous peoples:

    Bon, le roi est reparti. Discutons, si vous le permettez, de la Couronne à tête reposée.

    Puisque le désamour envers la monarchie, principalement au Québec, s’articule autour du rejet du colonialisme, ne devrait-on pas s’intéresser à la manière dont les leaders autochtones ont accueilli la visite royale de leur côté ?

    Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, cheffe nationale de l’Assemblée des Premières Nations (APN), Victoria Pruden, présidente du Ralliement national des Métis (RNM) et Natan Obed, président du Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) étaient tous trois sur le tarmac pour accueillir le roi Charles III. Ils ont tous trois obtenu une audience privée avec le monarque à Rideau Hall, après ses entretiens avec la gouverneure générale, Mary Simon, et le premier ministre, Mark Carney.

    À la CBC lundi, Natan Obed rappelait sa première conversation avec le roi, survenue en 2022, au sujet des droits du peuple inuit, de l’Arctique et des changements climatiques. Il en parle comme une « opportunité remarquable ». « La relation avec le roi et la Couronne n’est pas seulement pratique, vu notre relation avec les traités et le Canada comme État-nation, mais aussi ambitieuse ». Un exemple ? « Le rapatriement. Dans les musées du Royaume-Uni, il y a toujours des restes humains inuits et d’autres items que nous voudrions voir rapatrier. » Obed en avait discuté avec le roi lors de sa dernière audience privée.

    De son côté, le RNM indique que l’audience privée a servi à « rappeler l’importance des partenariats pour préserver l’honneur de la Couronne et remplir les promesses solennelles faites à la Couronne à la nation métisse ». Et l’APN ? « J’ai transmis le message qu’en tant que roi du Canada, sa Majesté a la responsabilité de respecter les traités qui protègent nos droits. Nous avons parlé de l’importance d’honorer les engagements qui perdurent depuis des générations », nous dit Woodhouse Nepinak.

    On est très loin du boycottage du Bloc québécois. On traite la visite royale comme une occasion stratégique de faire avancer des revendications de longue date. Pourquoi ?

    Parce que la Couronne britannique a commencé à conclure des traités avec les Premiers Peuples en 1701. La Proclamation royale de 1763 n’a pas que scellé le sort de l’ancienne Nouvelle-France. Elle a établi de vastes « territoires indiens » dans la vallée du Mississippi, à l’ouest des Appalaches et vers les Grands Lacs dans lesquels les Autochtones ne devraient pas être « inquiétés ou troublés ». La révolution américaine a été alimentée par le refus de la Couronne britannique de laisser les prospecteurs des 13 colonies s’avancer dans l’Ouest.

    Puisque la Couronne est restée l’entité juridique du côté canadien de la frontière, la Proclamation a servi de modèle de base pour les traités signés par la suite, particulièrement après le rachat de la Terre de Rupert et l’expansion canadienne dans l’Ouest.

    Par exemple, plusieurs des « traités numérotés » signés à la fin du XIXe siècle dans les Prairies incluaient un engagement de la Couronne à fournir aux Premières Nations un « coffre de médecine ». C’est l’une des bases légales sur laquelle on s’appuie aujourd’hui pour faire respecter les responsabilités du gouvernement fédéral à fournir les soins de santé aux Premières Nations.

    Le problème, c’est que plusieurs de ces traités ont été signés sous pression de famine ou de menace militaire, que la Couronne a failli à d’innombrables reprises à respecter ses engagements et qu’Ottawa dépense des sommes faramineuses en frais d’avocat pour ralentir la reconnaissance des droits autochtones. Sauf que c’est la continuité juridique de la Couronne britannique, puis canadienne, qui sert de prise légale pour faire avancer de nombreuses revendications territoriales, politiques ou économiques des Premiers Peuples.

    Par contraste, la France a traversé cinq républiques, deux empires, deux restaurations monarchiques et le régime de Vichy au cours de la même période : ces régimes se sont souvent contredits et dédits. Au Canada, une entente conclue au XVIIIe ou au XIXe au siècle continue d’être liante.

