Indigenous peoples did not found Canada

Vincent J. Curtis

3 Oct 22

RE: Mace should recognize indigenous peoples.  Op-ed by Waubageshig (Harvey McCue) and Pat Steenberg.  McCue is an Anishinaabe in Ottawa.  Steenberg has been a CBC radio producer, a House of Commons procedural clerk and leader of a national NGO, who is now retired and living in Ottawa.  The Hamilton Spectator 3 Oct 22.

Romantic illusions about indigenous peoples are reaching a fever pitch, and surely the illusion that indigenous peoples were, along with the British and French, founders of Canada represents a crescendo.  Nothing more absurd, nothing that more flies in the face of the facts could be said.  Read Canadian history post 1837, read about the Indian Act, read about the granting of Canadian citizenship to aboriginals in 1952 if you want to understand how false is the claim that indigenous were a founding people of Canada.  The idea of First Nation, the existence of reserves, and the treaties belie the idea that indigenous ever wanted to be a part of the political arrangement known as Canada.  Indigenous consider themselves outside it.

Indigenous were not represented at Charlottetown, or in London.  The Riel Rebellions were fought by Indigenous and Metis.  Not being British subjects, they didn’t have the right to vote, unless, under the Indian Act they gave up their status and entered mainstream Canadian society.  Indigenous per se weren’t granted the right to vote until the 1950s, and still largely do not participate in Federal elections.  They are barely a part of Canada today, never mind a founding people in the sense that the British and French were.

Putting some representation of indigenous peoples into the Parliamentary Mace is also fraught with problems.  In the first place, given the rages of today, why wouldn’t any representation of aboriginals be taken as a sign of racist appropriation?  There is also the problem that no symbol will do, because indigenous were never a single people.  Europeans and Africans never formed a single, coherent group, and neither did the indigenous of Canada, so what would symbolize indigenous if there is no point of unity among them?

We need to resist the urge to “do good” or “improve things” just because it makes us feel good.  We need to consider the wisdom of something.  Sobriety comes in the morning, so why add to the pain with remembrances of foolish acts distorted perceptions?

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