    Dans le Globe and Mail, l’ex-chef de l’APN Perry Bellegarde reconnaissait d’emblée que la Couronne « représente une histoire de profonde douleur et injure pour les peuples autochtones au Canada et à travers le monde ». Sa lettre cherchait à expliquer que, vu le poids moral et légal des traités, « la Couronne, représentée par Charles III, restait le symbole et la garantie de notre relation originelle ».

    Serait-il possible d’abolir la monarchie au Canada — symbole colonial s’il en est un — sans fragiliser légalement ces traités et les droits autochtones, ni faire avancer le colonialisme ? J’ai posé la question à Alexis Wawanoloath, un avocat en droit autochtone d’origine abénaquise et ex-député du Parti québécois, qui se définit comme « pas un royaliste ».

    La réponse courte : « Ça dépend. » La réponse longue : on pourrait imaginer un changement de régime où les Premiers Peuples ne seraient plus des « sujets » (au sens très colonial du terme) de compétence fédérale, mais des acteurs fédéraux à part entière, comme le sont le Canada et les provinces. Ce serait très complexe à élaborer. Mais aussi porteur.

    En attendant, Wawanoloath comprend très bien la « stratégie » des leaders autochtones qui utilisent une visite royale comme occasion de « faire respecter les traités » et de « faire de l’éducation, au gouvernement comme à sa Majesté », tout en souhaitant « qu’on se sorte un jour de ça, dans le cadre d’une nouvelle entente ».

    Rappelons qu’en 1969, le jeune Jean Chrétien avait présenté un livre blanc pour naïvement abolir la Loi sur les Indiens, d’une manière qui aurait forcé l’assimilation politique des Premières Nations. La mobilisation pour le faire reculer a été historique. Si l’on cherchait à abolir la monarchie sans réfléchir ou sans même connaître vraiment les traités historiques et modernes et l’importance juridique de l’honneur de la Couronne, il y aurait aussi matière à se planter… royalement.

    Source: La Couronne et la décolonisation

    Well, the king is gone. Let’s discuss, if you allow, the Crown with a rested head.

    Since the disaffection with the monarchy, mainly in Quebec, revolves around the rejection of colonialism, shouldn’t we be interested in how Aboriginal leaders welcomed the royal visit on their side?

    Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, National leader of the Assembly of First Nations (APN), Victoria Pruden, president of the National Rally of Métis (RNM) and Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) were all three on the tarmac to welcome King Charles III. All three got a private hearing with the monarch at Rideau Hall, after his talks with Governor General Mary Simon and Prime Minister Mark Carney.

    At the CBC on Monday, Natan Obed recalled his first conversation with the king, which took place in 2022, about the rights of the Inuit people, the Arctic and climate change. He speaks of it as a “remarkable opportunity”. “The relationship with the King and the Crown is not only practical, given our relationship with the treaties and Canada as a nation-state, but also ambitious.” An example? “Repatriation. In the museums of the United Kingdom, there are always Inuit human remains and other items that we would like to see repatriated. Obed had discussed it with the king during his last private hearing.

    For its part, the RNM indicates that the private hearing served to “recall the importance of partnerships to preserve the honor of the Crown and fulfill the solemn promises made to the Crown to the Métis nation”. And the APN? “I have conveyed the message that as King of Canada, Her Majesty has the responsibility to respect the treaties that protect our rights. We talked about the importance of honoring commitments that have lasted for generations, “says Woodhouse Nepinak.

    We are very far from the boycott of the Bloc Québécois. The royal visit is treated as a strategic opportunity to advance long-standing demands. Why?

    Because the British Crown began to conclude treaties with the First Peoples in 1701. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 not only sealed the fate of the former New France. It established vast “Indian territories” in the Mississippi Valley, west of the Appalachians and towards the Great Lakes in which the Natives should not be “disturbed or troubled”. The American Revolution was fueled by the British Crown’s refusal to let the prospectors of the 13 colonies advance in the West.

    Since the Crown remained the legal entity on the Canadian side of the border, the Proclamation served as the basic model for the treaties signed thereafter, especially after the purchase of Rupert’s Land and the Canadian expansion in the West.

    For example, several of the “numbered treaties” signed in the late 19th century in the Prairies included a commitment by the Crown to provide First Nations with a “medicine safe”. This is one of the legal bases on which we rely today to enforce the federal government’s responsibilities to provide health care to First Nations.

    The problem is that many of these treaties have been signed under pressure from famine or military threat, that the Crown has failed to meet its commitments on countless occasions, and Ottawa is spending huge sums on attorney’s fees to slow down the recognition of Aboriginal rights. Except that it is the legal continuity of the British and then Canadian Crown, which serves as a legal hold to advance many territorial, political or economic claims of the First Peoples.

    In contrast, France went through five republics, two empires, two monarchical restorations and the Vichy regime during the same period: these regimes often contradicted and dedicted. In Canada, an agreement concluded in the 18th or 19th century continues to be a binding.

    In the Globe and Mail, former PNA leader Perry Bellegarde acknowledged at the outset that the Crown “represents a history of deep pain and insult to Aboriginal peoples in Canada and around the world.” His letter sought to explain that, given the moral and legal weight of the treaties, “the Crown, represented by Charles III, remained the symbol and guarantee of our original relationship”.

    Would it be possible to abolish the monarchy in Canada – a colonial symbol if it is one – without legally weakening these treaties and indigenous rights, or advancing colonialism? I asked the question to Alexis Wawanoloath, an Aboriginal lawyer of Abenaquise origin and former deputy of the Parti Québécois, who defines himself as “not a royalist”.

    The short answer: “It depends. The long answer: we could imagine a change of regime where the First Peoples would no longer be “subjects” (in the very colonial sense of the term) of federal jurisdiction, but federal actors in their own right, as are Canada and the provinces. It would be very complex to develop. But also a carrier.

    In the meantime, Wawanoloath understands very well the “strategy” of Aboriginal leaders who use a royal visit as an opportunity to “enforce the treaties” and “educate, to the government and her Majesty”, while hoping “to get out of this one day, as part of a new agreement”.

    Recall that in 1969, the young Jean Chrétien had presented a white paper to naively abolish the Indian Act, in a way that would have forced the political assimilation of First Nations. The mobilization to push him back has been historic. If we sought to abolish the monarchy without thinking or without even really knowing the historical and modern treaties and the legal importance of the honor of the Crown, there would also be material to be planted… royally.

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    Proportion of women in the House of Commons dips, with slight rise in minority MPs

    2025/05/01 Leave a comment

    Latest article with preliminary analysis of 2025 election results in terms of MP diversity:

    …In Canada, Indigenous representation in the House also dipped slightly, according to an analysis by Andrew Griffith, a fellow of the Environics Institute and a former director-general in the federal immigration department. He found that 3.3 per cent of elected MPs are Indigenous after this election, down from 3.5 per cent in 2021. 

    However, there was a slight rise in the number of visible minority MPs. Mr. Griffith found that their representation stands at 18.1 per cent now, compared with 15.7 per cent at the last election. 

    “We appear to have reached a plateau with respect to women and Indigenous peoples MPs,” he said in an e-mail.

    “On the other hand, the combination of growth in immigration and visible minorities, matched with most political party candidates being visible minorities in ridings with high numbers of visible minorities and immigrants, continues the trend of increases in their representation.”…

    Source: Proportion of women in the House of Commons dips, with slight rise in minority MPs

    Filed under Aboriginal, gender, Multiculturalism, Politics Tagged with ,

    Number of female candidates drops across parties: study

    2025/04/23 Leave a comment

    Results of the preliminary analysis by Jerome Black and myself:

    …Mr. Griffith, who has carried out similar research for previous elections, said he was surprised to see the drop in the proportion of female candidates, particularly among the Conservatives. They had a lot of candidates in place soon after the election was called, whereas the NDP and Liberals were later with nominations, he said.

    “It’s surprising that the number of women standing for the Conservatives actually declined very significantly: a third of the nominations in 2021 to not even a quarter of the nominations in 2025,” he said. “Conservatives actually made a concerted effort to recruit visible minorities, but they seem to have dropped the ball with respect to women.”

    He said some women may have been deterred from standing by the rise in abuse directed toward female politicians.

    “It’s certainly part of it,” he said. “But I’m still surprised at such a dramatic decline.”

    Source: Number of female candidates drops across parties: study

    Filed under Aboriginal, gender, Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

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